aevns / pico-8-carts

PICO-8 projects and tests

PICO-8 Carts

Playable carts and forum threads can also be found on the lexaloffle forums.

UNYIELDING (work in progress)

My first time working with PICO-8, this cart is meant as a proof-of-concept for a combat system I've been cooking up. The design is inspired by what I most enjoy about Soulslike combat mechanics; slow, strategic combat that forces the player to think one or two steps ahead. With that said, combat in the Souls series has a number of shortcomings that I'd like to iterate on — which I won't go into detail on here.

The Combat System

A short design document on the combat system's controls can be found here. The specific implementation used in-game has changed slightly from the one outlined in the design doc, but not in a significant way.

While that document outlines the ideas behind the control scheme, the efffect and interactions between different abilities is a whole other discussion. In short, the combat system uses a contested check to determine the effects of an attack: Each action has associated force, stability, and damage. When using an ability, that ability's stability determines whether you block incoming attacks. If your stability exceeds the force of an incoming attack, it is blocked, and you take no damage. If the force exceeds your stability, you will be stunned for a duration determined by the difference of those values; you will also take any damage the incoming effect might cause. An ability's stability frames usually begin a few frames before its active frames (much like the hyperarmor / superarmor used in other systems). Thus, two agents attacking each-other at the same time are likely to block each-other's attacks.