How to implement 'realistic' swordfighting in video games.

If I've learned nothing else from Dan Cook of <a href="http://lostgarden.com" rel="nofollow">http://lostgarden.com</a> it's that just thinking up a game-mechanic is practically useless - you have to make a prototype, play with it (as a game) and tweak it (as a coder) to bring out the fun. Like any other fiendishly complicated, non-linear function, the psychological response to 'fun' is not something you can just sketch out on a napkin and say 'yeah, that'll work'.<p>Here's hoping someone with a bit of time on their hands will take this spec, stick it into some RAD game tool and see what happens.

The game Dragon Realms (play.net/dr) implements a system very much like this. It's actually a mud and not a video game, but that actually doesn't make a significant difference in this context.<p>DR has balance, so that the better balanced you are the better you can attack and defend. Some weapons are better than other at unbalancing an opponent, and you can also use spells to gain balance or unbalance something else.<p>It also has stamina, so that when you swing a sword over and over eventually you'll start swinging wildly, and eventually you'll fall over from exhaustion. This also negatively affects your balance.<p>The mechanic of position is also used, and as you play you learn how to respond to attacks or execute sequences of attacks to gain a better position.<p>Benzim mentioned having thrust, slash, etc, and DR implements this idea with thrust, jab, chop, sweep, slash, charge, etc.<p>The DR system differs from the one in the article in that you can face multiple opponents, though that's a skill you have to level up or else you'll be overwhelmed.<p>Overall the combat system is very engaging and different from the typical MUD system of typing "attack" and watching lines of numbers go by. Worth playing if you're into that kind of thing.

Swordfighting is a lot like sex. Often it's not what you do - but what you say.<p>A: Soon you´ll be wearing my sword like a shish kebab! B: First you better stop waiving it like a feather-duster.

Another interesting mechanic would be different types of attacks: thrust, slash left, slash right, slash down. The player can see the attack beginning and has a small amount of time to choose the correct defense to that attack. Choosing the correct defense reduces the amount of focus lost. You could also add shields. If you press block with a shield it'll block any attack with minimal loss of focus. Shields would have hit points and break if used too many times.<p>Mount and Blade is the closest game I've played to this. It still has hit points, but that makes sense for a medieval game where you're fighting heavily armored humans.

I think the original Prince of Persia was the most fun swordfighting game I have played.

I think the author needs to have a look at the latest Prince of Persia. The elaborate acrobatics plus his suggested system are what make the game interesting.<p>However, the other thing that needs to be remembered is that if you want to play real sword fighting, take up fencing. Better graphics and level of immersion than you'll find in any game.

I stopped reading when it seemed like he was trying to reconcile reality with games. Won't happen. In real life, a .22 caliber cartridge to the pinky will put you on the medivac. In a game, you keep playing because...the point of a game is fun, not avoiding sepsis.

Bushido Blade for the original PlayStation was a one-on-one game with pretty realistic weapon fights.<p>One hit from a sword in a vital area and you were dead. Hits to the legs or arm would disable that limb.<p>A lot of the fights were over quickly. But when both players were good, you could have some pretty tense, tactical duels.<p>The game mechanics also encouraged you to fight honorably.

Love the article and I'd just like to take a moment to lament the lack of Bushido Blade type games in the last 2 generations of consoles. Easily the greatest fighting games ever.<p>you can email me if you can't figure out a way of playing them &#62;_&#62;

There was a game called Moonstone which has realtime swordfighting. You could use 8 way axis of the joystick ( preferably Phyton brand) with two button. It was fantastic and never surpassed.<p>I don't understand why you need realistic sword fighting in games where you play just for fun. If realism needed then probably you need a fencing simulation.

The best sword-fighting game I've come across has been Defenders of the Crown. Very quick little fights, mess up three times and you die.<p>For an example of an original martial arts fighting game, Toribash is worth checking out and seems very interesting. My computer isn't powerful enough to play it though, so I can't give a review.

re: boxing games and stamina. I've never found this game mechanic to be convincing, just vaguely frustrating. All of us know what it feels like to push our muscles to the point of exhaustion, until they no longer respond - it is such an innate experience that for me, it is impossible to convincingly recreate it with a keyboard or controller and some on-screen meters.<p>On the other hand, most of us probably don't have experience bludgeoning each other with sharp or blunt objects to the point of exhaustion or death. This might mean two things: first, that we don't object to flashy, fun combats, because they are closest to our fighting experience which comes from watching movies. Second, that a realistic combat - a tedious, dirty matter of concentration and endurance - might just not be that much fun to play.

Let's see how Red Steel 2 for the wii handles this. It will be revealed at E3 (beginning of june). It makes use of wii motion plus which adds extra input to the wiimote so that you can have a true (or as close as you can get) 1:1 motion.

I think the realistic version would be more fun. But as both a fencer and the author of a Nethack variant, I might be an outlier here :-)

Dark Messiah had an interesting combat system. Too bad they outsourced the multiplayer component, which absolutely sucked.