Though simply titled "A Return Of Cycle", this is the first blog post that has been copied over to 64 Digits for SDA. I will continue to put up each new blog post on 64 Digits a few days after they are put up on the real blog.

I often work in cycles. I'll implement some features, tweak, then bug fix, wash rinse repeat. Basically, I've been moving back into wash lately.

Sounds that didn't utilize any stereo effects previously, such as echo or reverb, have now been converted to mono. It doesn't save much space at all, but what the heck why not. The sound that plays when you perform a successful block now gets weaker when Guard gets low, it gives the player a better sense of what is going on and just helps add another layer of unneeded audio/visual cool-ness.

The character player icons (the green and blue boxes that let you select your characters) have been changed. I haven't provided a screenshot because it really needs to be seen in action, it really is an improvement over the old ones. The Guard meter flashes once it gets low, and the Super meter displays a new graphics making sure you fully realize when you have 100% Super.

On the gameplay side of things, you can now Special Cancel. This is probably one of the most important gameplay tweaks SDA has ever had. When you think of Canceling in a fighting game, this is what you think of. A Normal with Special Cancel properties connects and you buffer the motion for the desired Special move quick enough to end the Normal early. Finally.

Dashes also have "in-air" frames now, which doesn't really affect much other than the reaction on hit, and of course could possibly open up juggle opportunities. Throws now have more defined throw ranges as well. Various portions of the game no longer freeze during hit pause (such as the Timer!). To top all of that off, Sweeps are no longer affected by the current push and float values in the combo (they actually reset them). So a sweep will always behave the same, no matter when or where it was performed.

Another big gameplay change: Crouching hitboxes are shorter. Want to crouch under Aroon's punches? Go ahead.

Oh, and Jiro has a new kick. Mhm.

Thanks to Carnivac ( http://carnivac.co.uk ) the player now has some really cool options dealing with resizing the screen and even some scanline features. Pretty awesome.

Screenshot:

http://carnivac.co.uk/temp/shosca.png