Ragdoll Physics

Casual Pro Wrestling features a very unique blend between classical animation and ragdoll physics.

It is important to note that the game does not use active ragdolls. Active ragdolls solely rely on a physics simulation for anything and everything. As a result, controls are often extremely clunky.

The goal for Casual Pro Wrestling was to combine the fun of ragdoll physics with classical and (mostly) intuitive wrestling game controls.

When do Wrestlers Ragdoll?

As a rule of thumb, wrestlers in CPW ragdoll if they become incapacitated. This always happens after a wrestling maneuver such as a suplex. When receiving a heavy punch, wrestlers will stagger and might either catch themselves or ragdoll.

While ragdolling, wrestlers can still be interacted with as known from other wrestling games: they can be attacked, picked up, caught in a submission, etc.

After a while, wrestlers come back to senses and become controllable again. How long this takes depends on their Stats. Once they come out of ragdolling, they are smoothly blended back to classical animation.

World Interaction & Dynamic Selling

The advantage of bringing ragdoll physics into a wretling game is the possible interaction with the environment. Especially in combination with the ring rope physics, this can create never-before-seen scenarios. Suplexing somebody against a ring post, or slamming them into the ring ropes or a pile of chairs has never been so responsive in any other wrestling game.

There is no fixed animation for laying on the ground. You may find a leg resting on a rope, a wrestler laying partly on top of another wrestler, or painful-looking predicaments in the corner or outside the ring. When receiving damage, selling animations are added on top of the ragdolls, still dynamically interacting with the environment.

Glitches

It's a well-known fact for developers and maybe also gamers that as soon as physics get involved in a game, things can become glitchy. Physics simulation is extremely complex, but the hardware has its limits. Therefore, accuracy is traded in for performance.

In Casual Pro Wrestling, I tried my best to make transitions and interactions with the physics simulation as smooth as possible. It's very clear to me that this doesn't awlays work perfectly and often doesn't look nice. That's what it is. Please see my notes on ragdoll glitches.