Rex McFury: Public Defender by minibobbo
Rex McFury: Public Defender is the unlikely combination of River City Ransom-like brawler and Courtroom Drama.
Arrow Key or WASD to move
K or Z to Attack
L or X to Jump
Created by: Dave (Minibobbo) - Art and Programming
http://codingadventure.net
David J. Michalak - Music and Sound
https://www.toxicwastemusic.com/

| HTML5 (web) | http://codingadventure.net/html5/LD41/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/rex-mcfury-public-defender |
Ratings
| Overall | 173th | 3.896⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 125th | 3.927⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 619th | 3.313⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 525th | 3.677⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 271th | 3.99⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 114th | 3.896⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 8th | 4.479⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 321th | 3.598⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 49🗳️ | 55🗨️ |
As I want to play more Rex McFury I really hope this case isn't closed yet. :smile:
I'm on W7(x64) with Firefox.
I want lawyer like this on my side.
PD: Really liked your Audio
Nice work
Thanks for the game!
Humor is really the star here. Themewise this games fails since it's nothing more than a beat'em up.
Other than that, nice game.
@rulrite I love the Ace Attorney games also. We kicked around the idea of having Rex yell out OBJECTION sometimes during the fights but ended up not doing it. Maybe in the sequel.
@kensou Thanks for the comments. The ending was added real close to the deadline on Monday evening and I didn't know how to end it. The bloody knife was a literal last minute addition.
@dlowe and @megrabbit I'm a little disappointed I didn't balance the voice better. Dave did some awesome voice work and I think it is some of the funnier parts of the game. The lines you missed are "It's time to cross examine this witness... WITH MY FISTS" and "Look out Judge, I'm about to approach the bench!". The victory speech was "The court finds the defendants lawyer... awesome" Thanks for the comments!
@yetman Thanks for the comments. Anything specific about the controls that were giving you difficulty? Awkward layout? I honestly have a key rebinding screen all ready but just didn't have time to put the button on the main screen... Sorry about that!
@fil089 I agree that the gameplay doesn't have multiple genres. The original concept was going to have some interactive elements to the courtroom scene, but I realized before I even started that I wasn't going to have time. So I was tuck with a story genre and a gameplay genre divide. I think it fits within the theme, but I understand that others might not. Agree to disagree I guess. Thanks for the comments!
This is gold!
@team-infernus It's funny, but you are the second person to mention you had trouble with the controls. Can you explain what made them difficult? Would something as simple as a key remapping option fix it, or was there something else?
@legavroche The original plan was to have 4 levels. The second and third got cut.
The second was going to be the prosecution playing a video of you client committing the vaguely defined crime. You would have to destroy the TV while fighting off the other prosecutor. The third was going to be a fight against the jury, which would have been 12 weak enemies. I really like the idea of fighting the board of attorney ethics!
Justice will prevail
#### POSITIVE
- The theme it's there.
- The graphics are like really good and had mojo.
- Good control over the character
- Jokes and humor was great
- Voice acting
#### OBSERVATIONS
- shoort, this is not a problem... but in here feels like it is.
- A especial move it's welcome.
Was really fun, good work.
Great game!
Really fantastic job!
Please, take a look at my game too: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/confessional
Strangely, I liked your logo the best :D But the overall idea is really solid and humor is top notch.
@Kami-86 I agree the length is a short and it could use more. But I ran out of time, so too bad :smile:
@aaron-nemoyten I threw those sounds in for our original testing. Dave created sounds for both the swings and different attacks when they hit, but I never got around to implementing them... Post jam version will be better. Thanks for the input!
@dovakla The original brainstorm had some interactive court elements. It may evolve into a simple dialog tree and an excuse to tell jokes. I was struggling to come up with a way to make the player's choices meaningful when the end result was always going to be "I'm going to punch the witness/lawyer/judge in the face" regardless of the outcome!
@caterein and @sidewalksleeper The Judge can be easily beaten by walking up to him and just repeatedly jump kicking him in the face. It was actually supposed to be harder but due to a bug on my side the balls that fall from the sky actually fall slightly above the player so never hit you :flushed: He was also going to teleport around the arena, but that got cut for time. Post jam the fight will play out much more like I pictured it in my head.
@gyfis Good suggestion with the special moves. Rex definitely needs some additional attacking options as the enemies get more complicated and that is a good suggestion.
Thanks all.
I was really happy to beat these little pixelated people.
The fights were also really solid, with each character having their moves and patterns, and requiring a different approach to beat them! The little old lady blocking shots with her umbrella was a very nice tactical touch.
The music was groovin, and I liked the gritty synthesized sound effects. Although I did wish for a different sound for a successful hit vs a wiff, just for information conveyance.
So this game is really on point. But since you're asking someone to get specific about the controls, and since this game is good enough to be worth diving deeper into, let's do it.
I too experienced some frustration with the controls in my initial moments of playing. In fact I got wrecked in my first fight and felt like it was all off. Starting my second fight, I went away from the lady and just experimented with the controls. I saw how very long I am "stuck" when I punch, and so I stopped playing like a brawler and played more like a "wait for it, counterattack" game. Then I wrecked the lady and only got hit once.
So partly it's adjusting. But I still think something is a bit off. For example, testing now, I am trying this combination of inputs, starting from facing left:
Punch
(Begin holding right, indicating I want to turn around)
Punch
Punch
That's punch-spamming with a turnaround inputted an instant after I begin. In this case I can accept that I don't get the turnaround until after the first punch completes, but the game will actually run the entire combo of 3 punches before turning around.
Thinking back to my first play when I lost, I remember getting up in the mix with the old lady and punching, then I'd find I wasn't quite on the correct side, and my punches were missing -- or were they? kind of unsure since the sound is the same -- and I am now trying to turn around and punch the other way, but I'm not turning when I expect to. I also recall deciding to escape down, but feeling "stuck" in place.
This is all the initial moments with the game, and I soon adjusted. After realizing how it worked, I thought, oh this is a design decision, to make you more careful.
Testing further I see the following moments of loss of control:
- No air control
- No buffered re-jump so if I want to jump again and push a frame early, I don't get a jump
- Hitting attack one frame before landing is also not feeling great (seems to cancel on touchdown?)
- There is a stun when I get hit (probably fine, but maybe needs knockback?)
So a lot of windows where you ignore my inputs. Some valid, but consider reviewing each I guess?
Hope that helps put some specifics on that question.
And to be clear: great game, this dive into the controls isn't dissing it!
I based the controls off of River City Ransom, but then I went to play it again and realized that you do actually have some air control, but not much. I originally allowed air control but while it feels natural in a 2d plaformer, when you add the pseudo 3d like this is it feels a little awkward.
Some of what you are describing were design decisions. The witness fight is designed to be a slow paced thing with plenty of time to learn the controls and get a feel for the game. If you keep moving she can't really hit you at all and most of the difficulty comes from the counter.
I'll also have to allowing buffered inputs, specifically when jumping. I have the code in place to do it already but didn't...
This is what I'm thinking.
1. I can allow buffered inputs for jumping and turning around, so when you launch a combo in the wrong direction you can change direction in the middle without stopping and restarting. This should take care of the 1 frame early punch after a jump, which will just become a punch instead.
2. Speed up the pre and post attack animations/wait times so the character feels more responsive. I think this will eliminate some of the feeling of being "stuck in place".
3. Finally get around to adding the miss vs hit attack sounds. I have them, just ran out of time plugging them in...
4. Knockback on the player hit. It is actually already in the post-compo version which will add in the two extra fights that were cut for time, add some graphical goodies, and clean up the controls based largely on your feedback.
Thanks so much! I'd like your comment more than once if that was possible!
@Jupiter_Hadley Thanks so much!
It reminded me a lot of "Double Dragon". The only thing that did not happen was to fly the two buttons together ...
I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.
I hope you continue with the project.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape