New kaiju game from Matt Frank + Simon Strange [Archive]

[Stuckey]

Which kaiju should be included at launch:
Showa Godzilla - Not really picky on which year. I'd like to see all of them eventually, even if most are just skins.
Heisei Godzilla - I would prefer the BioGoji but it's not that big of a deal.
Anguirus
Rodan
Mothra
King Ghidorah
Gigan
MechaGodzilla
SpaceGodzilla
Destroyah
Hedorah
King Caesar/Anybody else really

Arenas at launch:
Grand Canyon - Would be a pretty simple map, yet it would be something different at the same time.
Pacific Ocean - Basically the same idea as Legionmaster had. You can throw the battleships around. And whales. You have to be able to chuck whales at the enemy.
Tokyo/New York City - I personally don't care which one. Choose one and make the other a DLC.
Monster Island - Pretty self explanatory.
Planet X - Another one that would be fairly simple(I think) while being different.

DLC Stuff:
Basically everything else. Eventually, I'd like as many possibly kaiju in this game as possible. That includes the Gargantuas, the Yog monsters, everyone. Even the different incarnations. You could make '75 Goji have skins of both '73 and '74. All you really have to do is change the face around.
And also have a few more arenas eventually. Niagara Falls could be a possibility, or even in the Sahara Desert. But we can worry about all of that later.

Also, Mr. Strange, I'd like to ask about how long it would take for this game to launch? Not including the amount of time needed to gather the money, obviously.

[miguelnuva]

Is Frankenstein able to be included or does the name put him in the same category as Kong and we have to use Gaira?

[Megalon-5]

Frankenstein's public domain dude, anyone can use him.

[skuzzy-punk-kid]

Is Frankenstein able to be included or does the name put him in the same category as Kong and we have to use Gaira?

I'd say let's go with Sanda and Gaira.

[Mr. Strange]

Most of all, though, I hate the fighting game convention which says that quick attacks interrupt slow attacks - pretty much making "fast" attacks the best way to play every fighting game. Hate that.

I'm curious if this was the inspirational line of thought behind the "gotta knock me down to knock off my health cell!" feature in GU? As most fast attacks in the game won't knock anyone down nor usually interrupt attacks, you're basically required to pull some heavy-hitting slow punches out of your pocket to win.

I part, though that was the intersection of several rather complex formulae:

1 - It allowed unbounded monster health regeneration, since regeneration was capped at your current health cell count.

2 - It toned down the power of health power-ups, since the powerups essentially just gave you 20 seconds of free health regeneration you would have got anyway. (This means fast "run away" monsters just run to a health powerup, and then don't get any additional advantage from running away more, since their health is now capped.)

3 - "Interruption" was actually fairly complex in G:U. New technology inspired by the Wii allowed the monster to have 7 independent animation tracks running in parallel. In a traditional Street Fighter-style fighter, a character is in only 1 animation state. (If you are attacking, you are not blocking. If you are jumping you are not ducking. If you are falling down, you are not running) But in G:U we don't "interrupt" more than 2 or 3 of those states, which means you can have your attack interrupted, but not have your movement interrupted, or have your charge cancelled, but not your attack, or have your movement stopped (or knock you out of a jump) without cancelling your charge-up.

Yes, it turns out this was way too complex for people to understand. Human minds deal well with 1 track, or maybe 2. 7 tracks just isn't something we can make sense of, so we interpret it as a mush.

4 - I wanted monsters to use weak attacks as well as strong attacks. In StE good players pretty much did nothing but "Big Attack" - > wait -> "Big Attack" -> wait -> etc. I wanted the smaller attacks to be good for something - so I made them much higher DPS than the big attacks. But then the big attacks needed a role, so I tied their knockdown into losing health cells.

tl;dr - YES.

Frankenstein's public domain dude, anyone can use him.

The book by Shelly is public domain. The visuals of Boris Karloff as the monster are owned by Universal Studios. If we made a monster which looked significantly different, we could call it Frankenstein's monster.

(Geek note - Frankenstein is the Doctor. The Monster is just "the monster" or "Frankenstein's monster.")

[Megalon-5]

That's basically what I'm getting at Mr. Strange. Technically Toho owns that incarnation, but anyone could make a giant stitched together monster and call it "Frankenstein's Monster" or "Frankenstein" and it'd be equally valid. Also, not sure if this has been asked before, but would Toho allows non-Godzilla Toho kaiju in the game? I've heard that Toho doesn't allow those kaiju in any Godzilla games, but would they if we generated enough money?

[Grayshot954]

Hey guys just a reminder for the connected thread for voting which monsters you would like. People sent messages asking where it was so I figured I would put a link in the main thread. Just a bump.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9287

^Back onto the thread, I do hope the health system works like G:U. Having heavy attacks the only thing able to knock down an opponent was a pretty good introduction, one I hope returns.

[hammysammy59]

Also, not sure if this has been asked before, but would Toho allows non-Godzilla Toho kaiju in the game?

Godzilla: Monster of Monsters on the NES has Matango, Gezora, Dogora and Showa Moguera. Granted that was a long time ago, but I also don't see why they'd change their stance on their own non-Godzilla monsters.

[Megalon-5]

I've heard that once Pipeworks started work on their Godzilla games, Toho said that only monsters that appeared in Godzilla movies could be in the games. That makes me a bit disappointed, I want Gezora and the Gargantuas to be playable really badly.

[Mr. Strange]

That's basically what I'm getting at Mr. Strange. Technically Toho owns that incarnation, but anyone could make a giant stitched together monster and call it "Frankenstein's Monster" or "Frankenstein" and it'd be equally valid. Also, not sure if this has been asked before, but would Toho allows non-Godzilla Toho kaiju in the game? I've heard that Toho doesn't allow those kaiju in any Godzilla games, but would they if we generated enough money?

It is true, TOHO absolutely does not allow non-TOHO monsters in a TOHO game.

However, this is NOT a TOHO game. This game is an open-ended monster framework. We will support several "releases" of monsters. Each release will be a self-contained pack of monsters. One or more of those packs will, hopefully, be TOHO monsters (and only TOHO monsters.) From a sales point of view, the TOHO monsters and any other packs of monsters are distinct products.

Within the game, of course, you may add and mix monsters from different packs - like selecting mods in any other PC game.

With this technique, we get around the license-mixing issues which have prevented Godzilla vs. Gamera vs. King Kong vs. Zone Fighter. For example.

So, let's practice using the proper terminology:

"The game" is not affiliated with any company, or licensed property. It is an original framework owned by Sunstone Games, LLC.

"The game" will have a number of "releases" - including the "initial release." Each "release" will contain a bunch of monsters, and a story for those monsters fighting one another. Once there have been several "releases" (monster packs) players will be able to load multiple releases at once, for a larger roster to be played within the story / vs. framework of "the game"

If I can get the license issues worked out with TOHO, our first release will be a Godzilla & friends release. So in the vernacular people might refer to the game as a "Godzilla game" - but it is emphatically NOT a Godzilla game - it is only a Godzilla "release" for an unaffiliated game.

[Megalon-5]

So basically, you'd get the rights for Godzilla and pals, the non Godzilla Toho monsters, Gamera's menagerie and potentially Kong and they'd be separate downloadable purchased to the game? That sounds like a good way to go around things.

But let's say you release the Godzilla pack and the you release a Gamera pack, would Toho not care because it's a different product or would they get mad that you guys found a way around their policies?

[Mr. Strange]

So basically, you'd get the rights for Godzilla and pals, the non Godzilla Toho monsters, Gamera's menagerie and potentially Kong and they'd be separate downloadable purchased to the game? That sounds like a good way to go around things.

But let's say you release the Godzilla pack and the you release a Gamera pack, would Toho not care because it's a different product or would they get mad that you guys found a way around their policies?

That is a good question - and it is why negotiations for licensing are a drawn-out and tricky process.

[Tyler]

I think sticking with Toho monsters is a good idea.

[Svitska Donkun]

Mr. Strange, can I get a comment on the Possibilty of Gargantua's or Gezora in the game? A swuid is a unique monster within the roster, and the Garagantua's could easily be ONE gargantua with 3 different skins, being Sanda, Gaira, and Frankenstein(Who is Public Domain).

Also, another question regarding if, which seems unlikely now, we do it with all "original" monsters, is it at all possible in that sense to get any support from the guys who made War of the Monsters? Clearly it would be modeled more after a Godzilla game than War of the Monsters, but it would be GREAT to play as Togera again. I really love Togera.

[Legionmaster]

Gezora is a cuttlefish, not a squid.

[Svitska Donkun]

Gezora is a cuttlefish, not a squid.

According to Wikipedia he's a squid, but cuttlefish and squid are so closely related ti squid that the point to distinct the two would be splitting hairs. It's like comparing a Leopard to a Jaguar, in this sense they're pretty much the same thing. And Gezora's physiology and lack of camouflage abilities make it much more in line with a squid. But really there is no point in arguing this at ALL. It would be cool to have a giant squid in the roster, and Gezora fits the bill.

[Legionmaster]

Gezora is a cuttlefish, not a squid.

According to Wikipedia he's a squid, but cuttlefish and squid are so closely related ti squid that the point to distinct the two would be splitting hairs. It's like comparing a Leopard to a Jaguar, in this sense they're pretty much the same thing. And Gezora's physiology and lack of camouflage abilities make it much more in line with a squid. But really there is no point in arguing this at ALL. It would be cool to have a giant squid in the roster, and Gezora fits the bill.

He very clearly has the mantle shape of a cuttlefish. He also has no color changing abilities whatsoever, unlike almost all cephalopods, so that point is moot anyway.

[zilla103192]

Gezora is a cuttlefish, not a squid.

According to Wikipedia he's a squid, but cuttlefish and squid are so closely related ti squid that the point to distinct the two would be splitting hairs. It's like comparing a Leopard to a Jaguar, in this sense they're pretty much the same thing. And Gezora's physiology and lack of camouflage abilities make it much more in line with a squid. But really there is no point in arguing this at ALL. It would be cool to have a giant squid in the roster, and Gezora fits the bill.

But he's still a cuttlefish.

[Svitska Donkun]

He very clearly has the mantle shape of a cuttlefish. He also has no color changing abilities whatsoever, unlike almost all cephalopods, so that point is moot anyway.

But the ability to change color and camouflage are a distinct attribute of cuttlefish. So lacking that ability would contradict it being one of the species...

Cephalopods encompass Squids, Octopi, Cuttlefish, and Ammonites. Gezora contians features from more than one kind of Cephalopod, so I do not think it is unreasonable to refer it as a Squid.

[Mr. Strange]

Mr. Strange, can I get a comment on the Possibilty of Gargantua's or Gezora in the game? A swuid is a unique monster within the roster, and the Garagantua's could easily be ONE gargantua with 3 different skins, being Sanda, Gaira, and Frankenstein(Who is Public Domain).

Also, another question regarding if, which seems unlikely now, we do it with all "original" monsters, is it at all possible in that sense to get any support from the guys who made War of the Monsters? Clearly it would be modeled more after a Godzilla game than War of the Monsters, but it would be GREAT to play as Togera again. I really love Togera.

I've made several monster squids with my team in the Rampage games. Cal, Natalie, Jill (google them) all fit that bill. I'm not familiar with Garagantua, but if he's a big human that seems pretty trivial.

Your second paragraph is rather unclear - what is "unlikely now" ? I totally intend to have several "releases" with all-original monsters. Do you mean license the characters from WoTM as a release? Or do you mean contact them for design or engine advice?

But the ability to change color and camouflage are a distinct attribute of cuttlefish. So lacking that ability would contradict it being one of the species...

Yes, and of course giant apes are know for their lightning powers! And Ostrich stick their heads in the sand, and lemmings run off cliffs.