Too many Fighting Games?

[King K. Azo]

Hey guys. So, as probably no one knows, I wanna make video games! Like everyone other poor sap!

I thought that making a fighting game would be both fun, and a nice starting point... But then I looked at the market.

 

Street Fighter 5, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat X, Smash Bros, Skull Girls, and 'Dem Fighting Herds. That's a lot of fighting games. Are there too many right now?

[Althemia]

One thing that you have to realize is that the life span of fighting games tends to be a fleeting thing unless you somehow make your way into being a classic like Melee. Communities tend to leave for the next big thing when the opportunity arises. A lot of the games that you listed have very varying release dates, with some of them being out for years now while the other end of the scale is not even released. This means that fighting games, or at the very least updates, have to be pumped out frequently in order to keep your demographic attracted.

 

Also tbh there's no such thing as too many fighting games as they're a great spectator sport as well as a competitive sport. More the merrier so long as they're good quality really.

[Darj]

I'm not an expert on game development, marketing ,etc. but, in my opinion as a player, I would say there are never enough fighting games; and even with their current presence, you could very well be successful if your game has unique elements and/or introduces something new (e.g. mechanics, physics, etc.).

 

If you can avoid your game being compared to others or called as "yet-another fighting game" you should be good to go. For instance, I find Smash Bros. series unique not only because of the crossover theme, but also because they drop the "insert button sequence to execute a move or special attack" mechanic other fighting games have.

[Agro]

Voltex has the right idea.

 

There might be a good list of fighting games out there, but many of them are pretty similar to each other and often get sequelized, so they're dropped fairly quickly.

 

There are about 4 types of 2D fighting games to be aware of, since the communities are different (although there's some overlap between the first two):

 

There are classic-style fighting games with straight up health bars and rounds such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, or King of Fighters. Then there's the Marvel vs Capcom style of games (albeit with only MvC3 mattering... eh, and I guess Skullgirls) where you have multiple characters that can switch in and out. Then there are anime-style fighting games that includes Guilty Gear, Persona 4: Arena, and BlazBlue... and to be honest they're not much different from the classic-styles, it's just that they're made by the same company and idk why but they're thought of separately. Finally, there's arena fighters, of which none but Smash Bros. matters because they're all just licensed smash rip offs. Except Rivals of Aether, but that's new.

 

Even between categories, though, there's not really that much that separates them. The most unique of all the types of fighters is far and away Smash Bros., because– as a friend of mine put it– while your spacing in those games in relation to your opponent is important, due to the fact that the goal is to knock the opponent off stage rather than whittle down a health bar, spacing is not the most important facet of the gameplay.

 

So change up your idea to try to make something uniquely new. Maybe look at what makes a fighting game a fighting game and ignore those building blocks while still keeping them relevant.