Personal Thoughts (9/18/24):

Overall, I'm proud of the game I made here. Originally called "Arcade Quest" until the developer of STEEL ASSAULT told me it's a bad name (He ain't wrong!)Etehfowr Against, named after the band FOR AGAINST, is an agressive game. It's fun using different team compositions. It was my first REAL game (I'm pulling a Zach Cregger & Greta Gerwig here). I did not know how to properly set up arrays and a lot of the heavy lifting was done by multiple programming libraries that I used. I also think the game is designed way too much around the central system of the timers, which causes a lot of snowball-effect matches. A complaint I wished I addressed earlier was a lot of the characters feel homogenous. Everyone's dash attack is roughly similar (except lemrojam) and since 2022, I'm moving away from design choices that seem to negate or ignore the idea of "space" between the characters. I tried to rememdy this with the final 4 characters (lulz, tenpenny, lemrojam, raidgirl) by introducing unique mechanics to them (Lulz's gun, lemrojams lemonade meter, Tenpenny's sword, Raidgirl's roaches) but those mechanics really did fall flat.

Additionally, as much as I liked the timer idea, I would probably drop it for the sequel. A lot of newer fighting games have trended towards meter-based design. This is not a bad thing by itself, but I would like to make a fighting game where spacing is extremely important. Don't get me wrong, resources in game design makes your title look like it has depth, but if those resources all lead to similar results, then what? I think what has happened with the game is simply, it wasn't made with intent. I think that's a very honest mistake for a beginner to make. You really don't know how a mechanic will play out when it interacts with multiple things. The throw game is so lackluster. When I started working on EFA, the original design also required for there to be no blocking. Every character was going to have armor/super armor that would break after 1 hit. I'm glad this ended up not happening, but it's obvious throws were added in last minute. When I played fighting games around this time, I didn't understand throws. I didn't understand that its a good idea to be invulnerable while doing them. Didn't understand that they can afford an opportunity to combo and didn't understand the importance of knockdown. Speaking of Knockdown, this game didn't have it! Throws and Knockdowns in a team game are extremely important! Novice players won't realize it gives them breathing room to perform set ups + figure out how to get out of trouble.

Now when I see this game, I'm fond of that period of time working on it and finishing it up. I made some great friends, had some great moments, and everything was very carefree. I got into my first serious relationship at this time too. Sasha the dog was based on my childhood pet. Lulz was a character my brother made up in middle-school. The background you see is the japanese restaurant Kenka, in New York City near Astor Place. It's underneath the punk rock thrift store Search and Destroy (same owner of Kenka!) I didn't make much money at the time, but that government stimmy really kept me afloat. Everything that seemed impossible became possible. I died my hair blonde for the first time. I went out to picnics and parks and concerts. I was doing new things, all the time. Whatever I wanted to say about my youth, it's all in that game. It's all mis-shapen and busted heart. Even if it's not explicitly stated outright, Etehfowr Against is a snapshot of my 2021.

Check out this article @ Supercombo on the game.

Some Fun Facts!

• The gameplay design of controlling both characters simultaneously originated by accident. The game was originally 1 versus 1, but this happy accident expanded the game's combat. This allowed for simpler single characters that would turn complex with the additional character to manage now.
• The game takes place in the year 2001. There was going to be a short story mode, but it was cut for time.
• There were supposed to be 3 more characters. The Zainichi Korean LEE, The revived as a robot basketball player DUNKBOT, and the villain and leader of the Illuminati, JOHNNY MAC.
• Every character's moves are either named after a song or a film. Majormel's 400 blows are named after the french new wave film "The 400 Blows". Cyrus' secret super "Born Slippy" is named after the Underworld song. Some of these songs and films were chosen to give some sort of way to communicate the character's personalities to the audience. For example, the super move "400 blows" might give someone who knows french new wave films the impression that Majormel is a delinquint type of character.
• The choice of teams having their own timer was done to create moments based around explosive gameplay. It's a system made to reward defense and agression (time 'freezes' when blocking or hitting). The Janurary 2022 update allowed players to spend their own timers to use super's immediately. This was to allow for options to open up. If I were to continue working on this game.
• The cut story mode was based around the events of 9/11. There were 6 stages, some scenarios including 1v1 or 1v2 or even fighting with 0 timer. There really wasn't much going on variety-wise, but an attempt was made.
• The reason players can't choose two of the same characters isn't an intentional design choice, but me not knowing how to duplicate a character. Fortunately, I did take the time to learn how to do this for my later games (AND FOR THE SEQUEL!), but EFA's code is so bad that it would just be easier to move on to a new project.