Disclaimer: this is a thread by HypedBeast backed by the Adopt-a-user program.
I have been taking an marketing class, and lately I have been thinking about how video games market themselves and how that can dictate the success of a new IP. Some can pull it off with flying colors (see Cuphead) and others fail get their names out there and are forgotten. Today I would like to talk about Skullgirls and how this is the perfect example of focus testing and market research are very important to a new IP.
Now to clarify I love Skullgirls before anyone gets the wrong idea. I wouldn't bother typing up this long essay on it if I didn't care. I have been following Skullgirls since about 2006 when I first saw the character designs on DeviantArt, so I have quite a bit of investment in this game. However I also feel this game could have been much bigger if some choices had been done pre-development.
Despite being on five different consoles and having multiple Steam sales, Skullgirls had only crossed 1 million about a month ago. And I was just thinking that with the recent success of Cuphead, a game that like Skullgirls is hand animated frame by frame, Skullgirls could have capitalized on the 2D animated video game market nearly six whole years before Cuphead.
Hopefully I can explain where I though Skullgirls mistepped and how they are rectifying that with LabZeros new game Indivisible.
The Pitch
According to Ravidarth, a Lab Zero Games employee, in response to a poster named Crossing Eden that claimed that Skullgirls appeals to the lowest common denominator, he responded
http://www./forum/showthread.php?s=e8e22ca44caf2d6c5b64e8a0d31fa138&t=1243336&page=2
Mike felt pretty strongly about this, and wanted me pass along his reply.
"I would like to respond to this, because I worked at companies that DID have target audiences before / did focus tests / designed characters around "X age group and gender would like this design."
We pitched Skullgirls to a -bunch- of different possible publishers, and at Ubisoft (who declined) they actually asked Alex and I, "What is your target demographic?" We kinda stared at each other for a few seconds until I hesitantly said, "Um, people who play fighting games?"
So, to insist that our design process is that cynical is COMPLETELY incorrect. Our target audience was us, what we'd like, and how we'd like it to play."
I was in that meeting, too - they were very much about designing the game around marketing.
I even got a French person to say "Skullfolk," to hilarious effect.
While this is a very genuine way of creating a game, it is very important to know who will be buying your game, AKA the FGC (Fighting Game Community). In the FGC, players generally look down on all girl fighting games like Arcana Heart or Vanguard Princess due to their gratuitous fanservice and moe character designs. This can be a very challenging hurdle to overcome.
However what makes this even more difficult for Skullgirls in particualr is the character design.
Art Design/Character Design Issues
Skullgirls has a 1940s Art Deco style theme that can be seen in the menu, backgrounds, and some of the character designs (Big Band) but for the vast majority of the cast it would be damn near nearly impossible to tell.
INITIAL CAST
DLC
Skullgirls has a big problem with inconsistent art direction. Most of the characters dont seem to really fit together cohesively and there really doesn't seem to be a running theme with characters besides the vague concept of "monsters". If you look at any succesful fighting game there is always an connected aesthetic among the cast. Street Fighter and KOF has a wide array of martial artist, Darkstalkers and Killer Instinct has classic monster tropes, Guilty Gear is anime meet Heavy Metal, Blazblue is a collection of anime tropes, and Mortal Kombat has it cheesy 80s Kung Fu Movie tropes.
Skullgirls seems to be a western take on generic anime tropes such as the Schoolgirl
The Sexy Nurse
And the Catgirl to name a few
But then again this isn't reflected in any other aspect of the game.
Skullgirls kind of seems like Darkstalkers but it dosent really have the diversity of a bestiary like the former, as most of the cast are either normal humans that utilize parasites, zombies, or robots. Diversity is a neccesity to get a huge net of people, as it gives you more of a chance to find a character you connect with, but with Skullgirls thats a bit of a problem cause the cast is somewhat homogenous (the DLC characters add much more variety).
Undermining its own Sexiness
In an article on Skullgirls website, Alex Ahad mentions some of the inspirations for Skullgirls distinct look, citing Bruce Timm, Shane Glines, and anime studios like Gainax to name a few.
http://skullgirls.com/2011/04/skullgirls-artistic-origins/
However while Skullgirls definitely has a very cheesecake/good girl art vibe to some of the characters
A large majority of the cast is downright freakish, with gory limbs, attacks that utilize blood, pus, and other substances, and overall unpleasant imagery.
And considering how many pinups and fanservicey images are in the game, this is real weird angle to take. You end up repulsing people who like the sexy stuff, and the sexy stuff turns off people who don't like over sexualization. In my opinion it makes a lot of the designs unlikable in just how edgy and gross they are in comparison to the more cute designs (Cerebella, Eliza, and Squiggly are the only great female designs IMO).
Not Anime Enough
This is something I see repeated time and time again, and while I think it is somewhat harsh, I do somewhat agree. Skullgirls artstyle puts off a lot of folks. Its too anime for people who generally don't like anime, but it is not anime enough for people who like games such as Blazblue. This can be seen in the first reveal thread on Neogaf that was just pages upon pages of people shtting on the games art direction.
http://www./forum/showthread.php?t=423175
This kind of backlash can be seen throughout many discussions online.
How would you fix it?/Closing thoughts
In my opinion, Skullgirls should have been a game full of Peacocks
A violent Cuphead style brawler, with Max Fleischer characters and if maybe Tex Avery Red Ridding Hood dames
Or they could have gone the route of Shantae/Way Foward and made the game a Western cartoon style all girl fighting game with cute well designed female characters
Both fill a niche that can be filled, but Skullgirls is a game made specifically to appeal to the ones who made it. And while you cannot argue that the game was made cynically to target teenage boys. The game limited it appeal by being so scatter brain in its approach to an all girl fighting game.
I would love to hear your thoughts, and I wish Lab Zero luck in its newest game Indivisible which seems to be answering many of the issues Skullgirls had.
I have been taking an marketing class, and lately I have been thinking about how video games market themselves and how that can dictate the success of a new IP. Some can pull it off with flying colors (see Cuphead) and others fail get their names out there and are forgotten. Today I would like to talk about Skullgirls and how this is the perfect example of focus testing and market research are very important to a new IP.
Now to clarify I love Skullgirls before anyone gets the wrong idea. I wouldn't bother typing up this long essay on it if I didn't care. I have been following Skullgirls since about 2006 when I first saw the character designs on DeviantArt, so I have quite a bit of investment in this game. However I also feel this game could have been much bigger if some choices had been done pre-development.
Despite being on five different consoles and having multiple Steam sales, Skullgirls had only crossed 1 million about a month ago. And I was just thinking that with the recent success of Cuphead, a game that like Skullgirls is hand animated frame by frame, Skullgirls could have capitalized on the 2D animated video game market nearly six whole years before Cuphead.
Hopefully I can explain where I though Skullgirls mistepped and how they are rectifying that with LabZeros new game Indivisible.
The Pitch
According to Ravidarth, a Lab Zero Games employee, in response to a poster named Crossing Eden that claimed that Skullgirls appeals to the lowest common denominator, he responded
http://www./forum/showthread.php?s=e8e22ca44caf2d6c5b64e8a0d31fa138&t=1243336&page=2
Mike felt pretty strongly about this, and wanted me pass along his reply.
"I would like to respond to this, because I worked at companies that DID have target audiences before / did focus tests / designed characters around "X age group and gender would like this design."
We pitched Skullgirls to a -bunch- of different possible publishers, and at Ubisoft (who declined) they actually asked Alex and I, "What is your target demographic?" We kinda stared at each other for a few seconds until I hesitantly said, "Um, people who play fighting games?"
So, to insist that our design process is that cynical is COMPLETELY incorrect. Our target audience was us, what we'd like, and how we'd like it to play."
I was in that meeting, too - they were very much about designing the game around marketing.
I even got a French person to say "Skullfolk," to hilarious effect.
While this is a very genuine way of creating a game, it is very important to know who will be buying your game, AKA the FGC (Fighting Game Community). In the FGC, players generally look down on all girl fighting games like Arcana Heart or Vanguard Princess due to their gratuitous fanservice and moe character designs. This can be a very challenging hurdle to overcome.
However what makes this even more difficult for Skullgirls in particualr is the character design.
Art Design/Character Design Issues
Skullgirls has a 1940s Art Deco style theme that can be seen in the menu, backgrounds, and some of the character designs (Big Band) but for the vast majority of the cast it would be damn near nearly impossible to tell.
INITIAL CAST
DLC
Skullgirls has a big problem with inconsistent art direction. Most of the characters dont seem to really fit together cohesively and there really doesn't seem to be a running theme with characters besides the vague concept of "monsters". If you look at any succesful fighting game there is always an connected aesthetic among the cast. Street Fighter and KOF has a wide array of martial artist, Darkstalkers and Killer Instinct has classic monster tropes, Guilty Gear is anime meet Heavy Metal, Blazblue is a collection of anime tropes, and Mortal Kombat has it cheesy 80s Kung Fu Movie tropes.
Skullgirls seems to be a western take on generic anime tropes such as the Schoolgirl
The Sexy Nurse
And the Catgirl to name a few
But then again this isn't reflected in any other aspect of the game.
Skullgirls kind of seems like Darkstalkers but it dosent really have the diversity of a bestiary like the former, as most of the cast are either normal humans that utilize parasites, zombies, or robots. Diversity is a neccesity to get a huge net of people, as it gives you more of a chance to find a character you connect with, but with Skullgirls thats a bit of a problem cause the cast is somewhat homogenous (the DLC characters add much more variety).
Undermining its own Sexiness
In an article on Skullgirls website, Alex Ahad mentions some of the inspirations for Skullgirls distinct look, citing Bruce Timm, Shane Glines, and anime studios like Gainax to name a few.
http://skullgirls.com/2011/04/skullgirls-artistic-origins/
However while Skullgirls definitely has a very cheesecake/good girl art vibe to some of the characters
A large majority of the cast is downright freakish, with gory limbs, attacks that utilize blood, pus, and other substances, and overall unpleasant imagery.
And considering how many pinups and fanservicey images are in the game, this is real weird angle to take. You end up repulsing people who like the sexy stuff, and the sexy stuff turns off people who don't like over sexualization. In my opinion it makes a lot of the designs unlikable in just how edgy and gross they are in comparison to the more cute designs (Cerebella, Eliza, and Squiggly are the only great female designs IMO).
Not Anime Enough
This is something I see repeated time and time again, and while I think it is somewhat harsh, I do somewhat agree. Skullgirls artstyle puts off a lot of folks. Its too anime for people who generally don't like anime, but it is not anime enough for people who like games such as Blazblue. This can be seen in the first reveal thread on Neogaf that was just pages upon pages of people shtting on the games art direction.
http://www./forum/showthread.php?t=423175
This kind of backlash can be seen throughout many discussions online.
How would you fix it?/Closing thoughts
In my opinion, Skullgirls should have been a game full of Peacocks
A violent Cuphead style brawler, with Max Fleischer characters and if maybe Tex Avery Red Ridding Hood dames
Or they could have gone the route of Shantae/Way Foward and made the game a Western cartoon style all girl fighting game with cute well designed female characters
Both fill a niche that can be filled, but Skullgirls is a game made specifically to appeal to the ones who made it. And while you cannot argue that the game was made cynically to target teenage boys. The game limited it appeal by being so scatter brain in its approach to an all girl fighting game.
I would love to hear your thoughts, and I wish Lab Zero luck in its newest game Indivisible which seems to be answering many of the issues Skullgirls had.
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