Rivals of Aether with Dan Fornace

What It Covers

Dan Fornace discusses building Rivals of Aether two, an indie platform fighter that bridges casual and competitive play, covering technical challenges like custom physics, rollback netcode, and balancing four annual character releases.

Key Questions Answered

• •Custom collision systems: Rivals two uses entirely custom collision logic and ECB (environment collision box) systems in Unreal Engine that dynamically adjust to character animations, requiring manual implementation to achieve frame-perfect competitive gameplay while maintaining rollback netcode compatibility.
• •Accessibility through intentional design: Wave dashing became a dedicated state with custom animations, allowing players to execute it by pressing jump and dodge simultaneously rather than frame-perfect timing, making advanced techniques accessible while preserving competitive depth from Melee.
• •Constraint-driven innovation: Removing shields from Rivals one due to pixel art animation limitations led to creating the parry system, where well-timed spot dodges stun opponents for follow-ups, which became a defining competitive mechanic that players preferred over traditional shields.
• •Solo viability balance philosophy: Every character receives targeted adjustments to ensure solo tournament viability, addressing specific matchup problems rather than broad nerfs, while removing dominating single-move strategies before they define the meta and discourage move variety among players.