Starting with a passion for fighting games, Project Berserk was my way of giving back to the genre, being not only a testing ground for new innovations and concepts, but also as my very first game.

Being an entirely solo project, Project Berserk was the ultimate way to immerse myself in all the trades game development offers, and while I do have a preference from programming and game design, I had a lot of fun exploring other mediums. While this game was rocky around the edges from the start, 3 years of development eventually outputted a project I'm proud of and, most importantly, learned a lot about.

It was not until I incorporated dynamic lighting into the picture where the game really started to look good!

To maximize the visual effects, I would probably make the game in 3D with 2D assets (think of a game like Octopath Traveler), but this ended up being a great learning experience!

Project Berserk has taken on many forms in terms of its rules and mechanics, but its main focus has always been to address one key setback typical in the genre; reduced accessibility.

The diagram above notes the levels of depth in which the player is experiencing and approaching a game, requiring the previous stage to be completed before starting the next.

1. Stage #1: Players need to first understand their controls and develop intentionality (Ex. If a player wants to jump, how reliably can they perform the mechanical input to jump).

2. Stage #2: Then they can immerse themselves in the surface-level mechanics they see (Ex. The platformer has obstacles).

3. Stage #3: Finally, they go on to then apply their knowledge to playing the game at a higher-level (Ex. The player starts to understand how to approach the game-world at a higher level to avoid obstacles).

Games as a simulation means there is some degree of input, therefore the user needs to understand how to properly encode their thoughts into the inputs that align with what they intend to do. All games have this, but most do not present a massive barrier at Stage #1 like fighting games do. Major mechanics are centered around mechanical difficulty, which not only limits motor-impaired players for properly approaching the game, but increases the time new players are stuck in Stage #1. This limits the ability for players to understand the higher-level concepts of the game, keeping them from appreciating what the game has to offer.

Is this model overly simplified? Absolutely; there can be fun with the challenge of mechanical inputs, and being able to succeed in that challenge on the spot can be thrilling, especially in the heat of a match. But in most situations, games prefer to minimize the time in Stage #1 to maximize the time spent in Stage #2 and #3, and, simply put, I do not believe that the fighting game genre has made significant strides towards this principle.

Thus, Project Berserk does the following to minimize the time in Stage #1:

• No Motion Inputs -> Just a direction and a button

• Buttons can be held down to make timings and combos easier

• Multiple options for blocking (back to block or a button) to give players options

• Multiple "complexities", where the "Simple" complexity reduces the moveset and combo potential for all fighters (compensated by increased health and damage).

But just simplifying Stage #1 with no compensation would make the game too simple. Since we have made it easier for players to start processing the game world and its rule, we can add back in more challenge at a higher level:

• All fighters have interesting and complex combo trees thanks to a special cancel hierarchy all characters have and every attack being combo friendly.

• A universal meter called The Vigor System introduces unique states and abilities. Although the moves that access them are straightforward (an unblockable attack, a combo breaker, a parry, so on so forth), players need to think critically about how they manage this system.

• Each fighters plays wildly differently from each other due to unique attacks and mechanics, encouraging players to learn how each fighters.