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

[TitanoGoji16]

I don't have a problem with new abilities in the games, per se (I also loved Gigan's teleportation, for example). It's when they change the entire core of the character that bothers me. Titanosaurus and Varan are, like Anguirus, ordinary dinosaurs that rely on their own mettle (and teeth and claws) to duke it out. Giving the two of them beam weapons just seems... wrong. Like Anguirus, their game should be almost entirely physical. They each had enough going for them that neither really needed a beam weapon - Varan could fly/glide and was fast as hell, and Titanosaurus already even had his own projectile with the cyclone tail.

If we choose Titanosaurus at the character select, it's likely because we want to play as the guy who kicked Godzilla's ass without any special powers. If we want to play as a character with a beam weapon, we'll play as Godzilla or Rodan or Mechagodzilla or any of the dozen other monsters that already have one.

I'd be very interested to have people list which characters they felt properly captured the character, and which seemed offset from their expectations.

I actually thought Titanosaurus and Varan were pretty much perfect (aside from their beam weapons, obviously).

[tymon]

@Donkun - I get what you're saying..100% movie accurate gameplay mechanics just wouldn't work for obvious reasons. However, I think a middle ground could be met, and they could look and "feel" more like the suits. I love DAMM and STE, but they're not quite there in terms of convincing me that I'm controlling the same beasts from the films.

[Kiryu2012]

Another question. For donation, where do we donate money for the game? Also, if someone could put in an original monster, how would that monster be treated?

[Mr. Strange]

Another question. For donation, where do we donate money for the game? Also, if someone could put in an original monster, how would that monster be treated?

Donations will be handled through Kickstarter (see the answers thread for a breakdown).

Original monster submissions will be reviewed with both me (for game mechanics) and Matt (for visual style and concepting). Once everything is approved by the two of us, that monster will be put into the queue for creation by the monster-making team. Monsters in development will be reviewed and discussed (and played in beta) by all contributors for at least a few months before they are released.

[Goji]

To an extent, I agree with some of these things, but some are pretty nitpicky (no offense to Brian).

* Destoroyah is much smaller than he was in the movie

Well, the thing with the Heisei monsters was that they were all in the 100 meter rage in the movies. So actually, SpaceGodzilla, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Biollante, Heisei Mechagodzilla, are all technically "smaller" than they should be in the Pipeworks games. Making them all larger would be jarring, and I can guarantee you nobody would like it. (I mean, did anybody like the giant Mecha-King Ghidorah at the end of Godzilla:Domination?). Yeah, I didn't think so.

Then again, reaching critical mass made monsters larger, and even "turned" Godzilla into Burning Godzilla. If one wanted to recreate Heisei battles, it was easy enough to do.

* Mechagodzilla 1974 shouldn't have bendable fingers; his dorsal fins shouldn't light up; his eye beams are the wrong color; his tail is much smaller than it was in the movies

I agree. I liked the G:U version, but it was anything but accurate. The generic robotic sounds have to go as well.

* Anguirus' Supersonic Roar, Godzilla's Fireball, Jet Jaguar's Handclap, King Caesar's Laser Eyes, Mechagodzilla 1974's Flame Nose, Orga's Paralyzing Goo, Titanosaurus' Sonic Wave and Varan's Concentrated Blast should all be removed entirely (Godzilla, Mechagodzilla and Orga all have other powers that could easily replace the abilities listed)
* Biollante's Radioactive Sap Spray and Mothra Larva's Web shouldn't be able to create Beam Battles when they collide with a beam attack

This is where I can't agree at all. All of these things were added for the sake of adding variety to the arsenal of these characters. I'm also confused as to how Jet's "handclap" (karate chop?) and King Caesar's eye lasers aren't "accurate"? Orga's projectile is "goo"? Since when? He demonstrates a shoulder canon in the film, and the designers took a small liberty with it. Not a big deal. I can understand not wanting Titanosaurus, and Varan to have beams, but I'm sure they were added for the sake of balance.

Mechagodzilla is shown to use the nostril flames in publicity photos, as well as in the original Japanese poster for the 1974 film. If we're going to remove that, we might as well remove Showa Gigan's eye laser, since he never had it outside of publicity photos either.

When you're making a fighting game, you need to give some of these monsters abilities they may not have in any previously existing media. If Titano and Varan don't have beams, then they need some kind of way to handle/combat beam battles, because sitting there, helplessly blocking your beam doesn't sound like my idea of a good time, especially not simply for the sake of a "film accurate version". This is a video game, not a movie.

Bio's sap and Mothra's silk clash with beams for the sake of balance.

[TitanoGoji16]

If Titano and Varan don't have beams, then they need some kind of way to handle/combat beam battles, because sitting there, helplessly blocking your beam doesn't sound like my idea of a good time

Which is why the way the beams worked in GU was complete trash. In GDAMM and GSTE, you charged the beam, shot it off, then continued with the match. In Unleashed, as long as you had sufficient energy? You could fire your beam endlessly. Of course you'd need a way to deal with beams if they never stop pouring out of the opponent's mouth.

especially not simply for the sake of a "film accurate version". This is a video game, not a movie.

Well, if you're gonna pull that, why not give Anguirus a beam weapon, then? You can't be almost completely screen accurate with one character and then just make random shit up with another.

Bio's sap and Mothra's silk clash with beams for the sake of balance.

MOGUERA, Jet Jaguar, Baragon and Mothra Larva couldn't beam war in GSTE. Nobody complained then.

[zilla103192]

I say take beams away from all the monsters that never had beams in the movies. And boost their Melee stats. Take an energy advantage, and give a physical one. Or replace beams with a different attack.

In AWMs game he is making, If you play as anguirus, and use his special, Anguirus turns and jumps backwards at the opponent, spikes first.

I never liked Anguirus having a sonic roar. It just never fit the character. Same with Titano and Varan.

I would of loved it if Titano turned around and made a huge wave of wind at the opponent, knocking them down.

[hammysammy59]

Yeah, I don't like the idea of non-beam monsters having beams. Having a mix of beam and non-beam monsters makes the roster more interesting, and the majority of non-beam monsters already have some other cool attack to make up for their lack of a beam.

[Tyler]

Giant Monster Militia?

[Living Corpse]

I think "Eternal" is better than "Never Ending" - though it loses the acronym obviously.

Shit I'm down for "Eternal War" if you are.

[Showa Gojira]

I've been reading this topic for awhile now and I am incredibly excited by the idea of this game actually getting made. I greatly enjoyed the Pipeworks Godzila games and it seems like this game could possibly end up being the best Godzilla game yet. After reading some of the great ideas getting tossed around in this thread I came up with a few (dozen) of my own. For now though I'll just post my ideas on Beam battles and the health system.

I don't know exactly what the best solution is, but I agree that beam battles were wonky in G:U. They led to bad interactions, and their predictability (it's the AI which does that) worsened the effect.

As far as I can tell, the problem with the beam battles happening constantly was because of how the beams themselves worked. In the first two games the Beams took awhile to charge but always made your opponent flinch at low power, and it would knock them down if charged all the way. The beams in Unleashed fired quickly but instead of being a powerful burst of energy it was more of a slow burn attack. It did cause the opponent to flinch when it hit them but after that they could still move around, attack, and fire their beam right back at you. The beams did eventually reach a point where they started doing significant damage and pushing your enemy around, but it simply took too long.

For this game I think the beams should return to how they were in the first two Pipeworks installments. Big powerful attacks that dish out a lot of damage but can't be used all the time, due to energy costs or having to be charged before being fired. Not all beams should function the same way, but none of them should give your enemy the chance to fire their beam at you while getting hit by yours. Some could be too quick to allow your opponent to blast back and others would be too powerful to allow them to return fire.

As for the health system I really like the idea of being able to get back up multiple times instead of being down for the count after losing all your health. It happens all the time in the movies and here's how I think we could incorporate it. When a Monster loses all their health or takes enough damage they go down and it seems all hope is lost. However they still have a chance to get back on their feet and continue to fight. Upon going down the player would have an amount of time to perform an act such as button mashing, spinning the joystick around, or pressing four buttons in a row repeatedly to build up enough energy to get back into the fight. After reaching a certain point they could press a certain button (Right trigger, Select, etc.) right away to get up with a small sliver of health. They could also choose to continue building up energy to come back with even more health.

However while this is going on your opponent won't be standing idly by while you try to recuperate yourself. The enemy monster could continue to bash away at their fallen foe in an attempt to make sure they stay down. Taking hits while trying to get back up would take away the energy you've built up, which is why you couldn't always come back with the highest amount of health possible. After going down each time building up energy would take longer and longer, so you would eventually end up staying down.

Also to make sure a Monster who just recovered isn't struck down immediately, they could perform a powerful get-up attack to knock off any would be attackers. Godzilla for example could use a nuclear pulse for close by opponents, or he could fire his atomic breath upon getting up. Apologies for the lengthy post but I have so many ideas for this game buzzing around in my head.

[GIGAN05]

Here are some titles just thought up at random,
"Destroy All Monsters International"
"Kaiju World Saga"
"Global Monster Asssult"

[CheetoKamper]

If we take beams away from the monsters that didn't have them in the movies fine BUT the monster then would need to be able to counter the beam in someway that isn't just sitting there and blocking otherwise it's completly unbalanced. Maybe for Anguirus he could just roll in a ball and be able to roll through the beam at the shooter (he'd still take damage but he'd able to counter it still.) King Ceasar should just be able to absorb the beam and shoot it back but make it so that only happens when you hit the button for it rather than automaticly so it doesn't become completly broken. Titanosaurus has the wind attack and that should just do damage and send things like cars and tanks and just general debris at the opponent and that can do the damage. Varan is a lot harder to figure out since he never actualy fights a monster ever.

[matrix]

Hey guys, we should talk about unlockables, so what should be avalable at the store? I think, Monsters, Arenas, Videos, Pictures. But to just plain unlock, I think there should be player emblems, you can maybe unlock more by doing stuff like playing 100 battles, and you can display them, like?

[Chris55]

Hey guys, we should talk about unlockables, so what should be avalable at the store? I think, Monsters, Arenas, Videos, Pictures. But to just plain unlock, I think there should be player emblems, you can maybe unlock more by doing stuff like playing 100 battles, and you can display them, like?

I think fan art would be cool unlockables.

[Shadow]

"Godzilla: Destruction of Earth, Online"
"Godzilla: Destroy All Kaiju"
"Godzilla: Rise of the Brotherhood"
And the best one: "Godzilla: Rise of the Kaiju"

[matrix]

"Godzilla: Destruction of Earth, Online"
"Godzilla: Destroy All Kaiju"
"Godzilla: Rise of the Brotherhood"
And the best one: "Godzilla: Rise of the Kaiju"

You got godzilla rise of the kaiju from me! Its ok.

[Shadow]

^Dammit! I knew that sounded familiar somewhere, aww well I stand by it anyway.

[TitanoGoji16]

$500 - Name one monster to be in the game - including any original monster you have created.

So, say someone donated $1,000 to the project. Could they get two monsters in? Or is it pretty much one monster per person?

[matrix]

I honestly want a new monster, I cant wait to see what people come up with, if I had to make one, I say it should be, Green, Mutant, Blue Lazer Beam, Red Spikes, kinda like godzilla, but ive always wanted a green villan, this is my dream monster, kinda crazy, oh his stats would be mostly attack and defence, low speed and weapons. (making it fair)