Imagine creating your own fighting game, with your own combatants battling each other using all the attacks and technical nuances you love. For many fans of the genre, that's the ultimate dream. But how do you actually begin such a massive undertaking? 

“The only thing that it takes for you to make a game is to start, you know?” says Mike Zaimont, lead programmer and gameplay designer for the upcoming 2D fighter Skullgirls. “People ask me that all the time: ‘How did you get actually get started working on Skullgirls?’ And the answer is that I sat down on my computer and typed.”

Zaimont is being modest. He's better known as “Mike Z,” one of the best BlazBlue players in the country. Now he’s using his years of experience -- and a fair bit of persistence and drive -- to help bring this dark cartoon fighter to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this summer.

The BlazBlue pro is a recent addition to the Skullgirls team; artist and creator Alex Ahad has been working on the game for over a decade. In 2009, Zaimont was programming his own fan-made fighter when a friend suggested he meet with Ahad. The two found that Ahad’s designs and Zaimont’s engine complemented each other, and that by working together, they could focus on their individual strengths.

As Zaimont’s programming replaced Skullgirls’ early builds, he explored elements that he didn’t think would be possible with the game’s fast-paced battles, like lighting effects and Marvel vs. Capcom 2-style assist attacks. He also got input from a demo they showed other players at tournaments like Norcal Install in California. The demo only had one playable character: Filia, a schoolgirl who battles using a parasite latched to her hair. Even so, by observing other people's habits with Filia, they could snuff out problems and make the game feel more organic.

One of the features that came from this testing is a system to prevent infinite combos. While developers create roadblocks to stop people from trapping their opponents in one attack string until they die, competitors can still find ways around them.

“The designer is making games that people can’t break, and the players try to break it so that they can win,” Zaimont says.

Skullgirls’ system focuses on reading controller inputs: The game will give you the freedom to style your combo at first, but it will place more restrictions on repeating the same attacks as the hits pile up.  

“I guess the real problem with infinites isn’t the fact that they go on forever; it’s the fact that they’re usually really short sequences that you don’t have to expend very much effort to actually do,” Zaimont says.

Zaimont is also taking lessons from his own experiences. He is best known for using powerhouses like Iron Tager in BlazBlue and Juggernaut in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. These tanks, however, have plodding movement and one-dimensional tactics that make it hard for them to keep up as the game evolves. Juggernaut even had a glitch that made all of his attacks stronger, and he still wasn't on the level of MVC2’s best.

For Skullgirls, Zaimont took a page from Guilty Gear’s Potemkin, who he described as a good character first and a power character second. While Skullgirls’ grappler Cerebella can’t air dash like other fighters, for example, she can double jump and has a move that gives her some aerial maneuverability. She also has more combo ability than most throw-based warriors.

“She’s not crippled at the outset just because a single move does more damage,” Zaimont says.

The fighting game community can be a tough crowd. Skullgirls' detailed 2D combatants makes it stand out from its 3D competitors, but the oddball anime-style roster may turn off some people. Still, Zaimont is focusing on what he can control.

“There are people that play games for two reasons,” he says. “They play either because they find it fun or they play because they really like the characters or the art or something like that. I can’t do anything about people who don’t like the art, but I can definitely do something about people who don’t like the gameplay.”

The Skullgirls team is hosting demos at PAX East and other events before the game's release, so take the chance to test out this new challenger to the genre.