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[shig]

Official game site: http://skullgirls.com/home  

Dev team site and blog: http://revergelabs.com/

Alex Ahad's old livejournal: http://o-8.livejournal.com/

SRK thread(devs post constantly here with news and answer questions)
http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/skullgirls.44239/
(the first pages are from before it got picked by konami, btw)

Dustloop dedicated subforum. (devs love it also)
http://www.dustloop.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?162-Skullgirls-General!

Character trailers:






Peacock
Parasoul
Ms Fortune
Painwheel
Valentine
Double

Music (by Michiru Yamane!)
New Meridian Stage
Anti-Skullgirl Labs Stage
Character Select(not by Michiru Yamane)

[AshfordPride]

You know, I was going to get off of my ass and make this thread, but I never got around to it.  I've been following this game pretty damn near since it first became public, and eagerly watched it as it became my most eagerly anticipated indie game for years.  Win, lose, or draw, I'm absolutely astounding with the near unprecedented level of dedication and work that I'm seeing being poured into this game.  The idea of making a fighting game from scratch boggles my mind, and I can't even conceive how someone would do it.  But, well, Skullgirls.

I played it at PAX, things seemed a little rough around the edges but it felt very much like a barebones version so I refuse to be too critical of it until I can play a demo much later in development.  It looks amazing in motion, they're not just dressing it up when they show these videos, the animation is so beautifully fluid that it makes Blazblue look phoned in.  I still don't feel comfortable saying anything about the game, because like I said, it seems like very far from the finished product and I don't think I know enough about fighting games to pass a satisfying judgement on the mechanics just yet.

Anarkex called this an 'indie game' at PAX and the guy who was presenting it got sort of insulted, and said that he didn't think of this as an indie game at all.  Lol.

Also, this game seems to already be gathering steam in Japan, which is great!  I'd love to see this game crack the doujin community as much as it does the indie one.  Here's some great fanart by a disgusting hentai artist.  Good omen!  

[[RM8]]

I'm so going to main Peacock.

[shig]

Anarkex called this an 'indie game' at PAX and the guy who was presenting it got sort of insulted, and said that he didn't think of this as an indie game at all.  Lol.

hahahahaah
But yeah, guess I wouldn't call this indie at all.

btw I've been following it very closely, too, and for a long time now and I'm pretty jealous of you for having played it. This game has the potential to fucking revolutionize fighters, man.

[PowRTocH]

looks ok

[BlueSweatshirt]

What's so revolutionary about it?

It looks like it plays much like most other fighting games. 

[shig]

It's basically how the game handles combos and assists. There are plenty of other really cool features but they aren't confirmed to be in yet... Like watching a replay of a match and taking control of a character during a certain point of the replay's timeline so you can try different stuff and see the different outcomes the match could have had.  

[Dragonmaw]

I did some work on this back when it was first starting out. Mostly just organizational stuff; setting up a wiki, testing, design meetings, PR, that kind of thing. Don't remember how I heard of it. I think through a mutual friend of me and Alex's or something.

When it resurfaced a few years later (after I think most people left the project) I was pleasantly surprised! I'm glad Alex kept working on it. He's got a strong vision and it's cool to see that it won't be compromised.

This is definitely an indie game. It was started by one guy and originally developed by volunteers until he managed to find funding and create a studio. I would say that is almost the definition of indie.

Hard to say if it's revolutionary or not (fighting games aren't really designed to be revolutionary) but it's certainly excellent. And the world could always use more excellent 2D fighters. Especially ones with A_A art. ESPECIALLY.

[shig]

(fighting games aren't really designed to be revolutionary)

what

[shig]

Mike is actually behind on the PC thing.
We're looking into a PC version, likely through Steam. And I'm going to say it's actually looking pretty likely.
Piracy IS a concern, but it was never a reason - the main reason is that PC versions take a lot of testing and bug-fixing for all the different hardware configurations. We only have four programmers, so doing all of that simultaneously just isn't possible. It's really a matter of priorities

A Japanese release is looking increasingly likely, so that should probably factor into any platform choices.

[Dragonmaw]

(fighting games aren't really designed to be revolutionary)

what

Time to pull an Eres.

Revolutionary implies a drastic change. 2D fighters have not had many major sudden changes since Street Fighter 2. The only one I can really think of as revolutionary is tag-team fighting. This doesn't mean that fighting games haven't improved and innovated over the years, just that they aren't "revolutionary."

I guess the best way to put it is that, to me, a revolutionary game is one that creates or significantly changes a genre. Skullgirls is innovative (from my previous experience on the project + videos and con playing) but not revolutionary. The altered systems are iterations of older fighting game systems, but they aren't really a sudden or drastic alteration to the old rules.

It is certainly an excellent game, and it's shaping up nicely, but saying it's a total revolution in fighting games is a bit much. It is, however, a big step both for the legitimacy of fighting games (Skullgirls is EXTREMELY accessible, both from an aesthetic viewpoint and mechanical one) and indie success stories.

Edit:

I lump fighting games and danmaku into a similar bracket. They've stayed relatively familiar over the years and built up a strong fanbase of players by iterating, not revolutionizing, a formula that works. Compared to other games, they are very safe. They also still have a lot of room for innovation and, yes, revolution. Since there's not been a lot of major changes since the initial genre definers, there's tons of room for developers to make their mark.

[Superb Joe]

mike z is cool and this is going to be a really good game because it's made by people who actually know fighting games. i could live without the all female cast tho. the programmable assists are cool as heck.

[Areku]

I daresay I'm actually really interested in this, even though I'm not really a fighting game person.
The art was lovely, the mechanics seemed pretty well made, but let's face it, the best thing is how little sense the game makes. I mean, the main character is a schoolgirl with Ctulhu in place of her hair.

[Theophilus]

I can't wait to play this. I dunno about all the girly things though. I probably won't buy it if it's another hentai game, but it looks fine so far.

EDIT: You also didn't link to the website: http://www.skullgirls.com/home

[shig]

snip

Oh, ok. I get what you mean. Fighters usually have to stick to smaller, gradual changes, because the smallest alterations can fuck up everything. I guess that's what you are getting at, right?
The thing is that whenever one of these small changes is succesfull, they have a tendency to get passed on to every other fighter in the future, basically changing the genre forever. This is what I meant.

changes since street fighter 2: proper combo system and everything that comes with it. Hypers/Ultras. Tons more options for movement(dashing, air-dashing. super jump). parries and parry/counter supers. block-cancelling and pushblocking. idk, definitely a lot of stuff.

and then there are the hybrid games like fighting-sidescroller (little fighter 2) or platformer-fighting (super smash bros).

[s0]

Or games like virtual on and senko no ronde which are pretty far outside established fighter conventions.

But yeah fighters are definitely more an evolutionary than a revolutionary genre.

[Rumrusher]

snip

Oh, ok. I get what you mean. Fighters usually have to stick to smaller, gradual changes, because the smallest alterations can fuck up everything. I guess that's what you are getting at, right?
The thing is that whenever one of these small changes is succesfull, they have a tendency to get passed on to every other fighter in the future, basically changing the genre forever. This is what I meant.

changes since street fighter 2: proper combo system and everything that comes with it. Hypers/Ultras. Tons more options for movement(dashing, air-dashing. super jump). parries and parry/counter supers. block-cancelling and pushblocking. idk, definitely a lot of stuff.

and then there are the hybrid games like fighting-sidescroller (little fighter 2) or platformer-fighting (super smash bros).

Any game that strays too far off the Street fighter 2 formula of Deepism will be class as a 'party fighter' until a community of whiny players prove it isn't. Then still the other fighting game players will still mock it for being not "a fighting game."
Through Mike in a old interview said their might be male characters but from the looks of things it's going to be a female dominated game.

[Areku]

I'm pretty pretty sure there will be male characters. After all, they've said they're following the fabled Hexagon of Quality (Which they have invented themselves, BTW):

[shig]

"party game" means nothing but "very casual game". it's not a genre at all, and something can be both a fighting game and a party game.
unless you're an srk forumer, in wich case "party game" means "game i dont like".

[AshfordPride]

If you make a game with all male characters, people complain why there aren't any female characters.  Do the opposite, people complain turn-ways.  For the longest time, people bitched and moaned about how female characters in fighting games (where their fighting game experience equals Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur) are always weaker than their male counterparts.  So, someone makes a game with all female characters that allows woman to be showcased as having a wide variety of abilities and powers that run the gambit and not just shoves them into the slot of being squirrely glass cannons, but that's STILL BAD APPARENTLY.  Then the people who complain about these characters being sexualized are the SAME IDIOTS who will then complain about how bland and uncreative most games look nowadays.  HOW CAN THEY PLEASE YOU PEOPLE?  

It's called Skullgirls, it kind of seems important to the plot and mythos that the people competing in this tournament be female.  Although, I guess that was also true for Arcana Heart, but the third game wound up with something that can legally be called a male.  The only thing I will support in this series is a single token male character, because that does wonders for a community.  

"party game" means nothing but "very casual game". it's not a genre at all, and something can be both a fighting game and a party game.
unless you're an srk forumer, in wich case "party game" means "game i dont like".

bwahahahaha