Hello, Liam here.

This update does not contain Annie or any balance changes.

Now then, a new update has just been released!

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Hopefully, very little! This build was prepared using newer tools and slightly different build pipeline, and we're mostly looking to make sure that everything is the same as it was before and that no new bugs were introduced.

If you come across a bug in this newest build that was NOT happening in the previous retail version of Skullgirls, please let us know in our official Discord in the #2e-consolidation-beta channel.

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All previous DLC is now free for all players! The base game is now "Skullgirls 2nd Encore", and will be reflected as such in your Steam library.

This means that Squigly, Big Band, Eliza, Beowulf, and Robo-Fortune are now unlocked by default. All color palette DLC, and the 2nd Encore only features (voiced story mode, trials, challenges, etc) are also unlocked for all players. Enjoy!

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While we're pleased to announce that Windows, Mac, and Linux support will be ongoing for Skullgirls on Steam, we unfortunately weren't able to get the Linux build fully operational for this consolidated release.

Linux players, you'll need to hold on a little longer. We hope to have the Linux build up and running for when Annie releases in early March, or even earlier!

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A couple very minor non-gameplay related changes have snuck into this build, details below:

• Updated the opening splash screen.
  
• Robo-Fortune and Fukua have updated banners in NMO Arena and NMO Arena (Empty).
  
• Fixed a small coloring issue with the SonicFox NPC in Class Notes.
  
• Simplified palette unlock logic by removing unlock conditions for all palettes except for ones earned for clearing Story Mode and Arcade Mode. Big Band's 26th is an exception.

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(Build #18082)

With Annie’s impending release for Skullgirls 2nd Encore right around the corner, we wanted to answer a number of questions that have arisen and provide a complete and thorough overview of what to expect surrounding the release and our plans for the remainder of 2021 (and beyond)!

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We’re planning to release the Annie DLC in early March on Steam as an “Early Access” release.

After her initial release, we’ll plan to make any needed balance updates until we feel she is in a suitable state for a “final” release, after which we plan to release the final DLC on Steam and Playstation.

While these dates are somewhat in flux, here’s a rough timeline:

NOTE: Yup, your eyes do not deceive you -- Annie Story Mode confirmed! 🤩

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In addition to the Annie DLC (and our recent announcement of a brand new character in the works), we are excited to announce the first ever Skullgirls Season Pass!

The Season Pass will (minimally) include:

• DLC: Annie
  
• DLC: TBA Character 2
  
• DLC: TBA Character 3
  
• DLC: TBA Character 4
  
• Season Pass Exclusive Palette Pack
  
• DLC: Skullgirls OST (including the new Annie Track)
  
• DLC: Skullgirls Digital Art Compendium (Fully Updated!)

NOTE: All Character DLC will include the Character, new Stage/Music, Palettes, and full Story Mode.

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Although Character 2, 3 and 4 have already been chosen (!!!), we are exploring ways in which players who have purchased the Season Pass can contribute to the DLC character release order (e.g. via some form of voting system).

Depending on how well the Annie DLC and Season Pass does - we hope to add even more FREE stuff to the Season Pass list, up to and including a FIFTH Brand New Character! We are still working on the details for this, but if this does come to pass, we will also be exploring ways in which players can also participate in the selection process.

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In light of Annie’s inclusion, and ongoing character development in 2nd Encore thereafter, we are planning on including bug fixes, quality of life changes, and balance adjustments along with this DLC release.

These balance changes will be available (via a Beta mode, accessed from within the main retail version of Skullgirls) for free for all Skullgirls players alongside the Early Access release of the Annie DLC.

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Leading up to the release, we are going to be making some updates to the Store on Steam as we make room for these new arrivals. Most notably, this will include consolidating Skullgirls and all pre-existing DLC (including the 2nd Encore Upgrade, all DLC characters, palettes, etc) into one item and retiring the Endless Beta as a separate “game”.

If you have already purchased the 2nd Encore Upgrade on Steam, there will be no applicable change beyond older DLC no longer being listed on the store.

If you currently own the original Skullgirls (without the 2nd Encore Upgrade), congratulations! You just got the 2nd Encore Upgrade for free!

Expect to see these changes roll out on the Steam store before the end of February, before Annie’s Early Access launch.

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After all of these changes go live and the new DLC is released, the price (in USD) on the store will be as follows:

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While we’d love to lock down a final date, due to some external platform dependencies surrounding the release of the update, we’re not able to commit to a specific date at this time. That said, rest assured we plan to release as early in March as possible.

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Although ideally we would launch any new DLC on all platforms at the same time, unfortunately due to unique technical complications regarding the Nintendo Switch port, Annie will not be immediately available on that platform. We will provide an update as soon as we have an updated timetable on Switch availability.

We are not planning on releasing Annie and/or Season 1 DLC updates for the Xbox 360, PS3, or PS Vita versions. With this update, PS3 and PS Vita will NOT be able to cross play with the updated PS4 version.

We are interested in bringing Skullgirls to the Xbox One / Series X in the future, but we do not have any further details we can share at this time.

This is something we’re interested in exploring, but it is not a priority for the immediate future.

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Beyond your friendly neighborhood Liam, we’ll be sharing more details about the experienced team who has been hard at work on Annie’s design for 2nd Encore alongside Balance Patch notes as we get closer to her release in early March.

Annie wasn't crowdfunded by the “Keep Skullgirls Growing IndieGoGo” campaign like the original 2nd Encore Characters, as such she will be a standard DLC release.

Eventually! Due to the logistics associated with recording Story Modes, we are currently planning to record all of the DLC character Story Modes at the same time. As such, although Annie’s Story Mode will launch without VO, we will be adding VO as an update at a later date.

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When we developed Annie, our initial focus was fully on getting her ready for mobile with the understanding that a 2nd Encore release was possible, but not guaranteed.

While the exact release dates for the next characters are still TBD, we are building them with the primary goal to release on both Mobile and 2nd Encore ASAP. As such, minimally there should not be as significant of a gap between their release on Mobile and their release in 2nd Encore. Stay tuned for more details!

Not yet, but we can confirm that their development is already underway. Stay tuned for more details after the Annie DLC launch!

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We’ve added a ton of stuff! Annie animation frames/model sheets/move concepts, Talking Heads and full screen art from the mobile Origin Stories, and much much more! We’ll share full details regarding the updated contents alongside our launch.

We have no shortage of ideas for amazing new palettes for the entire Skullgirls roster on both Mobile and 2nd Encore. Stay tuned for more details!

There are already a number of palettes that were first introduced in Mobile that were later added to 2nd Encore (e.g. Kill Joy Valentine). I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of those palettes make their way into 2nd Encore someday...

Supporting Skullgirls Mobile and 2nd Encore when Annie releases (and also telling your friends, encouraging them to play, entering/spectating tournaments, etc) is the best way to help us continue to grow! Also, if you’d like to leave a nice review about us on your gaming platform(s) of choice it wouldn’t hurt. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

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If you have another question that we haven’t covered here, please respond below and - if we’re able to answer it - we will update this FAQ to the best of our ability.

It’s an exciting time to be a Skullgirls fan! Needless to say, we wouldn’t be here today without all of your passion and boundless support over the years. Thank you all so much for your support - here’s to even more exciting stuff for Skullgirls in 2021 and beyond!

<3
All of us at Hidden Variable and Autumn Games

That last one didn't work. :^(

• Hopefully fixed one MORE mac-vs-other-OSes desync, by guaranteeing the update order of sprites. YAY!
  
• Took another shot at fixing the Quick Match post-fight menu crash. Maybe this one works! :^P
  
• Re-enabled the -log Launch Option, which writes lots of output to [the save data folder]/skullgirls.log and usually slows the game down a lot, so unless you're trying to find bugs make sure you DON'T have it on! :^)
  
• Fixed a bug in Tournament Mode where if Player 1 made a choice before people unplugged their controllers, the game would follow P1's choice instead of going back to the controller select screen. This bothered me for YEARS.

Title screen build ID 17149.

This was the last big thing we were scouting!

• Hopefully FIXED the random crash on the post-match menu in Quick Match!
  
• Fixed a localization error in French.
  
• Fixed a visual bug displaying palette effects in Windows.

If you get a crash on the "Play Again" menu in Quick Match on this build, please tell me!
...and I will be appropriately sad :^P but I'd like to know that what I did didn't work.

Title screen build ID 17125.

• Fixed a bug that occasionally led to different hit-check order between sprites on Mac and Windows/Linux, causing extremely rare desyncs between them. The order is now guaranteed to be the same on all platforms. Thanks, and sorry, both to Lawnba!
  
• Hopefully fixed a code-signing issue affecting Skullgirls on macOS Yosemite.

• Fixed a bug that prevented Beowulf and Fukua from doing air specials using assist inputs right after jumping. (Note that Squigly has a height limit on Fallen Woman, which is why this doesn't work with her. She was not affected by this bug.)
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause Big Band's Cymbal Clash to hit overhead instead of mid if done as a frame-perfect reset after Sound Stun was already used.
  
• Reordered which Robo-Fortune intro is chosen by which behind-the-scenes random number to match other characters' script order. Nobody will notice, but I did. :^P
  
• Fixed a localization error in the Art Gallery in French.

• Fixed one more shader interpolation bug that made teeny holes in sprites at resolutions higher than 720p.
  
• Fixed an old shader bug that made occasional incorrect horizontal lines in shadows at resolutions higher than 720p.
  
• Fixed VERY minor cleanup errors in Eliza's standing idle and walk back, and Cerebella's tag out.
  
• Fixed shadows on macOS that we broke with this shadow fix. Sorry! :^)

Note: The shader bugfixes were NOT applied to the -disablelighting version of the shaders on Windows, in the interests of keeping the game as fast as possible for the people who use that option out of necessity. Though if you're running that option at high resolution it sort of defeats the purpose of making the game render more quickly. :^)

Title screen build ID 17098.

• Second (probably final) pass on death VO! Big Band's now properly plays, Valleywheel has her own, removed the 'regular' get-hit versions of sounds that became death VO, and redid the effect on all of them. Thanks, mix master Vince!
  
• Fixed Fukua's pupil color in her HUD portrait.
  
• Updated Fukua's character select VO with a line that suits her better.

*picks lint off suit jacket*
*sniffs exactly once*

Title screen build ID 17021.


And there are absolutely no problems whatsoever...

• Added new intros for Fukua, Ms. Fortune, and Robo-Fortune!
  They were feeling left out, so now everyone has at least three!
  
• Updated lobby matching code again, to match you with the person you've played least recently, instead of fewest-total-times. This should fix cases where someone new joins a lobby and is repeatedly matched with the same person. We hope it works!
  
• Copying lobby URLs should now work on Mac and Linux with Command-C / Ctrl-C!
  
• Fixed the small visual bugs in the Undizzy bar and the edge of the healthbar in 1v1 at higher screen resolutions, we hope.

Title screen build ID 16963.

Throw your hands in the air!

• I had a goal, but not that many... And I reached one!
  FIXED the throw-vs-hits P1/P2 difference! P1 Death Crawl and SSJ no longer lose to a P2 meaty throw. Yay? Yay! (This involved a substantial reorganization of the code for handling hits, so please report any NEW weirdness that doesn't work like OLD weirdness. :^)
  (FIXED a bunch of new weirdness that didn't work like old weirdness, from 16906. Heh.)
  
• Pressing Ctrl-C in a Windows PC lobby will now copy the "join this lobby" URL to the clipboard! Thanks Mr. Peck!
  
• Added fast-forward and rewind to Replays! Press HP to rewind by 1 Skullsecond, or Left+HP to rewind 5 Skullseconds. Hold HK to fast-forward, and additionally hold left or right to go slower or faster. Thanks again Mr. Peck!
  
• Hopefully FIXED the crash going from Quick Match to Lobbies, and also quite possibly the crash at the end of a Quick Match game if your opponent quits, (nope, aww) and also maybe the weirdness going from lobbies to Quick Match, all of which were likely the same thing. If any of these still happen to you on this build, please report it!
  
• Reassigned the button shortcut for Class Notes to be what it used to be (i.e. swapped the shortcuts for No Man's Land and Class Notes).
  
• Fixed the lobby All-Play matching code EVEN MORE, to further ensure players don't repeat matchups until they have exhausted all other options. Thanks again-again, Mr. Peck!
  
• Fixed death VO not playing if you got chipped out while pushblocking. Oops.
  
• Fixed a bug where trading with Cerebella's s.MP would cause a stagger as P2 but not as P1. This was unrelated to the other P1/P2 difference.
  
• Improved the framerate of the lobby search and in-lobby screens a bit. There's more to go.
  
• Hopefully fixed avatars not showing up in lobbies sometimes.
  
• Fixed stray middle-of-nowhere pixels nobody will EVER notice in Valentine's standing idle pose. Thanks Gelato, who apparently noticed them.

Launch party, celebrate every day!


Title screen build ID 16912.

• Fixed the color of the first lifebar in 1v1.
  
• Squigly #29 flame color edited slightly because the flame flickering was causing problems for some players.
  
• Added Launch Option
  -socdlikehitbox
  which will handle Up+Down as Up, for people who play on keyboard but prefer that behavior.
  
• Added missing 20-30% range for Health in Training Mode. :^P

Title screen build ID 16882.

• Choosing "Play Again" now updates which variation of the stage you're on, if it has any. (!)
• Attempted to fix the random crash after playing in Quick Match and returning to the main menu or proceeding to lobbies. Don't know if it worked.
  
• Changed "Pushblock" to "Reaction Shot" in the Training Mode menu.
  
• Fukua (in full Filia costume) is now the one on the train in the background of Meridian Area Rapid Transit. Previously it was Double. Thanks, comment section yesterday!

Title screen build ID 16872.