Gotham Knights

[destroyed]

So, I'm a mugen creator. While some disparage the hobby, and rightfully so, as rife with drama and ego trips... being able to get together and make something that my friends and I have always wanted to play is really special.



I've been wanting to share with you guys some progress on our Batman game. It's a love letter to Capcom's 1v1 CPS2 fighters of the 90s, and to Batman lore in general. No gameplay vids just yet, I just learned how to use screen recorder and record in much nicer quality, so this choppy little bit will have to do. I'll be uploading a newer video in a week or two with more characters on the ol' select screen, and a bit of fighting with Jason and others.

For legality, gratuitous awesome Nextwave:

Comments

[octopedingenue]

♥ NEXTWAVE ♥

It is kinda hilarious that Tabby and Aaron are the only people with feet actually on the ground in that shot. (And I kinda want Tabby's boots.) Also, whatever happened to generic The Captain after this series? Has he popped elsewhere like the other guys or did he dissolve back into the universal protoplasm forming Captains everywhere?

[aelflar]

I think you have a wonderful skill there! That little game looks awesome and fun , indeed, a little time capsule. I for one always loved these games, mostly for the pixely, yet dynamic character designs that somehow seemed to stimulate my inspiration. So cheers!

Also, that legality scan spooks me. Eeeep O.o

[philippos42]

Oh, man, I used to have some Mugen on my computer that I fried.

[benicio127]

omgggggg this is amazing! Does each character have special skills/use weapons they would use in the comics? (ie. Dick and escrima)

So what's the deal, will other people be able to play this eventually or...?

[endis_ni]

The Nextwave text speaks the truth. I'm rather in love with that image.

[thanekos]

Those Nextwave spreads always make me envision a pretty demented beat-'em-up.

I'd play it, but I'd probably curse more than a couple times in the process.

[rainspirit]

And then you'd explode. :D

[megaspork]

Very cool game coming along destroyed! I can't wait to see it, though it's too bad you don't have Nite-Wing on the roster. I understand why, it's "Gotham Knights" after all but I've always been interested in someone making a mugen character for him at the least. :P

[blackruzsa]

Nextwave.
I
need
it
now.

ARE THOSE PIRATE KREE? (I'm not questioning the Iron Baby, that's very popular on youtube, and Elvis Modoks are meh)

[lucky_gamble]

poison ivy in the game + nextwave post= tiny orgasm

[destroyed]

@ Various questions:

- I chose to post from NEXTwave because I really, really, really want The Captain and Aaron in mugen, and may work on them for my buddy Verz' MSH2 project after we finish Batgame.

- Not shown in the preview are Freeze, Harvey, Etrigan (adapted from Wucash's amazing char, as Ollie is from Zvitor's) and the hidden characters (3 of them so far - 2 good guys and the bad guy boss.)

- No dice on Nite-wing, sorry... BUT - anyone you guys might love, is probably a striker. The game has a system sorta like Samurai Showdown where you pick offensive or defensive lean. In our case, you pick between having a limited use assist, or an SF4 styled block-breaking focus attack. The strikers are assigned per character, and make up some pretty cool cameos.



*Note that not all of the strikers are shown - Joker's is powersuit Lex Luthor and Scarecrow's is Man-bat, for example. Also, the MUSIC is entirely placeholder but... hey. Like I said, give us a few weeks to polish things.*

[jarodrussell]

Who's the woman(?) between Shiva and Grundy? Also, is Question possessed by the ghost of Michael Jackson?

Love this! I'm not usually a big video gamer, but as a programmer, I admire the work that went into this. Jolly good show!

[darkblade]

Scandal Savage I think.

[wonderwomanhero]

LOL I think thats Renee Montoya as the Question.

[megaspork]

Ahah! Interesting, to say the least. :) *at least if I'm taking that the right way. Not sure if that was a "Nite-wing is a striker" or just no dice in general*

[mcity]

Who's that next to Cass again?

[aaron_bourque]

What are you talking about? That's Helena Bertinelli in the Batgirl suit.

[mcity]

Third row, center. To the left of Grundy, and to the right of the lady I suddenly realize is probably Lady Shiva, not Cass.

[aaron_bourque]

That would be Scandal Savage, from Villains United and Secret Six.

[mcity]

Thanks.

[tacobob]

Oooh. I want those giant scissors! (So I can run around with 'em!)

[frostedone]

Will you be making this available to download by any chance?

Also did you make all of these characters yourself or get them from the net? Mugen rules!

[destroyed]

Myself and the amazingly talented guys and girls I work with made this: The Unlimited

The exceptions are guest characters Green Arrow (by Zvitor), Superman (by Kal-Elvis, Buyog and Seth Zankuten), Etrigan (by Wucash) and one of our hidden characters which has been retooled from an Infinity Mugen Team creation. The rest (HUD, 10+ brand new unique characters, even voice acting) is all us.

We're trying to finish off the game in time for the third Nolan flick / Arkham City game next year.

It'll be available to download as soon as it's done. And being mugen-based, of course it's free. Marvel and DC, Capcom and SNK have been gracious enough to let people create stuff in mugen for years now, and we've [NEVER] tried to pass it off as retail. It's a community-wide understood deal.

Glad to see this level of interest!

[psychopathicus_rex]

OK, I've given up trying to figure it out based on context. What's a mugen?
Whatever it is, looks like you've done a pretty good job.

[destroyed]

Mugen is an open game engine for developing 2d fighters. Here's a video of our earlier creation, Deadpool.

He's seen here fighting clowns from various fighting games. Seen by 300,000 people. I'm - as you say - the proud papa:

[destroyed]

Can't embed, I guess. Here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34jaiWIhruk

[psychopathicus_rex]

Ooh - nifty. Question: are all those opponent characters taken from elsewhere, or are some made up? I recognize Krusty and Ronald McDonald, of course - not sure about the other two. The first guy looks sort of familiar.

[destroyed]

They're from various fighting games.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Right - whoops. Should have reread that first post.
So does this game just let you take already existing game characters and transplant them into a new one, or can you make your own?

[psychopathicus_rex]

Er... engine, I should have said.

[destroyed]

Both.

Deadpool didn't exist before we made him. That Ronald McDonald is a Japanese creation parodying Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and the Krusty was hand-drawn by a really remarkable spriter named Warner.

The other clowns, meanwhile, were transcribed form other fighters - which still requires ripping all of their graphics from the original game, and coding their playstyle into mugen. It's a pretty involved process.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Sounds like it, yeah.
I'm curious, what do you do for voices, music and sound effects? Do you just cobble them together out of sound files and the like, or record your own, or does this engine have a sound library you can use, or what?

[destroyed]

Music can be .mp3, .ogg, or play from a CD, and can be set to accompany a character, stage, trigger during a super, etc.

Voices are mp3 or ogg compiled into an index file called a .snd, that can then be attached to triggers in the character. Ex: Ryu shouting "Hadouken!"

In the case of Deadpool, we ripped his VO tracks from x-men legends and marvel ultimate alliance, and then our voice acting boy Shockdingo aped it for a myriad of new phrases we wanted that weren't originally present.

We'll be doing the same for the Batman characters. We found a Harley cosplayer on deviantart who can do her voice perfectly, I can do a decent Conroy Bats that's spot on with a tad of timing and decibel level editing in goldwave etc.

[psychopathicus_rex]

So a little from column A, a little from column B... that's cool. I take an interest in these things, since I took some voice acting lessons a while back,

[destroyed]

If there's any character you think you could nail down, we're staying in the vein of BTAS for all of their voices. We have Batman, Harley, Red Hood and maybe Joker covered, so far. If you wanted to do a take for shits and giggles, we'd be happy to take a look.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm potentially interested. What other characters are there that you're using? (Also, if your Joker voice doesn't work out, I might give that a shot...)

[mcity]

1. I'm not to hot on that menu system. The classic list is that for a reason. I do like that the background changes, but just have the font in the list get bigger, not move the selected item up to the top of it. There's probably some people with more interface design knowledge than I who can articulate it better.
2. I have this odd idea Ollie is based on a Poison sprite, and I don't know why.

[aaron_bourque]

Might I suggest changing the soundtrack to Batman: The Animated Series soundtrack instead? Gratuitous rock is gratuitous.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; or maybe the possibly unofficial Batman Beyond soundtrack I've seen floating around?

[aaron_bourque]

OH, and how come Oracle is available as a fighter, HMMMMMMM???????