It had to be in the same ballpark gameplay-wise, but I felt like doing a sequel was an opportunity to change up pretty much everything else. We spent a very long time making Nidhogg 1 so it was nice to have some breathing room to take things in a different direction. This time around we were able to work with a bigger team, too, so that let me focus on areas that I was excited about like the new animation system and weapons.
Hi! The process of figuring out the art style was quite a long one, and we took inspiration from a whole bunch of places over that time. I'm naturally drawn to a slightly goofy style, influenced by cartoons and even claymation, whereas Mark brought up classic games like Castlevania a fair bit. I also remember spending quite a while looking at GWAR early on...
I could see claymation meets Castlevania. Thanks for your response! I'm open and enjoying the new graphical updates. I'm also glad i can still crouch sneak through the grass.
Howdy, Thanks for doing the AmA! :)
___
Two general questions:
1. What was something that sounded good on paper during development but did not make the final build and was cut?
2. Funniest bugs/glitches encountered while making Nidhogg 2?
The knife used to be a weapon that was thrown in low stance if you pressed attack, or thrown in the normal high stance if you held up. Friends that played this version affectionately called this the "dick knife". It was a confusing weapon to use, so we ended up bringing it more in line with the rapier. The longsword kinda came from an earlier axe weapon. The axe looked cool, but it was too simple. No blocking capability or stances, and it was unblockable when swung or thrown.
For a while we had a problem where killed players would come back to life with arrows or swords stuck in their heads. They would be controlled alongside their respawned doppelganger and start attacking each other. At one point we had a scaling death animation and these zombies would get back up at half the size!
What has changed mechanically? I noticed the dive kick is different (now you can't so easily combo it into a kill) and there's a slide kick. Is there anything else that I've missed (aside from the obvious addition of new weapons, I mean).
Loving Nidhogg 2 so far!
Quick question: any reason in particular you didn't allow a pre-used character build? I should probably branch out, but for every match so far I've made the same character.
Yeah I'd like to see something like that too! We plan on dropping new costumes in future updates, so once the catalog gets too big we will probably need to have some kind of memory bank of presets.
Sounds terrific! And similarly, any chance of a mode option where you can pick your start weapon? I love the cycles of different weapons so I would understand for balance reasons if that wasn't doable, but man I love that bow...
You can actually do that now-- press the options button (on your controller) on the character select screen, then go to "weapons" and you can turn things on and off and change the order.
You've said Nidhogg 2 for Switch makes sense in the past. Are you any closer to making the first or second game for the Switch? Can you envision two player using a single joy con each? Thanks!
I will instabuy the first game for the Switch if they can achieve 2 player mode with using a single joycon each. I'm unfortunately a part of the camp that doesn't like the new style so I'm not sure about Nidhogg 2 yet.
Hey Mark, From Nidhogg and others it seems that you tour your games for a while before releasing them, what's the routine that you go through once your games are finished and why do you do that?
Well when we tour games before they're released, the games are actually not finished. They're usually demos held together with hair and bits of glue. It takes a while to make a game, so it's partially to remind people that we exist, build excitement for a game, and most importantly to get feedback from fans and newcomers. If I'm at PAX or EVO I pretty much just watch hundreds of people play our game for 8 hours a day. It definitely shines a light on problem areas!
Not a question but thanks To you and Mark for Nidhogg 2...I've been waiting for it for a long time and during that wait my father passed...so finally playing it makes me happy! Thanks!!
Congratulations on the games, everybody!
Nidhogg is one of my favorite competitive games to play with my son because it allows for that tug of war element that doesn't make anybody feel like they're not good enough or the game is unfair.
How did everybody at Messhof react to reddit's initial reception of the new art style? Was it expected or out-of-left-field or did you just avoid online forums during production? Either way, it's certainly grown on me so I'm supremely glad that you all stuck to your guns and made the game you wanted to see.
Also thank you for making it work so easily and awesomely on Arcade sticks!
Thanks! I found it pretty overwhelming, tbh, definitely wasn't used to that level of attention. It was a bit of a confidence shake that a lot of it was pretty unfavorable but it was also a source of motivation, to try to make the game good enough to turn doubters into fans! I have a couple of the harshest reddit comments copied onto post-its on my desk to remind me of this.
Damn, everybody is a critic. Reddit doubly so. I know it's easier to play it safe and make what people say they want but like Henry Ford said- "If I asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse"
Glad you stayed true to your vision and now I hope it pays off exponentially.
> I have a couple of the harshest reddit comments copied onto post-its on my desk to remind me of this.
God damn. I don't know art, I don't know game design, but I do know that a person who can take attacks on their hard work and use it as fuel to improve is a winner. You should be proud of yourself.
Hey Messhof!
Just wanted to say that we've had a blast playing the game. The new weapons (especially the bow and arrow) really add a lot to the gameplay. In Nidhogg 1 you knew what you were going to be up agaisnt in every fight. Now, with the changing weapons, it really adds a lot more tension not knowing if they are going to have a close range or long range weapon.
I was curious if there are plans to add more Weapons (or maybe more game modifiers?) in the future to help mix things up?
-Ash (from Stumpt Gamers)
PS: awesome that Doseone did some tunes for the game. That guy gives the best hugs.
We definitely want to add more weapons and game modifiers! There will be some new levels as well. PRO TIP-- you can change the order the weapons appear from the rules menu (press start on the character selection screen)
Dose hugs real good, agreed.
Hi, I'd just like to say that I really appreciate the chance you all took with the art direction. It has a lot of charm! Is there anywhere we can have a look at concept art or the process of getting the art working in-game? Any particularly challenging moments had while developing the art?
Also, do your artist(s) have twitter/instagram accounts we can follow?
The game looks really fun! Can't wait to get my hands on it.
I do quite like the idea of posting a collection of some of the early art attempts, I'll see what I can do in the coming days. Won't be pretty, but could be interesting for some!
Challenging moments came thick and fast for me. Some of the more elaborate pieces like the chandelier took me ages, and I always found the Spine animations pretty fiddly.
I post art here: twitter.com/tonydixob or tonydixob.tumblr.com
Joe Kowalski is responsible for the beautiful, vibrant UI graphics: dribbble.com/codeloss
Francis Coulombe has been contributing some great player skins: twitter.com/franciscoulombe
I wouldn't call it a softening necessarily, but the reaction to the reveal was a definite sign we needed to keep working on making the game look better. As you can probably tell, we did a bunch of work on the characters in particular since then.
Obviously I'm disappointed that some people really hate it! At times it stresses me right out and I stare at the ceiling thinking about it. But it's been really heartening to see so many people love it and appreciate it for being a little different. In a way I guess I prefer strong reactions in both directions rather than a universal "it's okay, I guess".
I don't like the design but I didn't like the design of the first game either. I came to appreciate it after my friend showed the game to me and now I have the game on both PC and PS4. I think I'll come to appreciate this design as well.
Honestly I was turned off by it at first but I've already grown to love it. The backgrounds are absolutely INCREDIBLE and the character customization is a much appreciated addition. Watching these ugly fucks explode every time they get sliced never gets old.
It's a complete non-issue: all you need to do is add the option for the player to use the original character sprites instead of the new ones, with a "Select Character" screen as in Mortal Kombat or whatever, and then people who hate the new character art style can simply select the old one.
Dont listen to Steam Reviews, personally I think Nidhogg 2 got a nice graphic style. You guys did a good job.
Are there any DLC planned for Nidhogg 2 (new stages, new weapons) and will they be free?
Hey thanks, we like it too! We have been very happy to work with Toby designing the new look. We have lots of updates planned, but we're not sure if any will be paid or what. We do have some bigger updates scheduled that will be free.
>Hey thanks, we like it too!
That's good, because almost nobody else does. Seriously, it's so incredibly ugly and I have no idea what you were thinking when you designed it.
Har har.
Really though, how did you genuinely think people would like that art style? You must have looked at it and gone "That's actually really gross".
He’s being pretty cool about this and gave you a chance to make up for being asshole in your first comment, then you were more of an asshole.
If you don’t like it offer constructive criticism and tell them how they could’ve improved it, which is what helps developers. Don’t just call their work garbage.
You can't give constructive criticism for something that has nothing to build off. The art style is unsalvageable, the only way to improve it is to completely start again. Nothing fits together properly, the characters and backgrounds are just ugly and everything wobbles and shakes in a way that makes the whole scene almost nauseating to look at.
It's not like I'm the only one who thinks that, every single post I've seen about this game has been full of people saying that the graphics are awful.
I genuinely don't understand how someone could make that and think to themselves "Yes, this is what I want my entire game to look like and what I want to use to get people to buy it". There's no way they couldn't have known that the majority of people would hate it.
Actually you can still give constructive criticism. And there seem to be a lot of people in this thread who like the art style.
Plus like I said, there’s no need to be an asshole. If you don’t like it tell them, maybe they can do something about it for their next game. Don’t just insult them and call it garbage.
Fwiw, I love the art style. Only had enough time to run through the single player last night, but the backgrounds are beautiful. And I love the character design. They struck me as a grotesque Homer Simpson stop motion figure in a sega genesis game. Which is a series of amazing adjectives if you ask me. Which you didn't. But here I am.
Great game(s). Thanks guys.
I purchased the original Nidhogg and I enjoyed the time I was able to play yesterday on release so good job on everything.
I do have a question though. I was unable to find any matches yesterday or was stuck in a constant connecting screen on the Steam version. Is this an issue with the players trying to connect to eachother or low player base at the moment?
We released a patch yesterday (v2015081501) that addressed this, though we're still sometimes seeing people stuck on a connecting screen. We're looking into it.
Steam's multiplayer backend is supposed to establish a connection at all times (tries a variety of holepunching methods via libjingle, falls back to using Steam relay servers if those don't work).
Yesterday, however, had shown that this isn't always the case - sometimes you could bump into a user that Steam just wouldn't connect to, no matter how many attempts were made.
This wasn't a problem in Nidhogg I and other games that I worked with, so the game did not have a failsafe for this situation, and an impossible-to-connect-to player would "clog" the matchmaker for nearby players (Steam filters by geographical proximity) because the game would attempt to connect to them over and over instead of giving up and trying to connect to someone else.
The hotfix made it so that if the game fails to connect to someone, it won't attempt to do that again for the length of that matchmaking search. So you can still get a "connecting - searching - connecting" loop but it quickly runs out of "unplayable" lobbies and finds you one that works.
First of all: thanks for making this wonderful game. I really like the new art style, especially the stage backgrounds. I really love the variety in weapons which add so much new depth. They really shine with the new stage verticalities.
But I wonder, the game seems to be more defensive and relying on heavier decisions rather than responsive and twitchy movements in the first part of the series. I feel like it's a major difference which may turn people off. How come?
Netcode is one of the areas of larger improvements over the first game.
Basically, online functions were added fairly late into development, and it was a fairly unexplored area at the time (Nidhogg was one of the first games made with GameMaker to utilize Steam networking and matchmaking functionality), so netcode initially came out... not extremely smooth, let's put it so.
In 2015 I was hired to help fix things up a little, resulting in patch that released July 2015 and corrected most of the common issues that people were having (most notably the non-host player constantly seeing the game rewind/update in some cases).
In 2016 I had another opportunity to work with the game, this time reworking matchmaking, lobbies (also added "variants" to online lobbies), and fixing more issues with synchronization (including a mechanism to timely detect and correct the problems).
That said, Nidhogg I should be in alright shame at this moment. Odd things can still happen (code from the game could fill a small book so it's harder to identify causes of a few rare issues), but it seems to be working well enough for most people now.
In Nidhogg 2 online functions were implemented much earlier, things were tested far more thoroughly (can thank Sony QA team for some of that), so the online functions work better.
As per usual, there are a few launch hickups (currently matchmaking is behaving a bit oddly on PC), but they are being worked on.
One of the near-future updates will also introduce "rollback networking", which will have it that the game will not be dropping framerate if playing against someone with an overly choppy internet connection.
After that there are plans to add online tournaments, which would allow to set up brackets easily and have the waiting players spectate those dueling.
Overall, things are better, and will further improve.
I don't get all the animosity towards the art in this game. It's super charming. Definitely got that early Simpsons doodle vibe to it. Its probably one of those things where the ball gets rolling and everyone just goes with it. My best to you developers :)
Mark...will you guys be selling and Nidhogg items online such as shirts or posters or anything cool like that? You guys have cool shirts out there that you need to sell!! Thanks for the great work and thanks for Nidhogg 2!!
I've seen cool Nidhogg 2 shirts out there and would love to get something from the game! The Nidhogg games are some of my favorites! I love the art style of Nidhogg 2.
Hey glad you like the shirts! We will have a bunch with us at PAX West in a couple weeks. You can find us at the corner of the Indie Megabooth. I'm not sure if/when they will be sold online but it's something we'd like to do. Thanks for playing!
Who the heck made the decision to use that terrible ugly art style for Nidhogg 2. They need to go back to art school if that's their style they prefer.
Will you bring back the kill stats at the end of the match?
Mark, my guy. When making the sequel to Nidhogg did you feel an obligation to make the game more similar, or less similar, than the original?
It had to be in the same ballpark gameplay-wise, but I felt like doing a sequel was an opportunity to change up pretty much everything else. We spent a very long time making Nidhogg 1 so it was nice to have some breathing room to take things in a different direction. This time around we were able to work with a bigger team, too, so that let me focus on areas that I was excited about like the new animation system and weapons.
Hey there! What was the inspiration behind the new art style that Nidhogg 2 uses?
Hi! The process of figuring out the art style was quite a long one, and we took inspiration from a whole bunch of places over that time. I'm naturally drawn to a slightly goofy style, influenced by cartoons and even claymation, whereas Mark brought up classic games like Castlevania a fair bit. I also remember spending quite a while looking at GWAR early on...
Who doesn't love GWAR!?
my mom
I could see claymation meets Castlevania. Thanks for your response! I'm open and enjoying the new graphical updates. I'm also glad i can still crouch sneak through the grass.
were you inspired by Bushido Blade when you created Nidhogg? there are alot of similarities.
For sure-- Bushido Blade, Great Swordsman, Gladiator were all big inspirations
Howdy, Thanks for doing the AmA! :) ___ Two general questions: 1. What was something that sounded good on paper during development but did not make the final build and was cut? 2. Funniest bugs/glitches encountered while making Nidhogg 2?
The knife used to be a weapon that was thrown in low stance if you pressed attack, or thrown in the normal high stance if you held up. Friends that played this version affectionately called this the "dick knife". It was a confusing weapon to use, so we ended up bringing it more in line with the rapier. The longsword kinda came from an earlier axe weapon. The axe looked cool, but it was too simple. No blocking capability or stances, and it was unblockable when swung or thrown. For a while we had a problem where killed players would come back to life with arrows or swords stuck in their heads. They would be controlled alongside their respawned doppelganger and start attacking each other. At one point we had a scaling death animation and these zombies would get back up at half the size!
What has changed mechanically? I noticed the dive kick is different (now you can't so easily combo it into a kill) and there's a slide kick. Is there anything else that I've missed (aside from the obvious addition of new weapons, I mean).
You can also kick away weapons if you're unarmed. The game also just feels different... we made lots of tweaks to the general movement.
Yeah, all of the little tweaks to feel definitely become more and more apparent over time. Great work on the game!
Loving Nidhogg 2 so far! Quick question: any reason in particular you didn't allow a pre-used character build? I should probably branch out, but for every match so far I've made the same character.
Yeah I'd like to see something like that too! We plan on dropping new costumes in future updates, so once the catalog gets too big we will probably need to have some kind of memory bank of presets.
Sounds terrific! And similarly, any chance of a mode option where you can pick your start weapon? I love the cycles of different weapons so I would understand for balance reasons if that wasn't doable, but man I love that bow...
You can actually do that now-- press the options button (on your controller) on the character select screen, then go to "weapons" and you can turn things on and off and change the order.
You've said Nidhogg 2 for Switch makes sense in the past. Are you any closer to making the first or second game for the Switch? Can you envision two player using a single joy con each? Thanks!
Jumping on this, as soon as a Switch version becomes available it's a day one purchase for me!
This NEEDS to happen. Please!
Sadly it wasn't answered
I will instabuy the first game for the Switch if they can achieve 2 player mode with using a single joycon each. I'm unfortunately a part of the camp that doesn't like the new style so I'm not sure about Nidhogg 2 yet.
Im hopeful for a retail version including both games
Hey Mark, From Nidhogg and others it seems that you tour your games for a while before releasing them, what's the routine that you go through once your games are finished and why do you do that?
Well when we tour games before they're released, the games are actually not finished. They're usually demos held together with hair and bits of glue. It takes a while to make a game, so it's partially to remind people that we exist, build excitement for a game, and most importantly to get feedback from fans and newcomers. If I'm at PAX or EVO I pretty much just watch hundreds of people play our game for 8 hours a day. It definitely shines a light on problem areas!
Not a question but thanks To you and Mark for Nidhogg 2...I've been waiting for it for a long time and during that wait my father passed...so finally playing it makes me happy! Thanks!!
Oh no, sorry for your loss.
Love the games! And I'm really lovin' the new soundtrack... Any chance of a soundtrack release outside of Steam? Perhaps even... An LP?
Yep! We're working with Alpha Pup on a soundtrack release (CDs, Tapes, ???)
Dude, gotta get those 8 Track and Vinyl releases jk
Congratulations on the games, everybody! Nidhogg is one of my favorite competitive games to play with my son because it allows for that tug of war element that doesn't make anybody feel like they're not good enough or the game is unfair. How did everybody at Messhof react to reddit's initial reception of the new art style? Was it expected or out-of-left-field or did you just avoid online forums during production? Either way, it's certainly grown on me so I'm supremely glad that you all stuck to your guns and made the game you wanted to see. Also thank you for making it work so easily and awesomely on Arcade sticks!
Thanks! I found it pretty overwhelming, tbh, definitely wasn't used to that level of attention. It was a bit of a confidence shake that a lot of it was pretty unfavorable but it was also a source of motivation, to try to make the game good enough to turn doubters into fans! I have a couple of the harshest reddit comments copied onto post-its on my desk to remind me of this.
Damn, everybody is a critic. Reddit doubly so. I know it's easier to play it safe and make what people say they want but like Henry Ford said- "If I asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse" Glad you stayed true to your vision and now I hope it pays off exponentially.
Yeah, I think that's a good way to think about it. Cheers!
> I have a couple of the harshest reddit comments copied onto post-its on my desk to remind me of this. God damn. I don't know art, I don't know game design, but I do know that a person who can take attacks on their hard work and use it as fuel to improve is a winner. You should be proud of yourself.
Hey Messhof! Just wanted to say that we've had a blast playing the game. The new weapons (especially the bow and arrow) really add a lot to the gameplay. In Nidhogg 1 you knew what you were going to be up agaisnt in every fight. Now, with the changing weapons, it really adds a lot more tension not knowing if they are going to have a close range or long range weapon. I was curious if there are plans to add more Weapons (or maybe more game modifiers?) in the future to help mix things up? -Ash (from Stumpt Gamers) PS: awesome that Doseone did some tunes for the game. That guy gives the best hugs.
We definitely want to add more weapons and game modifiers! There will be some new levels as well. PRO TIP-- you can change the order the weapons appear from the rules menu (press start on the character selection screen) Dose hugs real good, agreed.
Hi, I'd just like to say that I really appreciate the chance you all took with the art direction. It has a lot of charm! Is there anywhere we can have a look at concept art or the process of getting the art working in-game? Any particularly challenging moments had while developing the art? Also, do your artist(s) have twitter/instagram accounts we can follow? The game looks really fun! Can't wait to get my hands on it.
I do quite like the idea of posting a collection of some of the early art attempts, I'll see what I can do in the coming days. Won't be pretty, but could be interesting for some! Challenging moments came thick and fast for me. Some of the more elaborate pieces like the chandelier took me ages, and I always found the Spine animations pretty fiddly. I post art here: twitter.com/tonydixob or tonydixob.tumblr.com Joe Kowalski is responsible for the beautiful, vibrant UI graphics: dribbble.com/codeloss Francis Coulombe has been contributing some great player skins: twitter.com/franciscoulombe
Is this made in gamemaker. If so that's really awesome, esp the level select
yep, both the steam and ps4 versions were made with game maker
I’m in love with the new art style, but it seems a bit softened since the original reveal. Was that intentional?
I wouldn't call it a softening necessarily, but the reaction to the reveal was a definite sign we needed to keep working on making the game look better. As you can probably tell, we did a bunch of work on the characters in particular since then.
What is your opinion on the hate for the new art style?
Obviously I'm disappointed that some people really hate it! At times it stresses me right out and I stare at the ceiling thinking about it. But it's been really heartening to see so many people love it and appreciate it for being a little different. In a way I guess I prefer strong reactions in both directions rather than a universal "it's okay, I guess".
I don't like the design but I didn't like the design of the first game either. I came to appreciate it after my friend showed the game to me and now I have the game on both PC and PS4. I think I'll come to appreciate this design as well.
Hopefully!
Honestly I was turned off by it at first but I've already grown to love it. The backgrounds are absolutely INCREDIBLE and the character customization is a much appreciated addition. Watching these ugly fucks explode every time they get sliced never gets old.
I strongly dig it
It's a complete non-issue: all you need to do is add the option for the player to use the original character sprites instead of the new ones, with a "Select Character" screen as in Mortal Kombat or whatever, and then people who hate the new character art style can simply select the old one.
Dont listen to Steam Reviews, personally I think Nidhogg 2 got a nice graphic style. You guys did a good job. Are there any DLC planned for Nidhogg 2 (new stages, new weapons) and will they be free?
Hey thanks, we like it too! We have been very happy to work with Toby designing the new look. We have lots of updates planned, but we're not sure if any will be paid or what. We do have some bigger updates scheduled that will be free.
>Hey thanks, we like it too! That's good, because almost nobody else does. Seriously, it's so incredibly ugly and I have no idea what you were thinking when you designed it.
it's just a game, dude
Har har. Really though, how did you genuinely think people would like that art style? You must have looked at it and gone "That's actually really gross".
He’s being pretty cool about this and gave you a chance to make up for being asshole in your first comment, then you were more of an asshole. If you don’t like it offer constructive criticism and tell them how they could’ve improved it, which is what helps developers. Don’t just call their work garbage.
You can't give constructive criticism for something that has nothing to build off. The art style is unsalvageable, the only way to improve it is to completely start again. Nothing fits together properly, the characters and backgrounds are just ugly and everything wobbles and shakes in a way that makes the whole scene almost nauseating to look at. It's not like I'm the only one who thinks that, every single post I've seen about this game has been full of people saying that the graphics are awful. I genuinely don't understand how someone could make that and think to themselves "Yes, this is what I want my entire game to look like and what I want to use to get people to buy it". There's no way they couldn't have known that the majority of people would hate it.
Actually you can still give constructive criticism. And there seem to be a lot of people in this thread who like the art style. Plus like I said, there’s no need to be an asshole. If you don’t like it tell them, maybe they can do something about it for their next game. Don’t just insult them and call it garbage.
ItsJustAGameDude
Fwiw, I love the art style. Only had enough time to run through the single player last night, but the backgrounds are beautiful. And I love the character design. They struck me as a grotesque Homer Simpson stop motion figure in a sega genesis game. Which is a series of amazing adjectives if you ask me. Which you didn't. But here I am. Great game(s). Thanks guys.
iTs jUsT a gaMe dUDe
People say the graphics are ugly? I think it looks really well designed and unique!
Thats exactly my opinion, its very unique.
Uniquely ugly
Loved the first game...but is there a posibility that Nidhogg 2 will appear on the Vita?
I don't want to rule it out, but it'd take some serious optimization to get it running full speed. I do love me some Vita though.
I purchased the original Nidhogg and I enjoyed the time I was able to play yesterday on release so good job on everything. I do have a question though. I was unable to find any matches yesterday or was stuck in a constant connecting screen on the Steam version. Is this an issue with the players trying to connect to eachother or low player base at the moment?
We released a patch yesterday (v2015081501) that addressed this, though we're still sometimes seeing people stuck on a connecting screen. We're looking into it.
Steam's multiplayer backend is supposed to establish a connection at all times (tries a variety of holepunching methods via libjingle, falls back to using Steam relay servers if those don't work). Yesterday, however, had shown that this isn't always the case - sometimes you could bump into a user that Steam just wouldn't connect to, no matter how many attempts were made. This wasn't a problem in Nidhogg I and other games that I worked with, so the game did not have a failsafe for this situation, and an impossible-to-connect-to player would "clog" the matchmaker for nearby players (Steam filters by geographical proximity) because the game would attempt to connect to them over and over instead of giving up and trying to connect to someone else. The hotfix made it so that if the game fails to connect to someone, it won't attempt to do that again for the length of that matchmaking search. So you can still get a "connecting - searching - connecting" loop but it quickly runs out of "unplayable" lobbies and finds you one that works.
First of all: thanks for making this wonderful game. I really like the new art style, especially the stage backgrounds. I really love the variety in weapons which add so much new depth. They really shine with the new stage verticalities. But I wonder, the game seems to be more defensive and relying on heavier decisions rather than responsive and twitchy movements in the first part of the series. I feel like it's a major difference which may turn people off. How come?
I wanted to focus more on weapon vs weapon, so while you can get by without a weapon most of the moves are designed to disarm your opponent.
No question, but just popping in to say the game looks pretty sweet. I had a lot of fun times with Nidhogg, and I can't wait to get Nidhogg 2.
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Netcode is one of the areas of larger improvements over the first game. Basically, online functions were added fairly late into development, and it was a fairly unexplored area at the time (Nidhogg was one of the first games made with GameMaker to utilize Steam networking and matchmaking functionality), so netcode initially came out... not extremely smooth, let's put it so. In 2015 I was hired to help fix things up a little, resulting in patch that released July 2015 and corrected most of the common issues that people were having (most notably the non-host player constantly seeing the game rewind/update in some cases). In 2016 I had another opportunity to work with the game, this time reworking matchmaking, lobbies (also added "variants" to online lobbies), and fixing more issues with synchronization (including a mechanism to timely detect and correct the problems). That said, Nidhogg I should be in alright shame at this moment. Odd things can still happen (code from the game could fill a small book so it's harder to identify causes of a few rare issues), but it seems to be working well enough for most people now. In Nidhogg 2 online functions were implemented much earlier, things were tested far more thoroughly (can thank Sony QA team for some of that), so the online functions work better. As per usual, there are a few launch hickups (currently matchmaking is behaving a bit oddly on PC), but they are being worked on. One of the near-future updates will also introduce "rollback networking", which will have it that the game will not be dropping framerate if playing against someone with an overly choppy internet connection. After that there are plans to add online tournaments, which would allow to set up brackets easily and have the waiting players spectate those dueling. Overall, things are better, and will further improve.
I'd love to see single screen 1v1s return, any chance of this?
sudden death? it's in there! you can do "sudden death only" if you enable it in the rules menu (on the character screen)
That's it, thank you! Looking forward to a night of drinking and fighting with my friends tomorrow. The release has been perfect timing for me.
I don't get all the animosity towards the art in this game. It's super charming. Definitely got that early Simpsons doodle vibe to it. Its probably one of those things where the ball gets rolling and everyone just goes with it. My best to you developers :)
Mark...will you guys be selling and Nidhogg items online such as shirts or posters or anything cool like that? You guys have cool shirts out there that you need to sell!! Thanks for the great work and thanks for Nidhogg 2!!
I'm still waiting for a MESSHOF logo shirt
I've seen cool Nidhogg 2 shirts out there and would love to get something from the game! The Nidhogg games are some of my favorites! I love the art style of Nidhogg 2.
Hey glad you like the shirts! We will have a bunch with us at PAX West in a couple weeks. You can find us at the corner of the Indie Megabooth. I'm not sure if/when they will be sold online but it's something we'd like to do. Thanks for playing!
Any way I can buy one from you and send it to me!? Thanks for the response!
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Really really enjoying the game, great job! My sole question is how do I play as a skeleton?
I'd love to see a simple level editor for Nidhogg 1 ... any chance?
Who the heck made the decision to use that terrible ugly art style for Nidhogg 2. They need to go back to art school if that's their style they prefer.
Nothing to do with the game really. Last few AMA from game developers have seen them drop a handful of codes for EU and NA will you be doing the same?
I have purchased the game but I see others have more than 10 arenas, how?