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How to make new hack & slash games like Devil May Cry?

Ronin

Ronin

Let's rock, baby!
Devil May Cry is one of my favorite hack & slash game themes.

Bayonetta was good too.

If you were to make your own hack & slash in DMC's concept & gameplay style, how would you do it? What would its story & gameplay be like?
 
Off the top of my head-

One idea is a werewolf raised to hunt vampires (urban fantasy genre)

Another is following a team of army cadets defending their space colony(based of power rangers in space or SPD).

Ninja in modern day dealing with yokai (it grew out of a ninja gaiden reboot)

I was in love with Mamoru Hasada's the boy and the beast so i'd like to do a game with those visuals and a KH combat.

I like RWBY so a game where you a student at Beacon Academy learning how to fight monsters with the plot structure of KH 358/2 days would be aces.
 
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Z218 said:
Ninja in modern day dealing with yokai (it grew out of a ninja gaiden revamp)
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Personally, I'd go with a medieval Japan setting rather than modern day to give it a more unique style.
 
@Izzy
I wanted to avoid Ni-oh comparisons but yeah I see your point.

Tbh i think having ninja/yokai in the modern day makes them feel more out of place so you dig deep into the mythic feeling that creates.

They dont serve the same purpose that they once did so what purpose should they serve? Sort of thing.
 
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- Thous shalt not rely on context-sensitive actions (e.g. you can only perform this move when enemy is dazed/when we tell you to).

- Thou shalt not rely on Quick Time Events.

- Thou shalt avoid a "Cool Down" mechanic as seen in a lot of mobile games.

- Thou shalt not make players press a "run" button to run. Alternating between running and walking should be done with pressure-sensitive analog sticks.

- Thou shalt not purposely make a move hard to execute by prompting players to press 2-3 buttons at once or double-tap. Most common moves (attack, dodge, jump, etc.) must have dedicated buttons. Only resort to tricky prompts for moves that are rarely used or really powerful ones when you're running out of buttons to assign on the controller.

Just some of my personal "Commandments" from the top of my head.
 
Thou shall not rely on automatic attack animations period (whether people want to classify it as a QTE or not).
 
If I were to seriously try and make one, I would make one room, with one enemy type that has one attack, and isolate the combat to a few core actions (basic combo, launcher, maybe gunfire, a dodge, and a double jump). Even that would be a monumental task. Never mind having any mechanics or gameplay elements beyond just that. As for story I guess I could have a screen text explain that it's a Matrix-style digital training simulation exercise.

The player character would be a lady. The enemy and environment would be as generic as possible because I have no art or 3D modelling skills.
 
I wouldn't mind seeing a Wind Waker style hack and slash game. A samurai wolf and his bumble bee sidekick hack and slash their way through alien robots. So say the samurai wolf slashes the alien robot into the air, then the bee ends the combo with a downward hammer strike. When enough strawberries are collected the two "power up."
In certain stages they board their Giant dragon robot and engage in giant monster hack and slash action. Or perhaps a rail shooter beat em' up like the first Mundus battle in DMC1. The raw, visceral action splashes on screen thanks to the bright, vivid, cartoon like visuals.
 
Sesha said:
If I were to seriously try and make one, I would make one room, with one enemy type that has one attack, and isolate the combat to a few core actions (basic combo, launcher, maybe gunfire, a dodge, and a double jump). Even that would be a monumental task. Never mind having any mechanics or gameplay elements beyond just that. As for story I guess I could have a screen text explain that it's a Matrix-style digital training simulation exercise.
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That's what I wound up with, only the game is a 2D side-scroller.
Me and my programmer realized that what we wanted was way too ambitious for just two people.

We didn't want all those months of programming and animating to go to waste, so we uploaded what we have on Newgrounds, while I posted a mirror version on deviantART.

If anyone else made a 2D side-scrolling game, it's always the same "retro-homage" BS where the character is in 8-bit sprites, can only shoot left or right and dies when touching the enemy.
The game me and my pal made allows you to guard, parry and even deal a critical hit, Onimusha-style.
 
Goldsickle said:
Me and my programmer realized that what we wanted was way too ambitious for just two people.
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Would you mind telling what exactly turned out to be so difficult to do? I've wanted to make a game for some time myself, so every bit of experience is valuable to me ;)
 
Ash. said:
Tried it out.

Really good. Not even Muramasa has a guard system this precise.
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Oh thanks. =)

Even though the game was made up from my own ideas and blueprints, it's Dounan (programmer) who helped put my preferences together.
I did all the illustrations, character designs and animations.


Koschei said:
Would you mind telling what exactly turned out to be so difficult to do? I've wanted to make a game for some time myself, so every bit of experience is valuable to me ;)
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I totally did not know how to do tiling at the time.

When you're making stages, you need to have multiple "pieces" of the background, like tree trunks, tree stumps, stones, pillars, grass, bushes, stone walls, etc. and then repeat all these pieces over and over to create the stages.

I already have my hands full animating the main character, enemies and the boss (not shown in this playable demo), so I thought we should hire a background artist.
We couldn't get anyone.

Some 2D games have really beautiful backdrops, despite them having repeated assets, like Rayman Legends or Odin Sphere.
 
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