Skull Girls discussion thread

Sairus

Yay, Big Band is now playable in the beta.
http://skullgirls.com/forums/index.php?threads/patch-update-big-band-beta-now-available.901/



He's so big when they ran this build on a console it caused slowdown. They may actually be shrinking him on all platforms it make him work on consoles.

Sairus

Just a heads up that Skullgirls is free-to-play on Steam this weekend, and on sale until Monday.

Also, this is the last week you can get Squigly for free. As of next week she gets bumped to $5.

Sairus

I know it's mainly just me in this thread most of the time, so I don't really update this often, but with the latest insane developments I figure it's worth it. :pac:

History lesson first: SG was initially made by Reverge Labs and published by Autumn Games and Konami. Autumn and Konami sued each other for a DefJam game and thus Reverge stopped being paid. Once SG was released, Reverge fired the entire SG team. The core SG team later reformed as a new company called LabZero to keep working on Skullgirls under Autumn Games as before, then they had their IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign, which brings us closer to the present.

During that lawsuit, the relationship between Autumn and Konami obviously soured significantly and Konami have stopped responding to Lab Zero's emails. Without Konami, LZ can't actually publish on consoles because they're the ones the game has to go through before it gets to Sony and MS - this is one of the reasons PC is so far ahead of consoles in terms of patches and content. Recently LZ finally started the process of severing ties with Konami and getting a new publisher (MarvelousAQL - PC publishers) so they can release stuff.

On the weekly Salty stream, Mike just announced that Konami had secretly went to Sony to ask that Skullgirls be delisted from the console. Lab Zero only found out about it when a Sony rep contacted them about it. Now MikeZ and Co are rushing to release a patched version of the game that they can slot into the PSN and XBLA marketplaces before Konami pulls them. They only have until the 17th to do this because then the PSN Q&A department close for Christmas.

What the hell? Seriously. I've never seen a game so plagued by operational hiccups and flat out slaps to the face as this has.

Here's Mike talking about it: http://www.twitch.tv/eightysixed/b/485538859?t=7m18s

Doctor DooM

A remarkably nasty move by Konami.

Sairus

Last time on the weekly SG stream, MikeZ announced Skullgirls Encore - the official title for the new version of the game being released on consoles.

LZ finally posted an FAQ about what the delisting means for everyone if you want a gawk: http://labzerogames.com/skullgirls-encore-and-you/

tl;dr : You'll need to download a new version of the game on PSN whenever it releases. If you already own the game, this is free. This will have new trophies, leaderboards, etc. Squigly will be available to download alongside this (and free for three months). DLC will not work between versions of the game, so LZ are making the DLC color palettes free for everyone for an undefined period of time - having this DLC color palette will unlock new colors for the future DLC characters too.

XBLA is more streamlined. They'll be able to patch in Encore (for free), so no new achievements and all previous DLC will work. However, the color palettes will still be made free for everyone to apologize for delays/hiccups/etc.

PC is totally unaffected.

In other news, MikeZ added in a frame data display in training the other day. It's still buggy, but works for the most part.

UberPrinny_Baal

Sairus wrote: »

XBLA is more streamlined. They'll be able to patch in Encore, so no new achievements and all previous DLC will work. However, the color palettes will still be made free for everyone to apologize for delays/hiccups/etc.

Whew.

I know I gave full price cash money to skullgirls due to their positive showing of the Beta at Cannes, but I would have been super annoyed at having to pay full price again for the updates they said they'd release for free.

Now I can update it for free, and go right back to not playing it.

THANK GOD!

Voa

I may have totally bought this off Humble Store for Steam.

Naphiel

I got it in a Steam sale awhile back because Big Band.

K.O.Kiki

Cyber Front (JP pub of western games such as Skullgirls) closes down

At this point, you gotta wonder which Elder God they pissed off to be this cursed...

TheMikenyan

Haven't seen anything happen to MarvelousAQL.

... Yet.

Sairus

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Cyber Front (JP pub of western games such as Skullgirls) closes down

At this point, you gotta wonder which Elder God they pissed off to be this cursed...

Hahah. Wat.

SG is seriously amazing at this stuff. Headshots all round.

I'd say MAQL will probably try and scoop up the JP license too since they've stepped in in the west and are based in Japan.

Sairus

Because of the downtime from patch submitting/Konami apocalypse/Christmas MikeZ took a few days of his spare time to put together a completely random extra mode for SG called "Typing of the Skullgirls Encore".
This is an extra offline-only mode has it so the game plays as normal, except every time you do a super the game will pause briefly and a word will appear on screen. Perfectly spelling the word boosts the damage to 150%, making a mistake will do normal damage, and failing the word will drop the damage to 10%. To make supers more common, regular moves get their damage massively nerfed and each player builds meter constantly.

This is such an utterly random addition to the game. I totally approve.

Also, SG is 33% off on Steam right now.

Doctor DooM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLbCkz2QKlY

TheMikenyan

So I just set up Steam on a new PC, and the first thing one of my friends did was gift me a copy of this game...

Sairus

Big Band's stage and theme (work in progresses) have been revealed:

Dang that's got a great 90's fighting game vibe to it. The instruments are all syths at the moment, but will be replaced with actual instruments in the final version.

K.O.Kiki

Hypedog 2.0

Sairus

Skullgirls Encore and Squigly have now released on NA PSN. If you got the NA version of Vanilla Skullgirls you should be receiving a code today sometime that will have a voucher to get Encore for free. Otherwise you'll have to buy it for $14.99 as normal. Squigly is free for 3 months regardless.
There's no specific word on when the EU/JP PSN will drop, but they're confident it won't be a long delay. The global XBLA version has been submitted for testing and will be done in a week or two.

Lab Zero posted an obscenely long and detailed patch list from the most recent console version to Encore: http://skullgirls.com/2014/02/skullgirls-encore-patch-notes/

This video goes through some (not all) of the more important system changes:

Final random aside, there's an entertainment expo of some sort in Tokyo this weekend and Skullgirls Arcade will be on display. Woo! Stuff I animated will be in an arcade!

TheMikenyan

Shots fired.

This goes beyond an April Fools joke - the character is actually in the Steam version's Endless Beta.

Sairus

Fun facts about Fukua:

• Back when Skullgirls was in early development and Filia was the only character, MikeZ made 2 alternate versions of her so there'd be some variety in the game and not pure mirrors. Black Filia is the current version of Filia, Red Filia was a projectile based character and Green Filia was a grappler. They gave Fukua a minor backstory for her release and she's said to be a clone of Filia with the souls of two long vanished warriors, so she has some of the projectile gameplay and grappler gameplay from those two characters. MikeZ actually reused a lot of the code for those two characters when he cobbled Fukua together.

• She started and finished development in 3 days. She uses absolutely no new assets despite having a couple of new normals - they were cut from Filia's original versions and replaced with visually different normals when they released the first Skullgirls.

• The reason she's called Fukua is because of a typo from one of the devs that made it into an old build of the game. Type 'Filia' on your keyboard, but move your right hand one key to the left.

• This is not the first time Fukua has been teased. Last April Fool's had a magazine scan floating around showing Fukua in the game. Later MikeZ added Fukua assets into PC Skullgirls that he knew would be found by people who regularly rip the assets out of it. Despite these she was never actually planned to be added as a playable character until last week.

• All of her alternate colors are based on famous palette swap characters in other games. Lillith, Decapre, etc.

• It's still not certain if she'll be kept in the game. The current plan is at least to remove her from the retail version of SG on Steam, but leave her playable in the Beta while they decide what to do with her. It's looking like she'll be added into the game proper when she gets a little extra polish. MikeZ has said he will give her an effect to make it easier to tell her apart from regular Filia and she'll be getting her own sound bite from the announcer when she's picked on the character select screen.

• Her damage output is currently ludicrous thanks to a secret level 5 360 grab super that sets her damage scaling to 200%:

Sairus

Lots of stuff for Skullgirls finally happening now!

After endless problems, the 360 version of SG has finally updated to Encore. To update fully you need to run the game and download the mandatory patch. You also need to go to the Skullgirls store on XBLA and download the free Compatibility Pack. This will upgrade the game to Encore.

Squigly is also now available to download for 360. As with all platforms she will cost €0.00 for the first three months she's on the store. After that time her price will be increased to €5.00, but if you already bought her for free you won't have to pay later, so go get her: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Search?query=skullgirls

The second DLC character, Big Band, also released on virtually all platforms yesterday.
He is currently available on Steam, 360 and North American PSN. EU and JP PSN are planned to follow on the 26th. He has the same Free For 3 Months deal that Squigly has.

Fukua has been confirmed as being kept on the roster. Currently she's still been removed from the core game and is only playable in the Beta while she's balanced. To further highlight that she's a bonus addition to the game, her icon has been removed from the character select screen. She now functions like a hidden character, so if you move your selector to the bottom right tile she will suddenly appear, similar to Akuma in SF vs X-Men. She is expected to be fully balanced and shipped to consoles in a few weeks - before Eliza is completed anyway.

UberPrinny_Baal

Sairus wrote: »

You also need to go to the Skullgirls store on XBLA and download the free Compatibility Pack. This will upgrade the game to Encore.

Important: If you're like me, and downloaded the compatibility pack ages ago, you need to redownload it again for any of the new stuff or characters to show up.

It will be flagged as "already downloaded" and a file from 2013, but ignore both of those as it's actually new today and totally has a buttload of extra data.

TheMikenyan

UberPrinny_Baal wrote: »

Important: If you're like me, and downloaded the compatibility pack ages ago, you need to redownload it again for any of the new stuff or characters to show up.

It will be flagged as "already downloaded" and a file from 2013, but ignore both of those as it's actually new today and totally has a buttload of extra data.

In my case, I had to delete the existing compatibility update from last year before the new one would even appear as available. Worked after that.

Sairus

The patch is getting some wildly different mileage from place to place.

Some can get it working fine just by downloading the patch and new Compatibility Pack (CP), some need to erase their old CP before getting the new one, some need to erase their save files and CP or colors wont unlock, others can't select certain stages and colors at all if they have moved consoles and redeemed the Skullgirls license on the new one (like me), others can't select BB or Squigly.

Bugs! Bugs evrywheeere.

But Prinny seems to have gotten it running without a hitch at least.

UberPrinny_Baal

Sairus wrote: »

The patch is getting some wildly different mileage from place to place.
....

But Prinny seems to have gotten it running without a hitch at least.

Remember I only bought SG when they released that big free balance patch that took 12 years to come out, I can't even remember if I needed the original compatibility pack, or if the purchasable version of SG at that time already had it incorporated.

My "without a hitch" process was this.

- Turn on Skullgirls, get prompted for a 8MB download. Confirm. Download. Enter game.
- Go into any Skullgirls mode, go to character select, see no new characters
- Navigate Skullgirls menus for in-game "store" option. Find none. Quit game
- Go to Skullgirls on XBL store, see game with "Play now", 2013 Compatibility pack with "Download again", Squigly and Big Band
- Download Squiggly and Big Band
- Reboot game
- Go into any Skullgirls mode, go to character select, see no new characters.
- See skullgirls.com/gameguide advertised on the title screen, check that out to see if it offers any hints. It does not.
- Quit game again
- Back to store
- Select "download again" on 2013 compatibility pack
- 800MB download has started
- "Ooooooh right. That was probably it then"
- Reboot game, "Skullgirls encore", complain about lack of Dedede colour
- ???
- Profit

ABSOLUTELY HITCHLESS!

Sairus

Judging from the hassle others are having, that is very hitch free!

Also, Skullgirls Encore will be free on Playstation Plus in May... in the US at least.

K.O.Kiki

Robert ninja

Anyone catch the Madcatz stream? I hope Lab Zero never work with them again for letting tekken cut 90 minutes into SG time and narrow it to top 4. Games seemed solid, though - very close. Seeing constant 50hit combos makes me feel pretty lame when I feel good about get even a 10 hit :P

Prizes other than the money was PS4s which seems fitting because of the PS4 & Vita release.

eastyy

i love this game been part of the endless beta for ages been sticking youtube videos up eliza is nearly complete now

chopperbyrne

This is only €9.99 on PS4 for 2nd Encore until the 29th of June for anyone interested.

Robert ninja

chopperbyrne wrote: »

This is only €9.99 on PS4 for 2nd Encore until the 29th of June for anyone interested.

Yeah it's on steam sale right now too http://store.steampowered.com/app/245170/

Albeit more expensive for the 2nd Encore upgrade