I've only got about a month left here at Full sail in the game dev program. My four person group (including myself) is ready to turn in our beta build of our 3d cel-shaded fighter / DDR hybrid; aptly named Beatdown.

I'm the technical lead for the project, and nearly single-handedly have put together the so-called 'Punishment' engine that the game operates on. My responsibilities have been rendering (using DirectX), world simulation (physics, collision, triggering event callbacks), high level game logic, among other core elements. The game uses a proprietary script interpreter, codenamed 'PunishScript', which is a complete rewrite of my previous script interpreter. All of the fighter's attack, defensive, and movement moves are implemented thru script, as well as coordinating the highest level of game flow (displaying who won a fight round, or displaying the splash screens on game startup).

The other three members in my team are responsible for the camera, sound (using FMod Ex), user interface, configuring character scripts and defining collision bounds, and other miscellaneous mid-level gameplay programming. One of the other team members has been working closely with me to implement all of the fighter's moves into script and linking user input and AI input to a base 'IFighter' class, which implements the full functionality of a fight character.


Here is a screenshot of one of our characters performing a jumping strong punch

what are the elements of gameplay for this? a glove-like controller?

looks like a cool idea

I have a few friends that went to Full Sail. What has been your overall experience? Looks like an interesting concept for a game.

Nice work!

Keyboard or PS2 controller for input. We would like to put the game on one of full sail's arcade machines in the game dev lobby, which works with the game controller input.


The "DDR" aspect of the game is evident at the bottom of the screenshot. That bar with the little dots is our metronome. As music plays, those dots represent the beat of the music. The beats start on the sides and slide in to the middle, where they meet and disappear. If you attack at this time, particle effects will come from whichever part of the body you attacked with, and you will deal extra damage. Hence the game's name: "Beat-down"

i wanna play

A player who hits beats on key and timed correctly should attack, and the other player block, unless they completely missed the beat, in which they receive full damage.

In fact, a comprehensive VS DDR mode with awesome animations would be TOTALLY sweet.

Sounds like great fun. DDR for boys, cool.