Author Archive: Andrea "Jens" Demetrio

2D Fighter Maker 2002 — Eulogy to a dinosaur engine that refuses to die

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Making a fighting game is not easy, for a variety of reasons that range from making them completely deterministic, to underestimating their complexity, to the amount of graphical assets needed, to the balancing and fine tuning required to produce something worth playing. So, it’s natural that we would all be grateful if there existed some engines that could ease the pain and allow for starting development with the smallest overhead possible.
On this side of the pond, in the late ’90s, M.U.G.E.N. made the rounds and became the go to tool for creative fighting game makers. In Japan, however, another engine stole its spot, a program published in 2001 by a company that is mostly known for creating RPG Maker: ladies and gentlemen, say welcome to 2D Fighter Maker 2002, published by Enterbrain!

HYPERFIGHT — or how I learned to stop blocking and love a frog

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HYPERFIGHT is an atypical fighting game. As every hit which connects with the opponent is an instant round win, you could call it “dive kick on steroids”, and you wouldn’t be too far from the truth. Except, you would be, but for all the wrong reasons. Join this deep dive into this bizarre pixel art fighter and learn how to survive among time stops, drunken Japanese employees and frogs in a lab coat!

Schwarzerblitz (March 2017 Alpha) – A beautiful disaster

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As of March 2022, my own indie fighting game Schwarzerblitz has been downloaded and installed more than 30’000 times, between GameJolt, itch.io and Steam, and was even featured as a mystery game at Frosty Faustings XIV. However, the story starts way back in the past, precisely on 21 March 2017, when the first public build of this low-poly 3D fighting game was uploaded to GameJolt and itch.io. But how did exactly play, that March 2017 first public version? Was it really a good game?

Follow me on this trip down memory lane, while I dissect and comment on the good and the bad of the very first Schwarzerblitz Alpha build, as a part of the celebrations for the game’s fifth year of life!

Input Chaos – a twin stick ragdoll neon nightmare

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Non-conventional fighting games are uncharted territory, but something very much worth exploring. After all, after having concluded that the car is a shoto in “Buck Up and Drive!” and that one can make an engaging turn-based fighting game, I have become open to analyze every game that has the spirit of a fighting game, if not the letter.

Thus, when I have randomly stumbled upon Input Chaos my curiosity was immediately piqued. Neon vibes? Check. Tron lines? Check. De-rezzed robotic enemies and physics-based movement? Check!

Get ready for a brutal twin stick, ragdoll physics based action!

Punch Planet – Footsies IN SPACE!

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Punch Planet is one of those names that are hard to forget for those madmen like me, who develop fighting games either as a job or as a hobby. This is because it is one of those few fighting games that popped up on PC in 2017, when the Western representation in this genre was still lacking in the indie scene. It’s fair to say Punch Planet was not only one of the most promising indie titles in this time frame, but also the first indie fighting game after Skullgirls to feature one very important quality of life upgrade: rollback netcode.

While Street Fighter V was still struggling with its one-sided rollback woes and Tekken was 3, Punch Planet was already flying on the wings of GGPO. This game deserves a spot of honor in the indie fighting game scene and it’s high time I covered it for my weekly column!

Deep Doujin Dive – Phantom Breaker: Omnia (Demo)

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Finally, a new article for the Deep Doujin Dive series, in which we delve into obscure, rare, non-mainstream or not very well known Japanese fighting games and review their mechanics, aesthetic, and appeal. This time, we are talking about a limited time demo of an upcoming remake, Phantom Breaker: Omnia, developed by MAGES Inc. and published by Rocket Panda Games!

Now on Kickstarter! Blazing Worldstars and Drag Her!

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Crowdfunding is a harsh mistress, and many projects come and go without being able to see the light of the day. However, developers are rightfully trying to get their ideas out, sometimes giving us some rough alpha versions worth checking out. This week we talk about not one, but two demos, fresh out of a rocky Kickstarter campaign: the drag queen antics of the crazy “Drag Her!” and the ambitious “Blazing Worldstars”!

MerFight — Something fishy this way comes

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When I think about mermaids, the first thing that comes to mind is a girl with a sea-shell bra and a fishtail, accompanied by an obnoxious red crab, who sings about the beauty of living under the sea. Well, thanks, uncle Walt, but today I’m not here to talk about THAT kind of mermaids. Today, we are here to discuss the ACTUAL merfolk, of the hybrid, semi-monstrous type, and about a fighting game roster exclusively made up of them!So, with the blessing of Rikuo from Darkstalkers (who may or may not have been an inspiration for the game’s theme), let’s dive together into the world of “MerFight: Curse of the Arctic Prince”, developed by Mattrified Games!

Two Strikes — samurai, honor and death

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Ready your katana, polish your kunais, because we are riding to feudal Japan to meet our fate at the hand of one of six different assassins: Welcome to the merciless world of Two Strikes, a game made by the three-men development studio Retro Reactor and currently available in early access on Steam!

Etehfowr Against – a charming, simultaneous 2v2 chaos

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In my boundless trip to the darkest depths of indie fighting game development (which culminated in some pretty cursed discoveries, like the infamous Chinese bootleg arcade machine), I tend to stumble upon games that are almost unplayable, games whose development was abandoned after a first tech demo, and games that — despite suffering from glaring issues — show a great deal of originality and make me wonder “what if the developer had more time/money/resources to materialize their vision”? This week’s game belongs to this last category. While playing it, I constantly asked myself what this game could have become, if there had been more interest around it. Because, let me put it straight: Etehfowr Against answers the question “what if you could control two characters at the same time while juggling your resources?”