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Report What's Up With Fukua: A Q&A With Mike Z

Kai

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When did the idea of Fukua (as a seriously considered addition to the game) first come up?

MIKE Z: Fukua came from a typo from Brady a long time ago, and he had even done most of the UI assets back then. As a seriously considered addition to the game, last Thursday, so...the...night of the 27th?

How long did it take to go from concept to completion on the character? Were there any ideas that were dropped?
MIKE Z: Concept to completion was Thursday night, only a few hours on Friday because of Salty prep, most of Saturday, none of Sunday due to some patch problems requiring work, and Monday. Approximately 3 long days of work, with help! (Brady, Brian, Rich, Vince, Jon, Brenton, and Earl you all rock!)

She has no new art, everything is re-used. Her alternate normals are old Filia attacks that were replaced with Samson attacks during SG development - they were also used for Double to differentiate her from Filia the same way - and everything else is a hack job. She re-uses bits of script from Zoner Filia and Grappler Filia, which were alternate green and red skin versions I'd made for the first public Evo demo of SG back before we had a 2nd character. Some people may remember them, possibly even fondly. (Those are the two souls in her April Fools' story, which is not meant to imply anything else.) The divekick-only-on-contact comes from Grappler but it was an idea I had for a long time before that. New ideas were added, and two or three things I didn't have time to do were dropped but they weren't really necessary. I mostly knew how I wanted her to play, so she got things that reinforced that ideal.

The over-3-year-old Zoner and Grappler scripts I reused as starting points worked without any changes, which is the thing I'm happiest about since it means the engine is pretty darn robust.

Should she stay on the roster, will Lab Zero try to implement her into the story (Brain drain clone)? Maybe a story mode?
MIKE Z: I have no idea if we'd do anything for her story. She's not canon and I don't imagine Alex has much interest in shoehorning her into the SG universe, nor do I imagine anyone wanting to go through the work of creating a full story mode, but what do I know?
Currently her story is Locked because there's no way to remove a character from that screen and locking it prevents the game from crashing when it tries to read a file that doesn't exist after you pick her. :^P

Fukua serves as something of a, "test," for Robo Fortune, but does she also herald the coming of other Clone/Ex characters somewhere down the line?
MIKE Z: Fukua doesn't mean jack squat for any other EX characters. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

There were relevant jokes to be made, there was a holiday where such things are encouraged, there was a previous Skullgirls joke to capitalize on, there were old move ideas to begin with if they still worked, there were old unused animations to use as new things, and UI for her already existed. That, and if we're gonna do an April Fools joke it's gonna be whole hog, since everyone always says "Oh that should be a real thing!" So the idea of making a trailer where people would comment "I WOULD SO PLAY HER" and then having them really be able to do that...was irresistible. The perfect storm, minus three nights of sleep.

Is there anything else you wan to add?
MIKE Z: Consider her a very special bonus. Or don't. But don't hold out hope for anyone else not already announced, and don't bother us either way. :^)

  • Her name is pronounced, "foo-koo-uh." *
  • She will not be getting any new artwork done for her. All her frames will be the result of existing work already done by the art team. *
  • Fukua will eventually get an announcer voice clip for when she's picked on the character select screen. *
  • Fukua will get her own loading screen art. *
  • Fukua will have some kind of effect added to her that help players differentiate between her and Filia. *
  • Fukua will not be a code-unlock character, she will remain on the character select screen. *
 
when's Cererainbow Mikabella, though
 
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NOT ENOUGH INFORMATIONS
I WANT MOAR
I guess then PM NightPhyre your questions and he can ask Mike when there's enough to warrant another article?
 
(Those are the two souls in her April Fools' story, which is not meant to imply anything else.)
So the rumor going around that the two souls are of Delilah and Juju are just rumors. Good.
I read all of this in Mike's voice.
You're not alone bud.
 
NOT ENOUGH INFORMATIONS
I WANT MOAR

I just finished The Guided Fate Paradox not too long ago and this just gave me Spirit Library jitters.

Nice to have all the burning questions answered. Big thanks to Mr. Zaimont for doing this, since we know he's a busy man nowadays.
 
Will she be in a corner on the roster or have a secret code?
 
God, I want it to be the code from that gag image she first appeared in :)

SHAMONE!

Annie are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay Annie? :PUN:
 
im still going to pretend that zoner filia and Grappler Filia are Juju and Delia. . .I will draw my onw stick figure story mode and it will be so good every one will cry, cry for more Fukua
 
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Will she be in a corner on the roster or have a secret code?
On that note, I think people who aren't whole-heartedly acceptive of Fukua would find her easier to stomach if she were placed like the hidden characters in the CPSIII JoJo, id est, not taking a slot in the select screen.
It seems, IMHO and without wanting to bring up any arguments, most objections to Fukua are based on her not being "on par" with the rest of the cast and being a joke taken too far and I think leaving her in a off-screen slot would certainly underline what she is in relation to everyone else. It's a minimal thing that probably doesn't mean anything but just throwing that out. Just a idle thought.


Delia? I thought it was "Delilah"...
Well, she was Samson's original host from baaaaaaaaack in the day.
 
Samson's previous host is obviously
800px-Delia.png
 
Woops my bad, the biblical reference was Delia SG character was Delilah
 
Will she be in a corner on the roster or have a secret code?
- Some sort of differentiating effect is not out of the question, I'm looking at that right now. I would not make her a code because that's much more difficult, same for locking out her and Filia on a team.
 
They should just make Fukua's story mode like Q's, where you fight all of the characters for no reason, and the ending is just a bunch of people in a room going "Yeah, we don't know," and walking out.
 
Hide her icon to the left of Filia, behind the rest of the UI.

But with her actually on the character select, the whole thing will be symmetrical once all DLC characters are added

I actually think this wasnt really an april fools event. I think it was somebody using it as an excuse to satisfy their OCD for symmetry
 
But is she gonna get some extra work done to her?
 
I just hope she's here to stay. She's fun to play as.
 
But is she gonna get some extra work done to her?
Animation-wise? Most likely not, except for maybe a new projectile. Balance/gameplay-wise? Probably, provided she sticks around for the long-term.
 
Animation-wise? Most likely not, except for maybe a new projectile. Balance/gameplay-wise? Probably, provided she sticks around for the long-term.
She needs an announcer name call & her loading picture to not be Big Band.
 
She needs an announcer name call & her loading picture to not be Big Band.
Mike said he'd work on that, and would do her loading art himself if he had to. Also, until the official Announcer VA is contacted, I think one of our forum regulars will be contributing to her name call.
 
I actually thought that Fukua was a long time pet project of Mike's, based on the relative, "completeness," of the character. Turns out it was just him using old scripts, though, which is what allowed him to pull things together so quickly.

Also, I think as a matter of professional pride, they'll make whatever small edits are needed to bring the art up to snuff.
 
Well she might get a few visual tweaks here and there, nothing big, just to make her look a bit cleaner.
 
I wish Brady would pop in here and answer my question. Is Mysterious Hair X been Fukua all along?
 
But with her actually on the character select, the whole thing will be symmetrical once all DLC characters are added

I actually think this wasnt really an april fools event. I think it was somebody using it as an excuse to satisfy their OCD for symmetry
im sorry but i found a genie and wished for this as I wanted Symmetry
 
im not on my game today. . .

anyways, why not use old stage assets like the Plaza, and that BGM we heard in the trailer?