How To Make: 2D Fighter 

Name: Choosing a name for your 2D Fighter is simple. The thing to remember here is that your fighting game is going to be the first game of a series. What this means is that, although your first game might enjoy some success, the sequels will be the money makers. This is normal. Purchasers of 2D Fighters look for franchises, games that have been around a while, so be sure to pick a name that will lend itself well to sequels/spinoffs.

 

Example: 1st game: Jungle Blasters. 2nd game: Jungle Blasters II: Extreme Flavor

 

Knowing this, you could simply call your first game the 2nd in the series, and start rumors of the first one being great, guaranteeing you at least moderate success with your 'first' game.

 

Note: It is preferable to give your sequel(s) a two-word nickname, to differentiate it from others in your series, rather than simply 2, 3, 4, etc. If you are having difficulty with this step, I have made a list of acceptable names to get you started. All you have to do is look at the chart on the right and pick one word from Column A and one from Column B. Remember, there are thousands of combinations to use. Be creative!

 

Character/Level Design: At minimum your game needs 8 playable characters, and of those at least one of those should be female, and of those at least one should be as 'hot' as your hardware will allow. Remember, the game will target pre-teen adult males. There's a reason they're called 'Joysticks'.

 

The characters themselves must be from different areas/regions  the city/country/world/apartment/whatever the level design.

 

Levels: Each character should have his/her own level. The level should not only represent where the character is from, but should remind the player, at least a little, of the character who 'owns' the level.

 

Moves: Each character in your game should have at least one super-human move that they can perform while screaming something at the same time. It can be the name of the move, a taunt, a grunt, really anything is appropriate.  Coming up with names for moves can be difficult. I will help you start by giving you a list of words to choose from. Pick one from Column C and one from Column D, yadda yadda...

Column C	Column D
Rising	Cutter
Spinning	Buster
Leaping	Uppercut
Flash	Punch
Hyper	Kick
Massive	Headbutt
Tornado	Blaster
Lighting	Elbow
Hard	Fist
Death	Throw
Brutal	Crusher
Killer	Mangler
Maiming	Blade
Crackling	Spirit
Vibrating	Drill
Boring	Flame
Dizzy	Disaster
Rock-Hard	Catastrophe
Mauling	Knuckle
Burning	Bomb
Shaking	Flip

 

Music/Sound: The music played in a stage should remind the players of the character that 'owns' the stage. For this reason, popular music is a poor choice unless one of the following are true:

 

1. Members of the band(s) are in the game

2. You don't want anyone to play your game in 2 years when the songs aren't popular any more.

 

Other than that, remember that punches and kicks should sound like flesh getting pounded.

 

Story: Believe it or not, all fighting games have a story. All these characters have to be fighting for a reason, right? One ot the main things you have to remember about the story is that no one cares about the story. Go ahead and try to remember the story behind Street Fighter II or Killer Instinct. If you're like 90%* of the game playing public, you won't be able to remember much, if anything about the story. The story, flimsy as it may be, is there to justify why the characters are beating each other senseless, and that's about it.

 

Example:

 

Super Dorm Battle: Deluxe

 

Someone left something in the back of the fridge, and it's turned... EVIL. Now the 8 roommates must decide who gets to fight the entity known simply as The Aluminumator.

 

There you have it. If you follow these guidelines, you will have a guaranteed best-seller on your hands.

 

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