Last week, we sat down with some of the people behind it to learn more about how it was made. Among our interviewees were two coders, Cleod9 and [TSON], two spriters, Zero Insanity and Steven, and two musicians, 194 and Chernabogue.
THE PATH
What led to the production of Super Smash Flash 2?
Cleod9:
Naturally there would not be a Super Smash Flash 2 without its predecessor, so it's best to start there. I created the original Super Smash Flash back in 2006 out of the desire to make a real-time platforming game, since I had only made very basic web games until that point. The prototype for the game started out with Sonic-fan sprites of Blade the Hedgehog battling on a crude version of Emerald Hill Zone from Sonic The Hedgehog 2. I very quickly realized that what I had built resembled a Smash Bros.-esque game, and thus began the journey to re-create my favorite game Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Flash Player.
Despite its flaws the first Super Smash Flash became an instant hit on the popular flash portal Newgrounds.com, and an influx of fans started to join the McLeodGaming community (which had only consisted of a small handful of people at the time). As you can imagine it was only a matter of time for sequel requests to start flowing in, so I started a new game engine from scratch. The first game demo consisted of solely Mario, Kirby, Lloyd (Tales of Symphonia), and Ichigo Kurosaki (from the Japanese anime Bleach). I wanted to bring together my love for games and anime, and seeing as it was highly unlikely for any other game to ever exist where you can pit Mario against a shinigami I took this as an opportunity to make it a reality.
This first game demo was just the beginning. As I released updates to the game adding content and characters, more people started joining the MG community wanting to participate in the game's development. After awhile it became far too much to manage on my own so I created a private development group, and built what is now known as the legendary sprite archives where people could submit their own character animations to be used in the game. The development team gradually evolved over the years, and many tools came and went to assist with the collaboration process. We have greatly refined our methods since then, which resulted in exactly what you see today - a Smash game that is the amalgamation of gaming and anime pop culture created by fans, for fans.
Hero:
With Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U releasing along the production of Super Smash Flash 2, have they had any impact on your guy's development?
Cleod9:
Yes, without a doubt. For the Smash veterans out there the most obvious example of this is the air dodging mechanism in SSF2, which is borrowed from Super Smash Bros. Brawl instead of Melee. This is because by the time the air dodging mechanic was added to SSF2, Brawl had already been released. We did not know the kind of competitive implications it could have on the game at the time, but we have stuck with it since then.
Another area that has had a huge impact is character moveset development. While we do our best to create a unique Smash experience, we try not to stray too far from the official games so that players can feel comfortable playing their favorite veteran characters. For players looking for something different, there are many characters to choose from that are exclusive to SSF2
[TSON]:
Absolutely. We’re all huge Smash fans, so we of course get excited when there’s a new title around the corner. I remember calling in sick at work, driving for 2 hours, and lining up in Ann Arbor, MI at a Best Buy for hours just to play the demo for ten minutes. Didn’t even think twice - needless to say, that wasn’t a very productive day for Super Smash Flash 2. As a collective of Smash fanatics, naturally, we rack up ridiculous amounts of time in-game for a bit and activity drops for a short time… afterwards, our experiences with the new title will open up the dialogue again.
This absolutely does result as a net positive, though; nothing motivates to make your game as best as it can be like playing an excellent game does. Truly, it’s one of my favorite times to be active on the team. it renews our perspective of course, but it also drives player activity on our social media such as our forums. This honest feedback of do’s-and-do-not’s and player engagement when there’s a new title is quite influential; if a new feature in this new title has people speculating about its inclusion in SSF2, it’s more than worth looking into.
While our content is basically set in stone already, our moveset designs and other smaller details usually go through a few iterations before they hit the art team, and that allowed us to implement some Smash 4 details. For example, if you refer to the Beta version of Bowser, you’ll find that his run animation is based off of Smash 4 so he still has those powerful, screenshaking footsteps that help drive his massive weight home. His neutral special is even based off of one of the Smash 4 custom special attacks, too. In the usual SSF2 tradition, though, we aim to cohesively combine all of the iterations of each character, so you’ll find that he does have a ton of his pre-Smash 4 moveset. This little kiss of Smash 4 really helped to change the tone of Bowser into something a lot more threatening than he’s been in any Smash game to date, though.
We did take some time to mull over some of Smash 4’s engine changes as well, such as ledgetrumping and rage, but experimentation and just the general public response to these features pretty much disqualified them from going too far into the process. As far as I know the only engine-level change we’ve pulled from Smash 4 is just the jab reset limit of three.
Going forward, as an official title, Smash 4 will continue to hold relevance for quite some time. I think it’s fair that you guys expect a little more influence to trickle in as time goes on in the same way that things from Melee and Brawl find their way in from time-to-time. Once we find out that something holds a value proposition and it works, it’s fair game.
Hero:
If Super Smash Flash 2 was to be compared to other Smash games, how would you describe it?
Cleod9:
Super Smash Flash 2 is essentially a combination of what we loved from all of the Smash games. Think the nostalgia from SSB64, the game's roots. The fast-paced, decisive action from Melee where you can still make a comeback despite a 2 stock deficit. The ambition of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in its amount of content. The refined mechanics and lessons-learned of SSB4. Super Smash Flash 2 is designed to be the 2D Smash game that fans have always wanted, and we hope to continue to deliver that for years to come.
[TSON]:
This may be a controversial answer, but I wouldn’t directly equivalate it with any other Smash game. Too often, fan projects back themselves into a wall with the prospects of wanting to be exactly like a certain game in the franchise. I’m happy to break away from the norm here - while you’ll see that Super Smash Flash 2 takes some cues from Melee in terms of frame data or certain characters’ movesets or physics, you’ll see that in the same breath these areas have touches of Brawl, touches of Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, Smash Bros. 64… amongst touches of uniqueness here and there. There’s something fresh with every aspect of the game, but we’ve struck a balance where everything still is familiar enough where fans who know of the official titles can still pick up and learn the subtle nuances as they go. It feels a lot like an official sequel in that way - think of the first time you played Melee after 64, or Smash 4 after Brawl. It’s an evolution of sorts.
This makes the game a lot more fun to work on, too, I’d say. Discussions about the gravity level (higher than any official title) or ledge invincibility (terminated on ledge release) really wouldn’t be happening if we were trying to emulate rather than iterate. I feel like sometimes when I boot up official titles I’m surprised that some of our decisions feel like more competitively viable solutions for pain points than some of the official ones. Other times, I boot up official titles after coming to the wrong conclusion and go “Wait - so THAT’S why they did this.” It’s a great learning experience and a great exercise to play the role of game developer - especially with the demo system where our mis-steps can be identified and corrected quickly. Sometimes you hit the ball out of the park (ex. extending the frame data of airdodges to nerf them in v0.9b instead of taking Melee cues - which Smash 4 ended up doing too), other times you get to laugh at yourself a few months later (anyone remember the demo where you could do aerial attacks out of rolls?).
My favorite thing about SSF2 is that it dares to be different. The same way we’re breaking through the stigmas about Flash games being shallow or boring or shoddy, we’re breaking through the stigmas of fangames in general being one-dimensional and a poor emulation of the real thing at best. After all, if our goal was to be the same, why would you play SSF2 when you could just turn on your console of choice and play the official title?
BETA
Hero:
What made you guy's come up with the idea of "Arena Mode"?
What made you guy's come up with the idea of "Arena Mode"?
Cleod9:
SSF2 was planned from very early on to offer new modes that the original Smash games didn't have. Arena Mode in particular was our desire to make a new mode with some serious competitive potential. Most modes outside of VS in the actual Smash games are fun for parties, but you typically don't see them at tournament scenes. Arena Mode offers a unique competitive alternative to normal Smash fights, without completely isolating the casual players. It also encourages team matches which typically see lower participation rates than 1v1 in fighting game tournaments.
SSF2 was planned from very early on to offer new modes that the original Smash games didn't have. Arena Mode in particular was our desire to make a new mode with some serious competitive potential. Most modes outside of VS in the actual Smash games are fun for parties, but you typically don't see them at tournament scenes. Arena Mode offers a unique competitive alternative to normal Smash fights, without completely isolating the casual players. It also encourages team matches which typically see lower participation rates than 1v1 in fighting game tournaments.
DIRECTION
Hero:
What is the direction you guys have with the art of the project?
What is the direction you guys have with the art of the project?
Steven:I think to answer this question we’d have to take a step back and talk about the good old days of demo 0.6. That’s when our custom spriting really took off and by then we based our art primarily on the DS game ‘Jump Ultimate Stars’ (which was a popular spriting style at the time). We stuck with a variation of this style for a while.
Zero Insanity:
By Demo 0.7 we got access to a program called ‘BrawlBox’ which was a tremendous help in providing clear reference for the returning characters. BrawlBox, amongst other things helped up with solidifying how we wanted our animations too look. It’s important to us that, especially for veteran characters, we make everything as accurate as possible.
Steven:
Through trial and error we refined the sprite throughout the coming demos, making characters more colourful and expressive as we went along. A great deal of attention was paid to individual details on the characters, their movement and their overall designs. Eventually this led to the issue where a lot of our older characters no longer matched the newer characters in style, which is why by demo 0.9b we launched the first resprited for veteran characters Mario and Link. These would not be the only characters to be resprited as soon, Wario, Peach and Mega Man would follow as well as tons of other updates, however big or small, on the entire cast of SSF2.
Zero Insanity:
Once we felt like we had a good grasp on making good base sprites and fluid animations the last thing we wanted the tackle was SSF2’s colour palette, which is something that I spend a lot of time on. We think it’s important to have lots of bright colors in the game as we feel like that that is what Nintendo is known for and it gives the game that nice and sharp aesthetic that Smash is known for. Although our overall spritework is always getting updates left and right, I’ve taken the opportunity to give a lot of characters some new fresh color palettes in Beta, such as Mario, Link, Jigglypuff and Pikachu.
Steven:
So basically what we want to achieve with our art is to create sprites that carry a tremendous amount of detail despite their small size, that are bright, colourful and fun to look at but also pay homage to each franchise's history and beyond. Like we said before we feel it’s important to recreate each character’s (or each stage location’s) personality and individual design through the way they look and animate. Most of us started spriting in order to assist with the SSF2 project so I’d like to think that fans who have stuck with us for a long time have not only seen the game improve but also us as individual artists. It’s really fun to see all these different characters come together in Super Smash Flash 2, especially characters that have never really received extensive sprite sheets before like Bomberman, Marth, Bowser or Isaac. Aside from all the Nintendo games and Smash itself, we also drew a lot of inspiration from several pixel-art based fighting games as well as the work of Ahruon and Orkimides (Card Sagas Wars).
Hero:
Is there any theme you guys are aiming for with the music of Super Smash Flash 2?
Is there any theme you guys are aiming for with the music of Super Smash Flash 2?
Chernabogue:
Super Smash Bros. games are famous for their soundtracks as they mostly re-use previous music from Nintendo and third party games. SSF2 is no exception and features a lot of remixes from the audio team, but also some original pieces –- the most famous being the Main Theme arranged by 194.
Super Smash Bros. games are famous for their soundtracks as they mostly re-use previous music from Nintendo and third party games. SSF2 is no exception and features a lot of remixes from the audio team, but also some original pieces –- the most famous being the Main Theme arranged by 194.
Music isn't the biggest focus during the game development, which is understandable as gameplay or sprites are some of the most important things the team works on. Nethertheless, we try to produce quality content as the music has a crucial supporting role -– stages wouldn't be the same without some gorgeous remixes. It is a reality that our fans prefer to see new features like gameplay or sprites when we post updates, but it's always a pleasure to see how positive they react when we post some new music.
On the process, we discuss themes we'd like to arrange beforehand, most of the time with other developers, who also like to suggest themes they'd see being featured on a stage. Sometimes, it's very obvious but on some occasions, it's been more complicated to decide which track a stage would feature. We like diversity and trying to remix songs that were never been heard on a previous Smash game. It also is a bit of a challenge, because some tracks have never been arranged in any kind of situation and thus we need to do something that's never been done before.
One thing I appreciate is that we try to bring a very diverse soundtrack and not focus on one or two styles. For instance, even if I enjoy making rock and orchestral remixes, I tried to adapt to some genre restrictions and bring more diversity (like my electro "Pac-Maze" or my jazzy "Lakitu Plains" remixes). Let's face it: a black metal remix on a Yoshi stage wouldn't fit! Other audio devs share their opinions and try to give feedback the best they can on the work of others. We even post some music to other devs to see if it fits and if they like it. Most of the time, a music track goes through multiple updates before it's totally done (most of the time, I post between 3-4 updates before we're all okay with a track). Once it's done, we render a version of the remix to be used in-game and give loop points to the coding devs. And that's it -- but trust me, sometimes it's long!
We have plans for the future with the game's music, both for the Beta and further updates. But I can't talk about it right now, we must keep a few surprises down the line. I try to create the most entertaining remixes for the fans and I'm really happy with how they reacted to it so far. As Steven did some sprite streams recently, maybe I'll do a few music streams later on; that's something I'd really enjoy to do.
194:
Music in the Smash series is mostly divided in two different sections: Remixes from classic video-game tunes and original tracks, from short fanfares to grand openings to boss battle music. Each of those sides operate under similar rules for different goals: one side wants to bring back those melodies we love, while the other wants to become a melody we end up loving.
Music in the Smash series is mostly divided in two different sections: Remixes from classic video-game tunes and original tracks, from short fanfares to grand openings to boss battle music. Each of those sides operate under similar rules for different goals: one side wants to bring back those melodies we love, while the other wants to become a melody we end up loving.
When it comes to arrangements and remixes, we as a team strive to deliver the same concept of familiarity from the previous ones, and bringing you to what the games you're listening to are about. Remixes in the Smash Bros series, especially in Melee and Brawl, are notable for mixing and gluing the best of many games or series in a single track, giving a cohesive sound that would never feel out of place or forced. Tracks like Melee's Corneria , Brinstar Depths, or Brawl's Shin Onigashima achieve that goal with impressive results. In SSF2, we have aimed to bring the same kind of cohesion, and memorability.
Now, for originals, the story is quite different. Our main theme (currently in use for Menu, Battlefield and Waiting Room) was composed around 2011 by a former developer, and was then polished by me and Jacob Tjolsen (Xyless). Since then, we've worked on creating all kinds of remixes and arrangements for it, suiting different moods for each different point where it's meant to be used. From a vibrant Menu, to a calmer but more serious Battlefield, to a relaxed Waiting Room, making a melody varied enough that it will stand out without becoming overplayed is quite a challenge, but it's a challenge we believe we're up to.
And to show some of that work, the work that has been done for Beta, we would like to premiere a very important track from the upcoming Beta.
Hero:
Was there a certain character that gave you guys a lot of trouble through the development of Super Smash Flash 2? Either that being sprites, coding, or other general assets?
Was there a certain character that gave you guys a lot of trouble through the development of Super Smash Flash 2? Either that being sprites, coding, or other general assets?
[TSON]:
Surprisingly, we haven’t had too many horror stories from specific characters this development period, which is definitely never the case... I think the biggest issue we ran into was that some of our code changes caused errors when Zelda and Sheik were loaded in the same match, causing their animations to loop infinitely. Other than that, I’ve got some issues that weren’t particularly HARD to solve, but were rather silly, such as PAC-MAN’s trampoline affecting stage hazards:
Surprisingly, we haven’t had too many horror stories from specific characters this development period, which is definitely never the case... I think the biggest issue we ran into was that some of our code changes caused errors when Zelda and Sheik were loaded in the same match, causing their animations to loop infinitely. Other than that, I’ve got some issues that weren’t particularly HARD to solve, but were rather silly, such as PAC-MAN’s trampoline affecting stage hazards:
Or Mega Man’s down special… doing this:
Or…. Peach being able to continue her double jump momentum while disabling gravity with her float:
Other than those, I don’t really have much to share! Unfortunately, lots of time was taken up prepping the game for gamepads, and updating CPU players to co-operate, and other engine oddities, so that’s where most of our time went.
Zero Insanity:
Humanoid anatomy has always been difficult so when I first started on my first human character (which was Zero Suit Samus) I had to work pretty hard to pick up anatomy
Steven:
For me, the most trouble was definitely Bowser. Bowser was a character I finished single-handedly but I hadn’t worked with such a big character before I started Bowser. Originally we also wanted to implement a scale-like texture via dithering, but due to the game’s camera that didn’t look good. Take a look at how Bowser’s first sprites look like to get an idea:
An early version of Super Smash Flash 2's Bowser sprite.
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Super Smash Flash 2 is a great mixture of all the other existing Smash games, bringing in an overall amazing experience that you won't see in your vanilla Smash to competitive and casual players alike. If you're interested in seeing more of McLeodGaming's work, feel free to follow their Twitter and subscribe to their YouTube!
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