HOLA, WRESTLING FANS!

　　I'm pleased to present a prototype for a small wrestling game, inspired heavily by AKI's N64 classics. This project started off as a learning tool so that I could teach myself how to program in UE4. However, it has progressed to the point where I'm happy to share it here!

　　THE CURRENT BUILD & FEATURES: PROTOTYPE V1.4

　　Since Prototype V1.3 launched in February of 2022, I’ve been hard at work with some new and exciting updates. New additions in Prototype V1.4 include:

　　Six Unique Stages! We now have actual arena set-ups, each themed to a member of the current BBLL roster. Arenas are currently automatically selected based on the player 1 character. Three New Luchadors! The roster has gained three new dynamic superstars, each with their own unique movesets, stats, and taunts! New Moves! Over 140 new animations have been added to the game. This is mainly done to support the new roster additions. However, several existing moves have also been updated as well! New Weapon Attacks! Players can now throw steel chairs at their opponents. Thrown chairs can also be caught by blocking the incoming projectile! New Music! The uber talented Ewen Watson has created some amazing new tracks for the game’s menus and new characters. I’ve even set up a specific menu so that you can take in the music by itself! Counter System Updates! Counters in grapples are now heavily tied to your current spirit, so build up your meter before going for those big grapple attacks! We have a bunch of additional counter animations too! New Art & Menus! The menu system has been revamped, with a new main menu & splash art. Vs screens have also gotten an update. 1 vs 1 local multiplayer. The game is currently multiplayer only; I'll be looking into AI down the road. Three luchadors, each with a P2 outfit and unique movesets. A dynamic camera system to track the action. Health, stamina, and damage systems. A melee attack system with weak and strong attacks. A defensive system with blocking and dodging. AKI-style grappling & grappling moves: grab your opponent, and then tap a button to perform a move while in a collar-and-elbow tie-up. Includes front grapples, back grapples, running grapples, grapples against running, and corner grapples. AKI-style spirit meters! As with the N64 AKI games, Spirit Meters now ebb and flow as the match goes on. The meter will fill up with successful attacks or taunting, and will empty when luchadors are knocked down. Empty meters will enter a "Danger State," which makes luchadors particularly likely to be pinned, submitted, or KOed. Finisher grapple moves when your Spirit Meter is full! AKI-style Running! Run straight at your opponent, run the ropes, or sprint to the corners. Taunting & appeals to the crowd! Top Rope Moves! Recovery System. As the luchadors take more damage, it will take longer for them to recover. However, when the Special Meter activates, the luchadors will pop back up from any attack! Ground Melee Attacks! When your opponent is down, you can hit them with standing or running strikes! Pins and submissions if your opponent is laying on the mat! Irish Whips. Grapple your opponent, and then send them running to the ropes or a corner of the ring! Ringside Gameplay! Walk out of the ring or knock your opponent to the floor. Dives to the floor, ringside grapples, and count outs included. Color commentary (early stages). Weapon attacks! A counter system for melee and grapple attacks. AKI-style recover attacks. Lifting downed opponents back to their feet. Running dodge system. Back body drops to the floor! And, of course, everything that has been established in previous releases:

　　A full gameplay guide is included with the game download!

　　SYSTEM SPECS

　　With the added arena elements in V1.4, system specifications for performance have become more important. I’ve been able to test on a couple of different computers, and was able to get the following results:

　　OK Performance & Loading:

　　Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU (8CPUs) 2.80GHz

　　Memory: 16 GB RAM

　　Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Laptop GPU (2GB VRAM)

　　Better Performance & Loading:

　　Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS (16CPUs), ~3.3GHz

　　Memory: 16GB RAM

　　Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 3060 RTX Laptop GPU (6GB VRAM)

　　As this is still very much a work-in-progress and not particularly optimized, your mileage may vary depending on your own computers specs.

　　PLAY USING STEAM!

　　BBLL should work just fine with an Xbox controller. However, if you have a different controller that’s compatible with Steam, you can still try the game out! Just sideload the game into Steam and you should be able to use any compatible controller. Check out this straightforward guide for more info: https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-add-non-steam-games-to-steam

　　Have a Steam Deck? You can try it out there as well! Side load the game and use Proton Experimental to get it to boot.

　　PLEASE NOTE: The game isn’t actually on Steam at this time. This is just a method for people without Xbox controllers to try out the prototype. Please don’t search for the game on Steam.

　　BUGS/GLITCHES/ISSUES

　　Of course, please remember that this is a work-in-progress, and still pretty early in development. There are bound to be issues you’ll encounter as you play.

　　A few bugs/glitches I’ve noted during recent tests:

　　On any menu, if you click on the screen controller input will be disabled and you’ll only be able to navigate with your mouse. Unreal’s menu system is trickier than expected! During a recent playtest, we had an issue where one luchador grabbed a chair but it didn’t appear in their hands. It happened exactly once in a long series of matches, but be aware that weapon might get a little awkward! If you attempt to run in a specific direction right after an action is performed, your luchador may instead run straight at the opponent. A good work around right now is to double tap and hold in the direction you want and then tap run. Going for a specific direction with Irish whips can be touchy. If you mash a direction and then try to Irish whip immediately after grappling, there is a fair chance you may whip the opponent in an undesired direction. The best method I’ve found to get around this is to grapple, wait a second, and then hit your direction & perform the Irish whip. Trying to Irish whip your opponent directly into something while touching it may result in some unintended collision interactions. Give yourself a little room with Irish whips. On occasion, the character will move forward on their own after coming to a stop from Irish whips or leaping off the top. Tapping attack/melee/run should stop this. Grappling while the luchadors are touching the ropes or a barricade may cause an unintended offset between the luchadors while the grapple sequence plays out. If going for a running plancha while right next to the ropes, your luchador might not dive out of the ring and instead run the ropes. Be sure to put a little space between yourself and the ropes before running. On very rare occasion, your luchador might stop moving and run in place when hitting the ropes. If this happens, tap the Right Trigger to stop running.

　　WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

　　With the launch of V1.4 and a lot of the core gameplay ideas in place, I’ll be looking at some major additions for V1.5. Some of the big items include:

　　A move over to Unreal Engine 5. The UE5 move will allow for a ground up rebuild of the code. I know a lot more about working in Unreal now than I did when I started the project, and there are so many areas where we can streamline and improve what’s happening under the hood! Some single player content. The ability to have more that two wrestlers in a match. And more! This will definitely take some time, but these updates will absolutely be worth it for the project’s expansion and long-term health. Please stay tuned!

　　FUTURE UPDATES

　　You can follow this game's progress via the following:

　　Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1SrOV5Pn6B1v97StKjrWvA

　　Twitter: https://twitter.com/LuchadorUe4