Living on the Edge

        A lot of things have happened since the last update. For one, we have chosen our setting/context/art style. Our players are ghosts inhabiting an old, dilapidated mansion with a long and colorful history. Each ghost met their end within its walls and believes itself the true owner, and every month on the full moon they simultaneously grow powerful enough to manifest and fight each other and try to banish the others to their eternal rest. With this came a new iteration of our dodge mechanic, now called "phasing" or "drifting". The dodge lasts for about half a second and makes the player intangible, allowing them to pass through attacks without harm as well as other players and the walls of the environment. We're building our attacks and our levels around this mechanic with a goal of creating a very dynamic space for players to show off their personal skill and tactical decisionmaking.
        Phasing creates a lot of subtle decisions for the player to make every second of gameplay and as a result it has a strong effect on the pacing of the combat. While your phase is available you can play much more aggressively because you always have a fallback in case things go wrong. You can dodge your opponent's biggest attack without letting up your own onslaught, or you can disengage through a wall and look for a more opportune time to strike. There's a lot of applications both for aggressive close range playstyles and longer range sniping or hit and run strategies. Baiting your opponent's phase is a valuable tactic as well, because it puts them in a state of vulnerability that you can capitalize on. Phasing through a wall can be both an escape maneuver as well as a bluff, because if an opponent follows you through then you know for sure that their phase is down as well and if you turn and fight then they will have much more limited options to defend themselves. We expect proper use of the phasing mechanic to be a main determination of skill level, and hope that it'll add that extra level we need to move above and beyond button mashing into a more competitive game. So far it's testing well in terms of first impressions and fun factor with new players, and we'll be keeping a close eye on how it evolves as repeat testers become more comfortable with the system.