The past Saturday had the Lab Zero team gathered together at Anime Expo 2014 to share their views on Skullgirls' past, present, and what's to come. From the struggles of making the baritone behemoth Big Band, to working out the final touches on SG's newest character Eliza, to preparing for future characters Beowulf and Robo-Fortune, Lab Zero were happy to share their experiences and answer questions in a panel alongside an auditorium of fans.
Newcomer Eliza and her skeletal parasite Sekhmet were shown off in full force, with Mike and team demoing their extensive moveset, concept art, Eliza's newly-implemented voice, and even an image from their story mode. Art director Alex Ahad gave exposition clarifying her part in Skullgirls' extensive lore, while gameplay designer and programmer Mike Zaimont explained her role as a new character with a unique arsenal of tools at her disposal. Eliza's segment of the panel concluded with the news that Lab Zero intends to release Eliza some time after EVO 2014.
Wrestling/android fans rejoice: New information on upcoming DLC characters Beowulf and Robo-Fortune was divulged during Skullgirls' panel! New concept art has been released of Beowulf, Skullgirls' resident giant-maiming wrestler. With the LZ team claiming to have studied countless wrestling moves in preparation for his concept brainstorming, Mike Z expressed his own gameplay aspirations for Beowulf by wishing for him to be somewhat similar to Marvel vs. Capcom 2's Captain America; a character who wields a shield (in Beowulf's case, his trusty folding chair) which can be utilized in several different ways. Beowulf is due to be released in the months after Eliza.
Not to be left in the dust, Lab Zero shed light on Robo-Fortune, a robotic doppelganger forged in the image of Ms. Fortune. As a clone character, Robo-Fortune is to reuse animation frames from Ms. Fortune, much like Fukua reused frames from Filia. However, Robo-Fortune is much more distinct in appearance than Fukua was to Filia, meaning any reused Ms. Fortune frames would have to be edited before reuse.
Seen above are several different color maps for Robo-Fortune, and one from Ms. Fortune as a reference. C, E, and G represent Robo-Fortune in various stages of complexity; concerned that complex iterations of Robo-Fortune's design might have proven prohibitively expensive to edit over existing frames, C and E served as "budget" fallbacks to be used in the event that G (the most complex version) would have been too expensive to work with. After measuring the amount of time taken to convert a Ms. Fortune frame to both C, E, and G, Lab Zero decided that the extra cost in going with G wasn't prohibitively higher than its less glamorous cousins.
Also unveiled were early severed head concepts, Robo-Fortune's voice actor (Kimlinh Tran, the voice of Ms. Fortune), and several audience-rousing palette concepts (courtesy of Jon). Robo-Fortune is slated to be released in the months after Beowulf.
A big thanks to @Mike_Z, @render, Vince, Mariel, @EU03, @Persona, Alex, Rich, Erin, @Kimlinh Tran, and Danielle for taking the time out of their day to meet up at this panel!
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