When it was first released, Dragon Ball Z was a big deal. Giant projectiles, meteoric fight scenes, iconic protagonists and antagonists…the series set the standards for future titles, and it continues to be a beloved entry in the anime and manga genres. But gaming companies never fully transferred the elements from the anime into today’s games. Similar characters and gameplay created a streak of less-than-stellar games that even an expanded roster couldn’t help.

The mediocrity didn’t sit well with Z2, a group of independent coders and graphic artists. They took matters into their own hands to create an authentic 2D Dragon Ball Z fighting game with the MUGEN engine. The demo and trailer released in early April and, as of today, the game has attracted more than one million views. Amateur gamers share approval through social media and comment sections. Competitive gamers played it during NorCal Regionals 2014’s after hours sessions. It was a huge hit.

We recently spoke with the head of the group, Ronnie “Balthazar” Dieleman, about the game, covering how the idea came to fruition, the process and hardships of creating the game, its mechanics, and other related questions.

Jason Yang: When did you discover fighting games?

Ronnie “Balthazar” Dieleman: I was camping with my parents when I was 7 or 8. Its small arcade hall had Street Fighter II, which peaked my interest in the genre. Its aestethics, the characters’ art, moves, presentation, competitive nature…it felt right to me. Since then, I’ve always been enthralled by the genre and never stop loving it.

JY: What are your opinions on past Dragon Ball Z fighting games?

RD: The Tenkachi series triggered a pattern in future releases. [The gaming companies] try to replicate the feeling of the show, with characters flying around and beating on each other with flurries of attacks and projectiles that all feel very similar and lack impact. Although the character roster grew, they started feeling more like clones of each other so gameplay and competitive play were pretty much non-existent.

JY: When did the idea to create your own game start?

RD: It started about 3 years ago. My pixel art skills were growing as my interest in the Mugen community. I worked on a Street Fighter-sized Goku spriteset, hoping I could showcase its animations to pique other coders’ interest who could adapt those sprites into a Mugen character. These animations were posted on the Mugen Fighters Guild forum (MFG) in hopes of attracting some capable Mugenites that could help me out in different areas of the creation process.

JY: How did you assemble the team?

RD: Shortly after I posted those animations, I met the core of the Z2 team: Cybaster, the coder, and Iced, the idea engineer. The assembly occurred through personal messages on MFG. Through our conversations, I knew I was talking with people with the same passion, and we bounced ideas back and forth. Through updates in the threads for our characters, more people wanted to contribute, and gladly so.

JY: What is each person’s duty?

RD: I take care of the entire character spritesheets, as well as having the “main” vision on how a character’s gameplay and moves should be like. Iced is involved in the character’s development. Cybaster codes the characters in Fighter Factory.

Shout outs to Daeron, who drew and coded the stages and sprites of Saibamen. Rice Pirate, Shock Dingo, and Philly Spiderman are the skilled voice actors working for free, whose voices gave the characters their own essence. (The original Japanese and Funimation English voices are also available.) There are a lot more people, and they’ve contributed in works like palettes and beta-testing the characters.

JY: How long is the coding progress?

RD: Because of other commitments and it being a hobby, the time is hard to gauge. For example, Gohan’s progress was paused about 30% finished, and we didn’t continue until a year later. Adding up all the time, I would say about a year per character. The spritesheet takes at least six months at least if I spend full time on it. Coding the character is easily another six months.

JY: The gameplay has mechanics that are similar to other fighting games. Where did the inspiration come from?

RD: The main influence was Street Fighter because of its solid, grounded gameplay. Darkstalkers became a very large influence as we developed the gameplay, perhaps more than Street Fighter, because of the characters’ individual Emotion System which changes their gameplay, and their cinematic finishers. Superjumps, launches, air combos, and air dashes were taken from the Marvel VS series. Adapted from Dragonball Z games are dash collision (two characters collides creating a physical struggle) and the beam collision (when both characters’ super projectiles collide). Manga and anime were inspirations for some moves and character traits. Other moves and ideas just come from our original train of thought.