Recently I got speak with Julian Spillane and Orie Falconer about their upcoming fighting game Mighty Fight Federation.

QC: How did development for Mighty Fight Federation begin?

O: Mighty Fight actually didn’t start off as a fighting game, but something closer to Saturn Bomberman Fight!! for the Sega Saturn. Certain things have stayed the same, like the big knockbacks from attacks, but the levels were more open and you had to go for ring outs rather than KOs. We added a few walls in our test levels and it became really fun to watch someone ricochet off of them so we started adding follow-up attacks and defensive breakers. It really started to find it’s identity as a competitive fighting game so decided to go all in on that.

J: To Orie’s point, as the game started becoming more and more competitive, we decided to go all-in on making it an arena fighter. We’re huge fans of fighting games and spend most of our free time doing ranbats with our friends and colleagues, and it just felt like the right path to take.

QC: What games did you take inspiration from while developing Mighty Fight Federation?

O: A big inspiration behind Mighty Fight is Capcom’s Power Stone series. For those unfamiliar with it, Power Stone was this 3D arena fighter back in the days of the Dreamcast where you knocked your opponent around the stage trying to collect enough stones to activate your super attacks. We wanted to create something with that kind of DNA, but also make it more about the characters’ tools rather than item pickups. Our wall and ground bounce mechanics, deeper combo opportunities, and breakers were inspired by hyper fighters like Marvel vs Capcom.

J: Once we figured out where we were taking the game, mechanically, we spent a lot of time thinking about what held back other arena and party fighters from being competitively viable. We wanted to maintain the chaos of the 4-player free-for-alls of Power Stone 2, but we didn’t like how the game essentially degenerated into a rush for the stones, with nothing differentiating characters until they powered up.

We decided then to abandon the idea of having weapons and pick-ups, instead focusing on making sure each character had their own moves, combos and play-styles.



QC: Could you tell us a little bit about Might Fight Federation’s story mode?

O: Story mode centers around the Mighty Fight tournament. Hyperion, a deity fueled by the collective levels of hype and excitement around him, creates a televised wrestling tournament for his own amusement and imprisons fighters from across the multiverse within it. Their endless fighting allows to him to not only survive, but become more powerful. One of these fighters, Originelle, is plucked from her world just before she could save her best friend from certain doom. With no time to waste, Originelle must band together with the other fighters and uncover the secrets of Hyperion’s dark reality and return home in time to make things right.

We had a lot of fun crafting the world of Mighty Fight and how we’re presenting it. Players will get the chance to really dig into each character’s backstory and see how they play off of each other in a way that I don’t think many fighting games have done before. In addition to Story Mode, we will also have unique story moments for each character in Arcade Mode.

QC: Who is your favorite character so far?

O: I’m all about Heckbane! He’s the first character we created, a gym-bro hell hound equipped with energy drinks made from damned souls, and I really gravitate towards his rushdown play-style. Close second and third for me are Tunestone (the washed-up undead rockstar) and Remi Redcard (a shadow-clone wielding soccer player).

J: It’s definitely gotta be a toss-up between Billy Strikefist and Tunestone, for me. Billy’s got a ton of options, lots of rush-down moves and is great for baiting other players. Tunestone’s trickier, but his range and defensive options (especially against projectile characters) make him pretty formidable.

QC: What kind of netcode do you plan on implementing into the game?

J: We’ve built a 4-player roll-back networking system, very similar to GGPO. We’ve been stress testing and it seems to hold up really well even with dramatically high ping values. With GGPO very recently becoming open-source, we’re going to go in and see what we can use from their code-base as part of our current networking implementation.

QC: Obviously the game is still in development, but is there any plan for pursuing a physical release on console?

J: We’re definitely planning on digital console releases, and we would absolutely love to find a partner to help us launch physically. Once we’re a bit closer to release we’re going to reach out to potential manufacturing partners and gauge interest.

QC: Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to the readers?

O: If you’re a fighting game fan and looking for something a little different to play, we hope you’ll pick up and enjoy Mighty Fight Federation! We’re a very small team but I’m really proud of what we’ve created. Usually with game development you hit a point where you’ve played the game enough that it stops surprising you, but with Mighty Fight I’m still having a blast playing matches and creating these really fun, emergent moments. I hope you’ll find it just as hype as we do!

J: If you’re interested in trying it out, follow us on Twitter (@fightmighty) and join our Discord community as we head towards our early access release!