Eight Hit Stop Techniques [Design Specifics]

I've talked about hit stop before, but this time I'll be sharing specific details of the hit stop techniques used in Smash Bros. Ultimate. I hope you enjoy your taste of these secret ingredients!

■Related Video
Stop for Big Moments! [Design Specifics]

[rotallyPumpered]

You get insight into how uniquely qualified Sakurai is to design Smash Bros. His knowledge of other games doesn't just extend to the characters, stories, music and worlds of the franchises the series has collaborated with, but the fundamental design of a massive number of games. Really helps me appreciate how much care and respect for other designers goes into each title.

[Somerandomjingleberry]

What strikes me about this video as a whole is that one of the VERY FIRST videos on this channel was about the idea of hit stop itself. This is something that matters a LOT to Sakurai as to how games are made and tick. This video just picked up more or less where that one left off and went “here’s all of the nuance I added to it in my stuff, feel free to try and replicate this in whatever you’re making and it’ll be amazing”
It never ceases to amaze me how generous all of these videos are even if they’re quite simple at times; this could cause a shift in quality in games all over the place, and Sakurai isn’t even helping this shift happen because of getting anything out of it for himself! Well, besides more good games for his own playing pleasure in what free time he has, but still!
Keep up the good work, Sakurai-san!

[PhantomArcade]

the lengths to which this was perfected and polished is nothing short of incredible

[JonnyJayKhan]

Sakurai has such an eye for flare and drama whilst also making things feel realistic

[Brave_New_Tube]

It’s wild how much thought he puts into the smallest details, and then it all blends together so seamlessly that it’s barely noticeable by most, and now he’s giving away a lot of his knowledge for free on the internet. This man’s dedication and passion for gaming is unmatched.

[isaacjewton]

Wow never thought ultimate has so much detail just in one hit! At this point I can only apperacite how Sakurai is willing to share these tips for free.

[tnbink]

Most of these techniques I noticed before while playing but I never noticed the one with camera distance, that one is very clever

[MrRukrio]

honestly the follow-through bit with swords makes a lot of sense when spelled out. you don't just want those blades to smack, there's more innate satisfaction out of watching it slowly carve through, even in cases where you can't let characters slice clean through like smash, it's just too satisfying to the 'feel' of a weapon to ignore.

[TapirMask]

The cutting motion toggle is such a specific and small thing but it works so well, that's great.

[vlongo]

The timing of this video is incredible with Riot's new fighting game video the other day having some players new to fighting games talking about how they don't like fighting games because of hitstop (Sajam just made a video about this). Sakurai out here just demonstrating how important hitstop really is to a fighting game.

[Shahars]

The impact and vfx work in Sakurai's games is always top notch. You can see the hit-stop effects he's talking about in this video all the way back in Kirby Super Star. I think that one of his future videos will also involve his games' excessive use of damage visual effects. From all the way back in Kirby Super Star (again lol) you can see multiple little sparks and effects shooting out or emanating from characters whenever they get hit. Try getting hurt in KSS or Smash 64 and you can totally see what I'm talking about. This technique along with hitstop and punchy sound effects makes Sakurai's games' combat have this really big raw impact on the player.

[chessycopter]

The way he said: “look at me, spilling trade secrets!” was just too priceless lol.

[Lexgamer]

Trade secrets? I see it like the fighting game community, no one is hiding the tech they discover, instead, they all share it and give each other pointers, so they can be better players. In that same vain, we very much appreciate what your videos are doing for game design, Sakurai!

[null]

Having how far the shake moved on the screen stay consistent even when zoomed out and having the animation continue during the stop were things I'd pretty much never considered. Really neat stuff.

[CobraCode]

Amazing video about a really important topic!
I started to look into hit stop before Sakurai San started this channel and found one of his famitsu columns that was really helpful when implementing it into my own game, so I'm extremely happy he's still talking about this and even going into detail.
Just adding good Hit Stop can easily make your game feel much better, so I'm always surprised almost nobody is talking about it in the indie dev or game dev tutorial community.

[aneess]

Design specifics is probably my favourite category so far. You have no idea of how much you're helping begginer game developers mr. Sakurai, thanks a lot!

[TheGamersState]

What makes these even better is a lot of this can also be applied to normal video animation as well as games.

[nibblrrr]

0:00 Intro
0:43 Shake
0:58 1. Make the receiving character shake more
1:20 2. Don't move the hit box
1:38 3. Shake horizontally on the ground, shake in all directions in the air
2:09 4. Gradually resolve the shake
2:26 5. Control the amount of hit stop
3:12 6. Interpolate into the damage pose
3:43 7. Keep the attacker moving very slightly during the hit stop
4:40 8. Vary the amount of shake based on camera distance
5:05 Outro
5:23 End screen

[NihongoWakannai]

I like how this video goes into more details about specific aspects of a single feature. Some of the stuff is only aplicable to 3D with interpolated blending, but the shaking stuff is something I have never tried in 2D before.

[Ganondurk]

sakurai is truly a legend, what an absolute king among game developers

describing how the awesome hitstop effects in his game work in great detail, then hitting us at the end with "oh yeah i came up with all this too lol" incredible