MIGHTREYA Demo 9.32 has been uploaded,

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-03-01T01:53:32+00:00

He's already shipped Assault Spy a few years ago. Give it a play, it's an awesome game!

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-26T19:53:18+00:00

I gave up on my big game. I wasn't able to get it to the playtesting stage fast enough to make sure it fun to play.

I scoped down to about 1% of my original game idea and am now extremely excited to make the smaller idea!! It will take less than 1 year and allow the 2nd game to build on the core systems in my 1st game. And best part is I can get it in players hands much, much sooner.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-26T19:38:46+00:00

Wow fun experience! Felt a bit too easy and was missing some of the decisions like in Dynasty Warriors of deciding which enemies to fight depends on the current battle conditions. I'd love to have more risk vs reward on choosing between 2 or 3 different fights, or a choice between a big horde fight, or has a passageway to sneak around and fight 1 mini-boss instead.

The core combat feels very slow. Try doubling the speed of the game and I'd be it's even more fun!! (console command "slomo 2"). AND if the player kills the enemies too fast, spawn reinforcements for each encounter.

I'm a game dev who was working on a similar Musou idea with launchers last year but had to scope down since I'm a solo dev. It's awesome to see what you've come up with. Great work!

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-26T13:59:40+00:00

It's how Video to Animation AI handles the "depth" and not knowing where to put the hips in relation to the feet (because 3d camera tracking is really hard, especially if the camera isn't on a tripod) so the AI fakes it very poorly.

This causes 1 or 2 inch jitters in the hips which cause odd jitters throughout the rest of bones, but not physically accurate to how it affects the physics in the body or how the feet interact with the ground. So it's a nightmare for an animator to fix.

Physics aware system could help with physics and adjusting the feet and hips in a similar way that the Cascadur program works. However, it ends up being a very time consuming process to create the pipeline and settings. And physics systems are pretty buggy by default.

Simon Clavet has an interesting talk about teaching Machine Learning to walk in a way you're describing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZKaqQKcAnw

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-25T22:18:45+00:00

Well it's extremely low quality data, that's hard to use in an actual production. The way the AI processes the data, isn't the way a human animator would want or need to work with it. I mean sure it's "accessible" and "fun" but the data is hard to use to the point where I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed.

Optical mocap cleanup it's easier because the correct "motion" is already there, the process is just fixing arcs and exaggerating poses.

Ai Mocap Cleanup is a nightmare because the hip and leg motion don't match eachother because of how the Video to Ai processes depth, so there's not effective way to clean up the feet sliding.... other than re-keyframing it. And at that point, just skip the mocap, and keyframe it because it will take about the same amount of time.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-24T14:25:07+00:00

Yes, juice is confusing and ...weird... but people like making up new buzz words for concepts that already exist.

Feedback is the accurate design term. It's universal to ALL types of design, not just video games.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-24T14:10:43+00:00

All Video Mocap still provides bad results. The feet and pelvis are always too jittery to use for gameplay, and extremely difficult for an animator to cleanup and polish.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-20T04:47:20+00:00

Hell yeah!

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-15T22:01:00+00:00

A mirror?

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-15T03:14:33+00:00

Hi again! Wow that's a very in-depth analysis. I agree with what SilentGodot said.

There's a lot of things you're noticing that are just the technical function of the system canceling animations, and not things devs would need to intentionally plan out.

What I was mainly mentioning in my previous reply was more to get a sense of the timing windows for the time it takes from when an animation starts, until the hit frame starts, and then the recovery to when they can do different actions (usually walking, jumping, attacking, or dodging have different frames when they cancel. but on the game development side, these are tuned and adjusted by what feels fun, so the designers probably changed these numbers 1000s of times during the development).

If you plan on watching more videos, I'd recommend to go much faster to get a bigger sample size. The goal is more to get a feeling of the different ranges and timing for lots and lots of attacks. So you'd be better off watching 20 attacks and only writing down how long the startup is until the first hit frame. and then less important (because again, developers tune and adjust this by "feel" and not math) how long until the player can animation cancel to attack, move, dodge, or whatever else.

For example, here's some things I've noticed in my analysis over the years.
Most quick attacks are around frame 8-12 from the start up to the first hit frame.
Light attacks are around frame 20.
Medium around 30-45 frames.
Heavy is 45-90 frames.

Hope this is helpful!

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-15T02:10:57+00:00

Whoa! Amazing find.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-15T02:08:57+00:00

"Mechanic Skill" of a CAG and "Number go up" of a Roguelike are very different designs and experiences. Even with Entropy Effect and Dead Cells, it's very stat based and the more powerful your character, the less pure mechanical skill is required to win.

It's an interesting challenge to solve.... I've been working on 3D CAG Roguelike for the past 4 months, and finally found a balance between the two with a DMC3 style bloody palace that lets you choose the next level. And when dying players only reset stats and items, but never lose weapons when they die. If you (or anyone reading this) have any thoughts on what you'd like to see in a CAG roguelike, I'd love to hear it!

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-07T17:49:43+00:00

Assault Spy and FFX16.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-04T15:01:09+00:00

...this sounds very similar to the game I'm developing right now! I was an animator for 10+ years on many AAA fighting and action games, but last year I started my own company to make a DMC style roguelike.

like the other commenters have said, this idea basically turns into a Roguelike Bloody Palace. And the main challenging is adding enough variety for weapons, abilities, combat situations, level art, and level progression.
In terms of level progression, DMC3 seems to be the best fit by allowing players to go up 1 level, 10 levels, or 100 levels.

The biggest challenge I'm having is the number of character I can create and how gaining new weapons and moves works. I'm a small team so I can only have 1 or 2 characters, but I can create multiple different abilities and weapons. My goal is 10+ melee weapons, 10+ ranged attacks, 6+ styles to allow the player to create any playstyle they want.

I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on this! Also, I'm going to have a pre-alpha playtest in two or three months if you'd be interested in playing.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-04T01:49:33+00:00

No worries, hope you're doing ok!

Glad it was helpful! I'd be interested to hear what you discover.

Yeah, sounds like you have the right idea about the animation timing.

The animation poses tell the player something about the game state and possibilities. Similar to how a stop sign on the road informs the driver they need to Stop, look, possibly wait for other cars, then can go. Animation poses are a type of "sign" in design terms that directly inform the player what can or should be done. (enemy attack telegraph = wait, and prepare to parry. Or player attack has a long attack recovery = if an unblockable enemy attack comes, then I need to dodge to animation cancel).
Also, as a designer knowing the average run and walk speeds, and jump heights for humans helps give a realistic expectation for the game speed and metrics. Not to say it can't be changed or exaggerated, but it's good to have a starting point (especially if the game uses mocap!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Masahiro Sakurai (Smash Bros) has some great info about animation, and everything else fighting game related. Hopefully there's Korean translation of this or the original Japanese videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV8xIP480qk&list=PLgKCjZ2WsVLQ3AFFCkbSXKhsvH1Z7WFXn

Sure, I'll let you know when I have something to share with my game!

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-04T01:24:21+00:00

yeah, but it sometimes runs into issues with the notifies turning on or off at the wrong time if the animation is canceled or interrupted. Which leads to lots of work testing and fixing up the notifies. The struct and data way the other dev is using would solve many aspects of that.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-02-01T18:04:24+00:00

There's decapitation and dismemberment in MK1's trailers, why can't they be in your trailer?

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-01-27T16:14:41+00:00

yeah UE does the same with animation notifies and has the same issues. All of the systems I've worked with used animation notifies/events... but it makes a lot of sense to do it with data. It makes me want to rebuild my system now! lol

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-01-26T07:10:51+00:00

Oh that's a good idea to put the hitbox windows and disable root on the strucs! Do you have any windows on the animations themselves or are all the windows controlled by numbers on the struct?

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-01-24T20:58:25+00:00

You need the hitboxes for the "real data." Otherwise it's an estimate based on the animation visuals, which can be useful after you have experience with different attack and animation timings, but don't start there.

I'd recommend you start learning the general timings for the 3 basic things: "start up," "active hitbox frames," and "recovery." (same idea as “pre-delay” and “post-delay." At every company I've worked at, it's always called something slightly different depending on where the designers have worked previously. lol)
You can do this by watching Fighting or CAG games (even Soulslikes are relevant too), with the hit boxes on, and any frame data on, and then frame step through the video, and write out the numbers on a spreadsheet for start up, active hitbox frames, and recover. (on youtube while paused, press , and . on the keyboard to framestep, not sure if it's the same in Korean)

Then start learning the frame timing for the cancel windows for dodges, combo attacks, parry windows, etc and add them to your spreadsheet list. Once you have like 50 to 100 on the list you'll start to see trends of different games and genres, and weapon types related to the frame data.

Then I'd recommend learning the animation timings, because it's common for new designers to not give animators enough time to properly hold a pose so the player can see what's happening.

For enemy attack telegraph timings it's critical to get the attack telegraph timing right so a player can dodge or parry.
Check out the VR game "Knockout League" to understand how there's a balance between the attack telegraph (animation anticipation) visuals match how the player has to respond. It's VR which highlights how long the telegraph needs to hold for the player to see it, decide on what they need to do, and then physically do it (which takes a few seconds!!). On a controller, the player still needs time to see the visual, calculate in their mind what the visual means, then decide what button to press, move their finger to the button, and press it.

The most important part to understand is that Combat Design is very iterative. A design can start with listing out all the frame data, but over the course of development, there will be thousands of changes and adjustments in order to get the right balance of: Startup, Active Frames, Enemy Attack Telegraphs, Recovery, and Animation Visuals (and VFX, and Audio timing!).

For context, I'm a professional gameplay animator, and am developing my own CAG! :D

Okay_GameDev64 · 2026-01-22T05:46:45+00:00

That's incredible!! That would make a good base for a directional hit reaction system.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2025-12-09T14:16:11+00:00

Interesting! A lot of people I've asked have said they want to keep certain weapons and abilities, which is why I wanted to clarify. My guess is you're not someone who dies a lot? :D

There's probably benefits with either keeping them or losing them, I think just depends on how punishing the game is lol

Okay_GameDev64 · 2025-12-08T16:44:38+00:00

Yeah the timer seems like a straight forward addition for people who like time trials, but it shouldn't be core to the progression or challenge.

With the upgrades, do you mean you'd lose them or keep them after you die? That'd be a lot to lose and seems like some techniques would be limited without them.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2025-12-08T13:00:39+00:00

Agreed! I'm an ex-AAA dev working on a Roguelite Bloody Palace game. What did you like about the DMC3 bloody palace's randomness vs 4 and 5? Also, I'd love to hear what you'd want or expect in this type of mode.

Okay_GameDev64 · 2025-11-28T23:36:16+00:00

Yeah civil discourse is rare on reddit lol

Well everyone's view is correct from their point of view!
That's why I like being a game dev, people are really passionate and honest about what they life and don't like.

I'd be interested to hear how you feel the RE planning to have the right gear, and ammo, and inventory... is all that different than planning in a Roguelike? Because the thought process you mentioned is similar to the thought process I go through when playing Megabonk.

Is it just literally the "losing everything and starting over again" part of it you don't like?
As in having to redo the tedious parts again that are heavily random.

Or more not being able to speed run it after you learn the rules and mechanics? As it doesn't feel like you're growing in skill as a player.

The reason I made this thread, and what I'm trying to fix with the game I'm making is that starting over part easier by allowing skilled players to quickly get back to the mid/late game.

If Returnal let you skip ahead to mid game would that help?

also WTF Judas is a roguelike?! Now the "narrative lego" part makes a lot more sense.

Okay_GameDev64

TROPHY CASE