Blog, Game Development

My WEAPON Combat League Battle Game is Playable…with caveats.

Posted by Jonathan on

So here is the story. As those who follow me may know, I have been using Construct for my game development practices for quite a while. Construct costs yearly (recently they started offering monthly subs) but to me serves as the best way to develop games without writing traditional code. The event system made it easy and logical for me to translate my ideas and my characters into game form.

Last November, I released Jet Dancer. After that, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to make next. I tried several ideas, but none got as far along as WEAPON Combat League. I originally developed it alongside Jet Dancer, but put it aside when I decided to narrow my focus and finish one project at a time.

I’d planned to make WEAPON Combat League an adventure game featuring the characters and teams of my epic futuristic fighting saga. But my focus went entirely into the versus modes that were supposed to serve as supplemental game modes rather than the main thing. The game has 24 playable characters (25 really as there is one alternate form character) and a great number of moves and actions available in a 2-player versus mode. I even recently built in the ability to customize the team members (Team Edit). But the single player mode never really came together, and I had no concrete ideas.

And then…my current subscription to Construct expired.

This put me at a bit of a crossroads. I struggled with developing WCL for years. I wondered if I was okay with Construct’s subscription imprisoning everything I’d done, and everything I was yet to do, with WCL. Other game dev tools, such as GDevelop and Unity, give you access to their full functionality with no charge up front. Meanwhile Construct limits the program to near-uselessness if you don’t have an active subscription. For example, the program limits the number of events and layers you can use, and a lot of helpful tools and features are locked behind the paywall. Of course, Construct is the only program I actually know how to use, but that’s a solvable problem, given time.

In light of this, I decided to make my unfinished prototype WCL battle game publicly available, because there’s no telling when or if I’d ever take it far enough to be worthwhile. I feel like I went about the development completely the wrong way. WCL has so many characters and plotlines that a simple ‘battle’ game (it’s not a traditional fighting game) made in a simplified way by a lone developer is less than the project deserves.

I explain everything in detail on the itch page https://dualmask.itch.io/weapon-combat-league-demo but essentially:

  • It only has two player modes: Team Versus and Team Edit. (One has fixed teams, the other lets players pick their own teams). Both modes involve 3-vs-3 combat, one at a time per side, with active character switching based.
  • Each character has their own unique stats and fighting abilities. Some use ranged attacks, others melee, some have status ailments and tricks, others are straightforward.
  • There is an in-game database of all the characters as well as a detailed How To Play section.
  • There will likely be glitches, balance issues, and there are lots of placeholder assets.
  • Windows only, and I recommend Xbox-style gamepads, but you can mess around even with keyboard. (Player 2’s characters can be selected with the Numpad, but not controlled in battle.)

That said, the game is playable, and even kind of fun (if testing between me and my kids is any indication). But the project was too much for me to handle so I decided to put it out there.

Is this the end of WEAPON Combat League as a whole? Never. I love my concept, I just need to come up with the right things to do with it. Meanwhile, I’d love it if you gave it a play. If nothing else, you can learn about the characters I created in the Character Info section. Mess around a bit with the moves.

That’s what I wanted to share for now. Thanks for reading!