Skullgirls Mobile - Soft Launch LIVE (iOS/Android)

[MightyZug]

Hey everyone - long time no speak!

So, as some of you may have heard, Skullgirls Mobile is currently LIVE on iOS and Google Play in Canada and the Netherlands!

Skullgirls Mobile iOS (Canada link)
Skullgirls Mobile Android (Canada link)​

I know, I know - you’ve got questions. Read on!

I DON’T LIVE IN ANY OF THOSE COUNTRIES! CAN I STILL GET ACCESS TO THE SOFT LAUNCH?

Rumor has it that there are methods for doing so, otherwise you’ll need to wait until the game is available in your territory.

IF I START PLAYING NOW, WILL MY PROGRESS BE SAVED?

Yup! Unlike the Beta version (which was a temporary build setup with debug tools and was using our internal servers), this release is now all configured using LINE’s servers in a live environment. Your progress is safe!

WHEN WILL WE BE DOING A FULL RELEASE?

Soon! While we can’t share any specific dates, you should expect the full release within the next few months.

WHAT’S NEW IN THE LATEST BUILD?

WHAT ISN’T NEW?!

Many of the changes that we’ve made since the beta were in direct response to much of your feedback. While there are too many changes to list here (rest assured we’ll do super detailed update notes for future releases), here are the main updates from the Release Notes we posted on the store, with a bit of commentary:

• Deeper customization - now equip up to 5 different moves for every Fighter

Instead of only having 3 BBs that are “locked” to a given Fighter, we now let you fully customize what BBs and Special Moves you want to equip. Also, Moves now have randomly generated bonus stats attached to them (like equipment in an RPG) which will increase as you upgrade them.

• Interface improvements throughout the game

The UI looks way better than it did before! It’s going to take another leap forward in the final release version as well. Smoothing out a lot of rough edges and inconsistencies.

• Quick Play and Training modes added

Quick Play auto-matches you against teams of comparable level for more efficient level grinding!

As many of you requested during the Beta, Training mode is just you vs a bunch of Training dummies with TONS of HP who will never attack. Great for testing out combos and other strategies!

NOTE: Per Beta feedback, we’ve also updated the Combo Counter so that it will change color if your Combo is no longer guaranteed.

• Parasoul Events and Relics added to the Daily Event Rotation

Parasoul is now a “regular” character that can be acquired through standard means. The only character that you fight but cannot unlock (for now) is Eliza (coming soon!). Of course, more characters from the original SG roster coming after that!

• New EXPERT level difficulty added for Story Mode and Daily Events

In addition to BASIC and ADVANCED we’ve added EXPERT level challenges for Story and Daily Event modes.

• Enemy AI refined for more competitive high level battles

AI is much better than it was before! We’ve also since made a bunch of additional improvements that make the AI less exploitable in certain circumstances that will go live when we fully launch.

• Daily Event Fights now have a random chance to drop Moves and Skill Points for that Fighter Type

Now you can get Moves and Skill Points from Daily Events!

ALSO, INTRODUCING… STEVE! (aka mooddoofus)

While I’m not going anywhere, I wanted to introduce you guys to Steve (aka @mooddoofus) a Producer here at Hidden Variable who will just as (if not more!) active on the forums answering questions and announcing things and the like. He’s also an original Skullgirls (and BB/GG/MvC) player to boot!


That’s all for now! Thanks so much again for all your help and patience throughout the Beta - eager to hear what you guys think, and itching to share the full final release version with everyone as soon as it’s ready to go

 

[mooddoofus]

Wow, I bet this Steve guy is really cool.

 

[moisterrific]

The soft launch was just released on Android right? Cuz I've been playing the iPhone version since March 20 when I realized it was available on the Canadian App Store.

Whatever happened to the Arena mode that existed back in beta? Will it be brought back in the final release? I still see loading screen tips from time to time that says something like higher arena score = better rewards or something.

And btw the iOS link doesn't seem to work.

 

[moisterrific]

IF I START PLAYING NOW, WILL MY PROGRESS BE SAVED?

Yup! Unlike the Beta version (which was a temporary build setup with debug tools and was using our internal servers), this release is now all configured using LINE’s servers in a live environment. Your progress is safe!

Does it save user data locally? Or via iCloud or Game Centre? Or something else? Like what would happen if I were to accidentally delete and re-install the game?

• Deeper customization - now equip up to 5 different moves for every Fighter

Instead of only having 3 BBs that are “locked” to a given Fighter, we now let you fully customize what BBs and Special Moves you want to equip. Also, Moves now have randomly generated bonus stats attached to them (like equipment in an RPG) which will increase as you upgrade them.

Love this deeper customization, but I think the costs to upgrade a gold special or BB is way too expensive considering how many moves exist. It costs a whopping 375,000 canopy coins to upgrade my gold Drillatioship move from lvl 12 to 13. And what's the level cap for special moves and BBs? I don't have enough gold to find out myself as of now.

• Interface improvements throughout the game


The UI looks way better than it did before! It’s going to take another leap forward in the final release version as well. Smoothing out a lot of rough edges and inconsistencies.

The new home screen looks really good! Really digging this Art Deco vibe, but it doesn't look like there's enough room to squeeze in another button for Arena mode…

• Quick Play and Training modes added


Quick Play auto-matches you against teams of comparable level for more efficient level grinding!

I've noticed that opponents fighter score seems to be capped at around 12K. My best characters have a total FS of 17K and QP is often matching me against 9K enemies. I get so little XP from winning fights like these! Could there also be more difficulties that we can choose from? Like maybe we can select how high the FS the opponent will be to make fights more challenging.

• Parasoul Events and Relics added to the Daily Event Rotation


Parasoul is now a “regular” character that can be acquired through standard means. The only character that you fight but cannot unlock (for now) is Eliza (coming soon!). Of course, more characters from the original SG roster coming after that!

Can't wait for Eliza, she's one of my fave characters and so far she seems to have some really fun play styles judging from the Eliza AI I've fought. But how will a daily event be implemented for Eliza? Right now there are 7 characters and they match the 7 days of the week.

• New EXPERT level difficulty added for Story Mode and Daily Events


In addition to BASIC and ADVANCED we’ve added EXPERT level challenges for Story and Daily Event modes.

Will there be even more challenging difficulties in the future? Perhaps "Legendary" or "Nightmare"? Expert feels so easy once I've figured out how the AI works and I'm just using the final expert level of story mode to farm XP and gold only using one hand.

• Daily Event Fights now have a random chance to drop Moves and Skill Points for that Fighter Type


Now you can get Moves and Skill Points from Daily Events!

Awesome stuff. Curious as to what the drop rates are and if there's a limit to how many items moves and skill points will drop. I've gotten a few random drops so far and noticed the tier matches with the difficulty. Also do only special moves drop or do BBs randomly drop too? I don't recall ever getting a random BB from events.

 

[MightyZug]

The soft launch was just released on Android right? Cuz I've been playing the iPhone version since March 20 when I realized it was available on the Canadian App Store.

Yeah, the iOS build has been secretly out for a while! If you downloaded it from the App Store, you're playing the live, real deal Soft Launch version.

Whatever happened to the Arena mode that existed back in beta? Will it be brought back in the final release? I still see loading screen tips from time to time that says something like higher arena score = better rewards or something.

Those tips are a bug! Arena will likely reappear at some point in the future, but we have another mode we'll be releasing at Hard Launch that will help to fill that role.

And btw the iOS link doesn't seem to work.

Hmm, it should work for folks with CA store accounts... we'll double check.

Does it save user data locally? Or via iCloud or Game Centre? Or something else? Like what would happen if I were to accidentally delete and re-install the game?

All your data is stored remotely server side, but the best way to ensure that your data can be easily recovered in case all of your local data is deleted is to login via a Social Account (Facebook currently, with more to be added at Hard Launch).

Love this deeper customization, but I think the costs to upgrade a gold special or BB is way too expensive considering how many moves exist. It costs a whopping 375,000 canopy coins to upgrade my gold Drillatioship move from lvl 12 to 13. And what's the level cap for special moves and BBs? I don't have enough gold to find out myself as of now.

The level cap is 15 for every Move. We are currently gathering metrics during the Soft Launch regarding economy values (like the SC cost to upgrade moves), definitely something we'll be keeping an eye on moving forward. Feedback duly noted!

The new home screen looks really good! Really digging this Art Deco vibe, but it doesn't look like there's enough room to squeeze in another button for Arena mode…

I've noticed that opponents fighter score seems to be capped at around 12K. My best characters have a total FS of 17K and QP is often matching me against 9K enemies. I get so little XP from winning fights like these! Could there also be more difficulties that we can choose from? Like maybe we can select how high the FS the opponent will be to make fights more challenging.

I'll just say that I think you'll enjoy the new mode that we'll be adding!

Can't wait for Eliza, she's one of my fave characters and so far she seems to have some really fun play styles judging from the Eliza AI I've fought. But how will a daily event be implemented for Eliza? Right now there are 7 characters and they match the 7 days of the week.

To start, Eliza will only be accessible as a reward from the new mode we'll be releasing at Hard Launch. We have a few plans for how we want to structure Daily Events as we add in more characters from the core Skullgirls roster, but we're gathering data on how folks engage with the current system before making a final call.

More to come as we get closer to Hard Launch!

Will there be even more challenging difficulties in the future? Perhaps "Legendary" or "Nightmare"? Expert feels so easy once I've figured out how the AI works and I'm just using the final expert level of story mode to farm XP and gold only using one hand.

Perhaps! You'll (hopefully!) find the AI will be a lot trickier to master in the Hard Launch version, which will help a bit. But we're definitely looking into providing more high level player content. Congrats on all the progress you've made so far!

Awesome stuff. Curious as to what the drop rates are and if there's a limit to how many items moves and skill points will drop. I've gotten a few random drops so far and noticed the tier matches with the difficulty. Also do only special moves drop or do BBs randomly drop too? I don't recall ever getting a random BB from events.

Without going into the specific drop rates, I can say that BBs are available in the loot table for those events, and the harder the event, the higher the ceiling of the rewards.

Thanks for all of the feedback and questions - great to hear that you're enjoying the game so far. It's been great to see some of your other posts as well, appreciate your thoroughness in sharing your progress and impressions.

Eager to get your take on the new stuff in the next release!

 

[moisterrific]

Hmm, it should work for folks with CA store accounts... we'll double check.

My store is set to the Canadian App Store and all I see is a blank page from the link. I think there's supposed to be a prompt to ask me if I wanted to open in the App Store but it's not popping up. (On iOS 10.3.1 btw)

All your data is stored remotely server side, but the best way to ensure that your data can be easily recovered in case all of your local data is deleted is to login via a Social Account (Facebook currently, with more to be added at Hard Launch).

Will Twitter be supported as a way of logging in? Is it possible for me to log out of Facebook and log into Twitter to save my data when the hard launch comes?

Without going into the specific drop rates, I can say that BBs are available in the loot table for those events, and the harder the event, the higher the ceiling of the rewards.

So are the drop rates (for character points and moves) the same regardless of the event level? Like is there a difference of drop rate and reward quality between the easiest expert stage in an event and the final boss stage?

 

[MightyZug]

Will Twitter be supported as a way of logging in? Is it possible for me to log out of Facebook and log into Twitter to save my data when the hard launch comes?

Unfortunately, we do not currently have plans to support Twitter as a login option. On iOS, LINE or Facebook are your best bets (although only Facebook is currently available in Soft Launch).

So are the drop rates (for character points and moves) the same regardless of the event level? Like is there a difference of drop rate and reward quality between the easiest expert stage in an event and the final boss stage?

You have increased chances for higher tier (Silver and Gold) Moves as you progress from Basic > Advanced > Expert. You can only get Gold Moves from the Expert Event.

 

[cybik]

Where do I submit bug reports? There's NotificationSpam on Android.

Also, will LINE be a log-in option on Android at any point in time?

 

[missingno]

What if I'm that guy that hates Facebook and doesn't even know what Line is?

 

[MightyZug]

Where do I submit bug reports? There's NotificationSpam on Android.

There's a FEEDBACK link via the options screen in game, but that just redirects to: https://hvstudios.typeform.com/to/pwzydE (if you want to type using a REAL keyboard).

Thanks in advance!

Also, will LINE be a log-in option on Android at any point in time?

Yup! We'll be supporting LINE login on iOS and Android at Hard Launch.

What if I'm that guy that hates Facebook and doesn't even know what Line is?

Your best bet would be to create a LINE account and then just never use any of the social/chat features (it will be effectively a password protected account recovery and multi-device syncing mechanism).

 

[JDude330]

So, is there any method available to get the soft launch on Android devices? no apk files have been released, and no method of obtaining an APK file seems to work.

 

[Kit Ballard]

I've still yet to of been accepted into the Beta. They've said that people who was apart of the IndiGoGo would of got in...

 

[moisterrific]

I've still yet to of been accepted into the Beta. They've said that people who was apart of the IndiGoGo would of got in...

The closed beta was long over, though I somehow got in even when I wasn't an Indiegogo backer of the original Skullgirls (I wish I was).

Also that reminds me, what special reward will we get when the official game launches?

 

[terras007]

Any news about skullgrils physical release

Enviado desde mi LG-H850 mediante Tapatalk

 

[skull person]

Any news about skullgrils physical release

Enviado desde mi LG-H850 mediante Tapatalk

Physical release is being handled by Lab Zero, mobile is handled by Hidden Variable.

https://twitter.com/x/status/848338356685623297

Please find a different thread if you can.

 

[cybik]

Quad notification on Android is now fixed, thanks!

 

[RemiKz]

Can't seem to find an apk for android. Kind of bummed because I was a backer and signed up for the beta and didn't even get into that.

 

[MightyZug]

@RemiKz Is your Google account Canada or Netherlands based? If not, you won't be able to see it on the Google Play store. If it is, it's possible that your device has been blocked due to known issues (min spec, performance issues, etc). What device are you using?

Sorry to hear you didn't make it into the Beta - we went out of our way to ensure that all validated backers were added. Our apologies if you slipped through the cracks.

If it's any solace, at least the game will be launching soon(-ish)!

 

[MightyZug]

Also that reminds me, what special reward will we get when the official game launches?

There's a bit of coordination that will need to happen in order to deliver these rewards. We'll be syncing up with Beta Players (and backers) after the hard launch with more details.

 

[Undaunted]

Is that fan survey exclusively for the people who got into the closed beta?

 

[moisterrific]

Is that fan survey exclusively for the people who got into the closed beta?

I guess not, anyone with the link can take the survey and reserve a free gift. IIRC the survey asked for feedback from playing the beta so if everyone takes it and gives weird answers, it might mess up the data.

Here's the link to the survey: https://hvstudios.typeform.com/to/e3ZSfi

 

[MightyZug]

@moisterrific @Undaunted We do want to provide a reward for IGG backers and a reward for beta participants (ideally independently). We'll be figuring out the logistics for this after we're done sorting everything out for our next big update leading up to Hard Launch.

 

[moisterrific]

You can only get Gold Moves from the Expert Event.

I just got a gold move (Burst) from the advanced Big Band event. Maybe this is a bug or maybe I'm just really lucky.

This was the level I got it from.

 

[Undaunted]

Thanks for the response moisteriffic, and I also got a gold move from Advanced mode. Yesterday I was playing Filia's Advanced event and I got a gold version of Drillationship.

 

[Kit Ballard]

It does say "Random" so I always guessed it's any rank based on rarity

 

[Cellsai]

Aye, I've gotten golds from at least Advanced too. Maybe it's just weighted so you can get any special from any rank, but you're just far more likely to get bronze in low, silver in advanced, gold in expert?

@moisterrific We'll be figuring out the logistics for this after we're done sorting everything out for our next big update leading up to Hard Launch.

I'm assuming none of this is set in stone, but when are you aiming for said update and hard launch?

 

[ArgonBern]

I remember somewhere that there might be more playable characters outside of 2nd Encore's cast. Is it true? What's the current/planned cast? Any plans to expand it in case the app does well?

Btw I would totally buy it if I had a better phone or tablet. :<

 

[luawei]

Will a 4th gen Ipad work with the game at some point? I'm disappointed I can't use my current Ipad with the game and I'm not getting a newer model any time soon.

 

[moisterrific]

Will a 4th gen Ipad work with the game at some point? I'm disappointed I can't use my current Ipad with the game and I'm not getting a newer model any time soon.

Most likely not, Skullgirls mobile is pretty graphically intensive and I'm getting stutters even on an iPhone 6s. The game could use some optimization improvements but I doubt they can make the game look good and run well on a 5 year old device like the iPad 4. Supporting older devices usually means compromising quality for newer, more powerful ones.

 

[Joeboy]

I would like to play this game but when I got to download it says my phone is not compatible (my phone is a HTC Desire 530) will there be an update that I can play.