Savage

An Abandoned 2.5D Beat ’em Up Prototype

This project was an attempt to create a 2.5D beat ’em up featuring attacks and blocks across three levels, stamina management, and fights against groups of enemies.

The project was heavily inspired by Streets of Rage 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and Absolum.

About the Project

I'm a web developer by profession, and I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. Following the liquidation of the company I was working for, I decided to use the opportunity to explore game development and combine my programming and drawing skills in a personal project.

I learned a lot of the basics by following Bardent's game development tutorials on YouTube, while also experimenting and figuring things out on my own.

After several iterations, I ultimately decided to abandon the project and move on to something simpler and more manageable.

I'm still publishing this short demo because it represents a significant amount of work that went into the project, and I'd rather make it available than let it sit forgotten on my hard drive.

The Demo

The demo is very short and ends before the boss fight.

It includes:

• Character movement
• The combat system
• High / mid / low attacks
• High / mid / low blocking
• Dash and dodge mechanics
• Enemies
• Stamina management
• Some of the animations and visual effects

This is not a finished game, but simply a snapshot of the prototype as it stood when I stopped development.

Controls

The game is designed to be played with a controller.

Input	Action
Left Stick	Move
△ / Y (North)	HIGH Attack
□ / X (West)	MIDDLE Attack
✕ / A (South)	LOW Attack
○ / B (East)	Jump
L1 / LB	Back Dash
R1 / RB	Forward Dash
R2 / RT (Hold)	Guard
↑ while Guarding	HIGH Guard
→ / Neutral while Guarding	MIDDLE Guard
↓ while Guarding	LOW Guard
D-pad ↓	Meditation — lowers BPM
L2 / LT	Dodge — currently disabled

Guarding

While holding R2 / RT, use the Left Stick to choose which level to guard:

↑ HIGH · → / Neutral MIDDLE · ↓ LOW

Meditation

Press D-pad ↓ to meditate and lower your BPM, allowing you to recover from intense combat.

Why Did I Stop?

The project gradually became much more complex than what I realistically wanted to create as a solo developer.

I therefore decided to move on to a smaller project with a more clearly defined scope and a better chance of actually being completed.

Thanks to anyone who takes a few minutes to try the prototype!