Welcome to Wrestling Gamers United Newsletter #285
1) Recycling 2) Smackdown! vs. Raw preview, Wii version 3) We're gonna go way up, WAY UP! 4) Link of the Week 5) Question of the Week
1) Recycling **************************
So we've been building the shot list for the trailer editing contest and one of the things we asked ourselves is whether or not to include shots from the first trailer as well. To me it seemed a little cheesy to recycle old shots just to offer more content to play with. And then I here a brand new trailer for the new TNA game from Midway was shown at a trade show...and it's the exact same trailer. Now I don't have any proof of this but if it's true it sure makes you wonder why there isn't a flashy new trailer for it yet? I did a search of the official Midway site and the game isn't even listed yet. All I could find was a few lines in a press release from this past June.
So I guess we're safe recycling a few little clips, no?
2) Smackdown! vs. Raw preview, Wii version ********************************************
No surprise to anyone but it sure looks like the upcoming WWE games for Xbox 360 and PS3 will easily be the prettiest girls at the dance. But the Wii version is shaping up to be one of the most bizarre concepts for a wrestling game that I've ever heard of.
Check out this hands on preview and read it for yourself. Thank God the Wii is backwards compatible and I still have Day of Reckoning 2 to fall back on...
By the way, all the fuss over there being flaming tables in the new Smackdown vs. Raw and how amazing it is to finally have that feature is a little odd. Some games deserve to be forgotten but it's worth pointing out that there was a little wrestling game with flaming tables already and it came out back in 2004.
As a wrestling game it was ass upon ass but if you just want hardcore violence with plenty of blood (the women bleed too!), weapons, and yes even flaming tables I'd say its at least worth the $5 bucks it costs now to grab the first Backyard Wrestling game. Hell, grab the sequel and you get light tubes, chainsaws, and weed wackers too. It makes the so-called hardcore in WWE games look like, well, the hardcore in WWE.
3) We're gonna go way up, WAY UP! *******************************
This week was tweak week. Make the grapple animations look better, make the striking collision work better, get the head tracking working properly. So while half the team polishes up the guts of the game the other guys finally got their claws on that damn balcony so we could use it! The way it's going to work for now is the actual climb up the stairs will be animated and triggered when you stand at the bottom of the stairs and hit 'climb'. (Unless Acclaim publishes the game in which case you'll need to press punch, punch, run, kick, down, down, grapple, start). There was no way in hell we were going to tackle actual manual stair climbing with fighting on the stairs themselves. Think of the sheer amount of things that could go wrong in that scenario? So Darrell just animated the wrestler running up the stairs and when he reaches the top you can control him again. Nothing ever goes right the first time, or so we've been taught to believe through trial and error and error and more error, but once we had both characters on the balcony all grappling moves worked just fine. However, we need to either widen the balcony or limit the moves that can be performed up there. There isn't enough room to properly execute some of the bigger moves and they can sometimes end up on the other side of the railing where they then fall to the floor. Sure, it's kinda cool to see a Cop Killer off the balcony to the floor but when its the result of glitchy environment collision its not quite the affect that we're going for.
The first batch of flying moves from the balcony will also be specialized a bit. At first you'll only be able to climb the railing at a specific point near the middle and this way there will be less chance of glitchy collision caused by landing on top of the stairs and things like that.
Our camera system wasn't designed with balcony action in mind, though, and we have to rewrite it a bit to keep both players on screen even if one is on the floor in one end of the venue and the other guy is at the end of balcony. Plus, if we're going to indeed see those windows in the Hammerlock while on the balcony then we need to do some work on them as well. All that sexy grime and dust in the rendered screenshots isn't working in the engine yet.
All of these things are cool little extras we weren't planning on worrying about this soon but we figure as long as we have to tighten up the gameplay before introducing more moves we might as well take the opportunity to add some of that extra stuff that will make PWX just a little more unique.
4) Link of the Week ********************
So how come nobody ever asks me if there will be a garden gnome in PWX?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAbEkFRPxUA
5) Question of the Week ************************
Thank you to everyone who helped us with last week's question! There sure seems to be a strong recurring theme in what most people want to see but I'm not going to give our competitors free market research by saying what it is ;-)
Now we need to choose a flying move to test off the balcony. Which move should we try first? I'm thinking of the classic Superfly splash but we're open to suggestions. What do you think?
Please email your answers to Dave@WrestlingGamersUnited.com and thanks for the support!
In the meantime and in-between time, that's it. Another edition of Wrestling Gamers United.
I was debating between the SSP and a Swanton. Either the AJ Styles one onto Joe and Daniel's type camera shot or the Jeff Hardy on Abyss Swanton from the first BFG
Definitely the shooting star press. If you can get a light behind the shooting star press then that'd be great, just so the light can filter around the side of the wrestler and darken him at the front, not a full silhouette but getting close.
I'm sure we'll release a short clip of the move for the trailer. But something troubles me. Tim mentioned that the animation was 'facing the wrong way' in relation to the railing idle position which leads me to suspect that he might be animating a Moonsault and not a SSP. Tuesday morning we'll look into that...
I'd prefer a moonsault. SSP is a bit messier in real life and often looks a little too perfect in videogames. Plus, off a balcony....I cant quite imagine it. Dunno why. I just imagine the guy landing on his feet again. theres more of a nice, consistant rotation with a moonsault unlike most SSP's where the flip is quick and at the highest point.
I can imagine it being done but it must be a unique animation. Hence why I like the idea of implementing physics for top rope moves because while some guys control really well others don't... maybe a control rating in a future PWX can allow for more physics based top rope stuff?
Well bloody hell. First, it turns out Tim animated a Moonsault already, not a SSP. Then it turns out (after two days of polishing it up) it was animated from the position so he had to start over. On the plus side, he is going to do the SSP after all since thats what most people asked for. But even then he won't start it until the programmers confirm a basic splash working 100%.
I'm excited about the basic splash because if you can't get that right then there is no hope for the SSP. Splash seems simple but I bet its not. I bet the first attempt looks weak - but you'll get there, I'm sure.