Author Archive: Andrea "Jens" Demetrio

2D Fighter Maker 2002 — The Lost World (Part 2)

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Welcome back to Indie Fighting Game Thursday, with the second part of my double feature about the living legacy of 2D Fighter Maker 2002! Last week, we talked with Border Violation Taisei, the studio behind Angels of Battle v1.5, with an in-depth interview. I have asked similar questions to two developers who are still using 2DFM02 for developing their games — Ulissan Game Dev and らぐはちさん：南東ライトグリーン８(Light Green Eight)!

Now, brace yourself, because it’s time to dive deep into Brazil and back to Japan to see how this old engine does still have a spot in the recent game development history!

2D Fighter Maker 2002 — The Lost World (Part 1)

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In a previous article of mine, we have gone through the history and alternate fortunes of a prehistoric game engine that is STILL getting used as of today by a multitude of developers: the immortal 2D Fighter Maker 2002, also called 2D Fighter Maker 2nd. Since then, I have got in touch with some developers who are currently using this living fossil of an engine for developing their games, and also tracked down a couple more games that happened to use that engine and went “under the radar” for a reason or another. Angels of Battle, despite having been released only in August 2021, is older than one might expect, topping a 15 years long development! But I’d better let the two developers behind it (Tomay and WWolf) tell the story in greater detail!

Arcus Chroma - less is more

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In the single developer/small team of developers field, prominent examples of making a game more casual-friendly can be seen in Beatdown Dungeon, with its autocombos and simplified special inputs, MerFight, with its optional simple controls, and FOOTSIES, which brought everything down to an extremely minimalistic level.

Today, we analyze another entry in this series of “beginner-friendly” indie fighting games, which — in terms of complexity — comfortably sits somewhere between HYPERFIGHT and Beatdown Dungeon: a little, still-to-be-polished gem called Arcus Chroma, developed by GxGrain Son!

ROBO OH - NES-like, pixel-sized, giant robot mayhem

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The NES era gave us some very rough, early attempts at porting fighting games to home consoles, including precursors like Ye Are Kung Fu, cancelled versions of the original Street Fighter, and extreme bootleg experiences like an unlicensed Street Fighter 2 conversion. While that would be rectified by the Super Nintendo in the following generation, the aesthetic of those earlier attempts at cooking colorful settings with just a bunch of pixels is not completely lost. For today’s indie fighting game, we go back in time, while steadily moving forward, thanks to the 8-bit-era-inspired fighting game ROBO OH, by Foxy Boxy Games!

Kyanta 2 Title

Ultra Fight Da! Kyanta 2 — The hero we didn’t deserve

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Ultra Fight Da! Kyanta 2 is a chaotic team fighter from Japan, with loads of weird mechanics and a unique, hand drawn, charm! It’s available on Steam for free and is still in active development. Today we will delve on what makes it interesting and what this game offers for new players and veterans alike. After reading this article, you will look at the words “Boko Bar” with new eyes.