Toy Fighter - Devlog #1 : Jamming On

Introduction

Welcome to the first blog post for the game that I and a friend are developing, with the working title of Bubbleheads, the game was first concieved in the Global Game Jam 2025. It was created as a fast paced multiplayer brawler where the only way of eliminating other players were by popping the bubbles on their head, drawing inspiration from bamboo balloon fight toys [] with a third-person arena style format and movement similar to the old Jedi Academy games. The game can be played here, it is however very buggy.

From this prototype we thought about how it could be improved or changed, as I saw it we could go in two different directions, either making the game closer to a QWOP style game and lean into the comparison of the desktop balloon fight toys which would be a more niche and unique concept, or we lean into the party game element of it that would give us more freedom to add arcadey mechanics and hit a wider audience. We decided to go with the latter as we saw the larger potential of the concept as we began to discuss the direction it could be taken in.

From the idea of a brawler played on the desk of an office worker, the game evolved to multiplayer arena fighter using old action figures as characters. This idea grew from the childhood stories that we would make when playing with action figures, using GI Joes, Ninjas and other characters.

Current Progress

As of now most of the progress has been laying out the scope of the game and some of the features that we would like to add to it. This includes various "genres" or factions of characters, all sharing the same style of old action figures, such as GI Joes, Ninjas, Superheroes, etc. These factions would have specific abilities, and signature weapons that would give the player access to special attacks when the weapon is picked up, as an example the ninja faction would have a katana that would give them access to a special dash attack or similar. They would also have faction specific movement abilities, ninjas would have the ability to run up walls or wall jump and GI Joes would have access to a grapple hook, the idea being to give players different ways of traversing the maps with relative parity.

Another element we have explored is the style and aesthetics of the game, for this we knew that we wanted the characters to imitate action figures as much as possible and as such they would all be plastic with visible joints and would be animated as if they were in stop motion, this will give the game a solid and unique aesthetic that would stand out from others if handled correctly.

Taking the base of the game created for the GGJ I have carried on working on the fundamentals of the gameplay, this means reworking the combat into something with more depth than a single attack. I first added a robust combo system that allowed for more types of melee weapons and both light and heavy attack combos that could be mixed up. As a complement to this there will be a block and parry system added to allow for more back and forth between players, this will form the basis of the melee combat for the game, with ranged combat being added later to fulfil the fantasy of other genres of characters added, such as action men/GI Joes.

Next Steps

The next steps of development will be to implement the block and parry system that will complement the combat system, and both update and test the networking elements of the system. As this is the core loop of the game, this has to be thoroughly tested and refined to make sure the gameplay is fun and balanced, striking that middle ground between depth and "pick up and play". Alongside this I will also be implementing the systems for ranged combat, as this will also make up a large part of the combat loop this will also have to be tested extensively to make sure it fits with the other elements. This will likely contain a large number of system changes and will take some time to get dialed in completely.

As part of development I will be looking to upload a devlog every week or 2 to keep myself motivated and keep those who are interested updated on the progress. As such, subsequent devlogs will likely not be nearly as long or wafflely!