AndreaJens

Schwarzerblitz, the fighting game I have worked on since 2016, is now near the finishing line. To celebrate, I am starting one last, big, open contest! Create a skin, see it in game!

Link to the game's page: gamejolt.com/games/schwarzerbl…
Link to the Discord server: discord.gg/vXKrvpV
Link to my Twitter account: twitter.com/AndreaDProjects

The rules are shown in the picture above! Before submitting, please check the list of already available costumes/skins here:
docs.google.com/presentation/d…
If your design is too similar to one of those, they won't be considered in the selection.

The skin must be for an existing character alreaedy in the game - this is not a "create a character" contest.

There is no fixed number of winners, if I like a skin I'll create it for the game as free post-launch content. In the rare case of two entries being too similar, the first one submitted will be the winner, in case the concept is chosen.

For clarifications, send me a note via dA or contact me on Twitter...

AND LET THE BLACK LIGHTNING STRIKE!

Alright, ALRIGHT! It has been a while since I updated my dA page, BUT! I have been tagged by and who am I to refuse a challenge? Here it comes 8 things you never wanted to know (maybe) about the cynical, fabulous secondary villain of my game Schwarzerblitz: killer robot dandy H-168 Krave

1. Krave loves dabbing. Yes, in 2065. Yes, it's a dead meme by then, but nevertheless he dabs. Always. Mostly to taunt his defeated opponent or to show superiority. It is unknown HOW or WHY it started dabbing, but yet he does. And he will never stop until the heat death of the Universe or his own demise, whatever comes first (spoiler: the second);
2. Krave wasn't always like he is now: he previously had a completely different, bulkier body with hand drillers, designed for durability and heavy work. He lost his first body as a result of the Black Lightning disaster in 2064, which caused also the destruction of his main engine. His power supply had been replaced with a hybrid electric/gasoline engine with limited fuel. Ironically, Krave's "life" is now centered on finding a way to survive and find a replacement for his power unit.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Krave is narcissistic beyond belief. There is nothing he loves more than himself. His own safety is his utmost priority. And, thanks for asking, but there is no second place whatsoever in his list.
4. Krave is a sort of simulated personality. He is a rather advanced AI, capable of passing a Turing test, but this does not mean he thinks like a human being. In fact, as of 2065, no reliable test for proving the sentiency of a non-human being has been developed. Krave acts like an intelligent being, but there is no evidence that he is one. There is no evidence of the contrary either, leaving the fight between AI-believers and AI-non-believers open - more a matter of faith than of science.  
5. Krave loves movies where the villain wins and has a soft spot for old movies by Michael Bay where everything explodes. He likes explosions juuuuust a bit too much. His role model is GLaDOS from Portal, even if - in his opinion - she's not sadistic enough.
   
   
6. He hates kittens. He truly hates kittens. Once the Q&A department of the company he was built by demanded an HUD to be added to his remote firmware, so that they could check that he was not mislabelling cats as "target to terminate with extreme prejudice". Problem is that he found a loophole in his programming which let him switch the labels. The result was on the first page of every Swiss newspaper at the end of 2063. Seriously, Krave single-handedly forced Switzerland to legiferate about limits on AI experimentations on virtue of him killing a dozen of kitten and gravely injuring six researchers. He was not switched off just out of concerns from the investors, who saw in his demise the end of a project they already financed for too many years;
   
7. Krave has no respect whatsoever for human life. He sees everything like a toy. Everything can be experimented with. Everything is but a pawn in the grand scheme of things. If he wants to do something, he just DOES it. Like, throwing a policeman in a vat of acid for pure sadistic curiosity. Or beheading a random civilian to see "how long can a human survive without head";
   
   
8. Krave can feel something that is similar to "fear". More specifically, he fears to be switched off, his body consumed by rust and critters. Krave also has "nightmares", or whatever names can go for undeleted video feed data which are routinely recalled by his brain during downtime moments. Krave will never admit it, but he has a form of PTSD, as he will just feel "nervous" to downright "scared" everytime he sees a risk to be switched off, never to restart again.

Long time no write, huh? We can say that I was busy with life, Ph.D., and developing my game.
Schwarzerblitz is still going on pretty well: finally, almost each character has their own arcade ending!
I still have to thank  for creating Mono, because this character proved fundamental to give variety to the game, together with her pal Wally!



And what to say about and his Jenn? This character was the badass fighting woman I needed to give support to the main characters and steal the scene for her own!

 

Speaking of which, the gameplay has also been updated... a lot. Now, there is self-ringout, jumps are more useful, projectiles can be avoided by sidestepping, there are also some special moves, like Skeleton's Aposimz Hellfire Nova!



All in all, there are now 7 story episodes (2h+ of content) plus 16 arcade endings, gallery mode, trials and challenges.
The game is healthier than ever and I'm gathering forces to push it to the final release!

Some months ago, a contest ended and winners were chosen.
Unfortunately, I couldn't complete a new game release in November (as I planned), but I'm now planning to provide new content (along with the winning entries) in the first quarter of 2018.
In the meanwhile, here's the status of the contest winning entries!
Mono, by  has been completely implemented and she's now a fully playable character! I'm showing you a nice, little gameplay video to make her style clear


The arena is Schwarzerblitz:Stadium by , which took part in the contest together with  by !
You can get a glimpse at the other stage here, where newcomer Jenn Husler and Skeleton's reskin Zeo Schiller are having an argument:



All the content shown here will be available in the next game release! Until then... let the lightning strike!!!