New version!

Changes:

• Difficulty levels!
  • Open the options menu and select the "Combat" tab; the difficulty settings should now be available there.
  • These settings are still somewhat nascent, and so may be somewhat unbalanced.
• Further tweaking of the player-input mechanism.
• Back-stepping has been added; press 's' (as with normal WASD controls) to retreat.
• Further alterations to the AI.
• The floor now works properly.
  • This is a feature that I believe that I failed to mention in the post for the previous version: the player should no longer leave the "circle of light" as a result of manoeuvring. It was also broken in that version, but should now be working properly.
• It seems that the previous version included an oversight that allowed one to do damage with parts of a weapon that should have been harmless; this should now be fixed.
• Miscellaneous changes.

Known issues:

• As a result of changes to the internal handling of the options menu, that menu's "done" button no longer works in this prototype (although it does, I believe, work in the main game). Pressing "o" to dismiss the menu should, however, still work.
• Physics issues still remain.

I've had a few pieces of feedback that seem to indicate that the loss of control when an attack either lands or is blocked is unintuitive. As a result, I'm trying a slightly different control mechanism, and I'd appreciate feedback on it.

Download link (Win32 installer)

The controls are outlined in the game, as before, but the major change is in how one attacks: instead of direct control, the player now presses the left mouse button to initiate an attack, and swipes the mouse to indicate the line that the attack should follow.

This version additionally features slightly better models, additional animations, and music, I believe.

Otherwise, I've started work on a potential replacement mechanic; I may end up starting a thread for that sometime soon.