GAMEPLAY

Main Game Loop is derivative from games like Monster Hunter (Capcom, 2004).

At its core, it is a pattern recognition game where the player’s growing familiarity of the song’s musicality will help them overcome the mechanical input challenges that face them.

GOAL:

Maintaining correct input sequences throughout the duration of the song being played.

RULES: ver 0.1 [REDACTED]

To win a Rhythmsync Challenge, the player must correctly input the rhythm sequences as they are presented on the screen. Successful inputs will correlate visually to being able to damage an onscreen opponent as well as evading the opponent’s attacks.

The player is able to craft upgrades from the loot they receive from completing Rhythmsync Challenges. These upgrades serve as a failsafe for the player in difficult stages where the rhythmic inputs become more challenging.

These craftable upgrades are framed as Weapons and Armor, which correspond to improving the the player’s ability to deplete the opponent’s hit points and mitigating enemy damage.

[This was redacted due to time constraints on implementing a crafting system and complication of balancing gameplay if these systems were in place, the game has been simplified to be more of an arcade experience where a player's time investment to attain min/max build growth is unnecessary. Instead the focus is shifted back to the player focusing on attaining mechanical input improvement from repetitive play. 'For The Sequel']

RULES: ver 0.2

The player's primary method for attacking the enemy is to aim their reticule on the target and pressing the fire input in synchronisation with the timing of the music. The music timing is presented as a radial animation which encircles the reticule.

Successive rhythmic inputs will build up a super meter which allows the player to use a super move, this move is an auto-aim mode where for a short duration, the reticule will automatically be aimed on the enemy, whilst this is active the player is presented with a mini-game mode presented similarly as other 5 vertical lane games (e.g. Guitar Hero), the focus then is to press the correct keys in rhythmic succession to fire their gun.

MECHANICS:

The game uses two forms of rhythmic input:

5 Vertical Lane Input
Pointer Input

POINTER INPUT: Ver 0.1 [Redacted]

Pointer Input

This input will be placed on the right side of the screen, notes will appear on the screen as target nodes that the player will either point and click on or tap using touch input (requires touch screen). This input method utilises techniques such as:

Single Tap
Tap and Hold
Tap and Drag from one node to another

This input method will appear in the combat visual framing as the way the player will attack the opponent. I.e. Successful inputs using this method will result in the player causing damage and enhances how effective the damage is.

[This was redacted in favour of keeping the UX centralised rather than dividing the player's visual focus on left and right screen UI management. Tap and Hold and Tap and Drag has been redacted as targets on the screen will not be static and instead will only correlate to actually hitting the enemy instead of a floating target node.]

POINTER INPUT: Ver 0.2

Pointer Input

This input is given primary focus to the centre of the screen, the enemy's bounds within the camera will be soft locked to the majority of the central area of the screen. The player will focus on targeting their shots on weak points of the enemy, which is most frequently going to be the head of the enemy. Sometimes a special targeting cross hair may appear on the screen momentarily which the player should prioritise instead of the head for increased damage and score.

SPECIAL ABILITIES: ver 0.1 [REDACTED]

The player will be able to assign Special Abilities to their character that can be activated by pressing the keys Q and E, or by clicking on their on screen counterparts.

These abilities have certain conditions in order to activate, here is a Basic Example.

Use Potion: This ability restores 30 HP to the player. This ability takes 10 ‘Good’ or better combo string to recharge.

In order to charge up this ability so it becomes available for use, the player must input a 10 input sequence that is rated ‘Good’ or better. If a satisfactory sequence is entered the ability will become active and will be used instantaneously when the player presses ‘Q’ or by clicking its on screen counterpart. If during an input sequence the player is unable to consecutively input the required input, the recharge for the ability is reset to zero.

E.g.

Good-Good-Good-Great-Perfect-Good-Good-Perfect-Perfect-Good = Satisfactory, ability is able to be used.

Good-Perfect-Good-Good-Miss = Unsatisfactory, ability is unable to be used, player must try again to get 10 ‘Good’ or better combo string in order to recharge ability.

This combo recharge allows for Risk vs Reward abilities, where more rewarding abilities require larger combos of greater quality. I.E. An ability which requires 20 consecutive Perfect inputs has a more powerful effect than that which requires 10 consecutive ‘Good’ inputs.

Special abilities come in 2 varieties, Defensive and Offensive.

Defensive abilities are associated with healing and mitigating damage whilst Offensive abilities are associated with damaging (neutral or elemental) and inflicting status effects on the enemy.

Examples of Defensive abilities:

Potion, restores 30 health.
Mega Potion, restores 60 health.
Armor potion, increases defensive rating for the next 8 beats.
Perfect evasion, damage is fully mitigated for the next 4 beats.

Examples of Offensive abilities:

Fire Strike, deals 50 fire based damage.
Vampire Fury, recover 20% of the damage you deal over the 4 beats.
Miasma, opponent receives poison damage over the next 8 beats.
Berserk, attack is doubled over the next 16 beats while defense is doubled over the next 16 beats.

[This was redacted due to time constraints on implementing the system as well as balancing. I have opted for only a simple super move which lets the rhythm input sequences work in tandem with each other, the new system is also a skill based input rather than a flat out boon to the player.]

Primary Game Flow: ver 0.1 [REDACTED]

Through the duration of the song the player will attempt to correctly input rhythmic sequences as they appear on the screen. The left side inputs associated with key presses is interpreted as the player’s ability to evade and mitigate damage, whilst the mouse input designated to the right side of the screen is interpreted as they player’s ability to deal damage.

The player has a stat value for Defense and Attack, which influences their defensive and offensive capabilities.

A monster also has stat values which influences their own defensive and offensive capabilities.

Defensive Maneuvers

When a player achieves a ‘Perfect’ input on key related inputs, they receive zero damage and will naturally regenerate 2hp, but if a player gets a miss for ‘Miss’ key related inputs, they receive 60% of the damage mitigated by their defensive stat.

Hence, the quality of the input affects the effectiveness of the player’s ability to mitigate damage.

Miss = 40% armor efficiency

Good = 60% armour efficiency

Great = 80% armour efficiency

Perfect = Attack is evaded, no damage done to player, player regens 2hp.

Consider these examples.

Monster has 100 attack rating

Player has 50 defense rating

~Damage is rounded to the closest integer

Damage = (1 - Input quality) * (Monster Attack Rating /((100 + Player defense rating)/100)

Miss = ((1 - .4) * (100/1.5) = 40 Damage received

Good = ((1 - .6) * (100/1.5) = 27~ Damage received

Great = ((1 - .8) * (100/1.5) = 13~ Damage received

Perfect = Attack is evaded, no damage done to player, player regens 2hp.

Monster has 255 attack

Player has 180 defense rating

~Damage is rounded to the closest integer

Damage = (1 - Input quality) * (Monster Attack Rating /((100 + Player defense rating)/100)

Miss = ((1 - .4) * (255/2.8) = 55~ Damage received

Good = ((1 - .6) * (255/2.8) = 36~ Damage received

Great = ((1 - .8) * (255/2.8) = 18~ Damage received

Perfect = Attack is evaded, no damage done to player, player regens 2hp.

Monster has 120 attack

Player has 200 defense rating (situation where player’s stats overpower the monster)

~Damage is rounded to the closest integer

Damage = (1 - Input quality) * (Monster Attack Rating /((100 + Player defense rating)/100)

Miss = ((1 - .4) * (120/3) = 24 Damage received

Good = ((1 - .6) * (120/3) = 16 Damage received

Great = ((1 - .8) * (120/3) = 8 Damage received

Perfect = Attack is evaded, no damage done to player, player regens 2hp.

Therefore it is possible for a player to achieve ‘Perfect’ for all key related inputs to make defensive rating unnecessary, this is a level of ability that the player should strive to achieve.

Offensive Maneuvers

Input quality also affects the player’s ability to deal damage to the opponent.

Miss = Attack misses, zero damage is done to the enemy

Good = 60% weapon efficiency

Great = 80% weapon efficiency

Perfect = 120% weapon efficiency

Consider these examples.

Monster has 100 defense rating

Player has 100 attack rating

~Damage is rounded to the closest integer

Damage = ((1 - Input quality) * (Player Atk Rating /((100 + Monster Defense Rating)/100)) /100

Miss = Attack misses, zero damage is done to the enemy

Good = ((1 - .6) * (10/2) = 3 Damage inflicted

Great = ((1 - .8) * (10/2) = 4 Damage inflicted

Perfect = ((1.2) * (10/2) = 6 Damage inflicted

Monster has 100 defense rating

Player has 255 attack rating

~Damage is rounded to the closest integer

Damage = ((1 - Input quality) * (Player Atk Rating /((100 + Monster Defense Rating)/100)) /100

Miss = Attack misses, zero damage is done to the enemy

Good = ((1 - .6) * (25.5/2) = 8~ Damage inflicted

Great = ((1 - .8) * (25.5/2) = 10~ Damage inflicted

Perfect = ((1.2) * (25.5/2) = 15~ Damage inflicted

Elemental Damage

There are 4 main elements that works in this cycle

Fire > Ice > Thunder > Water > Fire (loops back again)

In regards to damage, damage is increased when used against an element which is weak to it by 50%, damage is mitigated when used against an element which is strong against it.

Hence, a Fire weapon will deal 50% more damage against an enemy which has an ice alignment, but a Fire weapon will deal 25% less damage against a water aligned enemy.

The player cannot equip offensive abilities that are not aligned to its weapon.

E.g.

A player cannot equip the ability Fire Strike if there weapon is not a Fire aligned weapon.

Players can equip neutral aligned offensive abilities regardless of the weapon’s alignment.

E.g

A player can equip the ability Berserk, regardless if the weapon they carry has an elemental alignment or not.

Critical Chains

Critical chains are a block of sequences which require ‘Perfect’ inputs.

When a Defensive block is displayed as a critical chain, all inputs that are not ‘Perfect’ will deal damage to the player as if it were ‘Miss’, however inputs that are ‘Perfect’ will regen 5hp instead of 2.

When a Offensive block is displayed as a critical chain, all inputs that are not ‘Perfect’ will be considered a ‘Miss’ and the opponent will not receive damage, however inputs that are ‘Perfect’ will increase damage to 150% instead of 120%.

Defensive and Offensive special abilities are not affected when they are executed during a Critical Chain block.

The player will be notified of a Critical Chain sequence is currently occuring by a red colouration of the screen, red colouration of the key input bars on the left side, red colouration of the mouse input reticles on the right side and the words Critical Chain flashing on the screen at the top.

[This was also redacted due to time constraints caused by implementation as well as balancing, although I feel if there was enough time and the game was able to go in this direction, I feel it would be viable and make for an interesting experience. Yet again 'For the Sequel'.]