Fatal Claw Dev Notes #01

Greetings from NDEV GAMES!

We are pleased to share the first developer's notes for Fatal Claw!
Through these dev logs, we want to share our direction, determination, and key ideas that helped shape the game into what it is now.
Furthermore, we will talk about why we chose the Metroidvania genre, what important aspects we considered when designing Kisha as a feline character, as well as his weapons and costumes.
Here is the first part of our journey:

[h3]Fatal Claw - A Metroidvania Game[/h3]
First of all, the Metroidvania genre is inarguably the one we love. All of us have been playing games from this genre regardless of platforms.
We have been discussing each game's strengths and weaknesses, taking those into account in our own development to create a game we can truly enjoy.
While our game may also have key strengths and areas for improvement, we are enjoying every aspect of the game design process—from creating new ideas to making tweaks—committed to deliver a thrilling Metroidvania-style experience for everyone.

[h3]Kisha the Cat[/h3]
In Fatal Claw, a mysterious adventure unfolds as Kisha returns from death and explores the underground world in his own way, all the while fighting off the infected and joining forces with survivors in a search for the solution to reach the surface.
We aim to present this seemingly dark and serious narrative in a way that feels bright, hopeful, and appealing.
Through countless brainstorming sessions, we settled on the concept of a demi-beast world with a feline protagonist.
(Although everyone is a fan of the Metroidvania genre, all of them must be adoring cats themselves... In fact, most of the team are cat owners. 😉)



[h3]Weapons[/h3]
When we envisioned a cat character, we imagined it should be cute, dignified, nimble, adorable... Virtually every positive trait we could think of.
So instead of getting lost in too many ideas, we adhered to a cat's "default" weapon: claws.

Initially, we came up with clawed gauntlets, but that meant they had to be quite large in order to visually stand out in-game.
This could have made our character look somewhat slow and bulky, unintentionally increasing the character's hitbox size.




So we focused on the idea of a magic cape with claws attached, which was one of many early sketches.
As a result, we managed to come up with a unique and interesting design. With this, we were able to define Kisha's intended hitbox size, visibly convey the character's speed, and add an ability to express the character's emotions.




[h3]Basic Costume[/h3]
We aimed to make Kisha visibly stand out by setting the overall game background in a darker tone.
We also focused on expressing the character's identity and preventing the character design from hindering gameplay, rather than focusing on cool design alone.
Some keywords are:

good-heart, rightfulness, bravery, nobility

To incorporate this idea, we adopted a white/yellow/blue color scheme, with strong contrast between black and white to make the character stand out against any background.
We used blue and yellow as accent colors.
Honestly, we still believe the black cat's blue pupils are the key visual here.




While some Costumes are visually stunning as cosmetics, we wanted them to be obtainable items through a Costume system as players follow the game's narrative.
Even if the Costumes are complex and flashy, we believe players will be well-acquainted with the gameplay mechanics by the time they acquire them.




When designing Kisha, we made sure to prioritize gameplay functionality, not just his compelling design.

That's all for our first dev notes. We will continue to share more updates on what's in the pipeline, so stay tuned!