Creating Techniques

What Is a Technique in a Tuxemon Game?

In a Tuxemon-style game, a technique is a special move that a creature can use during battle. Think of moves like Sting, Ram, or Shuriken. Each move has different properties that define how it works in the game.

We use a JSON file to describe each move in detail. This file tells the game engine everything it needs to know about the move—how it looks, how strong it is, who it targets, and more.

What Each Field Means

Basic Info

• slug: A unique name used in code (e.g. "sting").
• sort: In which stage it occurs. All regular techniques should be "damage", even if they are non-damaging. ("meta" is available for things like fleeing combat, switching to another monster, and so on).
• category: A label for how the move behaves (e.g. "powerful", "basic", "exotic").

Tags

• tags: Keywords that describe the move (e.g. "toxic", "bug"). These help group similar moves together.

Conditions

• conditions: Rules that must be true before the move can be used. For example, "current_hp".

Effects

• effects: What happens when the move is used. Examples:
  • "damage": Hurts the target.
  • "give": Adds a condition like "hard_shell" or "poisoned".

Flip Axes

• flip_axes: If the move’s animation should be flipped horizontally ("x"), vertically ("y"), both ("xy"), or not at all ("").

Target

• target: Who the move affects. You can target:
  • The enemy monster
  • The enemy team
  • The enemy trainer
  • Your own monster
  • Your own team
  • Yourself (own trainer)

Each of these is a true or false value.

Animation & Sound

• animation: The name of the animation to play.
• sfx: The sound effect file to play when the move is used.

Modifiers

• modifiers: Special changes to how the move behaves. For example:
  • "attribute": "type" with "values": ["fire"] and "multiplier": 1.5 means the move is fire-type and does 1.5× damage.

Text Feedback

• use_tech: Message shown when the move is used.
• use_success: Message shown when the move hits.
• use_failure: Message shown when the move misses.
• confirm_text and cancel_text: Labels used in the UI when confirming or canceling the move.

Types

• types: What kind of move it is (e.g. "fire", "water"). This affects how it interacts with other types.

Usability

• usable_on: Can the move be used outside of battle? (true or false)

Power & Speed

• power: How strong the move is (e.g. 1.9).
• speed: How fast the move is. Options include:
  • "extremely_slow"
  • "very_slow"
  • "slow"
  • "normal"
  • "fast"
  • "very_fast"
  • "extremely_fast"

Randomness

• randomly: If the move is chosen randomly (true or false).

Healing

• healing_power: If the move heals, how much healing it does.

Recharge

• recharge: How many turns you must wait before using the move again.

Range

• range: How far the move reaches. Options include:
  • "melee": Close-range (compare user's Melee to target's Armor)
  • "ranged": Long-range (compare user's Ranged to target's Dodge)
  • "touch": Requires mere contact (compare user's Melee to target's Dodge)
  • "reach": Slightly extended range (compare user's Ranged to target's Armor)
  • "special": Does not involve damage
  • "reliable": Does a uniform amount of damage regardless of stats.

ID & Accuracy

• tech_id: A unique number for the move.
• accuracy: Chance to hit (from 0.0 to 1.0, where 1.0 is 100%).
• potency: How effective the move is overall (can affect damage, status chance, etc.).

{
  "tech_id": 1,
  "accuracy": 0.8,
  "animation": "needle",
  "effects": [
    {
      "type": "give",
      "parameters": [
        "poison",
        "enemy_monster"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "damage"
    }
  ],
  "flip_axes": "",
  "speed": "normal",
  "potency": 0.4,
  "power": 1.25,
  "range": "melee",
  "recharge": 1,
  "sfx": "sfx_blaster",
  "slug": "sting",
  "sort": "damage",
  "modifiers": [],
  "target": {
    "enemy_monster": true,
    "enemy_team": false,
    "enemy_trainer": false,
    "own_monster": false,
    "own_team": false,
    "own_trainer": false
  },
  "category": "simple",
  "tags": [
    "bug",
    "toxic"
  ],
  "types": [
    "wood"
  ],
  "use_failure": "combat_miss",
  "use_success": null,
  "use_tech": "combat_used_x"
}