Development Journal: Infight Kids

 Design and development on the first Infight Kids started in July of 2013, and was released on March 12, 2014, one year after Darkstalkers Resurrection. The series was heavily influenced by Darkstalkers. I would follow a routine where I would add 2 characters per month, except for October, January and February. Unlike Combat Kids, all of my OC's used 3D Models constructed in Anim8or to create the sprites. The portraits were traced in Paint.NET.

The first game's story was that 5 Infight Kids heroes (Earl, Panther, Lumini, Vincent and Harumi) took on 5 Infight kids villains (Geme, Isabell, Konsuner, Dissagea and Tier Happy). The strongest Infight Kid would then fight with the two bosses, Trent and Bullion. The final boss came from an old Game Maker game I made called Plot Wor, and was inspired by Gill from the Street Fighter III series. Bullion was immune to projectiles. Dissagea is named after a misspelling of "Disgaea".

During the game's development, I copied the frame data for MvC1 Roll and DS1 Bishamon to be used for Panther and Isabell. CE Boxer's frame data was used for reference when making Dissagea's animations. I included my own Win Quote code, so that both characters appear in the Win Quote screen like in DS1. It also displays how many matches won in a row. I toyed with the MUGEN executable so that it only prints out % signs on the log file! I originally planned to make all the characters have command throws.

Sax-Gals was a game I was going to develop. I had a lot of ideas planned, but not much progress on that game was made. It was planned to feature Isabell from the Infight Kids series, and was being built off of Cosmi vs. eGames, one of my previous works. It would have been the first appearance of Emma (Elaine's younger sister), the Skampfer Squad characters (Lopi, Oken, Zado and Zila) and Senka, a ghost who would be the protagonist of Eternal Ghost Town. My goal was to make the game feel like X-Men vs. Street Fighter, one of the best games in the Marvel vs. Capcom series in my opinion.

According to the revsion_log.txt file I made for Infight Kids 1, the order went as follows:

September 2013: Earl and Panther
October   2013: Geme
November  2013: Isabell and Lumini
December  2013: Vincent and Konsuner
January   2014: Dissagea, Tier Happy, Harumi and Trent
February  2014: Bullion
March     2014: Character endings

The next game in the series, Youth Destroyers: Infight Kids' Revenge removed all but Earl and Geme, and had its gameplay based on the Street Fighter III series. Earl and Geme were much more floaty, and even had a few of their special moves removed. The Youth Destroyers were grown people who specialized in getting rid of the Infight Kids. This time, Earl, Geme, Robin and another Panther were up against Elaine and Hag Man. Strange that I made Oken appear in Elaine's ending. This sequel was made in about less than 8 weeks.

The third game in the series was called Youth Salvation: Master of the Infight Kids, or Infight Kids 3: Gazmend's Ambition. Several characters from IK1 were brought back (excluding Panther, Vicnent, Dissagea and Tier Happy). One of the new characters were Atelier (named after the company Atelier Double), a nun who can Shang Tsung morph into some of the other characters, even characters exclusive to previous entries in the series. She could store up to two different character slots: Punch buttons write a new morph, and Kick buttons use a previous morph. If Atelier can't morph into the character she's fighting, then she morphs into a randomly chosen character. Anyways, I'm getting off track.. the other new characters were P.M., a mosquito with Sagat's Tigers and Uppercut who can float depending on the fighting style he's using, and Gazmend, a maniac with a bland moveset who's one of the people responsible for making Infight Kids a thing. Lesloli Model A and I make their first playable appearance. Marcella was also ported to Infight Kids 3, and was as proud of showing her diaper beneath her skirt as she was before.

I find it funny that one of Harumi's special moves became a super, and one of her supers became a regular special move.

IK3 featured an FX select feature at the start of each match, much like Street Fighter Alpha 3's ISMs. Except you can change the FX you use at the start of every match.  X-FX was based on Street Fighter II, granted veterans CPS-1 chains, made characters do more damage and gave them the ability to juggle with their Jumping Medium Punch like New Ryu and New Dictator. Characters can't air block in X-FX. N-FX is the Darkstalkers ISM where characters can chain multiple normals in one combo. It really helps characters like Geme as some characters can only use their command throws under this FX. Unlike IK1, N-FX chains have damage scaling applied to them and characters can't chain more than one different ground normal into a special move. There's also no super pause under N-FX. V-FX is based on Street Fighter Alpha 3's V-ISM. Characters can activate custom combos where their attack animation speeds up like in SFA2, while still being free to move like in SFA3, but the attacks do less damage. Characters can't throw during custom combos in the IK series. S-FX is supposedly like the SNK fighting games, except I've never played a single SNK fighting game until November of 2015, long after the Infight Kids games were developed. Capcom vs. SNK 2 was kinda being used for reference in regards to S-FX. Some characters can run in S-FX. It also grants characters the ability to perform Guard Cancels where they can cancel block stun into a specific special move at the cost of some of their super meter.

Later in 2014, Hyper Infight Kids was made, which combined the character rosters, added new moves to a few characters like IK3 Lumini, added a few more characters including Roll, Dark Star, Nevada and two more Lesloli Models. The previous PC I had broke down in early September of 2014. I decided to install both Windows 7 and Windows XP on the next PC I received. Candra Minsky was also added to revisions released in 2016 onward. X-FX can only store 1 meter now. The characters exclusive to HIK (except Roll) have access to 4 more FX's by holding Start. P-FX is the Street Fighter III ism where characters can parry, perform leaping overheads, EX special moves and cancel special moves into super moves. F-FX is the Street Fighter IV ism where characters can perform focus attacks and super cancel special moves. G-FX is based on Garou: Mark of the Wolves where characters can Just Defend, perform awkward short hops and feint cancel. One of the MUGEN characters I downloaded was used as a reference for G-FX. M-FX was based on the SNES TMNT: Tournament Fighters, where characters do more damage like with X-FX, only one super can be performed with MP+HK, and supers have no super pause like in N-FX. Lesloli C and H can still back dash under M-FX.

I wasn't really too happy with adding Tanbo to Infight Kids 3, so he was excluded from Hyper Infight Kids. His sister, Carmen was going to replace him, and even had a color palette complete for her, but I wasn't as willing to trace several renders at the time. IK2 Panther's stage plays a different theme because I felt the one I used in IK2 wasn't fitting. HIK also featured different language settings, some of which affect what characters are available. So you could have only boys in the game, or girls in the game, for example.

The Lesloli line of sex-ed robots in the shape of little girls is worth mentioning. They can withdraw gadgets from their pockets a la Doraemon. Their throw involves them setting girls on the ground, laying on their stomach so the Leslolis can lick their butts and apply a drop of Fap Oil to enhance the sexual value! The IK1 characters' reaction animations to the Leslolis were created 2 days prior to the game's release. Robin and Lesloli Model A were actually being worked on during Infight Kids 1's development. Lesloli Model A made her first appearance as a secret judge in Youth Destroyers, if both players get a Time Over with the same health outside of Mirror Matches. Model C was in Model A and I's intro and ending, but was added as her own character in Hyper Infight Kids, as well as Model H who is one of the very few characters who can cancel their sweeps. The Lelsoli models' alphabet was never completed.

Infight Kids was certainly a step up from Combat Kids. For one, the whole series was made in MUGEN 1.0 rather than WinMUGEN, so the game wouldn't crash as often on Windows XP. The character sprites were more consistent with each other. A fighting game engine in Game Maker would be difficult to create, but it can be handled.