Solved What makes a good beat em up?

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SEEGET

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Hi family,
I'm currently working on a beat 'em up (Marvel Black Ops) game and I'd love to hear your thoughts. In your opinion, what makes a beat 'em up game truly great or memorable? Is it the combat mechanics, the characters, the level design, co-op play, art style, story, bosses— or something else?

I'd really appreciate your input as I want to create something players will enjoy and come back to.

Thanks in advance!

(Image was made by ai that's why you see two winter soldiers 😂)
 

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For me, great and memorable beatmups have these:
1. Player characters with multiple attacks and abilities to face challenges.
2. Enemies ranging from weak and stupid to strong and smart. They could be combined to create challenging formations.
3. Bosses which aside from hard to defeat, could fight on their own without regular enemies backing them.
4. Levels which start simple and easy then slowly gets more complex and harder as game progresses.

I don't mention art, story nor weapons could they are additions.
 
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I could swear we had a similar topic
Mr.Q!

Thread 'Things that make an OpenBOR game appealing enough'

Well, I am not asking, I am writing this in order to help people put their ideas in order on how I tend to make my games at least, and also others can complement this with their own. This also tells a lot about me and why I don't tend to give my opinion on others' work, because at the end of the day, it's just a matter of tastes...I think?.

1st of all, I might say that the main thing about making a mod, at least for myself, is actually a mixture of: having fun and learn stuff in the process + getting satisfied enough with the final result knowing I did my true best towards my goals...
  • Like

My first and most important rule is: the game needs to fun to play and replay.
There's no point in having incredible graphics, a roster full of characters, being a technological marvel...if it's not fun to play (and replay).
 
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Bloodbane said:
For me, great and memorable beatmups have these:
1. Player characters with multiple attacks and abilities to face challenges.
2. Enemies ranging from weak and stupid to strong and smart. They could be combined to create challenging formations.
3. Bosses which aside from hard to defeat, could fight on their own without regular enemies backing them.
4. Levels which start simple and easy then slowly gets more complex and harder as game progresses.

I don't mention art, story nor weapons could they are additions.
Click to expand...
Nice thanks. I agree on the bosses and looking into something similar but don't know how to yet.
 
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O Ilusionista said:
I could swear we had a similar topic
Mr.Q!

Thread 'Things that make an OpenBOR game appealing enough'

Well, I am not asking, I am writing this in order to help people put their ideas in order on how I tend to make my games at least, and also others can complement this with their own. This also tells a lot about me and why I don't tend to give my opinion on others' work, because at the end of the day, it's just a matter of tastes...I think?.

1st of all, I might say that the main thing about making a mod, at least for myself, is actually a mixture of: having fun and learn stuff in the process + getting satisfied enough with the final result knowing I did my true best towards my goals...
  • Like

My first and most important rule is: the game needs to fun to play and replay.
There's no point in having incredible graphics, a roster full of characters, being a technological marvel...if it's not fun to play (and replay).
Click to expand...
Awesome . You're totally Right. good and fun game is really a must I agree.
Unpopular opinion " I can guess almost everyone here making beat em ups want to make a beat em up to surpass all beat em ups." 😅
 
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O Ilusionista said:
I could swear we had a similar topic
Mr.Q!

Thread 'Things that make an OpenBOR game appealing enough'

Well, I am not asking, I am writing this in order to help people put their ideas in order on how I tend to make my games at least, and also others can complement this with their own. This also tells a lot about me and why I don't tend to give my opinion on others' work, because at the end of the day, it's just a matter of tastes...I think?.

1st of all, I might say that the main thing about making a mod, at least for myself, is actually a mixture of: having fun and learn stuff in the process + getting satisfied enough with the final result knowing I did my true best towards my goals...
  • Like

My first and most important rule is: the game needs to fun to play and replay.
There's no point in having incredible graphics, a roster full of characters, being a technological marvel...if it's not fun to play (and replay).
Click to expand...
What makes you want to replay a game by the way?
 
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Patch195 said:
Unpopular opinion " I can guess almost everyone here making beat em ups want to make a beat em up to surpass all beat em ups." 😅
Click to expand...
To be honest, I don't.
In everything I do, whether it's Mugen or OpenBOR, my primary goal is for me to enjoy the result and for it to be something different. Whether it's good or not, or whether people like it or not, is secondary. Obviously, I'm happy when people like it :)

A great example of this is Avengers United Battle Force. There have been other Marvel projects, and there are good and much bigger projects like the Zvitor projects, but I managed to create something different, with its own identity. That was my goal—whether it's good or bad, I'll let people judge :)

But that is me.

Patch195 said:
What makes you want to replay a game by the way?
Click to expand...
For me, there are two reasons:
1 - I had fun the first time I played
2 - I have more content to explore, if possible.

But fun is king for me. It even comes before gameplay, which is the second most important thing to me.

I still enjoy old games, like Master System games or even Atari games, like Keystone Kapers. And I don't say that out of nostalgia: I really enjoy playing them :)
 
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Patch195 said:
Hi family,
I'm currently working on a beat 'em up (Marvel Black Ops) game and I'd love to hear your thoughts. In your opinion, what makes a beat 'em up game truly great or memorable? Is it the combat mechanics, the characters, the level design, co-op play, art style, story, bosses— or something else?

I'd really appreciate your input as I want to create something players will enjoy and come back to.

Thanks in advance!

(Image was made by ai that's why you see two winter soldiers 😂)
Click to expand...
Hi friend. My main advice is to not forget the "crowd control".

At least in my case, this was the main factor that made me love beat em ups since the first time I played FF/SOR in the 90s era. The emotion of surviving a whole playthrough using just 1 coin after a lot of enemy waves is incomparable.

And try to not be seduced by the current "crazy combos" epidemic. Combos are good, but IMO it must be well dosed in a beat 'em up.

Patch195 said:
Unpopular opinion " I can guess almost everyone here making beat em ups want to make a beat em up to surpass all beat em ups." 😅
Click to expand...
It depends. At least in my case, I make games because I enjoy coding in the same way I enjoy playing.
But I'm also happy when people like it.
 
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O Ilusionista said:
To be honest, I don't.
In everything I do, whether it's Mugen or OpenBOR, my primary goal is for me to enjoy the result and for it to be something different. Whether it's good or not, or whether people like it or not, is secondary. Obviously, I'm happy when people like it :)

A great example of this is Avengers United Battle Force. There have been other Marvel projects, and there are good and much bigger projects like the Zvitor projects, but I managed to create something different, with its own identity. That was my goal—whether it's good or bad, I'll let people judge :)

But that is me.


For me, there are two reasons:
1 - I had fun the first time I played
2 - I have more content to explore, if possible.

But fun is king for me. It even comes before gameplay, which is the second most important thing to me.

I still enjoy old games, like Master System games or even Atari games, like Keystone Kapers. And I don't say that out of nostalgia: I really enjoy playing them :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for your honest responses. 🙏. I know and glad that everyone here is just doing it for the sheer fun of creating sharing and learning. You guys are great 🙏.
 
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Kratus said:
Hi friend. My main advice is to not forget the "crowd control".

At least in my case, this was the main factor that made me love beat em ups since the first time I played FF/SOR in the 90s era. The emotion of surviving a whole playthrough using just 1 coin after a lot of enemy waves is incomparable.

And try to not be seduced by the current "crazy combos" epidemic. Combos are good, but IMO it must be well dosed in a beat 'em up.


It depends. At least in my case, I make games because I enjoy coding in the same way I enjoy playing.
But I'm also happy when people like it.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the wonderful advice. I will definitely come back to you later on this. I must say, have recently been enjoying making something and hope when I finish it people will get to play and enjoy it. especially after losing job and spending a lot of time in my head with anxiety so I decided why not make progress on the game and it has been a good escape.
surprisingly had some new ideas which I could implement however most are here already that people have already thought of that's why I'm a bit more active and asking. I'm still reading the manual but I get confused and adhd so I just ask.😅
 
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Hannah Montana said:
Hello. I has been thinking about this too,interesting thread.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I know open bor does more than beat em ups. However being a 90s person I grew up with 2d games that's why platformer or side scroller beat em ups were some of my favorites it's why I always genuinely enjoy games like streets of rage, Shinobi, ninja gaiden including the new ones. Some mentions like mark of the ninja it was fun stealth platformer, the blasphemous games. And then enjoyed Zvitors first alliance which introduced me to open bor and wanted to make something as well.
 
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