Hey, fellow Fighters, DaMaicha here. Just got back from GDC with loads of feedback from seasoned players and veteran developers. Ever since I started the development of Spirit X Strike, I’ve spent most of my time tinkering on my own. So being able to soak in the lively, vibrant development atmosphere was truly priceless.
While fighting off jet lag, I’ve paused the game cutscene development and tried to focus back on adjusting gameplay issues.With this Dev Blog, I’d like to quickly address some of the feedback I got.
Core Combat & Interactions
I noticed that many players prefer using parry as a safe way to initiate an offense. Some mentioned that the usual dodge doesn’t seem to be an effective option. “It doesn’t effectively evade close-range attacks or break off enemies’ tracking attacks, making it feel a bit pointless compared to simply parrying”.
Right now, both dash and jump come with a brief invincibility window at the start. I’ll look into it and
extend these windows to be more reasonable. I’ll also tweak the enemy’s yellow attack tracking and frequency to offer more options for defence and dodging.
Also, the inability to switch targets while locked on an enemy is due to the work-in-progress camera control. This affects the target switching function, that’s why I had to disable it in the build at GDC.
Some of you also found it hard to use the spinning kick to interact with weapons on the ground, this is due to the move’s target locking mechanism not being differentiated from other attacks. I’ll adjust the spinning kick’s offset and locking logic.
Boss Battles
Many players who challenged the first stage boss have mentioned this: “I can keep trying, but can we skip the mobs?”
Absolutely, my friends! The current checkpoint, where you have to fight the mobs again after respawning is just a temporary setting. In the launch version, you’ll continue to the boss fight directly. 😂
Also noted that the first boss’s charging felt unfair. I’m planning on adjusting the start-up time to make it more reactable, and changing the animation to make it more regenizable.
Camera
As expected, the camera still sxxks. I was focusing on developing new content, so I apologize for not preparing a better optimized camera system.
Currently, moves like Super Strike don’t have enough pre-set camera angles, which results in forcing weird camera angles in many situations. Here’s my plan: first, to provide more varied pre-set camera angles, and second, have the game choose the right animation based on your current camera state when triggering Super Strike or other interactive skills.
I’ll also fix the camera reset logic so that if the camera gets squished into an extreme angle and you lose sight of your character, it will quickly auto-adjust.
Levels and Tutorials
The tutorial is also a bit rough in the GDC demo since the overall flow is still being fine-tuned. But the final version will lean more toward interactive teaching, similar to the QTE-like tutorial you saw in the Next Fest demo. Once the tutorials are completed, there’ll still be a tutorial option in the menu for you to revisit the combat tips you’ve learned.
I really wanted to showcase as many new gameplay elements as possible during GDC that aren’t in the Steam demo. So some details were rushed, and there were quite a few bugs. I truly appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding. I’ll be working hard to fix all the issues as soon as possible. 🙏🙏
Here are some photos from GDC! Compared to the many outstanding games on display, Spirit X Strike seems a bit rough around the edges. But seeing the basic-looking booth surrounded by you all reminded me why I love developing this game. Let’s prove the good old Action Game genre is not outdated together!
Also, please come to our Discord to leave your feedback. They improve the game so much, and that will mean a lot to me. Until then, see you next time.