Gameplay Experience
Every game gives the player a special feeling when playing it, something that can't be described by screenshots or videos. I don't mean the ambience, story or look of a game, but the feeling that emerges from becoming part of the actual gameplay--lets call it "gameplay experience".
Controls of Pixelia
A good gameplay experience requires precise controls. If you haven't noticed by now, your character's sprites in Legends of Pixelia can only face left or right, like it is usual for fighting games. The difference from the beat 'em up genre is, that we can move in vertical direction, so we can't use the up and down keys to jump and crouch.
So I decided to give the combat system of Legends of Pixelia some more depth by allowing direction input for animations that have automatic movement. That way you can change the direction within a combo. Example of a basic 3 hit combo:
The vertical direction keys are used to slighty change the angle of automatic movement:
Some skills don't have automatic movement (generally when shooting projectiles) and there are also skills that allow free movement while being performed, like the Barbarian's whirlwind attack.
The combination of positioning, timing and the use of the directional buttons while using skills allow players to express themselves during combat. Master these three factors and invent new combos to become a fighting expert in Legends of Pixelia.
That's it
There are lots of more things about gameplay experience and the combat system in Legends of Pixelia, so stay tuned. More info next week!
-Sima
(Mirrored on my blog)
