Update: In the brief span of time since this article was published, Lab Zero Games was able to raise another $25,000, meaning it has hit its first stretch goal: Squigly will now get her own stage and story mode. Original story follows.

Lab Zero Games was hoping to reach its goal in 30 days. Some thought the notion of raising $150,000 for a DLC character for XBLA, PSN and PC fighting game Skullgirls would be “impossible.” As it turns out, it was — just not in the way many onlookers were thinking.

It didn’t take Lab Zero 30 days to raise the funds it requires to finish designing the character Squigly and get her into its game. It didn’t even take 30 hours. In less than a day, the independent studio that last year was sculpted out of some bits of clay that fell from Reverge Labs was able to raise the full $150,000 it says it requires to bring Squigly to gamers.

“In less than 24 hours, #Skullgirls has raised $150k for Squigly!” reads a tweet that went out this morning from the official Skullgirls account. “Everyone at Lab Zero is humbled. Thank you so much!”

Shortly thereafter, Lab Zero Games CEO Peter Bartholow provided XBLAFans with details on the character’s XBLA release. First, a title update and mandatory DLC pack that will add Squigly — along with any stretch items that the Indiegogo campaign is able to hit — will be released. An initially free-of-charge Squigly unlock will be released simultaneously. Squigly will remain free for a 3-month period and will set gamers back $5 from that point forward.

With Squigly’s funding now complete, Lab Zero turns its attention to finish her creation as well as raising money for several stretch goals: a Squigly stage and story mode, the male character “Big Band,” a stage and story mode for Big Band, a mystery character and a stage and story mode for said mystery character.

Lab Zero has already conceptualized 32 of the aforementioned mystery characters and has shown off seven of them, including the recently revealed Stanley, who appears to be a scientist shark-humanoid.

Fans will need to contribute a total of $625,000 to have all of the stretch goals unlocked, including having one of the mystery characters worked into the game. Lab Zero will have fans vote on which mystery character they’d most like to see developed should that particular stretch goal be reached.

A 10-week development time for Squigly is mentioned in the Indiegogo listing, but Bartholow informed XBLAFans that it will likely take “a little longer” than two or three months from today for the character to be released. Given how quickly the initial fundraising goal was reached, the team is now anticipating that at least the first stretch goal will be hit, meaning more development work for Lab Zero. As for Squigly, Bartholow says that “she’ll probably go into console submission around the time the PC version [of Skullgirls] is final.”

Sources: @Skullgirls and Indiegogo