Mike Zaimont
@MikeZSez
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Game developer on the autism spectrum. Skullgirls, Indivisible, etc. Here I speak for myself. People kept asking, so:
Los Angeles, CA
Joined May 2012
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Okay so Skullgirls had this problem in the sprite build process where it would chop off the outside edge of frames, and I was never able to find it.
Well I fixed it on Indivisible, and I just back-ported the fix to Skullgirls and I'M SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS EXTRA FEW PIXELS OMG!
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Nothing like having the ESPORTS GAMER OF THE YEAR ditch the after-party to come play Skullgirls instead.
:^)
(Current score: 32-6, his favor.)
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Right. So, who wants that new 2D Darkstalkers? :^)
1,000 likes will...probably have no significant influence on Capcom's decision to let us do it or not, but WOULDN'T THAT BE AWESOME?
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I totally added a wireless internet indicator for online opponents in Skullgirls PC.
Get rekt. :^)
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HEY, THAT THING EVERYONE WANTED?
@IndivisibleRPG
is out RIGHT NOW digitally for Switch in North America!
Feel like you missed the announcement? You're not alone, our team found out because people on Twitter sent us congratulations! I had no idea! But there it is! :^P
1/
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Hmm, SG and TFH have rollback netcode because they use my engine, and KI 2013 has it at least partly because I was on the original development team and wouldn't shut up about how it absolutely HAD to have rollback netcode if it wanted to be successful online. Neat! :^)
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Can we count this as conclusive proof that inclusion in Evo (even Evo Online) directly affects the size of a game's playerbase yet? :^P
Yesterday it was 342.
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@Combinecommando
@shane04589166
@Warchamp7
@Zeddy_Beat
@SonicFox
- You don't know they didn't pay, NOBODY ASKED. Why not ask me? :^P
- Again, nobody asked why. It's because Sonic and sage have been huge supporters of SG for YEARS, helping people learn it.
- Duckator got a free NPC for winning SG at Evo 2013, no complaints there huh? :^P
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"As far as I know, there's never been a fighting game that has a referee come out and count you out for the win," says Granblue's designer Pachi, confirming he's never played Skullgirls. :^)
...guess that explains the lack of rollback netcode too? :^P
Pachi talks about working with Cygames to design Ladiva's Skybound Art and Super Skybound Art, from the referee who flies in out of nowhere to the cast's fun reaction faces.
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One million on Steam, WEEEE DID IT!
Well I mean, /you/ did it. I didn't do it, because I had a copy from development. :^P
YAY!
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OMG.
(;_;)
And it's at the top of Kotaku's front page... (O.o)
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I FULLY apologize. I said something stupidly insensitive, and I regret it.
Read:
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Oh right, Riot's making a fighting game.
Even if I didn't *love* my job at
@LabZeroGames
, the COO dude who touched people's balls and farted in their faces at meetings is still employed there. And all the other stuff.
No thanks.
Plus I judge anyone who writes "Skull Girls". :^P
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No release date announcement, no lead-up PR at all. 🦗
It's missing current features like co-op.
The eShop art is the wrong image.
This launch does not represent the quality standards of Lab Zero. It just doesn't. I'm sorry. It wasn't us.
But hey, it's 20% off! :^)
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WE'RE MAKING A GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!
Huge thanks to everyone who backed
#IndivisibleRPG
! :^)
(Socks by Skarmand.)
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The sole review I was waiting for.
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Here is a short video titled "Why Wi-Fi Sucks for Gaming" complete with in-game diagnostic data from Skullgirls.
YOUR SPEED DOESN'T MATTER!
Don't netplay on wi-fi if you can avoid it!
And if ya have to, any issues you run into are likely your own problem.
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Today's
#Skullgirls
update: a full 1080p HD remaster of the UI, character select screen, HUD, menus, etc.!
Plus even more fixes. :^)
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#Skullgirls
and
#themsfightinherds
are in Evo Online!
Raise your hand if you saw that coming, considering one of the ORGANIZERS OF EVO,
@Pond3r
, LITERALLY wrote the netcode for them. :^P
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Well, if there's one sure sign a 'dead' game has come back to life...
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WE FINALLY GOT TO ANNOUNCE THE INDIVISIBLE RELEASE DATE!
September 38th! :^)
IT'S GONNA BE A REAL GAME! ...never a guarantee with crowdfunding, always a guarantee with Lab Zero. (^.^)
And now...back to working on this here game.
Indivisible releases on Steam, PS4 and Xbox One beginning on OCTOBER 8th!
(Nintendo Switch Coming Soon).
Pre-Order for Steam at and get your very own pet Roti and Steam character skins!
Console pre-orders are coming soon.
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Dear big fighting game developers: My action-RPG has hitbox display in training mode. Why doesn't your fighting game? :^)
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The GGPOtest branch is no more - all those updates are now in the REAL GAME on Steam!
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Okay, fine.
Dear
@Capcom_Unity
and
@arika_co_jp
, please use our legacy PS3 stick driver in your PS4 games. It's free, we already did all the work, plus we wrote implementation tips and translated them into Japanese.
Sincerely,
Everyone who still has no reason to buy a PS4 stick.
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@Zeddy_Beat
@SonicFox
I have not gotten a single real request for a refund because of this, in case people are wondering.
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@EVO
Considering that this year's main games (SFV/T7/SSBU/GBFV/Uniclr/DBFZ/SC6/SamSho) mostly have very poor online play, what is the plan to mitigate problems?
Would you officially run other games with rollback netcode like KI, MK11, Fantasy Strike, or SG? Asking for a friend.
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Whoa, whoa, okay there, hold up.
You say you have trouble against grapplers? Re-read this tweet.
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I finally got fed up enough and wrote a GIANT article about netcode, rollbacks, lag, and all that stuff:
Feel free to recommend it if you think the people you're arguing with will actually read things. :^P
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Dear future publishers, you want to work with us because THIS is how much dedication we bring to our projects, eight whole years later. If you listen when we tell you stuff is important, pay us on time, and let us all do our jobs with minimal interference, this is the result.
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The Switch version of Indivisible itself is great, the porting group did seriously excellent work! Runs at a stable framerate, even handheld.
However, the old build that was apparently now released doesn't have co-op, NG+, or anything else recent. I checked myself.
2/
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This is your yearly reminder that - for the 4th time in a row now - the Evo lineup includes a game that's unreleased at the time of the announcement.
A game that won't even /be/ released until the end of May!
But Skullgirls came out "too close" to Evo 2013.
#NeverForget
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So,
@CapcomUSA_
, how about it?
Wanna make a new VSav with us? :^)
Right. So, who wants that new 2D Darkstalkers? :^)
1,000 likes will...probably have no significant influence on Capcom's decision to let us do it or not, but WOULDN'T THAT BE AWESOME?
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To everyone saying "donate" - I HAVE BEEN donating for a while now. I'm from Minnesota. Lab Zero also donated and will continue to. I don't need to publicly crow about it. The donating itself is the good part, I'm not doing it for credit. Thanks.
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Today I learned that this frame of Oro exists.
Oh Third Strike, you never cease to be amazing!
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Skullgirls now displays the jitter - ping time variance - for all your opponents!
Jitter is the *really important* info. It's how you can deduce someone is, for example, wired to a wireless bridge which won't show the Wifi indicator.
:ahem:
}:^)
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Proudly presenting the
@Skullgirls
x
@ComboBreaker
2020 Update! (All y'all who kept asking for those colors and intros, best get to reading...)
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Let's take a moment to appreciate the fact that the superflash, the KO screen effect, AND the screen fade-to-white here are all just different palette animations on the SAME SINGLE STILL IMAGE. Which... (cont'd because you can't add both video and pictures?)
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I'd like the whole FGC to hold developers to min standards:
Input lag of 3-4f.
Competent button config.
GGPO/rollback online.
Useful training mode - real-time frame data that stays up, hitboxes, etc.
Real tournament mode.
PS4 legacy support.
No infinites.
Real defensive options.
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Let me take a moment to point out how Evolution has gone from "the best players play the best games" and "this game comes out too close to Evo, we can't include it" to "this unproven, unreleased game will be part of the Evo lineup so let's use that fact to MARKET THE GAME."
(-.-)
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Evo Main Game players' reaction to EvOnline: 🤣
Players of games with rollback netcode: 🙃
Me:
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People keep asking me if we're ever going to switch to fully 3D art.
Personally, I don't want to.
Good 2D art from 25 years ago is still gorgeous, but state-of-the-art 3D from 5 years ago feels like it was made in the Stone Age.
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"Please call me Mike, not Michael."
"It's Steven, not Stefan."
"Name's Alice, but my handle is BluescreenInstall."
"I prefer he/she/they."
These are all requests for _respect_ when addressing an individual.
Think privately whatever you want, but ACT out of respect.
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Some random person sent a DM begging for not one but TWO Skullgirls codes, except they misspelled my name...and "Skullgirls". So I sent them two codes, both misspelled. You reap what you sow. :^P
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The
#Skullgirls
top 24 at
#combobreaker2019
featured *every* character in the game as well as *every* team size - Solos, Duos, and Trios - with two solo Peacocks, widely acknowledged as "hard mode".
In this era of balance-analysis-by-tournament-results, that's pretty nice. :^)
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OMG it only changes when you THROW, so it never happens during decision making gameplay! That's SO SMART.
【ステージギミックについて】
COTAステージの作り込みがホント凄いのでぜひ見てほしい😇
●ラウンド開始 or 投げで4つの背景に切り替わる
●森林→ジャンプで針が突き出る
●宇宙→バックステップでレーザー&落石
●通常→ダッシュでプレス機（＋他）
#XMEN_COTA
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Something that bothers me a lot about many current fighting games:
Supers largely went from in-game moves, each with a unique utility or properties, to single hits followed by a cinematic which just does damage and likely ends a combo. That's much less interesting and less fun.
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Whether you care about the SFV announcement or not, pour one out for the PR team that's been waiting for months to be able to say anything and had their hard work leaked within days of the event.
That SUCKS, and I sincerely hope whoever is responsible is properly dealt with. :^\
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Time to read all my DMs since I put up that SonicFox blog post. How bad can it be...
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Okay, SGC. I'm seeing people talking about boycotting?!
Let's be serious here. Don't.
You know every show where the hero catches the bad guy and the bad guy says, "Well then, kill me!" and the hero replies, "No. I'm not you."?
This is like that.
-- SHORT THREAD --
1/
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What happens when velocity-influenced projectiles can be affected by negative velocities.
#gamedev
#IndivisibleRPG
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Oh my GOSH. THIS IS FANTAAAAAAAAAAAASTIC NEWS!!!!!!!
MIT license! GGPO IS FREE!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HAVE SOME MORE
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GGPO has a new home and is now available under the MIT License. Get it here!:
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Unfortunately this means like a 900MB download for everyone whenever I release it because all the sprite data everywhere changed. :^P Hope you like EXTRA PIXELS!
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To people with the 'take' that comparing old/new fighting games is bad cuz new games are fine:
You're aware BBTag at Evo was literally won by players using a glitch to make their team invincible, with no visible indication, and stomping everyone who didn't know about it, right?
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Rivals of Aether's Shovel Knight is a PERFECT example of creative developers pouring love into a game.
In fact, Rivals is just generally an example of that. :^)
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No disrespect to (probably) the Rising Thunder team, they're gonna do a great job and they're a super talented group of people; but everyone in the game industry should have a serious think before accepting a job for Riot, IMO. Infinite money isn't everything.
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IMO fighting games should not have automatic proximity-based close/far normals anymore. Getting the wrong attack by being a pixel off position / cuz of knockback, with no control over it, is the worst.
Make 'em command normals instead, if ya really gotta have variation.
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Heyo, someone claims to have made a DLL replacement to fix the one-sided-rollbacks bug that SFV has had since it came out. (!!!)
…
The sourcecode provided looks legit. I don't own the game, but it's PROBABLY worth trying if you're playing SFV CE on PC!
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MvC1 bug:
They took out Wolverine's repeated j.Strong on whiff during a normal jump from the earlier games, to try to limit meter gain I guess? But they left the button-press check in by accident, so each time you press Strong you get the meter for having done another one.
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@Combinecommando
@Zeddy_Beat
@shane04589166
@Warchamp7
@SonicFox
I can ignore all that except this part:
>he doesn't care about you at all.
That's fully incorrect, and not a statement you would make if you knew them as a person, instead of just knowing OF them as a public figure. Don't presume to speak for someone you don't know, thanks.
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Here is the first thing! Test a possible improvement to Skullgirls online play:
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@fullbright
Poison won't kill you in Skullgirls simply because I couldn't figure out how to get it to always force the character into a hitstun animation when you died during certain actions, instead of becoming an unkillable zombie with 0 health.
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#skullgirls
is literally ONE DOLLAR here, with the SG2E DLC!
Go buy 5 years' worth of effort for one stinkin' dollar. Show the world how little my deteriorated sanity matters to YOU.
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Okay, I played GG20. I'm sure you can gather impressions from the hundreds of other people you trust who will write more, but I'll just say - Heavenly Potemkin Buster is a full 18 seconds long. It's way longer than "long" GG combos, and even most SG combos.
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If GDC does actually get cancelled, what if everyone just gives their talks on Twitch at their assigned date/time? That way we'd still have GDC, and it wouldn't be restricted to only those who can pay thousands of dollars to attend...
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Input lag results on
@FantasyStrike
: 6 frames.
For comparison, Skullgirls on the same laptop: 3.5 frames.
Video of both is below, along with an audio explanation.
Fantasy Strike is supposed to be all about neutral play; good neutral is kinda hard with 6f of lag,
@Sirlin
.
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As far as how:
- Write your own engine; don't use Unreal/Unity, they have built-in lag frames. [understatement: Not easy!]
- Make sure your game systems update in the correct order.
- Don't render in a separate thread, this adds a frame.
- Check lag OFTEN with a camera!
@WydD
Congratulations
@MikeZSez
on having one of the fastest game on PC in terms of input lag. I would really like to know how you managed to do this.
@Skullgirls
2.04f (33.9ms)
Rank S+ (very near S++)
Stability 89%
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Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv, Indiv...Melty Blood. :^P
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The answer: Zero bads!
Forum hate is overblown, who would have guessed that result definitely not me in a million years nope it's almost like being angry anonymously in public is easy but when ya have to put a name to the face it evaporates. How weird.
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I want to highlight this:
Skullgirls Mobile is adding PvP with *GGPO*.
Our mobile game is gonna have better online than most "real" fighting games.
USE GGPO ALREADY.
Thank you and goodnight. :^)
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Hiya
#MeetTheDev
, I'm Mike Z.
I've been a game programmer/designer for...15 years now?! Holy crap.
I worked on Star Wars Battlefront I & II (the old ones), Killer Instinct (the new one), Skullgirls, and now Indivisible.
I have opinions about fighting game design, too.
And puns!
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Wow, MvCI in person just looks so...budget.
The lifeless camera shakes, the no-visual-distinction-between-chars-and-backgrounds...
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Whoa,
@Skullgirls
has nearly a million owners just on Steam!
Now where are my 677 next-almost-best-friends? :^P
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Just got reminded I failed a 3D Character Animation [tech] class in college.
Then I went on to write a 3D character animation system at Pandemic, as well as an entire game engine with both 2D and 3D animation systems.
...don't get discouraged by your grades, I guess? :^)
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What I want from the PS5 as a *gamer*:
- One menu option to forget all synced controllers.
- A real Select button again.
- Crossplay as standard, at least with PC.
- A regular, non-haptic power button on the first model!
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Hmm.
BREAKING NEWS: We’re working with
@LabZeroGames
to develop a BRAND NEW CHARACTER for Skullgirls Mobile! Who? When?! How?!!! Find out more via the FAQ on our forums, and stay tuned here for more details!
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re: Rollbacks
>the engineering team is [divided. Some say] "You know, implementing this wouldn't really work with the Guilty Gear system."<
That makes /actual/ zero sense. It works for VSav and Skullgirls! Using rollbacks has NOTHING to do with the game.
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Someone asked how we feel about speedrunners for Indiv. Well:
Last week I fixed a bug.
Today I got an email from our testers asking to re-add the bug because it allowed cool tech. They even attached a video!
So now, I'm at our AX booth, re-adding the bug, with a limit.
:^)
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Can't decide which Riot Fighter joke to make so here have both:
- Secret boss is a guy wearing Riot merch that farts in the opponent's face, touches their privates, and is somehow fully invulnerable.
- Female chars have to win 3/5 rounds but their male opponents only need 2/3.
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People complaining about lack of move lists in every dang game we make...next game is gonna be nothing BUT move lists! One thousand, four hundred and sixty-seven screens of glorious HD text, describing the commands for super dope actions you WISH you could actually do! :^P
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Fixed the common
#Skullgirls
lobby crash, and now the game makes crash dumps so we can fix all the other ones more easily! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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The hitstop shake in Skullgirls replicates 3s's, down to the pixel distance and per-frame falloff converted from CPS3 res to 720p screen pixels.
Then the other day someone tells me they don't play SG because the hit-shake looks weird and they wish it was "more Capcom".
Welp. :^P
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LOL, just noticed Wiz blocked me at some point.
LIKE AND FOLLOW. :^P
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Every once in a while when I have to look up the URL for the SG steam page I see this...
I won't lie - it feels nice. :^)
Thank you, everyone.
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