Tag Archives: alex ahad

Help Lab Zero create as many new awesome characters as possible

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The excellent, under-appreciated, currently independent creators of Skullgirls, going under the new name of Lab Zero, are still hard at work on releasing new content for their vibrant 2D fighting game, and are asking for crowdfunding in order to push the possibilities to the max.  Please go here and check out what they’re offering.

I’m not a dedicated fighting game dude, but I recognize extreme talent when I see it.  For a measly $5 you can pre-order Squigly, a fascinating Tim Burton-esque girl with the ability to stretch her attacks and mess with the “meta game” — special meters, space and time, etc.  Each of the characters is hand-drawn, gorgeous, high frame rate (which can never be fully appreciated on something like YouTube) and deserving of money.  Remember, this isn’t some corporate scheme for milking money: it’s the most pure, artistic kind of creation you can get in gaming, and that alone is worth a lot.

Again, click here to check out the donation page.

The stretch goals are much more interesting yet!  And boy do they keep going!  I would love if this funding drive made millions.  The stretch goals include story modes, backgrounds, the game’s first male character (nice!), and a huge list of secret characters that could potentially be added, which fans will be able to pick from.  It’s making a ton of money after only a few hours, but let’s see how high we can go, for great justice!

Epic Skullgirls SoCal Finals

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Maybe you don’t want to watch all 30 rounds, but if you’ve been following along you’ll notice that the backgrounds now have more characters, the winning player now has “Leader” above their health (it gets tricky to measure health when you can have 1 v 3 matches) and that these players are highly skilled.  I’m excited.

Looks like the game is close to finished, although I heard a rumor that the Story Mode will be released (for free) later on, as a separate patch or something.  This could be wrong!  But even if it’s true, I won’t mind.  They also promised more downloadable characters (including males!) later on.  And, if I recall correctly, they also said you can stream your own music while playing, which is great for people like me who are super picky about in-game music.

Once the game is released I’ll be doing a bigger analysis of it, but for now I just have to applaud the team for pulling it all together and making something so compelling in a genre that’s flooded with sequels and spinoffs.  I won’t be surprised if the fighting game community neglects it for being too fun and stylish, but hopefully it finds a big following.

Skullgirls

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I simply have to promote this game.

Watch it full-screen to get a real sense of what it’s like.

This is easily the most beautiful fighting game I’ve ever seen, with character art by the one and only Alex Ahad, and with lead designer Mike Z, famous tournament fighter turned designer-programmer.  This is a dream team, and the progress they’ve made is mouthwatering to say the least.

The game will be released this year over the PSN Store [edit: and XBLA], which means its going to be affordable, and I insist that you check it out.  This game is built on love, passion, talent and style, and I believe every game should strive to reach this quality.  High-definition sprites that are hand created, with thousands upon thousands of frames of animation; dynamic lighting systems on top of that; actual good character designs with charming stories, unlike shitty BlazBlue/Guilty Gear.  This is how games should be made, and it definitely needs to see support.

The game has tag-mechanics, but as you can see from the video above it also features 1v1, 1v2, and 1v3, with the strengths being distributed accordingly to keep it balanced.  I can’t wait for this to come out and I sincerely hope it gets bathed in money, because I want more!

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