WIP Focus: Supergirl by Toni

Volzzilla has recently had the opportunity to sit down with mugen developer who is working on his own version of Supergirl. I can't wait for this one. Volzzilla's comments and questions are bolded. Toni's responses and comments are unbolded.

In a recent poll about characters the community wished were MUGENized, Supergirl won on the DC side. I recently had a chance to speak with Toni about their WIP.

1) So how did you decide upon bringing Supergirl to MUGEN?

Well, it basically started when I first posted a small gif of a single sprite-edit of Supergirl in the Mugen Fighters Guild Forum. Back then, I didn't even plan to make her a full character, and I knew nothing about coding one. After the creation of my first character (Ranma-chan) I thought about making another one and toyed with various ideas for characters. Around the same time, someone resurrected this old thread where I posted my Supergirl gif. That's when I thought that it would be nice to turn her into a playable character after all.

2) Please share your thoughts about her general comic back history and about the character in general.

I guess here's where I have to make a small confession: I'm not all that much into American comics, so I hardly know anything about her history beyond what was shown in the few Superman and Justice League cartoon episodes I've seen, plus a little bit of reading (and you may blame any inaccuracies in her Mugen character for that). But from what I've seen, I really like the character. And you can't really go wrong with cute, super-powered females, especially in a fighting game.

3) So tell the readers what bases you are using for the character and for the various moves themselves.

Oh, I'm using a lot of bases for the character in the hopes that it will help her not to look like a sprite-swapped copy of an existing character. So far, she has sprites more or less loosely based on Rogue and Psylocke (which seems to be pretty much standard when it comes to creating new female characters) but also of Sakura, Ibuki and even Demitri, mixed with a few original sprites here and there.

4) How is the progress going on Supergirl?

Actually, it is going pretty slow at the moment due to a lack of time. But most of the regular attacks are finished sprite wise, so it's not so bad. Still, don't hold your breath.



5) What has stood out the most during the creation process in a positive manner? What has been giving you the most trouble?

Finishing a difficult piece of animation and it looking just as I envisioned it always feels pretty good. But hey, progress is always a good thing! The most trouble other than finding time to work on her? Voices might become difficult when I get to that point, but I guess I will say the cape has been the most trouble so far. Making it nice and fluid is problematic at times (hence all the capeless sprites I posted). Fortunately, her cape is rather short, which makes it better than if I was creating, for example, Mumbo Jumbo from the Teen Titans cartoon (one of the character ideas I toyed with before settling on making Supergirl). I guess it's more tedious than troubling, though.

6) Please tell the readers about all the special and hyper moves you have planned.

These are all still subject to change, but she'll have heat vision for sure and some dash specials. With the heat vision will be something similar to “Cyclops meets SF3's Urien,” plus I aim for fast and combo-friendly moves. For hypers, I plan to not just give her stronger versions of her special attacks. There will be some kind of dash-combo attack that sends the opponent flying and some sort of ground shaking attack (not unlike Superman's but slightly different). Like I said, still in the planning stages for some of these moves.

7) Do you have any special plans in regards to intros/exits with Superman or any other characters?

I do plan to give her special intros for some characters like Superman and maybe Lex Luthor or Wonder Woman, but that's not my top priority right now.

8) So what are your general thoughts on beta releases? Can you give a possible timetable on a beta to release and/or a goal for the full release?

Beta releases in general are pretty nice, even though some "betas" play a bit like early alphas. But it's always nice to see how a character develops over time. Will I release a beta? Probably, though I couldn't possibly say when. Most likely when she's at least close to finished to get some feedback on her. My goal for a full release... sometime this year…I hope.

I hope so too. And you can keep track of Toni’s WIP by going to: http://mugenguild.com/forumx/index.php?topic=92076.0 To read more about the character in general, take the following links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergirl http://www.comicvine.com/supergirl/29-2351/