How Many Characters Do You Like to See In a Fighting Game?

[Reign]

I'm putting my head together with my brother and we're trying to make a hand drawn, 2D fighting game. He only wants to do 6 characters, and I understand that animating characters is a lot of work - but it seems like way too small of a roster. I was wondering: to whoever plays fighting games - what size roster usually satisfies your playing needs?

[punkarsenic]

ive only ever played smash bros, but me and all my friends all have our fave characters we always play - so i think if there was just six characters it wouldnt bug me that much, so long as they were fairly diverse

[Reign]

Diversity is what I want to go for. The characters are being hand picked from our mangas that we're creating, but in our mangas the main heroes are both teenagers with powers, and that already takes two spots in the roster. So I'm thinking to help diversify, we need to add more characters.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Personally, I like to see as many as possible. ^^ I really enjoy cycling through the roster and trying all the fighters out, so the more the merrier.

However, I've thoroughly enjoyed fighting games with as few as two playable characters. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ So my advice would be to just focus on making the game fun, and let the chips fall as they may with the roster. Most people will expect at least 6-8 characters, though.

[Reign]

Okay! That's a good point. The roster doesn't matter unless the game isn't fun.

[unknown_user]

Begin with creating two characters who could fight each other, at the very least.
Then you'll probably be able to estimate reasonably, how many else you can create with your capabilities.

P.S. I myself not a fan of fighting, so can't tell much about my preferences about number of characters. I just think that every program should begins from a basic functional and minimal content. And new content and functional should be added only at the point when the basics works and is tested well.
Good luck!

[PaulieBlade]

Go for eight. This will allow you to organize ladder-type tournaments starting with quarter-finals.

[vothnthorvaldson]

Quality and diversity would be more important to me than number. Six does not sound too shabby to me. This being said I've not played this kind of game since quite long.

[mrtoontastic]

EVERYONE. EVERY CHARACTER. 45 CHARACTERS, maybe 70!

[Wumbl]

I like a big roster, but only if the characters are unique enough to justify it!
I'm pretty into street fighter, smash and tekken... and a good roster is one that's super diverse. Similarly to a lot of others here I'd rather a game just has a moderately sized roster but the characters are well-balanced and unique...

For this reason I prefer a game like Street Fighter V over something like Smash 4. Street Fighter V doesn't have that many characters but the variety is crazy! There's martial arts from every corner of the earth and characters of extremely varied design and story. (ahem maybe with the exception of Kage who is just terrible in every single way) Each character plays really differently, which is the key. Meanwhile smash 4 (and ultimate too, if I'm being honest) has a lot of characters that feel unnecessary. It could have half as many and still be as fun. Earlier smash games had half as many, and that was fine. I think the game has become too focused in adding new characters rather than improving the gameplay.

Six sounds like a fine number to go with, because you're not overwhelming yourself. Even big studios struggle to make their huge fighting games interesting enough. As long as you're able to make them all work properly and give them fun nuances, people will enjoy it.

[yozhikisblue]

My partner is the one really into fighting games, while I take a sort of tangential interest- but here's our take:

My partner: Minimum of twelve characters for the purpose of having a diverse and interesting roster, maximum of thirty so as not to get too repetitive with character types. (For reference, he usually cycles through 3-4 main characters as his favourites)

Me: As someone who doesn't play fighting games nearly as often, I will pick out one character I like best and just learn that character's moves to be even marginally competitive, so I have no problem with choosing from a roster of 6- especially if they all play very differently.

We both had the thought that this would depend a lot on the setting and character designs too. For example, my partner thinks some kind of fantasy-setting themed game would be ideal for creating a really diverse and original cast of characters with unique fighting styles- and you could get away with fewer characters if the ones you had were different and interesting enough.

Hope that helps x)

[Reign]

@yozhikisblue @wumblebumarts @vothnthorvaldson @PaulieBlade @DokiDokiTsuna
That does help! So what I'm getting at from everyone is to just stick with the six (or add, like, 2 or a little more). The reason I'm a little hesitant to keep it at six, in terms of diversity, is because all of these characters come from stories that we've created. So I'm not sure if their designs or backgrounds would really differ a whole ton.

1. Futuristic swordsman
2. Teenager with special powers.
3. Lizard-like person with multiple powers at his disposal.
4. Teenage girl with powers.
5. Another swordsman but with dark mysterious powers
6. An anthropomorphic dog that can use telekinesis and light on fire

How do those sound?

[baasinsimple]

I would want slightly more. I love an expansive meta, not only that, but expansive tournaments would have very repetitive play styles with fewer characters. Then you would need a smaller learning curve to rope in casual players, you'd also need extremely diverse characters while balancing the accessibility because there is already less variety.

Any way that's my opinion on the size,
now on to the actual roster:

A note on your character roster:
Just in general, with the general roster you brought up kinda turned me off. The only difference between 2 and 4 on the outset is the gender. Same with 1 and 5, when I hear 'dark swordsman' I think 'recolored copy with a new super or combo move'. If you had twice the roster I'd be fine because I could experiment with different kinds of characters and discover the nuances of each similar character and how they interact with the other diverse characters, but smaller the roster, the more outwardly diverse you have to be with characters. The average player would think "Why would we need another swordsmen? They're probably gonna play similarly." Which brings up a good point, there's hundreds of interesting weapons that could alter the meta, even something as simple as a spear or brass knuckles and there are variants that are amazingly diverse weapons that are still spears like a Ji and a Fauchard. With 2 and 4, why are they both teenagers with special powers? Unless it has something to do with the story, I honestly think the more diverse they are in the most simple aspects the better, especially if the count of the roster is only a finger more than a singular hand. Make one your teenager with special powers and experiment with the other one. In all fighting games, each character has a concept that makes them different from other characters. Number 3 isn't bad, though I would be wary of the character if his powers weren't highly specific and didn't tell us anything about him. Honestly I think your best concepts are still 1 and 6, because 1, while being done before, could have an interesting backstory and design, while also being a good intro character with a weapon and concept most people who play video games are familiar with. 6, is just plain cool. Anyway, I don't think your character roster is bad, as much as it seems like it's only about 1/3-1/2 of an actual big roster. I don't feel like your current roster could hold it's own just because you have similar concepts for most of your characters while in addition to the size.

Anyway, if you have any questions about building a Roster for a 2D fighter, I'd be willing to help. My friend was making one of these a year ago, and before the project was dropped I helped with editing character designs and concepts. Just PM me if need be, and good luck!

[Twinvizions]

I agree with everyone else. Six or eight to start off with sounds good. Afterwards, you'll be able to slowly add in more characters as your stories develop.
For fighting games, I tend to use the same few characters over and over again so I'm usually not too concerned about a large selection. In fact, being forced to use every character turns me away from a game.

I don't know if you've heard of this game, but for Sengoku Basara (beat 'em up game), my twin and I mostly only use Ishida Mitsunari. Sometimes my twin uses Saika Magoichi.

It's awesome that you two are developing a game though. Can't wait to see it!

[Darkstrong]

I would start with at least 8, but 6 is fine too. I don't actually like to have too many characters in a fighting game, with 16 being my favorite max.