Complete Helluva Brawl - A Hellaverse Fangame (Ver. 1.0) 1.0

[danno]

@MysticalMist great work, your sprite art is really good and seeing it animated looks fantastic.

The only thing I would add as a minor adjustment is offsets, the air body splash for example.

Generally when placing offsets think of the type of move the body is doing, on the ground offset placement should start and end with foot placement.

In the air it's alittle more tricky but with air attacks try to have an offset that centres more around torso placement, if your offset is based off foot placement while in air it can look like the body hops forward alittle then hops back on landing.

Amazing work so far buddy.

 

[O Ilusionista]

Not bad at all. I liked the character design.
I agree with Damon, the frame where he starts the punch is a bit weird for a jab..
About the aerial attacks, I understood what you did - by extending his body at max to cover the biggerst area possible.
I would only suggest you to increase the recovery time (IOW, add more frames) when landing from the drop kick, because as he was lying in the air, it would take him more time to get back to his standing position (in Body Splash this happens faster).

It might be interesting to have different landing animations for different strikes, as it all depends on the movement the character makes in the air.

 

[MysticalMist]

Not bad at all. I liked the character design.
I agree with Damon, the frame where he starts the punch is a bit weird for a jab..
About the aerial attacks, I understood what you did - by extending his body at max to cover the biggerst area possible.
I would only suggest you to increase the recovery time (IOW, add more frames) when landing from the drop kick, because as he was lying in the air, it would take him more time to get back to his standing position (in Body Splash this happens faster).

It might be interesting to have different landing animations for different strikes, as it all depends on the movement the character makes in the air.

I agree with what Damon said as well. Hopefully by the time I record a second demo, I would have a better jab animation (or I will just post an example GIF).

I think that's a good idea too to change up the recovery times and I'm definitely open to different landing animations. Though, I guess my only concern is how I would go about that.

My first instinct would be to just increase the delay in the jumpland animation, but that would apply to everything that happens when he jumps regardless. Would I have to achieve this via a follow animation or should I implement that in the drop kick animation itself (ex: make a landframe for the dropkick to add onto the pre-existing jumpdelay)?

Thank you all again! Happy to see my animations seem to be turning out well after already spending so much time on 'em (and to say I'm far from done animating is an understatement, haha).

 

[O Ilusionista]

(ex: make a landframe for the dropkick to add onto the pre-existing jumpdelay)?

you can add a landframe on the dropkick, so this animation will be different from the regular jumpland

 

[DCurrent]

My first instinct would be to just increase the delay in the jumpland animation, but that would apply to everything that happens when he jumps regardless. Would I have to achieve this via a follow animation or should I implement that in the drop kick animation itself (ex: make a landframe for the dropkick to add onto the pre-existing jumpdelay)?

This is already built into the engine. All you have to do is add the landing sprites/frames into the kick itself. Set an infinite delay (any negative delay is infinite) on the last frame before landing. Then use the landframe command to trigger your landing frames. This overrides the jump land animation and gives your jump attack a custom landing sequence.

HTH,
DC

*Edit:* by @O Ilusionista.

 

[MysticalMist]

Update:

Added some sounds and started with the slam & throw scripts! Managed to figure the latter out quicker than I expected tbh.

Here is a video demo that I posted on my Twitter! What do y'all think?

 

[danno]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1717989212073439477

That's great, I really wanna play it, playable demo when?

I actually feel like watching the franchise this is based off, where do you recommend I start?

 

[MysticalMist]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1717989212073439477

That's great, I really wanna play it, playable demo when?

I actually feel like watching the franchise this is based off, where do you recommend I start?

Aw, I'm glad you love it!

I would love to have a playable demo by around christmas, but I would need an assistant sprite animator/artist to help me get more animations for enemies/other players because uhh... I'm admittedly not the best animator in the world and this is hard to do lol.

In terms of the franchise for Hazbin/Helluva Boss, the episodes/pilots can be found on the original creator's youtube channel.

For Helluva Boss, I suppose Season 1 is a good place to start, albeit the writing/animation style has its fair share of criticism, though it's a pretty straightforward/easy and enjoyable plot. Hazbin Hotel is going to be rebooted and be released on Amazon Prime, but you can find a sneak peek music video on one of the more recent uploads and the pilot of the show originally is one of the first things you'll see on the home page.

 

[Die_In_Fire]

Looks great!!!
Btw the old punch animation reminded me of Two Crude Dudes

 

[seahorses]

Aw, I'm glad you love it!

I would love to have a playable demo by around christmas, but I would need an assistant sprite animator/artist to help me get more animations for enemies/other players because uhh... I'm admittedly not the best animator in the world and this is hard to do lol.

Taking a break from my wips and found an interesting fan game. Though I don't even know this guy name or power. Well, I tried..

 

[MysticalMist]

Taking a break from my wips and found an interesting fan game. Though I don't even know this guy name or power. Well, I tried

DUDE THAT IS AMAZING!!


I genuinely love that. I'm actually still searching for a pixel artist/animator for help/to work with, so if you ever wanna collab. Shoot me a direct message because that's awesome work!

 

[danno]

@seahorses that is really good, you guys should definitely do some work together, that's the benefit of having so many members here and skilled members too.

 

[DCurrent]

I agree with @danno, it would be interesting to see what you guys might do with a collaborate effort. @MysticalMist, I've also noticed you're still habitually asking help questions in other venues instead of here. I can't tell you what to do, but this is where we live, nowhere else. If you want the best support, come to the actual source.

DC

 

[seahorses]

Thanks guys.

@MysticalMist If I may make suggestions
- You should give introduction or character background like their origins, what their powers are. When I did that guy, I'm spriting blind coz I don't know exactly what he is (Is he a Faun? Satyr? Gargoyle)
- Maybe provide video the inspiration of that character and if he has specific moves or moves similar to the characters in fighting games (e.g : he can breath fire like XXX)
- I notice it was based on an animation show? (Sorry I lack of time to watch it)
- Maybe provide color palette? (I'm not that good with colors)
- Animation needed for enemies. (How many attack, get hits, etc)

I can only help in spriting area (not including stages and cut scenes because I can't draw). Right now maybe I can only help you with making enemies. Hit me up if you have enemies character concept in mind.

 

[MysticalMist]

I agree with @danno, it would be interesting to see what you guys might do with a collaborate effort. @MysticalMist, I've also noticed you're still habitually asking help questions in other venues instead of here. I can't tell you what to do, but this is where we live, nowhere else. If you want the best support, come to the actual source.

DC

I apologize for that genuinely. It's a habit I accidentally make on instinct since I'm on Discord 24/7 in terms of contacting.

I made that mistake last night as well, I'm going to muster up some confidence in terms of speaking here more often in that case. I definitely do my best to be here actively more often. Thanks again for everyone's help so far!


@seahorses, If you would like, I can send you my discord info so we can discuss 1 on 1. The character you sprited was actually a concept design done by one of my friends, but I also have some more detailed characters/designed I actually plan on implementing if you would like to add your talent there.

Oh yeah, there's gonna be a lot of fighting game/brawling game inspirations. Coco's essentially Haggar and a Cacodemon from Doom mixed together lol.

Yes, it's based on Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel (both shows take place in the same universe). I can provide some palettes for you. I can also absolutely provide animation details and what are needed. Thanks again for your help, I cannot emphasize how much I appreciate it!

 

[MysticalMist]

Hey all!

Got nothing too huge to update on yet but I guess I'll share my some of my progress.

I've started making the first boss for the game - "Vortex", a hellhound bodyguard from "Helluva Boss". I figured he would kind of be among the likes of Andore or Abobo, as he's gifted with a massive muscular frame and one helluva punch (badum-tsst, followed by a thrown tomato).

(right image being original ref from show)


I also have a new small weak enemy in the works based off the "Skinny" fella from Rival Turf. I figured "Creep" would be a more polite term for this enemy rather than straight-up "Douche", haha.



As of now, I'm still definitely open to sprite artists & animators who'd love to help me out in terms of animation, designs, or cleaning/tweaking up frames. Though I don't wanna sound too pushy beyond that. I'm simply inviting those interested and experienced with spriting.

In terms of working with OpenBOR: I'm trying to see how custom hud for health could work. I followed the approach that the DD template took, however, there was one notable issue.

First, here's the sprite for health, mp and whatnot:



Pretty straight-forward. But when I use the drawsprite method in the update/updated.c script, the sprite would automatically overlay and cover over the icon, health and mp of the player.

I would've just made it a part of their icon, but I thought coding it in would've been a little easier and would help preserve the colors that are actually necessary to the players themselves, if that makes sense. How would you guys personally go about this? Is there a better way to implement the hud for players via script or should I just re-index the player palettes and add this into their sprites?

So yeah, this is all I've got to actively "share" as of recently. Looking forward to hearing back from y'all!

- Mist

 

[DCurrent]

I've started making the first boss for the game - "Vortex", a hellhound bodyguard from "Helluva Boss". I figured he would kind of be among the likes of Andore or Abobo, as he's gifted with a massive muscular frame and one helluva punch (badum-tsst, followed by a thrown tomato).

Vortex looks really nice.!

I also have a new small weak enemy in the works based off the "Skinny" fella from Rival Turf. I figured "Creep" would be a more polite term for this enemy rather than straight-up "Douche", haha.

He was a jerk in Rival Turf too. Always taking cheap shots, kicking you in the crotch and laughing about it...

Keep it up!

DC

 

[Bloodbane]

How would you guys personally go about this? Is there a better way to implement the hud for players via script or should I just re-index the player palettes and add this into their sprites?

I prefer to use script for player's health HUD, well except for icon which is usually character specific. If you have generic HUD sprite for all players like the above, it's best to display it using bgicon. Main difference with icon is that bgicon will always be displayed regardless of presence of respective player.

 

[O Ilusionista]

Yeah, for simple things like that I would use BGICON as BB had suggested.

This is an example of using BGICON to display the hud (the hud background is a BGICON)


bgicon {path} {x} {y}

• Determines the position of background icon. Background icon is optional icon that can be placed behind character's status to make HUD looks cooler .
• {path} is the location relative to OpenBoR of the icon's .gif.
• {x} and {y} are the number of pixels, right and down respectively, from the top left corner of the screen to the top left corner of the icon.

The only downside of using bgicon is: you have no layer control, so it will be always displayed behind the lifebar.
If you need to display if in front of the lifebar, you need to set the {graph} {backfill} of your lifebar:

• The last 4 variables can be used to place lifebar behind player 'icon' or 'bgicon'. To do that you need to give value like -300.

I can't remember now why I had to do this way, but those lines over the lifebar on the image above were drawn using script, it's not an image.

 

[MysticalMist]

Hey there, everyone!

I don't have much to share on the project, but I guess I'll lay down my current progress and thoughts here for the time being.

Coco's doing great so far in terms of his development as a playable character (at least minimally speaking), with the final task probably being adding an MP bar and getting his "ultimate attack" out of the way.

I've yet to really develop Harley's animations besides an idle sprite, and the actual canon characters from the shows (ex: Millie) have yet to even be drafted. THANKFULLY, I've managed to finally reach out to an artist to commission, whom seems pretty experienced with sprite animation himself. Hopefully the progress of making artwork and animation can be more efficient now without sacrificing quality now that I've got some active help.

Now that I've been thinking about it: Would it be sensible to have the title "Helluva Brawl" as if to imply it's strongly connected to "Helluva Boss" if the initial playable cast are original characters (albeit fan characters) ? I had an alternative title in mind: "Eternal Slamnation" (yes, I know it's cheesy lol). I'm open to adding canon characters like Angel Dust, Moxxie, etc., but I end up mentally stressing myself out over things like their height (since characters can vary from 4ft to a whopping 8ft height difference) and my ability to animate them and capture their necessary details if they're in a 64x64 canvas for example. Of course, I can be getting ahead of myself at the same time.

I know game development to any extent is going to be time-consuming, especially with someone who's practically a hobbyist or to be honest, ain't the brightest bulb amongst the others, like myself. I just want to ensure I can make the most of the development and optimize time on things that matter, moreso than being stuck on the littlest things.

I've mentioned before that I've got a small discord server dedicated to the game, but upholding interest or morale has not been going well, though the fandom is not that big on sidescrolling beat 'em ups like a fighting game community for example would anyhow lol.


Long story short: things are already getting pretty slow, but I'm finally getting somewhere minimally. Just gotta hope I can make at least one complete level with a basic variety of enemies and a solid boss fight for demo purposes. Lemme know if y'all got any advice to improve/optimize my process!