I was always a massive fan of SS, which first kicked up a big storm on GD quite some years ago. For those who never heard of it, it's basically a 2D platform game where stick-men take part in a deathmatch with several weapon types. I really liked the stick-man style as well as how the 2D platform game managed to catch the fast-paced deathmatch experience from games like Quake/Quake III. One idea I thought might be fun in the same environment is a a multiplayer game like SS, but without all/most the guns. It would focus much more on close combat: kicks, punches and weapons like bats & swords. The overall idea is to create a game which is a bit like the fight scenes in martial-arts movies where. It would ideally be very easy to pick up but the fighting would leave room for skilled players - e.g just because you have a sword doesn't mean a good player can't beat you with just his hands. Following on from my recent posts in this forum, I think this is something I can make progress on with my limited time. The graphical simplicity should make it possible to focus very early on with getting something workable. I'd love to hear any constructive criticism on this idea. Examples of similar work would be interesting, as would discussion on both the whole idea and smaller details.

Take a look at the "teenage mutant ninja puppets" demo (search on pouet.net), There is no 2 player games, but the combat system is very interesting, and it's really close to what you seems to want.

It has a passing similarity... but I'm thinking a much more orthodox control system. It's a cool project though, thanks for the link.

I guess one major factor in designing a game like this is if it should use entirely sprites and pre-canned animations, or if it needs to implement some sort of physical modelling. I have the feeling that physical modelling shouldn't be needed and would probably be more work... but on the other hand it could be pretty cool. I'm right thinking all the classic fighting games DIDN'T use anything this fancy?

If youre thinking like a 3D double dragon or even ITK+ that would be sweet.
If you can find a solution outside the box for fighting in multiple directions then you would have megahit.

Currently the ways of fighting in multiple directions are either to :

restrict it to 2 directions (like ITK+ and double dragon)
-bit gay for 21st century,
lock on (like assualt mode in tekken 3 or the bouncer)
-incredibly awkward and annoying as you cant hit the guy you want to hit
fight on axes (like metal gear solid or gauntlet)
annoying as you will often completely miss the person you are aiming for and spend -a lot of time running around, when fighting isn't really like that.

So a new solution that solves these problems would be great.
I believe fable 2 is going to try something new, which is basically an AI approach, the fighter chooses to attack in the direction that makes more sense. Something like this would be worth looking into...

In terms of whether to use physics or not - write your own physics engine for it - it would be worth it. Existing physics engines wouldn't be suitable for the kind of lightning fast fighting you'd want, and ragdoll isn't really cool just a bit odd.

Also this wouldn't work over a network in case you were thinking that way, lag is going to ruin the responsiveness that would be critical to this kind of game.

Definitely try to make this game.

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Original post by thelovegoose If youre thinking like a 3D double dragon or even ITK+ that would be sweet. If you can find a solution outside the box for fighting in multiple directions then you would have megahit. Currently the ways of fighting in multiple directions are either to : -restrict it to 2 directions (like ITK+ and double dragon)...

I should highlight this is a 2D game... the view is a bit like a side-scroller... so you don't really have more than left/right directions...

Quote:

Original post by thelovegoose In terms of whether to use physics or not - write your own physics engine for it - it would be worth it. Existing physics engines wouldn't be suitable for the kind of lightning fast fighting you'd want, and ragdoll isn't really cool just a bit odd.

Don't all the fighting games, even 3D ones like Tekken, still rely on animations rather than physics?

Quote:

Original post by thelovegoose Also this wouldn't work over a network in case you were thinking that way, lag is going to ruin the responsiveness that would be critical to this kind of game.

By network, you mean online play, rather than LAN?

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Original post by thelovegoose Definitely try to make this game.

I'll give it some thought. One advantage of using stick-art is the minimal art requirements.