Three well known figures in the fighting game community have teamed up to rethink how fighting games work in their brand new free-to-play project, Rising Thunder . The game, which on the surface looks like Street Fighter with robots, is actually far, far deeper than that. It utilizes current day technologies to approach fighting games in ways we simply haven’t before.
For example, the game is online only. While this may seem like a hindrance, it actually gives them a lot of design space. Techniques that turn you invisible are actually useful now, as opposed to useless in most other fighting games. They can also make the HUD much bigger, because they only have to show one player’s information front and center.
But perhaps most interesting is the way they treat special moves. Instead of having to do quarter circles or other complex motions, each special move is simply one button. So how do you prevent players from spamming them? Simple. They are on cooldown timers, like MOBA abilities. Seth Killian is confident that this will lower the barrier of entry to fighting games, and will allow players to start making important decisions quicker.
But don’t take his word for it. Sign up for the alpha yourself over at risingthunder.com.
Source: Rising Thunder