Our first major update for Early Access is here! Although we’re still in alpha, the character editor has come a long way – and what better way to showcase these improvements than with a character update?
Character Editor Improvements
- Undo: You can use the arrows along the top or hit Ctrl + Z to undo an action in the Character Editor.
- New sound effects: Hundreds of new sound effects to choose from within a dropdown menu.
- Pitch-shifting + sound preview: Pitch shift any sound effect and preview sound as well by clicking the play icon.
- Multiple timelines: If you need multiple sprite layers for effects, or multiple action layers to help keep yourself organized – you can now do this!
- Create character from scratch: we’ve created a new workflow that makes creating characters from scratch a lot easier.
- Executable hitboxes and hurtboxes + “don’t register hit to player”: When a collision occurs, the actions are executed. You can now create counter attacks.
- Custom Variables: access a list of existing variables or define your own set of variables for use with conditional logic like the “If” action. Helpful for advanced users to create more complex characters.
- Custom Events: trigger something based on when a specific event happens (for example, playing a sound when the character is killed or when the character lands on the ground).
- Landing animations: set custom landing animations for any move.
- Animation enable toggle: Simply enable and disable moves with the check mark icon. Disabling moves won’t interfere with gameplay, so you’re guaranteed to have a playable character even with a chunk of the animations disabled while the character is in progress.
- Attack-specific physics: define temporary adjustments in physics to accommodate your animation. For example, a dive kick initiates a faster falling speed. Checkboxes and sliders give you creative freedom, and jumping into Test Play lets you immediately see the results in action for rapid iteration on your ideas.
- Commenting: ability to add, edit, or remove comments. Can be helpful to guide creators or list reminders of what a particular set of actions are doing. We’ve also commented the actions for all of our standard characters, allowing you to see how complex behavior is achieved
- An enormous amount of bug fixes. Several metric tons of bugs fixed, with huge thanks to our Discord community for their bug submissions! ❤
New moves: Down Special and Side Special
Every character has access to two new moves: down special and side special. For existing characters you’ve made, the new moves can be activated within by editing your character within the Character Editor, and have already been enabled for the base roster and any future characters that will be created.
Character Templates
There are blank template characters based on the base roster that can be accessed through the Character Editor. These make it easy to draw on an existing rig without having to mess with any sprite layers.
Base Roster Fighter Improvements
Across the board, our base roster has received balance changes, animation tweaks, and sprite polish. On the backend, we’ve also included comments so you can see exactly what events do what!
New Fighter: Spry
Captain Jessica “Spry” Coney is an energetic, glass cannon sharpshooter from a distant planet. Gameplay-wise, she’s what you’d expect from a platform fighting space animal, with a some new tools also. Spry’s character concept and design was created by Chaoko!
Her movement speed is the fastest of the cast so far.
Here’s a taste of her special moves:
Her side special is a sticky bomb that can attach to other players – but be careful, because it can damage Spry also.
Her up special has her flying upward – and she can act out of it.
Her neutral special and down special moves are blaster and reflector shield respectively. Her blaster releases a projectile that can be shot quickly or charged for a guided shot. Her reflector shield reflects projectiles from opponents.
And yes, you can short hop laser and waveshine (advanced techniques you might recognize from competitive Melee!)
In fact, all of Spry’s special moves have some unique utilities and mixup options which we’ll cover in the future. Make sure you’re following us on Twitter for the latest updates.
New Stage: Battleground (No Platforms)
More Updates Coming
We’ve got even more updates on the way. If you’d like to send us your feedback, get in touch with our team, or see the community creations that have been shared so far, you can join our Discord server! We also post detailed patch notes there and host community events.