Character Submission Guidelines

[Arxos]

Basic Guidelines
The preferred means of submitting stages is by DM'ing me (@Arxos) on Discord.

1. Please verify if your character runs correctly on MUGEN version 1.1a4 with OpenGL renderer and 4:3 resolution. Generally speaking just testing if it runs on 1.0+ should be enough.
2. The folder name for each character should match it's .def file. Do NOT expect me to search through the character folder or settings to activate the AI.
3. If you have the know-how, remove permanent timer slows or stops from your submissions. Removing this is very simple though, so don't worry about this step too much if you don't know how.
4. You can use this page to see all characters on the roster. Please check for duplicates, use both names and author names to check.
5. ZIP all the characters into a single archive and submit the download link or the archive.
6. If the character needs palette locking please include a message regarding it in your submission. Either in the archive itself or the submission message.

Additionally, you can also send character updates to [email protected] or @Arxos (as long as you specifically explain its a character update, and not a new character), though processing them isn't high on the priority list right now so I recommend only sending major updates (e.g. crash fixes or AI patch on a character with otherwise no AI).

 

Low quality warnings
This is a list of things we consider low quality, and likely to lead to rejection:

1. Character cannot (consistently) beat standard Kung Fu Man, given that it's not a joke character.
2. Characters that almost exclusively kill in a single hit, in particular if they're not interesting or varied in the process.
3. Unbeatable characters (it's OK to not die, as long as they can lose). If a character like this slips through, it is likely we will make it beatable in a way you probably did not intend for it to be, so do it yourself.
4. Clone type characters (unless there is a thematic reason).
5. Characters with extremely limited movesets (unless there is a thematic reason).
6. Sadclaps edits and the likes. If you want to make such a character, some originality in its moves/style is greatly appreciated.
7. For certain characters that are prone to low quality edits, the barrier to entry may be raised, since there are too many low quality edits of these characters out there to accept all. For example, characters such as Orochi, Donald and Veku qualify for this (Veku in particular, we honestly recommend not making edits of, as many of the moderators have a dislike towards him).

Exceptions may and have happened to the above, so you can always give it a shot regardless, but be aware the chance of being accepted will be greatly diminished.

 

Additional information: DEF files

SpriteClub scans for a few special things when parsing characters. All of these starts with ";SC;" (case insensitive) and allow you to modify the author field or sprite previews that will be used. It is recommended to place these in the "[Info]" section. The regular author field is also parsed of course, but the advantage of the SC-specific variant is that you can supply additional info (e.g. who AI patched the character) without interfering with any characters that may be expecting a specific author field for character interactions, such as special intros or outros. As such, it is strongly recommended to use this when including additional author information.

 

Below you can find some examples:

;SC;author = "Bob, AI by Arxos"
;SC;idle = 20
;SC;preview = 9000, 2

Here, the idle is an action (defined in the .air file), while the preview is a "group, index" (defined in the .sff file). The "group, index" format can be used for the idle too, but then it won't be animated of course.

If not present, SpriteClub will default to animation 0 for the idle, and the first frame of animation 0 for the preview. Please do ensure that these actions/sprites are present when using these special fields, as I'll get an error during parsing otherwise.

Note: Idles and sprites are currently only generated on command. Changing the values and submitting an update will not result in it updating unless you tell me to update it.

The author field is only parsed when adding the character to the roster. For changing the author field of a character already on the roster, contact a moderator.

 

Additional information: GameSpeed

SpriteClub plays at gamespeed 5, which can sometiems cause issues. A frequent example of this is soundclips that are designed for gamespeed 0.

See for example this sctrl that you might find in a lot of outros:

[state ]
type = assertspecial
trigger1 = time < 300
flag = roundnotover

At gamespeed 5, this effectively waits for 5 seconds before ending the match, but on SpriteClub this will only wait for roughly 3.5 seconds, cutting off the soundclip before it can fully play. However, we can make it wait for 5 seconds on any gamespeed by doing this:

trigger1 = time < 300 * tickspersecond / 60

Here, "tickspersecond" is the framerate of the game based on speed. Specifically, tickspersecond is 60 for gamespeed 0, and every gamespeed up or down is an increment of 5. Meaning, gamespeed 5 is 60 + 5 * 5 = 85 ticks per second. So on SpriteClub this trigger becomes 300 * 85 / 60 = 425, or 5 real-time seconds.