TGB Combat Editor
by Richard Foge · 11/22/2006 (9:31 pm) · 7 comments
On of the major components of the game I am working on is dependent on animation specific collision like you'd find in a fighting game. So I co-opted the Animation Builder to create a new editor that allows me to edit offensive and defensive collision, (among other things), for each frame of a given animation.
The storyboard displays all of the animation frames and all of the collision attached to it. Offensive collision boxes are green, defensive collision boxes are blue.
The system is based on some of the concepts used in the first God of War's combat editor, but adapted to work with 2D animations instead of 3D. Not currently hooked into the editor are the tabs for tying actions and branches to each frame. The playback system supports a few of the planned actions, specifically sounds and hitsparks.
Here are some low-res screen shots of the playback in action:
Not really all that exciting, unless you're me and you know everything going on behind the scenes. The reaction system is hooked up and playing the appropriate reaction for the attack that is hitting it, which is a special attack triggered by specific joystick input, there are also sounds playing :)
The whole combat system still has quite a ways to go, but it has been coming together nicely and I've been hooking more pieces in every day. Initially most of the engine features are going to be geared towards making a modular fighting game system that can be adapted to a variety of different 2D fighting game styles. The tools will also be useful for creating action platformers and side-scrolling brawlers. Anything that has animation dependent collision that also needs a variety of special effects and conditional effects that need to be triggered only on specific frames of animation.
Future additions include:
Hooking up particle-based projectiles to Actions.
Onion-skin mode for collision editing.
Copy/paste of collision boxes from frame to frame.
Better collision box editing.
Character asset management.
User-defined button layouts.
Hitpauses.
Hooking up user scripts to Actions.
Camera shake.
Some fighting game support:
Character swapping/tagging.
Character assists.
Health/block/super meters.
Super attacks.
The storyboard displays all of the animation frames and all of the collision attached to it. Offensive collision boxes are green, defensive collision boxes are blue.
The system is based on some of the concepts used in the first God of War's combat editor, but adapted to work with 2D animations instead of 3D. Not currently hooked into the editor are the tabs for tying actions and branches to each frame. The playback system supports a few of the planned actions, specifically sounds and hitsparks.
Here are some low-res screen shots of the playback in action:
Not really all that exciting, unless you're me and you know everything going on behind the scenes. The reaction system is hooked up and playing the appropriate reaction for the attack that is hitting it, which is a special attack triggered by specific joystick input, there are also sounds playing :)
The whole combat system still has quite a ways to go, but it has been coming together nicely and I've been hooking more pieces in every day. Initially most of the engine features are going to be geared towards making a modular fighting game system that can be adapted to a variety of different 2D fighting game styles. The tools will also be useful for creating action platformers and side-scrolling brawlers. Anything that has animation dependent collision that also needs a variety of special effects and conditional effects that need to be triggered only on specific frames of animation.
Future additions include:
Hooking up particle-based projectiles to Actions.
Onion-skin mode for collision editing.
Copy/paste of collision boxes from frame to frame.
Better collision box editing.
Character asset management.
User-defined button layouts.
Hitpauses.
Hooking up user scripts to Actions.
Camera shake.
Some fighting game support:
Character swapping/tagging.
Character assists.
Health/block/super meters.
Super attacks.
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#2
11/22/2006 (10:12 pm)
Cool idea! Make sure to blog a lot as it comes together :)
#3
I've given some thought to making the tools robust enough and adding enough additional content to be an add-on or maybe even a "TGB Fighting-Game/Brawler Kit" :) , but I have no idea who I'd even start talking with to get that ball rolling. One of my co-workers used to be at Sierra back in the day and worked with a few of the guys that became Garage Games, I might hit him up for info.
@Tom - Now that I've got some momentum going and the game I'd been working on at my 'day job' has shipped I definitely plan on blogging my progress frequently.
Thanks for the encouragement!
11/22/2006 (10:19 pm)
@Bob - It would have a way to go before I could to that, a lot of the functionality still has to be exposed to the editor and there are a lot of bells and whistles that I plan on adding.I've given some thought to making the tools robust enough and adding enough additional content to be an add-on or maybe even a "TGB Fighting-Game/Brawler Kit" :) , but I have no idea who I'd even start talking with to get that ball rolling. One of my co-workers used to be at Sierra back in the day and worked with a few of the guys that became Garage Games, I might hit him up for info.
@Tom - Now that I've got some momentum going and the game I'd been working on at my 'day job' has shipped I definitely plan on blogging my progress frequently.
Thanks for the encouragement!
#4
11/22/2006 (10:39 pm)
Very Nice! 
#7
11/23/2006 (12:57 pm)
Awesome! I *love* fighting games. When Melv and I were designing TGB / T2D in the earliest days, I'd always pester in by saying "hmm... we should do ________, so it'll be easier to modify for people that want to do fighting games." If left completely to my own devices, T2D / TGB probably would've turned into TFGB (Torque Fighting Game Builder), but luckily we tried to keep the needs of people beyond just myself in mind as we went along.
Torque Owner Bob