
A traditional, ground-based 2.5D fighting game (with skeletons) that takes a lot of inspiration from anime/hyper fighters. A nice balance between eccentric mechanics and slower, footsies-based neutral.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
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About

The Skeletons Are Fighting is a traditional 2.5D fighting game about skeletons dueling from across the ages. Fight as a stoic ship captain from the 1800s or as a fitness obsessed workaholic from the 20th century or as one of the other, very deceased, skeletons from the 6 character roster. If you want to mix it up a little bit or none of the default movesets fit your style, choose a different Specialty to completely switch up how the characters play. Accounting for each Specialty, that’s 18 different movesets and archetypes at your disposal!

Yor - A swashbuckling ship captain from old. He uses his long sword to control the midrange, and has a well-rounded arsenal of specials for any situation.
Fredrick - A sauvé monster hunter from an unknown era. He uses a seemingly infinite amount of knives (both for throwing and stabbing) to keep opponents at bay.
Wreath - A mysterious and shy nature lover who’s forever timeless. They use their long spear-tipped scythe to space out the opponent and tricky movement options to keep them guessing.
Gigante - An imposing, not so gentle giant from the cold era. She uses her long limbs and armored moves to close the gap, and impose threatening offense with powerful throws.
Wes - A wild and eclectic fitness fanatic from the modern era. He excels in all ranges with quick punches and kicks, and a variety of specials to both control space and maintain offense.
Albert - A bad to the bone boxer. They use their quick speed and cheap tricks to rush down and mix up their opponents.

A Specialty is the “default” moveset. Not much to say as it’s how your character will play if you just mash through the menus.
B Specialty is the “alternate” moveset. This Specialty will bring a whole new playstyle and archetype to the character. Nothing is off limits. Move properties will change, they might have more or less specials, it’s basically a whole new character!
C Specialty is the “advanced” moveset. This Specialty will come with new mechanics, new animations, and generally add more complexity to the character.

The gameplay is a nice mix of slower neutral with eccentric mechanics and moves that take inspiration from anime/hyper fighters. So while the game is a grounded, footsies-based fighter, there are plenty of exciting options to mix the pace of the match at your disposal.
The game is a 5 button fighter: Light, Medium, Heavy, Universal, Dash (L, M, H, U, D)
Light, Medium, Heavy are your standard set of normals in ascending strength. They can be canceled/chained together in ascending order (L > M > H). Most normals can also be canceled into Specials and Supers.
Universal is for system mechanics and moves, and covers a large set of options. Throws, Dodges, Parries, Guard Cancels, and Supers are all performed with the U button.
Dash is for movement related actions such as Forward Dash, Back Dash, Run, and Super Jump. Most characters can perform a Run from Forward Dashes by holding forward during said dash. All characters can perform a Super Jump by inputting a jump during a Forward Dash.

Campaign Mode - A singleplayer mode where you fight through Death's trials in order to free the skeletons from Death's control.
Arcade Modes - Select from one of several Arcade style modes. Classic is your standard arcade experience. Fight through the rest of the cast, and face a final boss to reach the end credits. Survival is a never ending series of fights against progressively harder enemies. Time is a race to defeat as many opponents as possible in 5 minutes. Combo Trials provide a series of premade combos to complete for every character and their specialties.
Versus Mode - The standard local 1v1 versus. Fight another person or against a CPU.
Online Mode - Face opponents online with Rollback Netcode. Choose between Quick Match or Player Lobbies.
Training Mode - Practice in a self-paced environment. Feature complete with hitbox viewing, frame data (w/ framemeter), frame advantage, input viewer, record/play, reversal settings, etc.

Universal Overhead - A quick leap attack that must be blocked standing.
High Dodge - An evasive action that avoids high hitting attacks.
Low Dodge - An evasive action that avoids low hitting attacks.
Air Dodge - An evasive air action that avoids incoming attacks.
Parry - Performed when dodging right before an attack connects. Allows you to act immediately and go for a counterattack.
Guard Cancel - Costs 25% meter. An attack that can be performed out of blockstun. Useful for interrupting the opponents offense.
EX Specials - Costs 25% meter. An enhanced special. Some can be canceled into from regular specials. Often offer speed, damage, combo extensions, or unique movement options.
Supers - Costs 50%. A powerful attack that deals high damage and has quick start up. Often used as a combo ender or combo extender.

6 Playable Skeletons (w/ 3 Specialties per Character, 18 Total Movesets)
6 Stages
Campaign
Arcade Modes
Online Multiplayer (Rollback Netcode)
Local Versus
Training Mode
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English**languages with full audio support
Reviews
Took the game to local, and everyone who touched it loved it. If you are just watching gameplay it might seem clunky, but when you actually get your hands on the game it has a great flow. Characters are varied and packed with quirks. There are three different versions of every character that greatly shake things up. The system allows for incredibly satisfying and deceptively high execution combos. I recommend this game to anyone that loves fighting games. Fredrick has tons of spice.
I wasn't sure whether to endorse this game or not at first because it launched with several bugs (e.g. Arcade menu and Settings not working at all), so I wanted to wait for a couple of days before reviewing it. Turns out the developer was faster than I expected and fixed everything in today's patch. Now I can safely recommend playing this game. The Campaign is simple but the bosses are a nice change of pace. Arcade mode is a classic. There are no costumes or unlockables, but every character has 3 "grooves" (e.g. like Mortal Kombat Variations or Phantom Breaker's styles). The game is a little barebones (eh) but perfectly serviceable for the asking price and has an amazing wealth of training tools. Not a lot to do for enjoyers of single player content, but the campaign is definitely worth playing at least a couple times, if anything for the two bosses. As performance goes, I tested the game on an integrated Intel graphic card and lowering the resolution to 1280x720 Borderless made it run at perfectly smooth 60fps.
For a fighting game with such a simple art style the actual gameplay feels really solid-- it's quite fun to press buttons, there's nice movement, and the chain combo system feels really comfortable and intuitive to me, coming from Guilty Gear. I think it strikes a nice balance between grounded footsies and anime style mechanics. If you like 2D fighters at all and don't mind a little bit of jank, definitely give this one a look.
@morganfreenip approved
Really Fun Characters
The Skeletons Are Fighting (TSAF) really surprised me for an indie fighter! Most indie fighters, especially those made by single developers typically suffer a lot of growing pains after initial release, and while Steamy has been pushing patches since the game released, it is mostly in the range of standard balance and bug fixes which is to be expected. What I truly mean is that gamefeel, off the bat, is actually great! The game feels very smooth to control and there isn't a lot of clunk or jank one would expect with a solo developed 2D fighter. Due to the button layout TSAF uses the game is very easy to pick up and play. While it is a grounded fighter it borrows a lot of mechanics from anime/airdasher fighting games, making it play like a very friendly version of Granblue or Darkstalkers somewhat. I can't wait to see what the future holds for this game in terms of content or character updates or with the community. The community has already begun to hold biweekly tournaments from the official discord. By just poking around the discord I can see that a small community has already started to take hold, people are nice, sharing combos and setups, and spreading an air of positivity that's just wonderful to see. If you're interested in fighting games, give this one a try!
My main gripe is the move set controls. I would love it if the game actually had the button listed instead of LMHUD or whatever. The game is really cool, the skeletons are cool and I like the special moves. I suck at the game, but I think this game is definitely a good one for fighting game enthusiasts. Definitely worth checking out. https://youtu.be/2q6pX05uZHM
fun 2d fighter with lots of charm. simple to pick up and play and the character variations add extra depth to strategy and experimentation. some rough edges (like occasional online desyncs) but the dev is a hard worker and very quick to patch bugs
More people should be playing this.
Good game!
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