Today I want to share an important development decision.

I’m taking a Game Dev course at HUB Sampa (I just had my first class yesterday!) and I already learned something essential: scope is everything.

While planning the first stage boss, I got inspired by Black Belt on the Master System. Does anyone remember that game?

The stages are beat’em up, but during boss fights the camera zooms in and it becomes a 1v1 fighting game, similar to Street Fighter, but with only one attack button.

I thought about doing something similar since I could reuse most of my animations. I would only need a few new ones (like crouching and sweep attacks) and a camera change. I even created those animations to test the idea (they’re in this video).

But I’m a solo dev.
I animate, code, draw backgrounds — I do everything myself.

If I keep adding new ideas just because they sound cool, the game will never be finished.

So I decided to cut this feature.
Right now the focus is finishing the game first.

Improvements can come later as DLC or even Zero Medal 2.

What do you think about a simplified versus mode as a future DLC? Have you ever played Black Belt?

Zero Medal - The Galaxy Champions is an action game featuring the comic book characters Garra, Sombra, Pintado, and Juba in epic battles through the streets of Brazil, in the classic beat ’em up style that defined the great titles of the 80s and 90s. Release date: TBA.

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