Not sure how wise it is for me to engage in a discussion with someone who's going to basically mic drop and walk out the door, but here goes nothin'.
The point I've been trying to make is that you guys need to change your image. Right now, Skullgirls is "that game I heard about" which is devoted to long-time followers and pro gamers.
How is it we're devoted to pro gamers? We want our game to be balanced so it can have a long life in the competitive scene, but I don't see how being dedicated to making the game balanced on a competitive level means that we think competitive players ARE EVERYTHING.
I agree that Skullgirls needs some new pretty packaging and an image change, though. A lot of people who wrote off Skullgirls when it first came out don't know that the game is vastly different from what it once was.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
The community needs to get a low-skill fanbase, or it'll fail, and half the people here keep saying they don't want to see Noobs! Street Fighter has a ton of Air-Hado spammers, and you'll meet your fair share of 'em, but think like this, everyone: How many gamers are there? Millions. Now, how many of them are casual? Easily 3/4 or more, I'd say! We may hate low-level players, but if there's a hundred of them for every one of us, then you'll get more money, Lab Zero!
When did we ever say that we think high-level players drive sales? We've known for a long time that even the FGC in general is not a good gauge of how well something sells or how long a life it will have. Don't conflate the Skullgirls community's predilections with our business plans.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
As far as your budget, I think you may have thought your priorities out wrong. I checked your stretch goals, and nowhere did I see "Bring Skullgirls to Japan's arcades", or "Create a line of figures just for a handfull of conventions".
Oh hey, yes, please critique the budget you haven't looked at. Things like ports - the PC port, the arcade port, the PS4/Vita ports - are funded by 3rd parties. That's why they aren't in our stretch goals. Also, I don't know where you got "Create a line of figures just for a handful of conventions," since we
never said we were doing that. Any Skullgirls figures you've seen on the internet or twitter or
wherever have all been done by fans.
Lab Zero's budget for the past year and a half has been SOLELY from the money we raised through our Indiegogo campaign, and is very tightly budgeted to allow us to finish the content we promised we would make, along with all the rewards we promised our backers.
Until as recently as July, we've had
no other source of income because we did not receive a cut of sales from the game. That was not by our choice, and we changed that at the earliest opportunity.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
I talked about this whole issue with my mom earlier, and she thinks you're a sinking ship. (and before anyone says anything negative, my mom has run her own business for a few decades, which I am Vice-president of, and even though there have been times we've been strapped for cash, we've managed to thrive.) I've made business plans by myself which have made thousands, but those plans wouldn't have worked without taking a leap of Faith or two. BUT! nowhere has one of our plans ever included biting off more than you can chew. Did the lawsuit hurt THAT much?
I don't really think you're in a position to assess whether or not the things we have on our plate are "more than we can chew," and that we are a sinking ship. On the contrary, we are still afloat as a company despite being
behind in our character release schedule exactly
because we know how to budget our funds smartly.
I should note that I'm not calling into question your business sense or your experience. It doesn't matter. What matters is how much information you have to be able to come to your conclusions about our business practices and how we're spending our money, and it frankly sounds like you don't have much.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
I feel that before you decide to start up another "$200,000 character" you should spend those resources on something that will help your PR/increase your gross revenue to something above $0, such as a comic line, or a collab (like the possible one with UNIB you're doing).
Where did you get the idea that we are looking to throw money at something like that? Or that we even have that money to throw around to begin with?
As I explained earlier in this post, since sometime in July we now receive a cut of sales of the game, so our revenue isn't $0. I don't understand where you got the idea that we don't have ideas on how to increase revenue beyond where it is, though.
Lab Zero hasn't worked on other side projects because WE HAVEN'T FINISHED OUR INDIEGOGO STUFF YET.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
Also, I can't help but wonder if Mike and Alex hired a good accountant before they started the Indiegogo campaign. Yes, I just complained about your release of merch before reaching stretch goals, but the difference is that you focused on the wrong part of the world.
Except we aren't releasing merch before reaching stretch goals. Even the EightySixed shirts you see for sale every week ARE NOT DONE BY US. Those are possible because EightySixed has a contract with our publisher, Autumn Games, to make Skullgirls shirts. That's it. It has nothing to do with us.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
I'd say go for it about the arcade and figures in Japan... If Lab Zero was in Japan! You're based in Los Angeles, last I checked, so do something in the U.S.! Facebook and Twitter work great, if you already have a massive following. Since you (sadly) don't, you need to grab people's interest more!
Like what? I'm eager to hear your suggestions. I expect you think we've come up with absolutely zero ideas (ha!). But also, NEWS FLASH, we can't really devote time to other things because we are busy finishing our Indiegogo obligations.
Also, as I said, the arcade port isn't being handled by us. That is largely done by a third party. We do provide support to them, and sometimes have to step in to do work for it, but it's not like we are doing it to the detriment of our development on our Indiegogo obligations.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
(and who's this Mane6 you gave the Z Engine to? I can't find a thing on them!)
Are you serious? You are outright bullshitting on this one.
A simple Google search will take you to their homepage, and information on us providing them the Z Engine is pretty easy to find.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
The main thing that sells Skullgirls is the personality/art of the game, mixed with the balanced gameplay. That's what reeled ME in! The problem with that is that you can't sell with JUST personality and balance. You need a unique work, plus good timing. I realized that all Skullgirls does is recycle everything we know about fighting games, it doesn't do anything new. I've found that every successful fighter has SOMETHING of its own. Street Fighter III has Parrys, SFIV has Ultra Combos, MVC3 has X-Factor (well, Simon thought that up first...) Guilty Gear has Critical Hits, Smash Bros. has Damage Percentage... the list goes on. I love Skullgirls, but it doesn't bring much to the table in that department. All I can think of is Nadia's head, (I may have missed a game, I don't play EVERYTHING) but that's not something you can market, is it? Also, the timing's been less than optimal. Encore released around the same time as Street Fighter IV's newest version. If you're a kid in toys R us with his mom, picking out a present, what'll it be: the fighter everyone knows and loves, or that new thing with the nurse.... cover your eyes, Timmy!
You didn't even have THAT advantage because Skullgirls is download only, so recomendations for it are mostly by mouth.
Oh, Skullgirls doesn't do anything new? It doesn't do custom assists, or have an infinite protection system, or have the highest-resolution 2D art of any fighting game ever, or have incredibly unique and memorable character designs, or have tutorials that teach you fighting game concepts and skills instead of just a handful of combos, or have stellar music by Michiru Yamane? Sorry, you're wrong. Skullgirls does more than recycle everything we know about fighting games.
Skullgirlfanboy said:
From the moment I saw this game, I though: "Wow! this looks cool! the characters remind me of Darkstalkers! Wait a minute..." That sums up how your company's going.
Could you elaborate a little bit more? How exactly is our company going?
Skullgirlfanboy said:
So PLEASE, Lab Zero! Think things out a bit more carefully, and even though your budget's $0, money can come in always, if you want it. Also, YES, play the lottery, even! There are people who make thousands playing professionally, and I think it helps any business! It wouldn't hurt to delay some DLC to garner some attention from casual players, and I think any player on this forum worth listening to will agree with my logic.
I can't believe you seriously just suggested we "play the lottery." You know playing the lottery is a waste of money, right? You want us to be more careful with our money, yet you think we should use some of it to bet on a game that is statistically disadvantageous to every single person that participates?
And I don't think delaying DLC helps to garner any attention from casual players. On the contrary, DLC should be
frequent and
fast to garner attention from casual players. Delaying DLC will only draw the ire of those who
aren't casual, whereas casuals will continue to not give a shit until you have something to offer them.
The longer we take to release DLC, the less our Indiegogo money is worth. I'm sure you realize that, though.
Stop conflating Lab Zero's business approach with a vocal minority of the Skullgirls community.
