Topic: Split Fighters

[Pierrec]

It looks like a fighting game
It sounds like a fighting game
It kinda feels like a fighting game
But it's not much of a fighting game in the end, it's only Split Fighters.

I already talked about this game here, while it still was in production, now I'm proud to announce it's finally released!

Download it here!

This game is my biggest project since I worked on it during 3 months. I know this is a ridiculous amount of time, but it's a big step to me since most of my previous games were made in less than 48h (Never Alone Hotline, Crow and Foxy, Ok, Now This Is Awkward...you can find them here).

The story

It's the story of a girl, Severine, who just broke up with her boyfriend. But the most difficult part isn't the break-up, it's what comes after, when you have to confront all your friends and family. That's exactly what Split Fighters is about.

No wait ! Don't go ! It's not a depressing game or anything, I would rather call it silly, with some deeper aspects (at least that's what I tried to make).

Split Fighters features :

• Five rather complex characters
• Some beginner's pixel-art
• Thousands on dialog lines (in fact, two months on three were spent on these dialogues, but don't worry, you don't have and actually can't read them all)
• Blood, hadokens, fatalities and all this fighting stuff
• Three endings
• Many paths

I would love to read some feedback about it. Oh and I almost forgot : I'm not a native english speaker so, even if I spent hours to read the dialogs again and again, there probably will be some mistakes/translation errors. So please excuse me and feel free to tell me if you spot some, I'll correct them in a next version. 

Instructions and credits in game.

Additional screenshots :

Download it here!

[Jakey]

Awesome! Really enjoyed it I like the combination of the fighting game with the dialog.

[Pierrec]

Thanks!

[DoorKnobHandle]

I gave this a try, overall I liked it because it is unique and has a lot of style (art, writing etc.) - I didn't finish or play it for more than a couple minutes because the gameplay seemed to lack depth. It felt like I was 'playing' a glorified random number generator (you get a number, I get one, the highest number wins). When I'm on 1 energy (or whatever it's called) and my opponent sits on 0, for example, I can either shoot or charge up (assuming he/she assumes I will be shooting and blocks). There's no right or wrong decision here, it's purely random. This is reminiscent of rock, paper, scissors, which is a good way to break a tie or make a decision, but not a very good game unless played against people you know very well and can make reasonable conclusions as to what they'll choose likely. I wasn't quite sure if you guys had implemented characteristics for the opponents (one likes to attack a lot, somebody else likes blocking etc.), it felt like that for a bit but ended up being so inconsistent that I just couldn't rely on it and it's, at that point, all back to being luck. This is a pretty big issue with the underlying game mechanic and it preventing me from enjoying this release for more than a couple fights!

[Pierrec]

Thanks for the feedback, I totally agree with you.
You talk about rock paper scissors, and yes, this is a kind of rock, paper, scissors, and yes, this is purely random (well...AI are a bit differents, but still). In fact, I wanted the fight to be hard and boring, because I wanted the player to try to talk instead of fighting. Every fight can be skipped with the dialogs, and there is something like 4 ou 5 ways to skip for each character. According to me, dialogs are the point of the game (I spent like 1 month working on the graphics/mechanics, and two on the dialogs...there's a HUGE amount of them), but I didn't want to make it too obvious. I wanted the player to turn himself to the dialogs when he gets bored. Apparently I failed in your case, and consequently, I am sorry you had to play a boring game ^^.
I'm really thankful for this feedback...the problem with this game is that people who usually like my games liked this one (because they know I'm a dialog guy), but the others...well, I suppose a lot of them just try it, gets bored, quit, and don't give any feedback probably to avoid hurting my feelings ^^. That's the first time someone tells me what I wanted to hear.   

I'm happy with this game, but now I know I should be more obvious next time, and I will

(wooah sorry about the bad english)

[DoorKnobHandle]

No problem, at it wasn't boring, as I said, overall I liked it because of the style and writing!

I did try talking, one time it didn't work and I just got hit and then two more time I got into huge dialog trees (which were interesting) but would always end up in me losing the turn so I figured I would stop trying pretty much! Very nice idea with the talking instead of fighting though! I did beat a couple of enemies without talking so I never got that point - so, yes, you could probably turn up the difficulty even more and then people will, sooner or later, realize there really is no other way instead of talking which is kinda awesome!

[Pierrec]

Maybe the problem comes from the fact that talking make you lose a turn.
If you try to talk while the enemy shoots, you're screwed, and If you try to talk while he loads, it's ok, but he earns one energy point.
Maybe players would be more eager to talk if there wasn't any risk...
I'm pissed that none of my beta-testers suggestedme that ^^