Schwarzerblitz

"Indie fighter Schwarzerblitz pays tribute to early ’90s 3D fighters "
-Shoryuken.com

"Schwarzerblitz shows love to early polygonal fighters"
-Siliconera

Official Discord server: https://discord.gg/vXKrvpV

Schwarzerblitz is an indie fighting game written in C++ and running on a custom version the Irrlicht game engine (find out more here!). The game is completely in English and supports both keyboard and joypad, though the second is highly recommended.

Let the Black Lightning strike!

It's 2065 and the world is not what we used to know. Fennoscandia has sunk deep into the ocean, half of Ireland is ridden by heamophages, nuclear power has been replaced by reality-distorsion-resonance (RDR) power plants and an alien planetoid has made first contact for more than fifty years,by now.

In 2064, a major accident shook the whole Europe: Euterpe, the Italian capitol city, was razed by an explosion of incredible power, followed by a storm of black lightnings. The accounts of the witnesses diverged and no light was shed on the real cause of the disaster.
After a one-year manhunt, the Delta Team has finally found a consistent trail, which leads directly to a secret governative project known as Schwarzerblitz, "the black lightning"...

Game mechanics

• five button system: Guard, Punch, Kick, Tech and Trigger

• fluid combo system: most attacks can chain into each other, leading to long combo strings

• impact attacks: send your opponent flying with powerful blows - as the only way to send them out of the ring

• trigger attacks: by using a trigger counter, one attack becomes guard-breaking and increases the hitstun, leading to easier combos and increased damage

• trigger revenge / combo breaker: when comboed, you can use a trigger counter to cancel the hitstun and strike back against your opponent

Main features

• 26playable characters, among which 16 main characters, the arcade boss, two special characters, six additional special characters (Sir Rattlebone, Leo, Doll, Mira, Lazor and K-069) and [REDACTED]

• A total of more than 100 skins

• 39 different stages with animated background elements and ring out mechanics

• arcade, survival, time-attack... you name it!

• 5h long story mode with several CG cutscenes, and an overarching story joining all arcade endings

  

• gallery mode, arcade ending theater

• extensive training mode with frame advantage data, tutorials and trials

• ocal multiplayer, both with joypad or split-keyboard

• 8-way movement in a complete 3D environment

• extended movelists for every character, listing every possible chain

• varied soundtrack with different genres and tunes

• moddable game engine (yes, you can add your own character, if you know how to use Blender!). A modding guide will be released after the alpha makes his way

• controls can be freely remapped in-game. Both keyboard and joypads are supported (this game supports DirectInput, therefore no XInput keymapper is required)

• a drunken shark-man

• a politically incorrect robot

• A FRIGGIN' AUSSIE RAPTOR WITH A MINIGUN!

Important notes (before you play)

• the game requires Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 redistributable. Be sure to download and install it before playing the game!

• the game requires also Microsoft Directx9 or higher. If you have Directx12 or higher, you could experience a black-screen bug. In case of doubt, download and install the redistributable from this official link.

• for any questions not directly covered in the F.A.Q. below, please contact me as soon as possible - possibly, before rating this game.

  

F.A.Q.

Q: The game does not start. It says that [insert name here].dll is missing
A: See the important notes above. Your computer probably misses one of the necessary Windows component.

Q: The game doesn't start at all, with no error message displaying
A: In case you have this problem, it could be an issue with the default resolution saved in the default option file. To fix this, open the game folder, open the config folder and delete the file named options.ini, then restart the game. This way, you will force the game to create a new option file and detect the correct screen resolution.

Q: The game goes down to really low FPS on my laptop
A: By default, Windows runs the game with the integrated graphic card. Try right clicking the .exe to start it with the dedicated graphic card. If this does not help, go into the game settings and lower the graphics settings (shadow quality, post-processing, etc.)

Q: Is there any known bug / issue?
A: There is a known bug involving DirectX12. If you happen to have no view of the battle screen aside from the HUD while starting a match (i.e. black screen), dowload the DirectX9 Redistributable from Microsoft website (link) and install it on your PC. After this intervention, the game will run smoothly.

Q: the game does not recognize my input / I can't get past the title screen
The most likely culprit is VJoy. Disable it to make the game work http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/site/index.php/77-vjoy/102-removing-vjoy

Q: I can't take a screenshot with Print in fullscreen mode
A: If you have Windows 10, use the command combination Win + Alt + Print. Otherwise, there's no obvious solution :/

Q: At some point, the game becomes irresponsive in windowed / borderless window mode
A: The window lost focus. Just click on it with your mouse to activate it again.

Q: Is there local any local multiplayer?
A: Yes, both with split-keyboard (very uncomfortable) or joypad + keyboard.

Q: What if my joypad has less than 12 buttons?
A: If your joypad has less than 12 buttons but at least 8, please map every button after the first 7 to one button. This will let you play the game even if your joypad has less inputs available. Notice that you can map buttons even to the right analog stick horizontal and vertical axes. You need exactly 7 buttons to play smoothly: (P)unch, (K)ick, (T)ech, (G)uard, (Tr)igger, Start and Back. Any additional
button can be used for hotkeys or simply assigned to the remaining slot.
Update the open beta has no such problem anymore - you can have as low as 5 buttons.

Q: Will there be online multiplayer?
A: You can use Parsec, at the moment - though online multiplayer is not officially planned.

End notes and remarks

This game has been inspired by the countless hours spent in the local arcade playing Tekken 2 and dozens of other fighting games. It draws influences from Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Soul Calibur as well, some for the character design, some for the game mechanics.

It's both a tribute to my passion for fighting games and the genuine realization of the dream of a (then) ten years old kid who was drawing these exact same characters on his school diary.

And now that kid's quite happy with the result :)

P. S. a full list of credits is accessible in-game ;)

#arcade #multiplayer #action #fightinggame #fgc #scifi #retro