

Fighting game Skullgirls reaches crowdfunding goal in less than 24 hours - jeffreyfox
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/26/fighting-game-skullgirls-reaches-exorbitant-crowdfunding-goal-in-less-than-24-hours/

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weisser
What's amazing is that they made their goal in under 24 hours to raise 150k
for a DOWNLOADABLE CHARACTER.

I thought this was for the full game.

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Shish2k
> Fans donated $78,000 to breast-cancer research in the name of the game,
> which put it second behind Super Smash Bros. Melee. Normally, that would
> have eliminated Skullgirls from Evo

Raise tens of thousands of dollars for charity = get kicked out of
conventions? I have no idea how Evo works, but I assume I must be reading that
wrong...

~~~
eurleif
It was a competition to receive a spot. Coming in second would have meant
losing that spot.

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ido
Not trying to be snarky, but can someone who knows more about fighting game
development explain their budget?

    
    
        For comparison, Skullgirls' budget was around $1.7
        million and, since Filia was complete at the time 
        of signing, that covered production of the last 
        seven characters.
    

Surely producing the game was a lot more work than just making the characters?
As far as you can even break down the budget in retrospect at all, surely
adding another character to an existing game doesn't costs anywhere close to
entire_budget_of_game/num_of_existing_chars($1.7m/7=$242k, big-band is
supposedly a from scratch character with a $200k budget, the partially
complete Squigly is $150k)?

EDIT: also, what is "Hit-box Contracting"?

~~~
dyselon
Definitely not. Big band would be significantly less, however, if not for
crowd funding specific costs (backer rewards, payment fees), and services a
publisher generally provides (QA, first party fees). Also, the 8th character
counts for way less, since most of her frames were reused from other
characters.

I was a designer on the game, and while it's hard to look back and tell you
exactly how much time was spent on character specific stuff vs. general
features since people's time was often split awkwardly, I'd say the clear
majority of resources were spent on character specific stuff. Art was by far
the largest team, and worked almost exclusively on character specific stuff.
Design was more evenly split, but definitely leaned towards characters. Tech
was unsurprisingly mostly other features, but was a small, small team (poor
Ben and Rick )= )

~~~
ido
Thanks for the insider insight!

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dragontamer
The Fighting game community is tight as hell, and have a great time all
together every year in Las Vegas at the big Evo tournament.

This is not your typical venture. The team at Skullgirls has proven themselves
already. Before even starting this game, the lead designer was a top player in
the fighting game scene (Mike Z). He was around as the American Fighting game
scene began, and taught many how to play fighting games at an interstate level
(Puny Americans lose to Gigantic Tager!!). One can argue that they are
community leaders in some respects.

Ask anyone in the scene, they know what Skullgirls is: the only "real"
American hyper-fighter. They are very tightly integrated into the community in
levels that few startups can even imagine. This isn't some sort of Mortal
Kombat newbie piece of trash, this is a game with an actual skill ceiling.

If you're in the fighting game scene, supporting this project is a must. Its
not even a matter of getting value out of this, its about supporting players
you respect... highly skilled players who have ventured out of their way to
develop a fighting game.

This is more to a testament to the Fighting Game community, than it is to
Skullgirls itself. We're freaks, and proud of it, and proud to support our
brethren. There are only so many people who can consistently execute combos
with 1/60th of a second accuracy (aka: 1-frame links), while simultaneously
setting you up for a standing reset. There are only so many people who even
understand what that means... and the Skullgirls team is one of the few that
not only understands this stuff... but also designs the game at that level and
improves around it. (Skullgirls is the only 2d fighter with Anti High/low
unblockable setups recognition for example)

I dare say, they are the only ones in America who can balance the game at this
level. The other companies who understand this sort of stuff are all in Japan,
and even compared to them Skullgirls has pushed the envelope. Supporting
Skullgirls is supporting the Fighting Game Scene, the only real Fighting Game
company in America, and bringing top tier gameplay into the American Game
Design world.

~~~
enqk
The following article by Patrick Miller "The educated gentlepersons fighting
game primer" presents quite well the challenges and mechanics of a fighting
game, if you wish to understand a bit more why designing a character is so
expensive:

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/127524225/The-Educated-
Gentleperso...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/127524225/The-Educated-Gentleperson-
s-Fighting-Game-Primer-Insert-Credit-Patrick-Miller)

I uploaded it to scribd without the writer's permission, because insert credit
hasn't solved their recurrent problem with malware on wordpress. The original
article is at:

[http://insertcredit.com/2013/01/14/the-educated-
gentleperson...](http://insertcredit.com/2013/01/14/the-educated-
gentlepersons-fighting-game-primer/)

~~~
dragontamer
Indeed. And while other companies have moved onto 3d animation techniques to
cut costs, the hardcore 2d animation fighters WANT a 2d animated fighting
game. The fanbase understands the costs associated with a 2d sprite-based
fighter, and are more than willing to support it.

Hell, notice that the _most expensive_ slots, the $1000 donation level and
$500 donation level, are sold out. People are lining up to support Skullgirls.
They probably should open up more $1000 donation level slots to get more
money.

The $250 donation level is also sold out, correlating with another common cost
of fighting game aficionados: a full custom stick. Fighting game players see
the price and think: "Am I willing to donate a custom stick to the Skullgirls
cause"?? Yeah, why not?

Speaking of which, no custom stick from the Skullgirls team? Son, I am
disappoint. They probably can raise a good $500 per stick if they just
scribbled their names on a custom stick (Sanwa parts, etc. etc.) and put it up
as a reward.

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GhotiFish
"Remember, She's FREE[1]"

    
    
       1. for a limited time
    

_WHY_ would you put up with this? How did people see slimy trash like this and
actually decide to give them money?

I feel sick.

~~~
zalzane
Welcome to the crowdfunding fad. Try to cut yourself a hundred thousand dollar
slice of the pie before it dies out.

~~~
dragontamer
See my post here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5291205>

The Skullgirls team is highly respected in the fighting game community. They
not only are catering to their niche, they are the only company in the USA who
is catering to their niche.

Just because their budget is small doesn't mean that they're a non-serious
company, or part of a crowdfunding fad. They are the real deal to fighting
game players, especially those who specialize in "Hyper-fighters". (MvC,
BlazBlue, and Skullgirls)

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MostAwesomeDude
Since nobody here appears to know the background story or have read the actual
Indiegogo page (<http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keep-skullgirls-
growing>)...

This game has been big news in the fighting game community, mostly because
it's seriously high quality and the developers have lots of community
credentials. Great. However, their publisher dropped them following a legal
spat, and as a result, they aren't getting paid anymore, despite having a PC
port to finish up and some new characters that they'd like to implement.

This money is not just to finish a character; it's also an indicator that the
community likes this game enough to continue to support its creators. More
practically, it's salary for them for a few months.

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kunil
150k for a single character. And fundraising goes for a month for such a job?
Actual job itself shouldn't take more than a month

~~~
kunil
indiegogo page [http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keep-skullgirls-
growing?c=...](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keep-skullgirls-
growing?c=home)

> $48,000: Staff Salaries - 8 people for 10 weeks

Am I underestimating the job or this manpower is ridiculous? Game is already
there, they are adding a new character.

~~~
enqk
A fighting game is an exercise in balancing the mechanics of multiple
characters to one another. It's a bit like a rock-paper-scissors in realtime
with a lot more combinations. So besides the animation, which is equivalent to
that of a cartoon (and skullgirls has some quite excellent animation
standards) there is a lot of balancing and fine tuning of the various move
characteristics.

