What approach should I take for a 3d arena fighting game?

Hi everyone, I'm here to ask a question about what would be the best approach for a 3d fighting arena that holds up to 4 players. A best example of this would be Power Stone 2. I loved the fighting mechanic and I've never seen any other game since then. So I'm hoping you guys might know something about this genre especially the a.i. bots. How should I go about this. Because that game was pretty fun.

 

start off with one or two characters, and single player, and a small handful or arenas.
get your movement, cameras, and attacks on point.
do more characters
do more players
do more levels

 

I agree: movement and camera should be first priority. You want to make sure that your space is fluid to move around. Games like that are all about tight controls, so you as the developer should feel like you can implement pixel-perfect jumps.

 

Ok thank you for the advice.

 

Ok so I should focus more on camera and movement before anything else understood. I'm not sure what are pixel perfect jumps but I think I know what you mean.

 

In your spare time:
Sketch out some ideas, of the arena enviroments, items
and battle items, that you'll want in your game.

Doing that, could help you get a better idea, or vision, of what you'll need
to make your game, and what/how you'll need to program.

As the programmer of Bayonetta 2 said in an interview:
"Without the artwork, a programmer has nothing to work with."
Or in other words, has no idea of how, or what to program in what way.

That Powerstone game, is a really fun game.
Dreamcast all the way!!

 

Yes indeed true words to follow.
That game is one of the reasons why I like the Dreamcast. It's a shame Sega no longer makes consoles anymore. But anyway thanks for the suggestion.

 

Oh man, I loved Powerstone back in the day. But hated the invincibly power up core mechanic which you know used the actual power stones... We'd purposely never pick up the last stone in multiplayer to make the game more fun.

It was the mayhem of running around and smashing each other up desperately with whatever you have to hand, flower pots, chair legs, random satisfying projectile weapons which made the game perfect for us. And I haven't played this game since it came out and I remember it all quite vividly.

I toyed with the concept of a gladiatorial game. I envisaged rogue like system where you have a random fighter thrown into the pit. Random stats and equipment. Then you fight to survive with the constant threat of instant gory permanent death, slowly upgrading and personalising your character.

I imagined bigger arenas, the fans, the noise, a sort of rags to riches tale. Basically ripping off gladiator and modern rogue likes in 3d arena!