do you now have this system installed? that 3rd dpad variant looks better, but has it got 2 attack (punch and kick) buttons with it? that would be more akin to the coin-op. Also, do the controls now interact more fluidly with each other? can you do 2 movements simultaneously, ie, jump and kick/punch? (we couldn't in the first release). great news about the update, i'm sure all will be answered a.s.a.p.
The 3rd dpad varient is the simplest and probably the most accessible for a newbie player. As the game works now, the type of attack is determined contextually without requiring dedicated kick vs. punch buttons. If you're crouching and tap attack, the hero will throw punches - if you're airborn and tap attack, the hero will unleash a flying kick. The ui is now fully multi-touch friendly. So if you want to do a flying kick with the default controls, you can either tap a jump button then tap attack (as in 1.0), or hold jump and simultaneously tap attack with another finger (working in 1.1).
Any reason why we can't have the third variant with a choice of either kick or punch buttons instead of a single predefined attack button? Are you saying that with the third variant controls I can't crouch and kick? (ie, have no choice but to punch?)
In Karate Fighter, as in the arcade game, Kung Fu Master, in the early parts of stages the hero has to make quick decisions about whether to attack high/low and left/right while under siege from enemies. In the arcade game, punches were offered primarily as an inferior short range alternate attack that awarded double points. The speed and damage of punches and kicks were otherwise 100% identical. There were a few specific sections of the game where the hit boxes favored one type of attack over the other (i.e. the moths of stage#4), but in general at close ranges they were interchangeable. The player character does not yet have a "crouch and kick at opponent's ankle" attack - this isn't a deficiency specific to the third variant control scheme. That being said, I'm not at all opposed to adding more variety in offensive attacks in subsequant updates. In particular, I've long been planning to award the player with advanced techniques (i.e. fireballs) after they've won the game. Unless people really want distinct buttons, I think it might be better to have those alternate attacks keyed off of joystick direction and or distance to enemy. Take it easy, Phil Stroffolino
no probs. i just liked the double attack option on the coin op thats all also, what are the chances of having the orig backing music? now that would be awesome!
I love the music from 80s martial arts themed arcade games - Tiger Road, Kung Fu Master, Shaolin's Road, Double Dragon, to name a few., and it would be cool to incorporate different remixes on each floor. The only thing giving me pause is the potential for a lawsuit. There's a lot of wiggle room with character design (look no further than parodies on "Family Guy" or "The Simpsons" using slightly changed Disney characters), but US law at least is much stricter when it comes to melodies and songs. As for your request, it's very much something I'd like to do, but I want to make sure that none of this music is protected by copyright first. Phil
Sweet! I was really interested in this game when it first came out, but everyones distaste for the controls kinda turned me off to it. But since you've responded so quickly with an update (while sick no less) I think I'm def going to pick this up later tonight. Thanks for your hard work, I'll post my impressions of the game after I've had a chance to play.
Karate Fighter 1.1 is out The 1.1 update is now available. Cycle through alternate control schemes by tapping the settings icon. Phil
just spent the thick end of 2 hours playing the upgrade. (a sustained 2 hours must be a personal record, but then, kung-fu master is my all time fav ever game). Thanks. i do however have a few game play points if you're interested - 1) The upgrade, control wise, is a HUGE improvement and makes the game x100 more playable for me at least. The D Pad (why is it called this?) configuration was the immediate one i felt comfortable with. it's also the more 'traditional' and natural layout. it was small and discrete in the corned and didn't get in the way. But, it still needs work. you controls still aren't very responsive and sensitive enough. i want to slide my thumb over the arrows and get instant movement and mixed movement. this happens to a small degree, but isn't nearly enough and fluid enough. you almost need precise button pressing to move at times witch isn't in keeping with the fluidity of the game. 2) The lack of optional attack buttons isn't an issue as much any more, but as mentioned, the controls need to be more flowing to give a better gameplay. this is especially noticeable when attacking the knifemen. the coin op lets you nicely finish them off in a single move; the controls make this piece almost impossible (collision detection is faulty here too - you can walk through the knife men sometimes and the stay with their backs to you). 3) It's all very small and tiny on the screen. the action is happening in a small tiny area. this doesn't help points raised in my first note up there. It's difficult to get enthusiastic over the gameplay because of this. all you seem to be doing from level to level is kicking out hench men. 4) And there's way too many badies. i played on all three difficulties and found, very quickly, the constant onslaught of hench men was just too many and i quickly became bored. Also, in certain areas, i couldn't progress forward on the screen unless i killed a few more meanies first. 5) The end of level bosses are a complete anti-climax too. again, this might be down to the fact the gameplay is so small and minute on the screen it's difficult to see with any detail what actually is going on and how to plan attack - all you need do it go in kicking without any strategy and you win. The bosses should be an even in themselves. they dont distinguish themselves and look like normal henchmen. The same with the dragons/snakes/fire etc - good idea in keeping, but too small to make an exciting difference. Overall i do like this game a lot and have high hopes. But for me at least, it needs the main character and game play area to be a lot larger, it's just too small. the controls need to be more fluid and receptive and sensitive. After a couple of hours this morning i doubt i'll go back to the game again in a hurry as i know i'll just be going over all the same ground again. Yes, i am comparing it to the coin-op because you've obviously taking the bulk of your inspiration from it, but it just doesn't match up or come close as far as grab ability and sustainability goes. This version is graphically better, but it doesn't have that original excitement and pull. i'd go back to the coin op and spend a fortune on it time and time again. But theres no reason why this version couldn't have the same appeal. look at some of the old conversions to home video systems. Their graphics and gameplay were a lot more simple than the Touch version, but so much more playable and exciting (because of the size). As it stands, it's a great little game and worth the $$$, but still needs polishing to make me want to play it again and again. The coin-op did (and still does) get my pace going, this doesn't (but it could). I wont play this too often i'm afraid. I want bigger graphics. bigger graphics will automatically make it more 'human' and playable i think. This is a basic. Things like different bosses or different music or different graphics are just evolution.
Thanks for the detailed feedback! Some comments inline: "D-Pad" is short for "Direction Pad" and is a term that came into use in the NES/Famicon era. I'm glad you found a control scheme you were comfortable with, but ironically the D-Pad is the only variant that I personally find awkward. I can win expert level with all control schemes except_ that one. Is there a definitive iTouch game that has a well-executed D-Pad that you'd recommend for reference? It would be easy enough to zoom the camera in tighter. You'd lose the ability to see enemies approaching from further away, but it would be trivial to try. I wouldn't want to make a change like this recklessly - maybe a dynamic zoom/pan dependent on how many bad guys are onscreen and how far they are from the hero would work without being distracting. Regarding bosses, If I may ask, how far did you get? The boss order is: - stick - boomerang - giant karateka - ancient master (teleport and ki blast) - kung fu master (blocks your attacks) - midget acrobat (pounce and grab) - axe - chain
i dont know. perhaps it just needs to be slightly larger, or the catchment area a bit bigger. loosing more visibility would be fine. look at the original compared to the new one (i screen grabbed both versions, scaled relative to each other, at iphone size of 480x320) - as can be seen, the arena of play on the original had a very small left/right area. yours, in comparison, is huge, much more than double. This means your characters are half the size on the screen, as can be seen in my illustration. i think this is a major issue in the vibe you're after with this game. we dont need to see all this left and right bits. because if the iphone's screen size i feel graphics should be made as large as possible to utilise the playable area better. Thats understandable, I'm sure you wouldn't want to scale your figures up twice the size, but i think it does need a substantial scale hike. This would seriously make game play more exciting because of the more larger 'human' scale. we'd be able to see what we were doing better. As can be seen by the pic, the orig graphics are pretty poor and basic with no anti-alias applied, but the were large, nicely animated and so responsive to the movements you gave it. this is why it's appeal was just so huge and sustaining. i got as far as the midget acrobat. i turned off at this point purely because i wasn't as interested any more. i got bored. i felt i wasn't doing anything new. Perhaps i crave the originals larger and more colourful graphics and game play, i dont know. I'm sure the iphone's processing, graphical and directional abilities are more than capable of a 25 year old coin op as this Your version is a fantastic base/platform to develop from, you've shown it's more than do-able. If your version was close to the orig as far as excitement and playability goes i'd easily pay in excess of $9.99 for it without a second thought. and i'm sure it's not impossible.
Coincidentally, I did this same exercise yesterday, with Karate Fighter (iphone), Kung Fu Master (Irem Arcade), and KungFu (NES). While Karate Fighter is similer proportionally to the NES port, the original's arcade sprites are huge, and I think you're right that the loss of visibility should have a minor impact on gameplay. I'll post some updated screenshots soon. Most of your remaining frustrations I suspect can be chalked up to the clumsiness of the virtual dpad control option. For example, you'd asserted that there are "way too many enemies", but the spawn rate is actually lower than Kung Fu Master Arcade. I have no trouble fending off swarms of henchmen using the control schemes that feature dedicated attack left/attack right buttons, but find it much harder to do so with the virtual dpad (the control scheme you prefer). With the virtual dpad I also find it somewhat more difficult to execute flying kick - if you don't slide the virtual joystick just so, you can accidentally jump up instead of forward. I have some ideas on how to further improve the virtual dpad control option that I'll be exploring tonight - basically, I'm going to try hybrids between pure swipe controls and absolute coordinate onscreen buttons. If you have your thumb down near a virtual joystick, and slide it slightly to the left/right, there's no reason I couldn't make that relative movement translate to a joystick movement, independent of where your thumb happens to have actually drifted. Similarly for jumps, sliding your finger quickly upwards could trigger a jump, with the angle of your slide selecting the jump type.
i think perhaps it's the largeness of the sprites compared to the area of play (or lack of it) we see which makes for a more exciting game. larger = better. I'm presuming you'll have to re-hash the graphics or the characters a tad to compensate for the larger sprite? (but as shown with the previous versions, the better gameplay is in the movements, not the visul graphic). this might be the case. i'll strive with another option, and look forward to any updates regarding this issue you come up with. ok. this was only a minor'ish point i made anyway. but there are places in the iphone game where i cant progress (the screen wont scroll on) unless i kill a load. This again is where i got bored - the amount of meanies did seem excessive, and there's no real reason for it. But i look forward to progress. as you say, perhaps i'll look into a different control method, but i also think a massive 'enjoyable' factor for me is to substantially increase sprite size and lessen play area. focus on Thomas and not as much play area as you can squeeze in. Sorry if my comments might seem disparaging, but KFM was/is my fav all time coin op and im just enthusiastic to see it ported as best as possible. so far progress is fantastic
Kudos for the new control schemes. I'm not sure I have settled on one yet, but each of them are better then the original scheme. I find the game to be considerably more playable, and am looking forward to whatever tweaks you might add. I have finally deleted funky punch, which had been on my phone for ages. Nice job!
FYI, I submitted a 1.2 update to Apple last night, which includes: - much larger sprites, with minor gameplay tweaks to compensate for the reduced visibility; I'm rather happy with how this turned out - many thanks for the suggestion! - ai tweaks for bosses - mid-level checkpoints for easy and normal modes - new sound effects for flame, hero death - new dedicated game over screen with custom music and final score presentation - optional online leaderboards - adjusted touch targets to make it easier to push buttons I started on some new villains, but will save them for a future update
FYI, The 1.2 update should be widely available now - it's showing up in US App Store at least, and the leaderboards are active. "Karate Fighter Lite," featuring the first two levels, should be available by Friday. Take it easy, Phil
