Hello and welcome! A while ago we asked on Twitter if you had any questions you’d like us to answer. We took a while to collect the best and most frequently asked questions and prepare some answers for you guys.
Are you planning/adding/releasing…?
While we understand and appreciate the excitement surrounding new content, we would like to share that kind of information when we feel ready. We understand it has been a while though, and we’re sorry for the radio silence. We mostly keep the community updated on our game via Twitter.
How long do you plan to continue with this project? When you started, did you imagine that the game would have a lot of support and love from the fans?
The original idea was for the project to be finished long ago but since then the team and its goals have changed. As it stands right now, we have a concrete idea of what projects we would like to tackle for the game but not a clearly defined ‘ending’ point. So, we will continue to work on the game as long as we have the time and resources to, as long as it’s still fun, and as long as there is an active community to support the project.
What was your original idea for Simon’s Final Smash before the official team released theirs?
An attack called ‘Vampire Killer’ was supposed to be his Final Smash, his Super Finishing Move from Castlevania Judgment.
What was some content that was cut before the roster revamp in v0.7/0.8?
This would be a very long list, but generally nothing that gets “cut” is 100% off the table forever, so we probably can’t really talk much about it right now.
Out of all the versions you gave us, Which one is your personal favorite?
The latest one!
Is it possible that smash flash 2 can be officially ported to consoles or mobile?
We know that workarounds exist to get Smash Flash playable on consoles, but it’s not something we’re personally interested in pursuing. Super Smash Flash (1 and 2) were built with the idea of the Smash Bros experience on your computer in mind.
Are you guys planning to resprite Yoshi (or any other updated character) as Ultimate version?
We often get a lot of questions about why characters don’t update or change to reflect their animations and movesets in the latest official entries of the Smash Bros. franchise. Super Smash Flash 2 tries to take a holistic approach to representing Smash Bros, so we often take bits and pieces of all iterations of characters as they have appeared in Smash. Because of that, seeing animations resprited to match the latest games isn’t always a guarantee.
Where’d the idea to have Rayman’s plum launch in different directions via smash attack come from? It’s very unconventional, but it’s what makes him my favorite character, so I’m curious to know why it was done how it was.
The plum’s physics were primarily inspired by the Rolling Crate and Soccer Ball items from Smash, and the shenanigans that they allow.
What was the funniest glitch that y’all found within the entire game’s lifespan? (also can y’all allow final smash meter in arena modes again? that was really cool even if it was a bug)
Moonwalking was pretty good. Also when Kirby could get other Kirbys stuck to his head and then achieve hyperspeed. Another fun one was when Giant characters entered the mirrors on Rainbow Route and grew infinitely large.There was a bug that caused enemies to continuously spawn in Multi-Man Smash (it was in one of the Bug Reel videos). It caused the game to slow down so much that it took a minute before the game could complete five seconds in-game!
We also hope to re-introduce Final Smashes to Arena Modes in the far future when we have more time and space to actually make them functional. We enjoy the absolute chaos it brought to Arena Modes.
When do you think all characters will have alternate costumes?
It’s tough to say- some characters are easier to prepare for functional costumes than others. When we go over a character to lay the groundwork for functional costumes we also take that opportunity to fine-tune some of the sprite work for characters (which can take extremely long). To give each character and set of costumes the attention they need we try to avoid having too many in progress at once. It will be a gradual process for sure.
Why did you guys choose Goku, Naruto, Ichigo, and Luffy in the roster? I know they are highly requested, but they are not video game characters.
The short version is that non-video game characters were already featured in the original Super Smash Flash game because Cleod9 liked them and they had decent sprite sheets available. This continued in SSF2. We also believe there is a significant overlap in people who enjoy video games and manga/anime. Characters from Shonen Jump are often battle-focused in particular and bring a unique style to their fighting as well.
The Shonen Jump based fighters are probably among the most iconic in Smash Flash as it stands. Originally a lot of people were weirded out by their inclusion when SSF2 found a broader audience but the reception has changed significantly in recent years- a large portion of the character requests we receive these days are actually manga and anime based fighters now! I think these characters are a big contributor to Smash Flash 2’s identity as well now.
What happened to the SSF2 Dev Applications?
It’s still up and additional help is still appreciated- but please be aware that due to the number of applicants we can’t reply back to every single one. It may also take a good while for us to reply if we think you might be a good fit for the team, so I’d like to pre-emptively apologize for a long wait to hear back from us.
Is there any set way you come up with the characters you put in the game?
Sometimes we take a look at the roster and try to identify what sort of characters and playstyles are missing, sometimes we start a character because they have lots of potential, we’re huge fans of said character ourselves and/or are highly requested by the community. Sometimes a character goes into production because inspiration just hit and everything about their moveset suddenly clicked.
Character variety, visual variety and playstyle variety are the most important factors.
Are there still plans for something like Expansion Characters? It was a cool idea even to this day.
Expansion Characters were a concept to give people a chance to continue working on the game when Smash Flash 2 had a concrete beginning and end. As mentioned before, that’s no longer really the case. As such right now there isn’t any interest in the team in doing Expansion Characters as opposed to just adding characters we like to the latest updates.
When will characters have to be unlocked?
Re-ordering what content is unlockable and what isn’t, is something is team is still very interested in, but right now it’s impossible to know when we’ll actually get to it. Our idea is that in some update in the near future we’ll turn appropriate content into unlockable content.
When it comes to new characters, do you tend to prioritize veterans from previous Smash games, or newcomers with original movesets?
An interesting thing we’ve noticed is that whenever talk about adding new characters comes up (in the form of speculation or wishlisting) people appear to actually prioritize veteran characters themselves. Many veteran characters often top people’s personal wishlists. Whether this is due to them wanting to see their previous main(s) in our artstyle and engine or simply because they like their playstyles or games, we don’t know.
As for us; we try to aim for a mix of both.
Who was the most fun to make or who is the most fun to play?
A few different answers from a few different devs!
- I was very heavily invested in Krystal’s development so that was fun to see come together, even if I pulled an unhealthy amount of all-nighters to make it happen.
- I really enjoyed making Luffy and Bandana Dee, the former because I’m a huge fan of One Piece and I was really invested in bringing Luffy to life since he was the most requested character at the time. Bandana Dee since I just think Waddle Dees are neat.
- Waluigi was a character I really wanted in Smash for a long time. I frequently cosplay as Waluigi at conventions too.
- I’m a big fan of Castlevania (and I frequently remix its musical scores) so finally seeing Simon in Smash was magnifique... then he actually got added in Smash soon after!
How long does it typically take to create a new stage + music?
There isn’t one clear cut answer because stages differ greatly in detailing and complexity. Sometimes you have a good idea that just clicks and it’s pretty easy to see a stage through from conception to a finished product, sometimes it takes a while to testplay an idea and work out the kinks. If we’d really be forced to give an answer I think the safest one would be that it takes around a month or two per stage.
Same goes for the music too, usually music tracks are made once the visuals are done so that the two can match.
I’d like to know if the team prefers the addition of fully original characters or characters from the official games?
Both are fun in their own ways, each helps expand SSF2. Designing fully original characters helps give the game more individuality though and it’s often really fun to figure out how a character should move and behave and sketch the animations and attacks accordingly though. We also love seeing the reactions from said characters’ fanbase when they get released.
Do you think another “Smash Flash Direct” is possible?
The role of the ‘directs’ have largely been taken by the update trailers made by our fantastic FriendAlias. I don’t think we’ll use Directs again but we also try to avoid saying ‘never’.
Favorite memory of development?
Again, we have a couple for you!
- Favorite development memory would probably be when I figured out how to get proper palette swap costumes working. The excitement in our dev chat was absolutely wild and was a huge burst of motivation.
- I really enjoyed attending all the iterations of Super Smash Con that I was able to. I had known the team for years but this was the first time I actually got to meet my friends in the flesh. Working on the game while all in the same room is also very different.
- My favorite memories are centered around activities during Super Smash Con. Getting to meet the other members of the development team (especially those coming from other countries) is something I never would have thought could happen. While we can now work together in the same room, we also can now just hang out together without worrying about time zone differences. For example, we were able to watch the Simon/K.Rool Smash Presentation as a team without having to be in a voice call or waking up early/staying up late.
It’s also a surreal feeling to be able to interact with fans and players of the game in-person. The fact that Smash Flash has actually made its way into the hands and minds of several celebrities of the larger Smash Bros. community is also really wild and humbling to us.
Will SSF2 ever have improved online in terms of connection and stability?
We’re always on the lookout for tricks to improve connection quality and stability. While we’re somewhat limited in our options given that Flash is sort of a frozen technology at this point, there are still some improvements that can be made that we plan to look into. Keep in mind however that since the core networking model of SSF2 online is P2P-based, the baseline for connection quality will almost always depend on ISP speeds and the distance between you and your opponent.
Were there any advantages/disadvantages of developing SSF2 while the official line of games were also being developed?
I’m sure most people in the community are already aware of our experiences with Simon Belmont’s reveal.
(For those unaware: the official titles revealed the inclusion of Simon Belmont in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate only 2 days before we revealed Simon as a new character at Super Smash Con).
How many people are on the team?
I would say that, on average, you have about 10-or-so active members in our team. There is a certain ‘ebb and flood’ flow to our activity given that this is just a fan project and sometimes some of us have different priorities that lead us away from SSF2 for extended periods.
Do you have an in-house composer or do you crowdsource the music?
We have a dedicated in-house music team!
What stage sprites or character sprites are you most proud of currently?
This might be a bit of a cop-out answer but honestly; a lot of characters that are featured in SSF2 never really got pixel-art based incarnations are always some of our favorite projects to bring to life. It’s always really novel to interpret characters in a new medium and we’re always really proud of it when we get it right.
Are there any unexpected games that inspired the content included?
As we enjoy and play a variety of games, inspiration comes from everywhere. It’s probably not surprising, but we have a huge admiration for the platform fighting genre and often play games in that genre extensively. As such it’s not uncommon for us to be inspired by not just Smash but also games like Playstation All Stars Battle Royale.
What dictates the content of an update? Do you just loosely work on many tasks and whatever ends up most complete after a given period is finished up for next update, or do you plan out things to work on for an update before starting on any?
A bit of both, between updates we tend to take a break to have some fun, and after a while we assess what we should aim to have in the next update.
Even though we make plans, sometimes inspiration strikes or we suddenly have a lot of motivation to finish another task that’s been laying around for a while. We do our best to avoid scope creep but we also try to follow where our hearts take us.
What was the biggest change that was made decision wise?
Many long-time members of the community will remember the large roster retool between updates 0.6 and 0.7. This was coupled with the introduction of many new key members on the team that helped streamlined the direction the game was going to take. We think that was a pretty formative time of changes.
Which fighter treats Sandbag the nicest?
Everyone treats Sandbag pretty pleasantly. Even Ganondorf, surprisingly.
Bandana Waddle Dee and Sandbag are best friends. (confirmed SSF2 lore)
Why was it decided to make a sequel to the original 2006 smash flash in the first place?
I would say it happened largely as a result of the success of the first game. While I wanted to improve on what I did in SSF1 regardless, I’m not so sure it would have become a reality if it weren’t for how well received SSF1 was. Seeing all the positive feedback about the game and the influx of new members arriving on the McLeodGaming forums at the time became a major motivation for me to kick off a sequel.
Since then, our team has become sort of a springboard for all sorts of people to come join, learn skills and go out into the world to (also) work on other projects in gaming and animation. Retaining this sense of personal growth and passion for not just games but also the industry at large is an important factor.
So what’s the reason for the removal of Final Forms? I really enjoyed the idea and it gave the feeling that certain characters weren’t being held back.
Final Forms, or Transformation Final Smashes as we sometimes refer to them as now, had started to hold back their characters due to their high maintenance. Remember that most of the previous Final Forms continued to use pre-existing sprites that no longer matched with their reworked default sprites. There were balancing issues as well, as we had to make it fun to play as, yet not too strong where it becomes unfair to fight against.
The work needed to get the Final Forms to our current standards would require the same amount of effort (or even more in some cases) as making a new playable character. We felt that the potential time and energy spent here would be more beneficial in different areas instead.
From start to finish, how long does it normally take to implement a new character into the game (planning movesets, spriting, creating animations, debugging, etc.)?
This varies wildly as a result of many factors. Sometimes it can take less than a year, sometimes it takes many years before a character comes together.
Krystal started development over 2 years before their first reveal, and it was another year and a half after that before they were finally released. An example of how long it takes sometimes.
In the future, will you provide tutorials in sprite design for fans who wish to create character sprites and animations for themselves?
We have a Discord server with a very active art community that we’ll gladly welcome anyone into. Our team members are often active there to share feedback and guidance if wanted. We’ve considered doing art streams every now and then because we’re really enthusiastic about pixelart and animation and would love to welcome people into our hobby, but nothing has really come of that yet. If anyone has any ideas about how we could help people get into pixel-art, we’d love to hear them.
Why can’t the game reach 60 fps ? Is it due to some technical limitations ?
Flash is technically capable of 60fps, but it is a very inefficient engine, especially in this day and age. With SSF2 being a very complex game for Flash, some people already struggle to run the game smoothly at 30fps, and a significant majority of people would be unlikely to have the game run smoothly at 60fps.
Unfortunately Flash is just not really built for that.
Would love to hear an “aha!” moment regarding when a balance or design problem was solved.
During development, Krystal’s side special changed many times and went through a lot of iteration, and nothing we tried really solidly fit into her design.
A few days after her Smash Con reveal a new idea for the move came to me in a dream of all places (not joking) so I gave it a shot. It was a hit within the team and was really satisfying to use without messing with the rest of her design, so it stuck and it’s the one she has now!
How is your relationship with other smash fan games development wise? Any plans to do collabs?
We would like to think our relationships with other fan game teams have been cordial. We’re really excited to see other Smash fan projects succeed out there like Super Smash Bros Crusade, Team Akaneia’s Super Smash Bros. Melee Akaneia Build, Smash 64 Remix and even non-Smash projects like Team Z2’s Hyper Dragon Ball Z.
There are no current plans for collaborations however, since at the moment we don’t really have a strong vision for how that would play out.
What are your thoughts about playing smash with a keyboard / box controller?
Since SSF2 was originally designed to be played on a web browser, we are more accustomed with the idea of being able to play Smash with a keyboard. While we haven’t had the chance to try playing with an arcade controller, it is something we’re open to testing with.
What was the first character that was not in super smash bros that you made?
For Super Smash Flash 2, the first original character that was made was…
Ichigo!
Do you guys need an idea man or someone to think of movesets or balance changes on your team?
There isn’t really an opening for ‘idea guy’ in the team but we do try to actively engage with our community to check for feedback and input. A few ideas from fans have actually made it into the game across the years! So even if you aren’t on the team, you’re still free to share your ideas with the community on our twitter and in our Discord.
What are your hopes and dreams for Super Smash Flash 2?
We hope to grow as people, designers and artists. Bigger, better, anything and always. Our dream is for Smash Flash to be a celebration of games and the online communities that the original Smash Flash sprang forth form. We hope it continues having a place in everyone’s heart and that more and more people will continue to discover Smash Flash.
