Dungeon Crawl Brawl: How I imagine a crawl beat-em-up

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

After seeing the way Indie Brawl turned some indie game characters into fighting characters (they even plan to add a Dwarf from a Fortress!), I could not but imagine a few adventurers pitted together in a fighting game.


Let's take a look at the move system in Indie Brawl:

>: Right
<: Left
^: Up
v: Down
A: Standard Attack
S: Special Attack

The controls will be as follows:
>: Move right
<: Move left
^: Jump/Double Jump (some characters may be able to double jump more than once)
v: Fall through platforms
A, >A, ^A, vA, S, >S, ^S, vS: Attacks. Some attacks will function differently in the air and on the ground. Some characters may have some situational attacks, usable if they’re climbing or grabbing, for example. Generally, special attacks are slower, have a larger area and range, and/or create some unique or unusual effect. Some special attacks are unblockable. Standard attacks are not necessarily restricted to basic melee attacks (a ranged specialist such as Liero may have a gun usable as a basic attack, for example). When carrying a thrown weapon, attacking will throw the weapon in that direction.

In short:
A-attacks -- the regular ones (fast and simple)
S-attacks -- special attacks / utilities

And take a look at Iji's moves:

A - Kick: A powerful, close range attack.
A> - Shotgun: Fires a burst of weak projectiles, similar to Liero's shotgun but faster and weaker.
A^ - Resonance Reflector: Strikes all enemies in a small circle around Iji, and also reflects projectiles.
Av - Rocket Launcher: Iji fires a rocket downwards at a 45 degree angle. It creates a small explosion when it hits.
S - Shocksplinter: Iji fires a single powerful projectile which explodes after a short distance.
S^ - Nuke: Iji fires a Nuke, creating a circular explosion around herself and also being propelled upward.
S> - Crack: Iji touches a target, electrocuting it and temporarily disabling its special attacks.
Sv - Velocithor: After a long charge-up time, Iji fires a massive laser that travels the length of the screen and goes through walls.

Now, let's imagine a few adventurers in a fighting game with these controls...


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Minotaur Fighter:

Attack: Kick -- a quick kick.
>Attack: Axe -- a quick hit with an axe.
^Attack: Axe Uppercut -- slightly slower, but more damage and knocks the opponent slightly backwards; a good swipe can block an arrow. Cannot be performed in mid-air.
vAttack: Javelin -- throws a javelin; slow to build, but hits quite hard; obeys the law of gravity. There is a limited quantity of javelins in his stock.
vAttack in mid-air: javelin is sent 45 degrees downwards; the hit enemy is stunned for a short while.

Special: does nothing by itself.
Hold Special for two seconds: Heroism -- increases damage, but makes controls slightly stiff.
^Special: Axe To The Face -- jump up while performing a powered-up Axe Uppercut.
>Special: Dash -- a quick push forward.
vSpecial: Potion of Healing -- leaves you vulnerable for a second, but heals you up a bit. You have only a few of them in each match.



Kobold Warper:

Attack: Dagger Jab -- quick, but not too useful.
^Attack: Explosive Dart -- throws a dart, aiming in the air. It explodes in mid-air or when hits somebody.
>Attack: Weak Wand -- uses a dart of flame or frost on the enemy. The projectiles are weak and easy to dodge.
vAttack: Kiting -- a weak dagger jab, followed by a short jump away from the opponent.

Special: Blink -- teleports you a very short distance after a small delay. The enemy still can hit you right after activating this, but it will block the combo.
^Special:
>Special: Portal Projectiled Dart -- a weak attack, but hits almost all the time. The dart still can be blocked or knocked away, or can miss if the enemy is moving up or down quickly.
vSpecial: Warped Hit -- long to build, but deals immense damage when the warped dagger finds the opponent.

[pratamawirya]

Awesome. But where's the retaliation headbutt?

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

EVERYWHERE.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

As a secret character, I would introduce...

A Healer.


He has weak melee attacks in his A-section, with almost no ranged ones...

...but there is a quirk.
Along with the usual health bar, his enemy would also have aggressiveness bar that shows how strong is the will to fight in the enemy.

While A-attacks damage health, the two S-attacks (Healing, Greater Healing) reduce the enemy's aggressiveness severely, making up for the lack of damage.
If the enemy loses all his aggressiveness, the screen is flushed with white light, and the opponent is pacified, basically letting the Healer win the round.

The less health the enemy has, the more effective Healing attacks are.

A: Staff hit -- short and weak, just a part of small combos.
>A: Staff thrust -- the Healer thrusts his staff forward, "evoking 2-range reaching". A bit slower, but stuns the enemy for longer. Weak damage.
^A: Staff uppercut -- knocks the enemy up and away, making it a good pre-finishing combo move. Has fairly noticeable damage.
vA: Wand of flame -- weak and easy-to-dodge close- to mid-ranged attack.

S: Lesser Healing -- throws forward a hazy ball of light that, if it hits, noticeably reduces the enemy's aggressiveness. Cannot be blocked completely. Cannot be spammed.
>S: Greater Healing -- a slower, but better ball. Cannot be blocked completely. Cannot be spammed. The cooldown is much longer.
^S: Upward Lesser Healing -- against jumping enemies. Cannot be blocked at all. Cannot be spammed. It is activated slightly faster than Lesser Healing.
vS: Lesser Self-Healing -- the only preset healing move in the game with long charging time. Drains cooldown meters for all Healing attacks, making them unavailable for noticeable period of time. Has large cooldown on its own.

When Healer's health is reduced to zero, he cannot be killed: instead, Elyvilon protects him from the final blow, and he teleports away.


Against enemies that are impossible or very hard to pacify, Healer slightly changes his moveset.
Instead of a quarterstaff, he gets a staff of fire, and his A-attacks now deal noticeable damage because of fire bonus.
His S-set changes, too.

S: Lesser Slowing -- the enemy is slown down for a bit. Cannot be spammed. Has short duration and fairly large cooldown.
>S: Holy dagger -- fairly slow, because he has to swap to dagger and back. Deals above-average damage.
^S: Fire Tongue -- a staple spell of Fire Elementalists, aimed at the air to knock down jumping enemies. Weak damage.
vS: Lesser Self-Healing -- a bit less long charging time.


Since two followers of good deities cannot fight against each other, there exists an illusion of Healer with dark attacks.
His S-attacks still target the aggressiveness bar, but through sapping bravery.

The dark Healer cannot be killed either: he just dissolves into purple smoke, being only a twisted illusion.