The Skullgirls Indiegogo campaign has finally drawn to a close, raking in an unbelievable $829,829 over the span of a month through crowd funding, clearing its original goal of $150,000 by nearly sixfold. As a result, the game will be receiving five brand new DLC characters, as well as new stages, announcers and extra goodies.
The day the Skullgirls campaign got rolling, I remember reading quite a few comments across the internet from people who felt certain a fighting game would never raise $150,000 “just” to fund a DLC character. If nothing else, the resounding success of this Indiegogo run speaks volumes for the fans who are willing to support their games and the indie developers who are willing to use these new avenues to get their projects completed.
The original goal was to add a new character, Squiggly, to the Skullgirls roster, as well as her own stage and campaign story. Additional stretch goals were set up, each being ticked off one by one. First came the second additional character, Skullgirls' first male combatant, Big Band. Next was the game's first mystery character, one of 32 originally planned as DLC or for sequels, that fans will now get to vote on. Finally, a second mystery character has now been funded, though not its stage and story ($850,000). Still, that's a grand total of five new characters being added to an indie fighting game that originally only had a roster of eight. Not bad at all.
Along the way, several additional bonuses were achieved. A fifth DLC character, Robo-Fortune, was unlocked, as well as half a dozen new announcer voices for players to enjoy. Perhaps the coolest extra bonus of them all, however, came at the $725,000 mark. At that level, Lab Zero promised to give their fighting game engine to the team at Mane6, another group of indie developers who are currently working on their own fighting game.
No word yet on when the voting for those two mystery characters will begin, but you can check them out at the Skullgirls Indiegogo page. Anyone who donated at least $1 to the cause will be allowed to vote. Otherwise, everyone can now sit back, relax and wait for those five new DLC characters to get added to the game.
