Devil May Cry style Game?
by AzraelK · in Torque Game Engine · 10/06/2006 (11:38 am) · 5 replies
Now this is going to sound weird, but you must remember Torque X is about to hit so in the future we will have the chance to do console type games so.. with that in mind.
My question is pretty simple actually I want to know if it is posible (with the less source changes as possible) to code a platform/action game a la Devil May Cry, in case you havent seen DMC heres the skinny
You control a single character (boned model) with a good variety of moves and attacks, most of your attacks are melee based, there is a gun attack but mostly is just the character aiming a gun at the direction of the atacker. (the heavy animations are melee) basically the main feature is to do a melee atack at any time lock to the next enemy and shoot it down.
the camera doesnt just stand behind your character, it works its way around the character so you can get a better view of the enemies and the action.
Most of the game is completely Indoors or inside "parks", so the terrain is not really needed (but could be kept for extra detail)
The character also does some platform jumping as well as looking for keys to open closed door.
The enemies are varied but they only have a move and attack animation (better well done though) at most you have say 5 enemies in the screen.
The model for the game would be episodic, so the download stays in a manageable size. Therefore there should be a lot of replay value in each level.
CGI cinemas are needed, ingame animations should do the trick though.
Multiplayer would be a real plus, since DMC does not have this function.
So is this possible in torque? (torque x more likely)
My question is pretty simple actually I want to know if it is posible (with the less source changes as possible) to code a platform/action game a la Devil May Cry, in case you havent seen DMC heres the skinny
You control a single character (boned model) with a good variety of moves and attacks, most of your attacks are melee based, there is a gun attack but mostly is just the character aiming a gun at the direction of the atacker. (the heavy animations are melee) basically the main feature is to do a melee atack at any time lock to the next enemy and shoot it down.
the camera doesnt just stand behind your character, it works its way around the character so you can get a better view of the enemies and the action.
Most of the game is completely Indoors or inside "parks", so the terrain is not really needed (but could be kept for extra detail)
The character also does some platform jumping as well as looking for keys to open closed door.
The enemies are varied but they only have a move and attack animation (better well done though) at most you have say 5 enemies in the screen.
The model for the game would be episodic, so the download stays in a manageable size. Therefore there should be a lot of replay value in each level.
CGI cinemas are needed, ingame animations should do the trick though.
Multiplayer would be a real plus, since DMC does not have this function.
So is this possible in torque? (torque x more likely)
#2
I know Torque X is not available yet so I wasnt asking about that, my point is that it would be an ideal platform for this type of game. but not necesarilly this could work in PC too, although having a controller would be a plus.
10/07/2006 (4:27 pm)
Wow Thanks for the answers; Im already checking on a collision detection fix for melee attacks, so that should do the trick. targetting doesnt seem feasible too.I know Torque X is not available yet so I wasnt asking about that, my point is that it would be an ideal platform for this type of game. but not necesarilly this could work in PC too, although having a controller would be a plus.
#3
i think that the most important thing you need to make a devil may cry type of game with torque is the addition of a full physics engine like ODE.
10/07/2006 (5:17 pm)
Remember that torquex will not release with funtionality to make 3d games this winter. only 2d. this is due to the fact that xna doesn't have it's 3d model pipeline ready to use until winter, so, GG can't really code around what they don't have from MS yet.i think that the most important thing you need to make a devil may cry type of game with torque is the addition of a full physics engine like ODE.
#4
In DMC 1, in the room where you first find the Shadow, practice knocking enemies into each other and watch them. In DMC 2 and 3 you can do this in the opening areas. Most enemies are only affected by other enemies if they are also hit by you. Then their collision detection turns on. That's why sometimes enemies will hurt each other or knock each other back when attacking you after you've swiped them and run. Try it. I wouldn't recommend playing the game this way since you can get through normal without dying too much in any of the games until you have to figure out boss maneuvers. Playing DMD mode can blast you, though, if you do not figure out individual enemy strategies to use. Especially when they Devil Trigger.
For a DMC game, physics would be your lowest worry, I would think.
10/08/2006 (7:38 pm)
You don't need anything like ODE for DMC. Skeletal models and hitbox animation for point reference should be enough, and even that is probably overkill since juggles are often dependent on the full collision box rather than any specific point. Play DMC3 and tell me differently. Play God of War and tell me differently. Juggling moves it from the hit detection heirarchy to a single box, it seems. Enemies will respond if their non-juggle hits (or non-stunned hits) are to specific points of their bodies (or actually, horizontal or vertical attacks ala Bushido Blade 2's collision scheme) or firearm attacks which stunn them for a short period and give them a knock-back whether on the ground or in the air. Most environmental objects in DMC are one-hit and only favor into physics in the most rudimentary fashion. Stock Torque physics could take most of DMC's brunt, and the rigid body resource could do the rest. Of course, this may change with 4 one the PS3, but it doesn't seem that way so far. Even knocking enemies back into other enemies seems to be a full collision box rather than any ragdoll or sectional collision. You can knock back creatures without a physical hit. You usually don't notice it because the action is fast and you're watching what you're doing.In DMC 1, in the room where you first find the Shadow, practice knocking enemies into each other and watch them. In DMC 2 and 3 you can do this in the opening areas. Most enemies are only affected by other enemies if they are also hit by you. Then their collision detection turns on. That's why sometimes enemies will hurt each other or knock each other back when attacking you after you've swiped them and run. Try it. I wouldn't recommend playing the game this way since you can get through normal without dying too much in any of the games until you have to figure out boss maneuvers. Playing DMD mode can blast you, though, if you do not figure out individual enemy strategies to use. Especially when they Devil Trigger.
For a DMC game, physics would be your lowest worry, I would think.
#5
10/09/2006 (10:57 am)
DMC is all based around a wonky physics bug anyways ;P (that's how the juggling gameplay came about). 
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake
1. Camera
You would need to implement a combination of the advanced camera resource and the pathed camera and smart triggers to denote directional flow of the areas (for example, in DMC, enter any of the long hallways and you will notice the camera senses where you're coming from and going). This is an example of something simple that you would have to tweak until you got it "just right".
2. Interiors
This is an easy one. Remove the terrain block from your mission and start your player in the interior.
3. Animations and Collisions
You would need a large number of DSQ animations to blend seamlessly between movesets. You would need to find the correct place to script these animations as well. Each weapon not only has its own moveset but Dante's entire body moves differently depending on which weapon is in use. You would also need a more accurate method of detecting hit collisions than the standard box collisions. This would be a bit more coding.
4. Platform Jumping
This has been an annoyance among many for some time. Platforms are possible, as is jumping to them, but moving ones are an issue. There is a pathed interior resource as well as a resource that Ramen Sama has released for platforms. You would HAVE to add these.
5. Enemies
You would have to do some collision maintenance and check the state of the enemies responses to utilize juggling and such. Also, if you wanted enemies like the Shadows, you would need to change their collisions based on their states (for things like their Javelin Thrust attack where you could do major damage if you landed on the edge of the spike without getting hit and start blasting with your guns to destroy the core quickly).
6. Combination Attacks
You did not mention this, but it goes further than simple animations. The scoring system in DMC for attacks and ranking attacks is tied to not only the number of combos that you perform, but the various ways which you perform them. The amount of Orbs you receive is dependent on how stylish you are, what weapon you are usings (weaker weapons often allow for more complex juggles and more orbs).
7. Automatic aiming
You would need to add automatic targeting of enemies. DMC locks on to enemies for you. This is part of the reason you can juggle enemies for so long. This would be a source change, and perhaps a significant one. I'm not sure.
8. Cinematics
CGI's could be done with Theora or TGE's in-game stuff. Either way. If you are keeping the download small, in-game would be better.
9. DMC multiplayer is interesting in a way (use Doppleganger in DMC3), but I don't know if it would be as interesting. It would be an fun experiment to try, though. I'd like stealing juggles. It would make auto-aiming between players annoying, though. Firearms would knock enemies out of a juggle and lose some stylish goodness.
EDIT: I couldn't count.
And right now no one is sure about the featureset of TorqueX, so it is nearly impossible to answer whether or not it will be a good match for a DMC style game.