PFC Progress Report 5

Ah, an update. Finally! It almost seems expected to start this blog post with an apology for taking so long - and to that, I say: sorry! To the few eagerly awaiting more updates on Project Fight Club and even fewer who read these posts, sorry for the delay! With the significant hiatus, I thought it'd be healthy to be transparent about our absence as well as our plans moving forward. Afterwards, the post will be business as usual in which I describe the new additions and changes made to the game.

Revised icon courtesy of Cpt_Polka

Where I've Been

So to start, allow me to clear the air on why development took a halt, at least on my behalf. For the past year or so, I started a mentorship program for animation where I worked with an industry veteran to further improve my ability to animate, especially beyond what I'm used to which includes acting shots and lip-syncing, something I never had to do with ROBLOX. I wanted to improve my craft by leaving my comfort zone and branching out with different rigs and armatures. Additionally, during my downtime, I read Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers as well as various articles and posts by Gamasutra (now named Game Developer). After a year and a half of shelving PFC, my mind was bursting with ideas. My partner, CptPolka, and I revisited the game, reigniting the desire to continue the game again.

An older shot I did, trying to make a stylized pistol animation

PFC's Philosophy

With a new approach in mind, I would like to clarify some details that we've decided on PFC going forward. Don't worry, they're positive! 

First and foremost, the game is not being made for monetary reasons. 

Project Fight Club has become a passion project, something that we personally enjoy seeing grow and develop with us and our abilities. As we grow better in what we do, whether it be in modeling, animating, or design, the game will reflect this growth. We do not have any intentions to include any predatory or vindictive form of monetization such as locking tools behind paywalls or granting advantages to those with more money. If premium payouts grant a substantial payout relative to our expectations, then premium payouts will suffice.

While monetization is still on the table, these methods will not grant players any advantage nor will they abuse any psychologically damaging techniques such as FOMO. At the moment, the monetization may include but is not limited to podium customization, KO frames, and KO text. Other ideas, such as unique effects (a giant rock falling instead of a Satellite beam, Illumina's reveal ability to look like a spotlight, etc.), cannot be promised but have been discussed before. We all love being unique and representing ourselves in our own ways and PFC has always been a platform for expression and creativity, something that should expand beyond your loadout choices and ways you play.

Secondly, the game will prioritize accessibility over competitiveness.

Project Fight Club is about doing your best the way you want to. While some have taken the game seriously in the past by scouting for meta-defining techniques and strategies, only what's healthy for the game will stay. This isn't to say the game will be dumbed down and simplified, the game will always have technical and complex gameplay elements like Rogue Dagger or Moon Katana, but the game will try to provide helpful visual aid such as seeing Illumina AoE while invisible because though someone can estimate how large the size is based on their experience, it should be just as easy for someone new to the game. To create a healthy environment, crucial information such as the range of Regen Coil or Blink Dagger should be apparent to avoid dividing newcomers and veteran players. 

Pushing the game's boundary is something I try to do with the game's gameplay. New and redesigned tools are a puzzle to be solved, a puzzle that is required to fill the game with unique and memorable content that changes the way you play. As the game's age progresses, the game may become more and more technical. While inevitable, I will do my best to achieve a balance of technicality and accessibility. 

Everything needs to be equally viable. PFC is a complex game with a player's situation ever-changing; the player fights different numbers of players all with different health using different tools in different parts of the map all with different KO streaks under their belt. Because of the vast scenarios someone may encounter in the game, balance will never be perfect. If a tool or technique has an advantage gained over someone who cannot utilize it because of its difficulty, its power must be recalculated and adjusted. For example, Rogue Dagger, while difficult to execute, was very powerful for those who put in the time to learn it, creating an unhealthy divide between those who do use it and those who don't. The game will still reward those who take the time to learn how to use it, however, your choice of loadout shouldn't be chosen because it's the best, it should be because you like the way to play it.

Lastly, the game must be fun for everyone.

Project Fight Club isn't a competition, it's a celebration. Hiding wipeouts from others is by design. There is no winner at the end screen, only those who the game finds did something significant. The game isn't played to be the highest scoring or anything, it's about setting your own goals and trying to achieve them. If your goal is to get the most KOs that's totally understandable, but at the end of the day getting the most KOs as a goal compared to someone else getting 1 Moon Katana KO as their goal is both equally valid.

We cannot control how someone acts, however, we can do our best to influence how others do. While we do not intend to completely control someone's behavior, such as prohibiting certain remarks and phrases in the game that don't break ROBLOX's ToS, we will however develop the game with possible toxicity in mind. Nothing in the game should feel unfair or oppressive, if being KOd by someone by a particular tool would feel embarrassing, it should be from something difficult to pull off like by Satellite or Moon Katana. 

The game's tone will be positive and relaxing. Plans for music will be something soothing rather than grating and pounding. The game's language is informal and provides positive reinforcement. We expect to incorporate a mute feature that allows you to silence another player in case they're being toxic to you which will also immediately hide them after they KO you so you don't have to watch them dance over you or anything like that. There's already enough hate and anger in the world, we do not want to create more through something we love.

Now, with that out the way, let's look at what's new!

Biograft Blade

Starting with what's new, let's start with something that's, well, new! The Biograft Blade is PFC's remake's first original tool to be added to the game. The Biograft Blade was designed to help satiate a need for dealing damage from a distance without creating a range-dedicated tool, something that may seem too oppressive at the moment. The Biograft Blade's mesh was suggested by Cpt_Polka and is taken from the old Builder's Club Gift from 2009 which, you guessed it, was given to players with Builder's Club. It was an iconic gear that was in the hands of many avatars during this time thanks to its availability and energy-sword-like resemblance.

When you have the blade equipped the blade will begin to charge itself, generating energy until it begins to cackle with energy. Once fully charged, a ball of energy is launched away from you the next time you slash with it. When someone is hit by the ball or the explosion at the end of its travel distance they will be slowed and take damage, allowing the user to close in on the enemy while they slowly walk in place. When firing the projectile, the game makes multiple boundary checks acting as a pseudo hitbox to see if the ball has hit anything. This way, the server decides on the projectile's behavior, providing unbiased outcomes. Additionally, the ball, like all effects, is made on all clients, making everything look as smooth as possible.

"Slayer" - Halo Announcer before Slayer

Often when designing tools for PFC, the look of the tool is looked at first. Once something catches our eye, I try to think of what would be appropriate for the look of the tool as well as for the game. In this case, I wanted something that felt sci-fi and energy-based, much like the sword's name. When you combine that with the game's need for distance closing options the Biograft Blade's ability was born. Additionally, the idea of the sword popping out from your hand like in Halo was something I desperately wanted to incorporate so I just had to add it to the game.

Venomshank

Another addition from the Sword Fight on the Heights roster, Venomshank makes its way into PFC. Originally, Venomshank was introduced with Ice Dagger in the original iteration of PFC as a way to KO players under the dagger's effects, presumably while dead or away from their target. Venomshank has always had a complicated history in PFC finding it difficult to balance while also making it appealing to take over other popular choices at the time such as Darkheart and Mr. Slice. One issue many people had with the weapon was that, when the poison was strong, would feel hopeless once they were hit. Taking damage over time was a slow and inevitable wipeout and was frustrating when there isn't a way to navigate around it. Secondly, when the weapon's poison was too weak or too slow, it would feel negligible. If you combine a low damage output from the poison with the sword's innate low damage and swing speed you have a worse version of Mr. Chop.

For this iteration of the game, Venomshank is in the middle ground boasting slow but strong poison damage while doing a lower amount of damage. Venomshank will benefit those who intend to outlast their opponent or seek to disrupt existing fights by widely damaging two engaged targets. Additionally, Venomshank shines better when against players boasting escape options such as Blink Dagger and Ghost Elixir by dealing damage to them even if they get away.

Wear gloves, it's coated in venom.

You may have noticed that the Sword Fight on the Heights swords has different meshes now. The main reason for this is to assist those who are affected by color blindness. By focusing on their silhouette players who may get red and green mixed up will be able to differentiate Firebrand and Venomshank, something that may turn up an issue in the future. Additionally, having all those swords share a similar mesh will mean they'll always feel like variations of each other, something this iteration of PFC is trying to avoid altogether. Venomshank at the moment may feel a little lackluster when compared to the other SFotH swords but I intend to revamp some visuals, especially those of older tools, to keep their polish up to speed with the newest additions.

Dark Hail

Time for a classic, one of three tools not created by me originally but by my old friend GearTitan. In its original incarnation, Dark Hail, or Dark Spellbook, was an ultimate that would summon crystals outwards from you with the amount scaling based on your KO Streak. When summoning the crystals, the player would take roughly 10 hp of damage before going on a cooldown. If you KOd yourself using this, nobody would receive the KO. Dark Hail's identity of sacrificing HP in exchange for powerful crystals remains, however, its properties have been changed.

Firstly, because the original PFC did not have tool equip times on anything but weapons, you were able to blink to summon and immediately do an insane amount of burst damage using the book, something that didn't always feel great to happen to you. With a focus on fun over competition, this is no longer possible. Now, Dark Hail has a nearly instant cooldown after being fired, however, the amount of damage you take decreases with each KO streak reducing the health you lose. It's important to note that this decrease is hyperbolic, meaning it will never reach 0 hp loss. Another change is that Dark Hail no longer increases the number of crystals you shoot out since the streak scaling is on the amount of health you lose when using it. This creates a high-risk ultimate that, when used at the right time, can devastate opponents when fired at the right angle. The option to burst down an enemy is still available, you'll just be using up more of your health to do so.

Do you expect me to know how much HP I have?

Dark Hail was a fantastic tool to work on and was the last tool to be made before the hiatus. It was in an incomplete state and picking it up after a year or so later was a pleasure to work on. I think our increased attention to detail and ROBLOX's advancements made Dark Hail a very pretty and flashy tool. We divided the book's mesh on Maya, rigged it, and then skinned the mesh to allow the book to be animated in the game, being the first tool to do so. The book flies in front of you and moves around its pages when using it. I'm happy ROBLOX has come so far as to add skin deformation and the like. For being classified as an "Ultimate" these tools need to live up to the name by being visually exciting so expect the others to get a fresh coat of paint to be in line!

Glass Canyon

Coming in as PFC's fourth map is Glass Canyon, an open map inspired by the original ROBLOX "Brick Battle" map Glass Houses. PFC originally started as a showcase of tools that I had made, as well as a few from my friend GearTitan. In it, players would spawn with every tool in the game and fight on the original Glass Houses map. Ultimates would simply disappear after using them and there was no objective. In honor of the map and the game's history, the Glass Canyon takes inspiration from the classic map.

Glass Tunnels, a staple of the original map

Glass Canyon is a vertical map that takes place in a high-altitude mountainous environment peppered with pine trees and unfinished development. The abandoned office buildings sit at three corners of the map with two being near an obelisk and one near a Monolith, which are now increased in size.

I wanted the map to have a different identity than the others in PFC: Sakura is an open center with tall walls surrounding it and Neon is cramped and tight except the main road. For Glass Canyon, the map is very mountainous and varied in height.

Trees and cliffs as far as the eye can see

The map focuses on verticality and traversing the terrain creatively by forcing users to consider their four-jump limit. The map can easily be navigated from one corner to the other without any special tool, however, many of the areas can be shortcutted using several of your jumps in succession, something to consider when fleeing or pursuing an enemy. The map has natural pathways that do not require jumping, however, someone more inclined to use up their jumps may take a shorter path and catch up to you.

The map also features two elevators that rise players upwards with one bringing a player to the tallest point of the map. Additionally, the map also has what we dubbed as "The Death Tunnel", a tunnel with no natural exit other than the two ends of it meaning if you're in there and you don't have a way out, like a Blink Dagger, the only way out is traversing the rest of the long tunnel. The map has a lot of fun, unique, and creative shortcuts using trees and cliffs to reach higher areas and choke points for defending contested spots like Obelisks and Monoliths. We hope that future additions to navigation choices make Glass Canyon a favorite for juking and outplaying others using the map.

Going up?

Maps are always very fun to make and we hope to create more in the future. We do not intend to allow players to vote for which map to play next, however, we would like to add an option for players to vote on whether they want to play on the next map with each negative vote reducing the time on the next map or skipping it entirely if everyone agrees against it. This way, if a majority of players don't like a map that you do, you still get a chance to play it.

And that just about wraps up this post on PFC! We're happy to be back and can't wait to create more again. New ideas are bursting inside my mind for new content as well as ways to refresh and refine the current game. Creating is an addicting high; to produce and enjoy something spawned from your creative vision is a feeling worth chasing over and over again. I cannot wait to create and polish the game further and further. Here's to the future of PFC!