Minimus
From WorkCDN
A minimalistic multiplayer cooperative platformer in early planning by HanClinto and Samw3
Contents |
Gameplay
Leveling Up
Players can "level up" to power up their attacks and/or special abilities. Tentatively, there are only 3 levels. You start at the lowest, and as you kill baddies, you gain experience. As you get hurt, you lose experience, and can level down if you get beat up too much (similar to Doukutsu). This provides some reward for playing well, and some penalty for not playing well, but stays within our minimalistic boundaries.
Combo Attacks
Combo attacks can be executed by continuing to attack and connect with your attacks. When your attack "whiffs" and misses the enemy, the combo is broken. This allows players to execute a variety of different and more powerful attacks, while continuing to mash the same button (similar to the TMNT games).
Acrobatics
Acrobatic classes are able to perform wall jumps in addition to getting jump boosts from teammates. Jump boosts are essentially wall jumps that can be done off of a teammate (whether on the ground, or in mid-air) for an extra boost to a platform that may otherwise be unreachable. Some special class interactions allow acrobatic characters to get special jump boosts (such as from a charging knight) or by being able to lightly jump off the archeress's arrows.
Classes
The "Leveling Bonus" is what the player will gain by leveling up the character. The "Special" is an innate ability that is with the player at all times, regardless of level.
| Class | Weapon | Attack Range | Attack Damage | Health | Speed | Acrobatic | Leveling Bonus | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knight | Sword | Melee (3) | Extra Strong (10) | Extra Strong (10) | Slow (3) | No | Knockback, small charges/dashes put into combos | Shoulder-dash, shield |
| Monk | Fists | Melee (2) | Strong (9) | Strong (8) | Average (6) | No | Knockback, stun, throwing enemies as projectiles | Party healing when stationary (ailment ale)? |
| Rogue | Daggers | Melee (4) | Strong (8) | Medium (5) | Fast (8) | Yes | Increased speed/attack (auto-combo?) | Berzerker Mode? (ala Vega from SF2) |
| Blunderbuster | Shotgun | Ranged (7) | Strong (7) | Strong (7) | Slow (5) | No | Normal, bigger boom, bouncing cluster-bombs | Charged Attack? |
| Archeress | Arrows | Ranged (10) | Medium (4) | Medium (5) | Average (7) | No | Normal, piercing, heat-seekers, spread-fire? | Auto-aim? (perhaps slower than normal fire, but auto-aims up or down for enemies) |
| Ninja | Shuriken (Stars) | Ranged (9) | Medium (3) | Weak (4) | Fast (9) | Yes | Bouncing stars, spread+bounce, spread+bounce+explode | Ninja rope? |
- Health is generally inverse of speed.
- Melee fighters get more health than ranged fighters.
- Knockback makes enemies go backwards a bit when hit to keep them at bay.
- Piercing attacks can go through more than one enemy.
Special Abilities
Whenever possible, I think it would be cool if the special abilities used themselves. For instance, whenever the monk is idle, instead of having to hit a special button or key combination to heal his teammates, he should pull out the ailment-ale and start passing the good cheer to any other idle teammates who are in range. It's the sort of thing that's intuitive for the players to learn how to do -- "I read how the monk can heal his teammates -- how do we do that? Here, stand next to me, hrm, I wonder what button we press... oh look! He's healing automatically! Excellent!"
Other special abilities (such as auto-aim) would also be passive, and the player shouldn't have to do anything special to enable them. Berzerker mode could possibly fit in here as well. Shoulder dash and ninja rope are a bit different, and those would perhaps be accessed differently. Shoulder dash could be combined with double-tapping move plus attack perhaps, granted that he isn't too close to enemies (there should maybe be a radius check here?) Ninja rope could perhaps be an extension of jumping in the air -- maybe instead of a double jump, if he presses jump while in mid-air, he'll fire his ninja rope. See the Pyweek6 entry Robot Toast for a good example of how a simple ninja rope like this could work.
Special class interactions
We want the game to be heavily cooperative, such that you seek out rl friends with whom to play the game and fight monsters with. Part of the attraction of playing with friends will be the different interactions that each class has with other classes. Each of the player types are given a balance of strengths and weaknesses, and we want the players to be able to share strengths and offset weaknesses through teamwork. This table shows some of the class-specific interactions that are theorized for the different player types:
| Main \ Helper | Knight | Monk | Rogue | Buster | Archer | Ninja |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knight | X | |||||
| Monk | Javelin Spin Throw / Tandem Ground Pound | X | ||||
| Rogue | Charge jump boost | Throw/jump boost | X | |||
| Buster | The Tank. Buster rides dashing knight | Back-to-back? Each attacks in own direction, then switches places for next attack, and repeats. | Explosion jump boost | X | ||
| Archer | The Bunker. Rapid-fire from behind knight's shield. | Healing Shot (Arrow delivers healing) | Slicing arrows makes a split shot? | Flachette round? Buster loads up archeress's arrows for deadly spray | X | Target Share (stars follow arrows) |
| Ninja | Charge jump boost | Throw/jump boost | Human Trapeze | Explosion jump boost | Can run on top of arrows | X |
External Links
Commodore 64 Version
Samw3 is currently working on a simplified version for the c64. He's doing it to get a feel for the retro style and limitations of an 8bit platform. And to learn some 6502 asm. It's also helping to get the style for the tiles and such.
Screenshot
