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Skullgirls is coming to Mobile!

How do you move? No one has mentioned this, that I've seen. I saw dash forward/back explained, but how do you walk forward? Can you walk back? Can you jump (outside of combos)? Can you dash without attacking?
 
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I think you stand still but i could be wrong though
 
I think you stand still but i could be wrong though
Peacock and Valentine clearly walk forward in the demonstration.
 
Peacock and Valentine clearly walk forward in the demonstration.
I'm guessing you can only dash forward and back, then it walks you automatically to default standing distance apart from each other between combos.
 
So this is the fighting engine of Indivisible with the Skullgirls characters?

edit: Just saw the news, read the quick description and saw that it sounds just like how you'd unlock moves for characters in Indivisible. A PVP for indivisible was mentioned as something worth experimenting with and this sounds just like that. Indivisible battle controls could very well work in Mobile.

So this could be very good for both Skullgirls and Indivisible
 
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I'm guessing you can only dash forward and back, then it walks you automatically to default standing distance apart from each other between combos.
That can't be it. Just look at the times either character walks forward. Sometimes they both walk towards each other, sometime just one of them walks forward, sometimes they do nothing after walking forward, sometimes they attack after walking forward, sometimes they walk and stop at different distances from eachother. If it's not player controlled then it's random, and I highly doubt it's random.
 
Dont tell DDB. let him find out firsthand. super excited for new characters though, although if theyre going to make basis for new characters, lets say umbrella, why not just add them to the base SG as DLC instead of waiting for SG2.
The amount of work for a mobile character compared to a full character is not even in the same UNIVERSE. The point is, IF we do a new character for mobile, we can reuse those many of frames if the opportunity arises to make them a real character later. It's like 65% more work to finish them, though, and before-you-even-ask, no.
 
Peacock and Valentine clearly walk forward in the demonstration.
You can walk. At least, you could walk before and he did it at the panel.

Money affects gameplay, and while you can say it won't be a big deal in this game, every mobile game claims that. It always seems inevitable that at some point the grinding gets too much and you need to either cough up or you'll be stuck for a while, and even if you do cough up you'll still hit another bottleneck later and it never ends.
That's because the company would like to make money? Making it ALL free all the time means they don't do that, in the minds of business people, because nobody voluntarily gives you money. Or rather, fewer people voluntarily give you money than give you money if you dangle a reward in front of them and make money the easy way to get it.

I'm not arguing that that mindset is awesome or anything, but I can tell you that skill matters a decent bit in this game. If you have time/skill and not money, you can compete with the people who have money and not time/skill.

Why can't it be a more traditional model where I pay for the game once and never have to worry about anything else? Or since the game is apparently split up into seasons, each season could be paid DLC with a small taste at the beginning for free. Or something else that's... just, well, not this.
I can answer this question! Because in basic finance, a one-time payment is less profit than an ongoing payment plan, even if the payment plan is $1 a week and the one-time payment is $1000...as soon as you reach week 1001, you're losing money on the fixed payment. To business people, again, you would have to price the game highly enough to offset the supposed money you are losing by not having people buy things in the game; and having a highly-priced mobile game is basically guaranteed to sell no copies because nobody wants to pay that much for a <perjorative>MOBILE GAME</perjorative>.

All the limited-play-time and gacha things are designed to take advantage of the addict-style behavior built into human beings, by creating more demand than there otherwise would be inside you as a result of (respectively) false scarcity or randomly-reinforced rewards. They became the standard because they work and make the most profit. Unfortunately.

If it sounds like I personally don't approve of all that stuff...well, yeah, I don't. I think mobile gaming totally deserves the stigma of being all about making money, because due to these psychological methods a huge number of games are financially successful despite being CRAPPY GAMES. Just count the number of match-3 products with anime characters or food or whatnot that have been pooped out in the last five years. That isn't to say that there are no good games on mobile devices - there are some GREAT ones. But to me it still seems like the initial thought in the minds of the majority of mobile developers is dollar signs rather than uniquely-crafted fun times.

I saw more than one company pitch a mobile version of SG. Most of them were, "Hey we can skin this match-3 game as Skullgirls! MAKE HELLA DOSH YO!" So, one of the things that really stood out about Hidden Variable's initial pitch was that the first thing they said was, "We think we can actually make a fun fighting game on a touch screen." To me, that difference is a big deal.

My job advising on SG mobile begins and ends at ensuring the game is actually something people would want to play for fun, rather than because they got sucked into the grind. It's a very different thing on a touchscreen, with no tactile feedback and no way to know there's no hardware input lag, which is why I didn't want to make a mobile version myself. (Heh?) But they did it without a virtual joystick and virtual buttons, so it feels pretty good.

I try and make monetization decisions end up as un-avaricious as possible when I hear about them; for example someone at the panel asked if it was possible to play offline which I hadn't thought about, so I'm gonna fight for that to be allowed. But at the end of the day since Hidden Variable is making it, I am only a loudly yelling voice on SG mobile, not the decision maker.
 
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as someone with a potato phone from the stone age

what are the minimum "specs"?
 
You can walk. At least, you could walk before and he did it at the panel.
Do you know how? Taps are attacks, and holding is also an attack. Do you... swipe without letting go?
 
Now that I'm aware how the game'll work payment-wise, I'm actually not that worried. For me I'm always down for extra in-game payment As long as it's optional. The only bad payment is mandatory payment. If I ever feel forced to go for an in-app purchase because say, Alex Ahad makes a really good story but the game hits a difficulty spike and I can't see the ending, that would suck.

But from the sounds of Mike Z, he's confident Hidden Variable can make a good game wether or not you've got anti-matter in your wallet. The focus is on the player having a fun gaming experience. For mobile games and payment I always point to Halfbrick's smash hit Jetpack Joyride. It's an endless 2D runner (that ironically has an end) that basically pioneered the 2D endless genre as a whole. I never paid a cent of actual money in-game but I'm still within the top 50 in Canada, because while Halfbrick will give the option to buy advantages, these advantages don't get you through the game and aren't a replacement for skill. The money gets you in-game currency to buy power-ups. It makes it easier, yeah, but you're not going to get top 50 unless you put in the actual effort. Halfbrick made such a good game that they didn't need in-game payments to stay afloat, so many people downloaded the game that they're swimming in ad money. Win/Win.
Then again working on Crashed Star I had to actually look into this kind of stuff because when the financial manager came to us with pitches I had to know what the hell he was talking about. Cramming PDFs about modern consumer opinion and mindset is probably one of the least exciting things I've done and explaining them in detail isn't exactly thrilling either lmao.

The game, from what I've seen and heard, sounds and looks fun. And from what Mike Z has explained, it sounds like payment isn't the top priority at Hidden Variable. Nobody should be alarmed.

So, one of the things that really stood out about Hidden Variable's initial pitch was that the first thing they said was, "We think we can actually make a fun fighting game on a touch screen." To me, that difference is a big deal.
but I can tell you that skill matters a decent bit in this game. If you have time/skill and not money, you can compete with the people who have money and not time/skill.

See that? That gives me hope. Hearing that we'll get new animations and new attacks for our favourite characters gives me hope. A chance at a new character being animated, even if it's not in Skullgirls itself, gives me hope. And anybody with a sliver of doubt should be hopeful as well imo. Just my 2 coins.
 
as someone with a potato phone from the stone age
what are the minimum "specs"?
Doesn't run very well on my phone, which is an LG Optimus F3Q. So, potato phone's probably out.

If I ever feel forced to go for an in-app purchase because say, Alex Ahad makes a really good story but the game hits a difficulty spike and I can't see the ending, that would suck.
You beat Marie 300%, right? If you ever feel FORCED to buy something because of difficulty, take a step back and stop to think about what "forced" means. Eventually, games am hard, and spending money is intentionally the easy way in the absence of skill or patience. That's kinda the point of offering things for sale on mobile...but "forced" is your own personal threshold. :^P
(I can explain the approach, but it is difficult for me to defend it, still.)

Halfbrick made such a good game that they didn't need in-game payments to stay afloat, so many people downloaded the game that they're swimming in ad money. Win/Win.
Yes, but what does a company do if they make a game without ads, sir?

And from what Mike Z has explained, it sounds like payment isn't the top priority at Hidden Variable.
I'm of two minds about this whole thing, so I will remind you: making money is a priority for them, as well. Just that doing it without a conscience, isn't. Very few studios are willing to make a thing just for the sake of having it get made (I know this well), and basically zero studios target mobile intentionally without at least a tiny glint in their eye.
 
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Then he just keeps on trucking.
 
>When based MikeZ notices you
>Feelsgoodman.gif
>But he's mostly disagreeing with you
>Oh.jpg

You beat Marie 300%, right?
I don't even play Skullgirls I haven't, no, but what's different between my analogy and yours is that there's no important piece of canonical info behind Marie 300% (or at least not to my knowledge if there is well there goes my argument whoops). It's just an optional boss fight. I'm talking about having the ending of the game behind a paywall, not unlike triple A developers who release Day 1 DLC that contains the ending of their actually incomplete game, a game you bought under the thought that you got the whole package. From what you've described you make it seem like you're really only gonna need to pay for tough boss fights if you're an early quitter. That's not your fanbase, Mike. Nobody who's played Skullgirls is an early quitter. (Or not to my knowledge if there are well there goes my argument whoops).

Mike, I think I speak for everybody (Keyword: I think) when I say just make a fun game. It can have in-game payments. Pretty much all mobile games have them already, even the best ones. But don't let it distract us from the gameplay experience. When you set out to make Skullgirls I'm sure you didn't have money on your mind. You wanted to make a great Fighting game. Even though you're not in charge of Skullgirls Mobile, If HV has that same mindset we've got nothing to worry about.
 
What part of "im not making the game just advising, buuuuuut this not gonna be other cash grab you would enjoy the same game compare with people who spent bucks to unlocks early things, but just gonna spent more time/effort/skills" its not clear?

lmao
 
That's not your fanbase, Mike. Nobody who's played Skullgirls is an early quitter. (Or not to my knowledge if there are well there goes my argument whoops).
There's a butt-ton of people who like skullgirls characters who don't want to spend hundreds of hours learning how to play a fighting game. Or don't even have a controller and have no desire to get one. Or heck, I played a guy at least half a dozen times today in quick match who wasn't even bad at the game, but rage quit every time I got him in a long series of combos. But anyway, there's a big market for a more accessible skullgirls. The indiegogo got over 15,000 backers, and there are far from that many active skullgirls players.
Mike, I think I speak for everybody (Keyword: I think) when I say just make a fun game. It can have in-game payments. Pretty much all mobile games have them already, even the best ones. But don't let it distract us from the gameplay experience.
Who are you trying to convince of what, here...?
 
I have no idea tbh Mike Z took my comment seriously and I think I kinda got caught up in the moment and talked myself into a corner and lost any hint of professionalism.

Also I doubt learning a fighting game takes hundreds of hours. Hell Skullgirls' tutorial is designed to teach you the basics from the ground-up in less than 5 hours. Learning and practicing advanced combos, tech and strategy is something everybody does at their own speed. Also I doubt not having a controller is a real deterrent to playing Skullgirls. I've gone to monthlies at various joints around the world where some people practice and play with keyboards. I myself use a keyboard sometimes when practicing really frame tight combos because I find it easier and more precise to press SD fast then to input a quarter circle with my fight pad. Again just my two coins on the subject, take with as much salt as desired.

But I digress. I don't want to derail the thread here. tl;dr Hidden Variable sound like they're focusing on fun gameplay rather than Money first and foremost. Money is a priority, it always is in any project, but the important thing is they're not going to be cruel about it. I'm just trying to weigh in on any concerns there might be regarding the in-game payment, that's all.

I have no idea how to quote I'm sorry I'm just trying to reply to MysteriousJ help.
 
I mean I learned the bases in roughly a day. takes time to master but it doesnt take hundreds of hours to learn
 
Actually I guess that really depends on when you have 'learned' the fighting game, you're right.
That is pretty subjective.

If hundreds is plural hundreds meaning 200, I think 200 is a fair starting point for saying I've learned of this game.

My b.
 
It would take my dad no less than 100 hours to be able to hit confirm into a bnb. I could see him playing skullgirls mobile.
 
Well gang, you know what time it is. Time for the official Skullgirls Launch Party Anthem

 
Don't the mods hate media dumps?
 
Yeah I was ggoing to mention that after the 3rd one in a row ^^;

SO to pull this back to relevance, Lets say Multiplayer is possible one day. Would anyone be interested in a mobile SG scene in the FGC?
 
Doubt it because why make a competitive scene for a spin off game who's main scene already has a competitive scene.