Time to reflect - Happy 2-year anniversary of the Indiegogo Finale!

[erkicman]

Hey guys!

So... I think it's time for a reflection here. As of today (EST), it has been EXACTLY 2 years since the Indiegogo campaign ended. 2 YEARS, and I'm sure it's been a wild ride for everyone involved in developing, playing and following Skullgirls.

Based on what's publicly known, development is also coming to a close. So let's summarize where things have gone and where they're going (based on my own observations over the years, please feel free to add to or correct things on this list):

--

Milestones that have been met:

- Squigly, Big Band, Eliza completed and released
- Glass Canopy, Meridian Rooftops (Day/night), Bath of Tefnut (Water/blood)
- PC Port

Milestones soon to be met:

- Beowulf nearing completion - Basically mechanically complete, things like music, voices, story mode finishing up
- Robo Fortune is a real part of the game - still needs months of additional work until completion
- Real Soviet Announcer and other voice packs
- Train stage
- Rebalancing of gameplay to encourage more 2-player gameplay and a more balanced cast - more balancing to be done until Robo's complete
- Ports to PS4, Vita, NESICA Arcade (!!!!!), Linux

Bonus milestones we TOTALLY didn't expect to get:

- FUKUA(!!!!!)
- Nightmare Crest
- Gehenna
- Typing of the Skullgirls

Prototype ideas that changed along the way*:

- Big Band's combos as improvisational Jazz - sound effects are there, but the ability to play music on top of your opponent's battered skull is limited to s.MP and lvl5 super
- Eliza's blood mechanic

Supporting the FGC:

- Revenue from 86'd shirt sales, game sales, and money from Autumn Games basically re-invested into the community in the form of pot bonuses for EVO, Northwest Majors, Combo Breaker
- Development of a free PS3->PS4 stick driver that can be licensed to other studios, like NRS(!!!!!)
- A member of the SGC, Night Phyre, chosen as the voice actor for Beowulf
- Accessibility for blind players
- Mane6 got access to the Z-Engine for development of their game, and Mane6 fans helped support SG!


*These ideas were subject to change throughout the course of development
--

There's really no doubt that the campaign was an overall success. I guess what I wanted to discuss here is:

- Why did you donate to the game in the first place?
- Did this game turn out to be what you wanted/envisioned it to be when the Indiegogo campaign ended?
- Knowing how the results of the campaign turned out, would you donate again if given the chance (chance = likely never, but still)? Less? More? The same?
- What do you see as the future of this game once development has ended? With the game as it is now/will be in a few months, can it be as big as GG, UNIEL, Marvel/other big name titles?
- Is there really anything you would have wanted changed about what came out of the campaign?

 

[Stuff]

- Why did you donate to the game in the first place?
- Did this game turn out to be what you wanted/envisioned it to be when the Indiegogo campaign ended?
- Knowing how the results of the campaign turned out, would you donate again if given the chance (chance = likely never, but still)? Less? More? The same?
- What do you see as the future of this game once development has ended? With the game as it is now/will be in a few months, can it be as big as GG, UNIEL, Marvel/other big name titles?
- Is there really anything you would have wanted changed about what came out of the campaign?

• I didn't.
• Never heard of it until it released PC 2-3 months after. (I'd never even play it if someone didn't give it to me)
• I guess so I do want Venus in she was cool and I still blame everyone for having bad taste in cool characters. (and Beatrix and Feng and Puppet guy were all cool)
• I see people learning new things once the game has settled (a new meta or something like actually snapping a damn assist in). As for popularity, it's only as good/big as we make it out to be so I'll still play it. Dunno about you guys.
• Remove Eliza and Beowulf and insert Venus and Puppet guy.

(His name is taliesin or something I dunno.)

 

[erkicman]

I still blame everyone for having bad taste in cool characters.

You know, I still see Eliza as the voters trying to make the best out of a bad situation. She's still a good character I think, but in retrospect Annie might've been pretty cool too.

 

[Ninja]

well time listen to some smooth jazz and relax with a good drink.

 

[erkicman]

well time listen to some smooth jazz and relax with a good drink.

 

[ElementFree]

seems fitting

 

[Nap1400]

I see the character wars have never truly gone away.

But as for the questions:

-I donated because I was a fan of the game and I wanted to support L0 after seeing how much love was put into the game. And I wanted to see it grow in the roster and in other ways.
-Not what I envisioned would happen, but I don't care, the game is great anyway.
-Absolutely. Probably even more given that I had the money to do it with.
-This is a difficult question. As it stands Skullgirls is unfortunately in that limbo of "game that most people didn't get to see after their first impression on launch day and didn't like it from that POV" area of poverty. I'm sure many of us who were around from the vanilla game remember HK Hornet Bomber, 20-second combos, frameskip 6, etc., which probably turned off a bunch of potential players who haven't touched it since. I still do my best to give the game publicity by bringing it to any events I go to (thank you pc version for being available on my laptop) and I encourage anyone who can to do the same. Only way to keep the meta evolving and attract potential players is to keep playing it.
-I ain't even gonna touch waifu wars on this one, so I'll have to say Eliza getting her blood mechanic in some fashion. But don't take that to mean I'm disappointed in her, I still love playing her regardless.

 

[North888]

I feel I missed out since I didnt really discover SG until after Encore was released. If they did another Indiegogo, I'd donate as much as I possibly could!

And by that I mean I'd donate a couple hundred, $500 at the very least! This game is worth every cent!

 

[PKStoopKid]

I donated cause of an overall interest in the game and I wanted to donate more for the color palette and character cameo but personal issues and conflicts caused me to not.

I've always had faith in the game hell I own 8 copies so the game turned out how I expected minus the surprises we got didn't count for those
Yeah I'd donate again, but it wouldn't be significant as my previous donations I'm planning for my daughter's future and mine.
Honestly don't see big bad Evo still giving it a chance and these big namers and everyone else finding a new excuse at every turn instead of just telling the truth about why they don't play. I see it still being relevant and I feel the community will grow once all is finished and significant advancements in giving it the cred it deserves will arise

 

[SkullMan]

For the questions:

*I donated because I wanted Skullgirls to grow in many different areas (Story, stages, etc.).
*The game has exceeded my expectations and I am enjoying every moment of it.
*Since I didn't really donate that much for the indiegogo campaign, I would like to donate some more if given the chance.
*I believe that the community will grow as time moves on and I am sure the game will continue to thrive.
*I don't really have anything in mind for what I could change.

 

[Flotilla]

Things that had to change/get abandoned:

- Big Band's combos as improvisational Jazz - sound effects are there, but the ability to play music on top of your opponent's battered skull is limited to s.MP and lvl5 super
- Eliza's blood mechanic

I'd like to point out that something can't become scrapped/abandoned until it is explicitly confirmed and then doesn't happen. Neither of these were confirmed, and in the latter case Mike went out of his way to say that Eliza's blood mechanic was a prototype that may not influence her gameplay design at all.

• I threw in $5 when the Indiegogo started. Then I scrolled down and saw Big Band, and there went most of that week's paycheck. Up until the IGG I was pretty distant from SG and didn't play it that much, but the thought of being able to play as a giant trash can man sparked a primal urge to throw money in Lab Zero's general direction.
• Better.
• Of course.
• People will play it even after DLC stops being released.
• Yes, but they're nitpicky things and talking about them would probably spark an argument!

 

[erkicman]

I'd like to point out that something can't become scrapped/abandoned until it is explicitly confirmed and then doesn't happen. Neither of these were confirmed, and in the latter case Mike went out of his way to say that Eliza's blood mechanic was a prototype that may not influence her gameplay design at all.

• I threw in $5 when the Indiegogo started. Then I scrolled down and saw Big Band, and there went most of that week's paycheck. Up until the IGG I was pretty distant from SG and didn't play it that much, but the thought of being able to play as a giant trash can man sparked a primal urge to throw money in Lab Zero's general direction.
• Better.
• Of course.
• People will play it even after DLC stops being released.
• Yes, but they're nitpicky things and talking about them would probably spark an argument!

Thanks, Flotilla! I tried to re-word this in my post to better reflect this.

-- My thoughts: --

It's really interesting seeing responses from people who didn't play much the game or even hear about the game prior to the Indiegogo campaign. I donated in order to get more people playing the game. Since you guys are here now, I guess it worked at least a little bit! While I may not be able to play the game as much as I'd like due to time constraints, I freakin' LOVE watching the game be played at a high level. At least until I saw Severin play at EVO ;^). I don't like watching Marvel, so two years ago when Marvel was basically force-fed down everybody's throats 24/7, it was really important to me that more people play SG so I could watch that more. I also donated to give Mane6 access to the Z-engine.

That being said, my mentality for character voting was, "get as many male characters into the game as possible because that will get more people to play the game and not feel like Scuzzlords. And regardless of gender, Stanley HAS to make it in." I didn't realize until I watched the livetweet of one of Kinuko's panels at GDC that this is the EXACT mentality that a lot of publishers had when they rejected the game during the pitching stage: "This game needs more male characters, or we can't publish this game", they said. Whether my mentality was me being sexist or me attempting to work with the realities of the FGC/industry/potential player base in order to grow the game - it's likely a combination of both - it's definitely a sobering thought that I need to reflect on.

The results of the campaign exceeded my expectations, especially in the field of community support. And we got a new character for freakin' free. (The !!!!!'s in my previous posts were things I was ESPECIALLY excited about!)

If given the chance to do it again, I would donate more, as the previous campaign was worth every penny I put in and more. Problem is I'm kind of broke right now so...

Refer to Kai Kennedy's interview in 6-let's podcast for my thoughts on Skullgirls' future, because he echos them perfectly. It's why I keep bringing the game to local weeklies even though I'm always the only person playing the game.

The only thing I would've changed is how the developers ended up getting paid throughout the development process. I remember it being said at the beginning of the campaign that the money, if goals were met, would be allocated such at all team members could work on the game full time and be able to pay rent, bills and food without having to take on second jobs. Yes, the team went above and beyond to give us more than we paid for. But I can't help but think that this resulted in the team doing a LOT more work for less pay to the point where a lot of the team had to take on multiple jobs to make ends meet. It's the one thing that makes everything bittersweet for me, but it also shows how much love is put into this game.

 

[PKStoopKid]

Don't forget to mention a huge amount of support from people who also support mane6 helped spread Skullgirl's popularity

I'm actually pretty content with the DLC picks we got, but I may have changed my vote to Umbrella or Venus. Forgot to mention that

 

[erkicman]

Don't forget to mention a huge amount of support from people who also support mane6 helped spread Skullgirl's popularity

Done!

 

[Ambiguity]

• When skullgirls was just on console there were rumors of a PC port flying abound but nothing concrete. When the IGG campaign happened I donated in a heartbeat to rectify that.
• I think the success of this IGG campaign has skewed my expectations of how successful crowd-funding should be and how much developers should deliver on promises(over-deliver).
  
• YES
• The way I see it going is skullgirls will never reach "critical acclaim" levels because of capcom hogging all the spots but I still see people playing this game for years to come.
• I think the only thing I would've want changed is the fact that LabZero needed a campaign in the first place. They've put so much work into this game and at practically minimum wage no less. This wish basically means spraying Konami with water and telling it to go sit outside sooooooooo..... yeah.

 

[BallotBoxer]

- Why did you donate to the game in the first place?
The game was already awesome so I wanted more. IGG rewards (Artbooks, DAC, etc.) were also a nice incentive.
- Did this game turn out to be what you wanted/envisioned it to be when the Indiegogo campaign ended?
Yes and more than expected. The game has been in constant refinement, like a katana made of steel folded a thousand times.
- Knowing how the results of the campaign turned out, would you donate again if given the chance (chance = likely never, but still)? Less? More? The same?
Lab Zero needs money thrown at them. I'd donate more. Hopefully seeing fans raising nearly a million dollars will get the attention of major publishers to hire the talented team.
- What do you see as the future of this game once development has ended? With the game as it is now/will be in a few months, can it be as big as GG, UNIEL, Marvel/other big name titles?
With the PS4/Vita release including all the new characters the game can technically be called finished. But it is not the end. More like a true beginning. A still more glorious dawn awaits / not a sunrise, but a galaxy-rise / a morning filled with 400 billion suns.
- Is there really anything you would have wanted changed about what came out of the campaign?
I didn't vote for both winners, but they turned out beyond fantastic so there's nothing to complain about.

The voting brought out some vicious infighting, but nothing too notable to change about the campaign. But I wonder if things would have turned out differently if the ranking-based voting system that was changed to in the second vote was used for the first.

3rd Character Vote
TOP 8

1. Aeon
2. Annie
3. Beowulf
4. Eliza
5. Isaac
6. Minette
7. Panzerfaust
8. Stanley

TOP 4

1. Aeon
2. Annie
3. Eliza
4. Minette

WINNER: Eliza

4th Character Vote
TOP 10

1. Beatrix
2. Brain Drain
3. D. Violet
4. Ileum
5. Marie
6. Molly
7. Roxie
8. Scythana
9. Taliesin
10. Umbrella

WINNER: Beowulf

Perhaps the Annie and Minette coalition could have combined their efforts to overcome Eliza. Or not. It would be interesting to see the numbers in the vote results to see how close it was in both polls.