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[William Broom]

--- YES ---

Dwarf (Dwarf Fortress) - he's already coded! It makes me worried that you're even asking about him. Plus he draws in players from a separate fanbase to the other games (i.e. diehard Bay12 members, plus DF is very popular on /v/.)

Sexy Hiker (Sexy Hiking) - He is fairly popular within the Tigsource community, and he represents a side of indie gaming that isn't shown in any of the other characters (then again, Jazzuo has a 'side' all to himself). Most importantly, I think he would make a really interesting character to play because of his 'attack-propelled' movement style.

Barkley (Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden) - Just a cool character.


--- MAYBE ---

Madotsuki (Yume Nikki) - I think she would be really cool to play as, despite her relative obscurity. Anarkex wrote up a really kickin' movelist which involved throwing poo and shooting musical notes, so I don't think 'lack of moves' will be a problem here.

Reimu (Touhou series) - It's fair enough there are SCADS AND SCADS OF FANS of Touhou games, but it seems like the reaction from the Tigforums community has always been lukewarm at best. More importantly, ZUN didn't reply to my email, so you can file this one under "Permission in limbo, probably denied".

Akuji the Demon - I like the game, but it's not too famous, and we would have to stretch things a bit to come up with a complete moveset for him.

Kaltos (The Spirit Engine 2) - I have no opinion on this one, but I know you (Nightshade) are pretty keen on him.


--- NO ---

Bird (An Untitled Story) - I like this game a lot, but I don't think he has a great number of moves.

Cabadath (Trilby's Notes, 6 Days a Sacrifice) - There has already been a bit of work done on him, but I'm wondering if he couldn't be relegated to an assist. I think if we want this game to appeal to a broad range of indie gamers, it's a bit odd to have two characters from the same series.

Blue Knight (Castle Crashers) - I think that the Blue Knight is not particularly iconic since (AFAIK) he's just one member of a team of four.

Kittey (A Game with a Kitty) - I don't think he has very many moves, and generally seems like a pacifist kind of character in the original games (though maybe I didn't get far enough to see his violent side?)

Mia (Eternal Daughter) - Doesn't seem to have enough moves, but again I didn't get very far in this game.

Karoshi - Hard to come up with moves, and it's just against his character to be killing others rather than himself.

Asha (Iji) - Same reasons as Cabadath - I don't think multiple characters from the same game/series is a good idea.

Rilo (Noitu Love 2) - Same reasons again.

Alien Hominid - AFAIK he only has one attack...


--- BONUS ZONE ---

Spelunker (Spelunky) - This is my #1 pick out of all the suggested characters. He's got a good solid set of moves and more importantly: He's really famous! Think of all the manbabies who registered just to sing his praises. Including Spelunker will definitely get people interested who would otherwise have not noticed the game.





I think this is a really good and useful thread!

[shig]

Reimu (Touhou series) - It's fair enough there are SCADS AND SCADS OF FANS of Touhou games, but it seems like the reaction from the Tigforums community has always been lukewarm at best. More importantly, ZUN didn't reply to my email, so you can file this one under "Permission in limbo, probably denied".

but it seems like the reaction from the Tigforums community has always been lukewarm at best.

It's pretty annoying in my opinion that you guys don't really give importance to including a Touhou character just because you - and by "you" I mean TIGSource as a whole - don't like the whole anime lolis thing( I don't like Touhou either for the same reasons). But we have to be a little more... Professional? About this.
You're not making TIGBrawl. You're making Indie Brawl.

Did you know that Sakurai always hated the DK series? He always said that the only reason in his opinion that the first games were famous were the graphics. Do you think that he would ever think about leaving DK out of Smash Bros. ? Of course not!
It's the same thing, here.
If you want to represent indie gaming you have to represent indie gaming in all it's forms. Even the ones you don't like.

Contrarywise, people are suggesting spending time and effort with a character from a game that is -sorry for that- crappy and that nearly noone outside TIG knows just because it's an in-joke around here. I would totally understand if he were a TIGBoxer or a cameo or something. But not a playable character.
His moveset would also be sort of repetitive and his usefulness would vary A LOT depending on the stage wich isn't a good thing imo.

Karoshi should be this game's magicarp. Just walks around and dies.

And I don't even really know why Dwarf's in this list. Does this mean you are considering not making him a playable character anymore? He does need a lot of tweaking, tho.

I don't know a lot about Madotsuki or how she'd do as a playable character, but Uboa seems to be an internet fad on itself, so I guess it would be great to include it as a TIGBoxer.

[godsavant]

My preferences for:

Playable Characters

Barkley (Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden)
Besides being the popular basketball legend Charles Barkley, he’s got so many moves! If I recall, we had trouble narrowing down his movelist from the profuse selection in the RPG, even when we were struggling to come up with forced offensive moves for the likes of Karoshi.

Madotsuki (Yume Nikki)
Again, so many moves! Admittedly, most of them are nonlethal/useless, but there enough abilities like Lightning Demon, Yuki-Onna blizzard, and Medamude teleportation that a credibile movelist could be made. If we want to capture parts of the Japanese/Wapanese gaming demographic, Reimu and Madotsuki are musts; they are just so iconic. Just search ‘yume nikki’ on dA, you’ll be amazed (around 3 fanarts uploaded per day).

Reimu (Touhou series)
Not only does her shooting/fighting game background provide a wealth of moves to draw from, but her status as a mascot for Touhou and legend amongst anime/gaming communities online can nab us a lot of publicity and popularity in the more hardcore nerd circles.

I'm quite fond of anime lolis, personally.

Blue Knight (Castle Crashers)
Why we chose the blue one escapes me at the moment, but considering that Castle Crashers is relatively more well-known (and infinitely more fun) than Alien Hominid, I would vote including this character over the Alien. One character per developer, I recall. Plus, he has more moves.

Spelunker (Spelunky) - This is my #1 pick out of all the suggested characters. He's got a good solid set of moves and more importantly: He's really famous! Think of all the manbabies who registered just to sing his praises. Including Spelunker will definitely get people interested who would otherwise have not noticed the game.

This is a great idea. Indeed, the game has been getting rave coverage from mainstream outlets like PC Gamer, PLAY, and Eegra, plus all those manbabies.  Again, the one-character rule kicks in, though...we might just want to turn a blind eye in this case, he's essentially just a proxy for Lemeza, anyway.

TIGBoxers

Akuji the Demon
Great character with lots of moves, but 1.) he’s not very well-known, and 2.) a lot of people didn’t like his game.

Sexy Hiker (Sexy Hiking)
Not that diverse of a character; most of his moves would revolve around ‘swinging hammer in various ways’, which would be kind of boring. Also, the joke quality of his game might cause some uproar of the “why the fuck was YHTBTR nominated for an award” variety while other, more high-quality games were excluded.

Torn /Unknown

Kittey (A Game with a Kitty)
Sounds like a joke character, but I’ll hold off judgement until I know more.

Bird (An Untitled Story)
Same as above.

Cabadath (Trilby's Notes, 6 Days a Sacrifice)
On one hand, he’s one of the most badass villains in indie gaming, and really helps the currently disproportionate villain-hero ratio…he’s the best option we’ve got. On the other hand, we already have Trilby, most of his moveset would be redundant scythe-swinging/impaling, and he teleports a lot, making him good for the TIGBox effect.

Dwarf (Dwarf Fortress)
Well, he’s already a coded and playable character, but a bit unbalanced, plus nobody seems to want to draw animations for him. If that changes in the future, maybe he’s got a chance.

Kaltos (The Spirit Engine 2)
Who is this guy.

Karoshi
He’d be a terrible player character! He does nothing in his games except die, and finding ways to turn that into an entire movelist of attacks would really be the epitome of contrived character design. I mean, look at his suggested movelist – “Angel”? Where does that even play into any of the Karoshi games?

Asha (Iji)
We need villains badly, and unlike Cabadath, Asha has a full arsenal of gun/sword attacks to turn into a veritable movelist, yet might not be fully expresed through a mere TIGBox cameo. Yet we also have Iji…although ByteJacker’s Indie of the Year should deserve the same multi-character privileges allowed for Cave Story.

Alien Hominid
He’s already been in the NewGrounds mascot fighting game, and after checking his moveset in there, it did not turn out well. He can’t do much but fire in different directions and cut people with his knife, though that might be enough to muster a TIGBox appearance.

Mia (Eternal Daughter)
Never played it, but judging from people’s reactions, she might be a good candidate for TIGBox. Although she competes with Naija for the single-developer position, and we all know Naija’s already finished. Maybe in future editons, we can add her in.

Rilo (Noitu Love 2)
We need villains, but I must say that Rilo is not the prime candidate; she just shoots her gun all over the place, which might work great for the TIGBox but will become tiresome as a playable character.

[William Broom]

You've changed my mind, shig, I think Reimu is a pretty good idea. What I meant with the 'lukewarm reaction' line was that we might not be able to find people interested in doing her sprites. But if that turns out to be a problem we could always try petitioning the Touhou fans for help.
Still a moot point unless we can get permission from ZUN, though!

And Sexy Hiker fucking kicks ass

[AMAZON]

I think a problem with the whole one character per franchise thing is that it will mean we`ll have no villains. very rarely does a villain represent the series better than the protagonist.

[godsavant]

Would a "one hero, one villain" limit work better?

[shig]

We don't HAVE to limit ourselves like this.

But most of the time it's better to stick to having only the most iconic character from each series(not necessarily developer).

And why do we need villains so much, anyways?

[godsavant]

But most of the time it's better to stick to having only the most iconic character from each series(not necessarily developer).

Well, the original point was to brighten the days of as many developers as possible, but I suppose sticking too rigidly to this philosophy could indeed be irrational.

[battlerager]

And why do we need villains so much, anyways?

Well, it just would be nice, you know?


Also Touhou and Yume Nikki are probably musts, from what I heard.


Its not selfish by "TIGSOURCE" "as a whole" to have a "lukewarm reaction".
It just means that most people interested in Indie Brawl here (who are individuals, I'd like to point out) mostly haven't played Touhou games and are just not too familiar with them.

[Soulliard]

Just to quell some fears, just because a character is on this list, it doesn't mean that character is going to be included/excluded. The sole criteria for appearing on this list is that I could see arguments for both sides.

I should also mention that virtually all these characters will appear at least as a TIGBoxer. The question is not whether the character should appear at all; it's whether or not the character should be playable.

Thanks for all the useful feedback. I'll post my reactions tonight, after more people have gotten a look at the thread.

[Therum]

Cabadath  - Would be so awesome. He's got cool moves and I think he'd be REALLY fun to play as - the only issue is that, because of Trilby, that would make two characters from the same series. Maybe make him unlockable or something?

Asha - Pretty much the same as Cabadath - Asha would be an absolute blast to play, and I think the game definitely needs him.

I feel like multiple characters from one game should be allowed - someone mentioned Cave Story, and I'm pretty sure Quote and Curly are both in the game (right? not sure, but they should be if they aren't.), and I think that's reason enough to at least have Asha in the game - Iji is one of the biggest recent indie games, so I think it deserves the same privilege. Cabadath is a little trickier, obviously, but I almost think he should be allowed in because of fun playing as him could be.

Bird - I think he should be playable. It might be a little tough to find a moveset, but he's got fireballs, ice-ray-thingy, the divebomb attack, etc - I think he'd make a good addition to the roster - AUS is one of the best indie games around, and I think it deserves representation.

I'd also like to say that whoever suggested the Spelunker has the right idea, and he should definitely be in.

This is probably the wrong place for this, but oh well - what about the character from Glum Buster?

[Plasticware]

This is probably the wrong place for this, but oh well - what about the character from Glum Buster?

Yeah, it's the wrong place, but he also doesn't really have much in the way of attacks anyway, does he? I think he'd fit in better as a TIGBoxer.

[William Laub]

Quote and Curly are both in the game (right? not sure, but they should be if they aren't.)

They aren't in the game. Permission was denied because of the Cave Story Wii thing.

[Craig Stern]

Kaltos is a great character, and frankly, the only one from that list I'd care about seeing in Indie Brawl. The Spirit Engine 2 is a fantastic (and IMHO, rather underappreciated) indie RPG, and Kaltos has a diverse moveset that would be really interesting to use in a fighting game (Swordfaith, to name one example, would make for a unique vertical attack/jump counter).

Charles Barkley, while he would be funny to have in the game, comes with the attendant risk that the real-life Charles Barkley's lawyers might not find his inclusion very amusing.

What happened to Naija from Aquaria? I thought she was just about complete? Never mind--this thread is just for borderline characters, right?

[William Laub]

Charles Barkley, while he would be funny to have in the game, comes with the attendant risk that the real-life Charles Barkley's lawyers might not find his inclusion very amusing.

They didn't seem to mind the RPG. I don't see why they would have a problem with this.