UnapologeticDino
🎉 FrostFire Interview + Community Raffle 🎉
Hello Legion Gamers!
Today we're excited to share with you an interview that our very own [user]@CandelaSynth[/user] recently had with Joseph Sutcliffe, programmer of one of the most artistic indie fighting games in Spain. Besides being one of the founders of the studio SUMACHU, they recently had the honour of participating in one of the most important fighting game events in the world: this year’s EVO in Las Vegas.
And to celebrate, we’re also hosting a raffle giveaway! 🎲
🎁 Raffle Prizes
📰 Full Interview with Joseph Sutcliffe (SUMACHU / FrostFire)
Tell us how SUMACHU was created (where does the name come from?) and what inspired FrostFire?
The core team met during the EVAD Game Jam, held at the video game school in Málaga. I was studying the programming master’s course, and the other two members of SUMACHU were in the 2D art track. They needed a programmer, and I needed artists—so we met by pure chance, made a game for the jam, and it turned out pretty well: we won awards for Best Game and Best Visuals. That jam game from 2019 ended up being published on the Android Play Store, under the name SUMACHU Games.
The name SUMACHU comes from the word "Smash", as in Smash Bros. But since that name was already taken, we “Japanified” it 😁
---
The inspiration for FrostFire?
It comes from our love for fighting games. We knew we wanted to create a fighting game and bring something of our own to the genre. Our lead artist has incredible animation skills and a charismatic, expressive art style, so the game was born by combining all of that.
The goal was to create a fighting game that’s easy to play, so newcomers attracted by the art and characters wouldn’t get overwhelmed, but one that also has deep mechanics for fighting game veterans to really dig into. Judging by the reactions at EVO, it seems both casual and hardcore players really enjoyed it.
---
What have been the most interesting aspects of the game’s development? And the most difficult?
Being a small team with limited resources, we knew from the start we’d have fewer characters than a big AAA fighting game. So our goal was to make sure the characters we do have are very different from one another: movement speed varies by character, each one has their own unique mechanics, different ways of combining attacks, and even different methods for executing their ultimate.
Just to give you an idea: each character can have up to a thousand frames! So producing and optimising those frames (especially for some consoles) is extremely tedious. We’ve had around 3 or 4 artists working just on inking and rendering frames. To reduce workload, we try to use "smears": instead of 20 frames for an attack, we reduce it to 10.
Another big challenge is real-time synchronisation for online multiplayer, which is pretty complex. And we also had to work hard on AI so that the computer-controlled characters play like real humans.
---
Tell us about your character creation process, inspiration, etc. In the EVO videos, I saw a character that seemed like he was from northern Spain…
Yes! He’s Basque, since our lead artist is Basque—it’s kind of a self-insert 🤣
---
What’s the story of the game’s world? Why are the characters fighting?
In the game world, there are tons of evil corporations, aliens, and monsters ruling the city: there are a lot of problems. But our characters don’t care about that. They have their own personal issues, rivalries, and petty revenge stories. So the story focuses on their daily lives and conflicts with each other. There's a strong parody of heroism going on 😂
---
What inspired the game’s art style?
The art is heavily inspired by Skullgirls, another fighting game, and also anime like My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen, especially for the cinematic ultimate attacks.
---
Tell us more about the characters!
🔥 Shadow
He has fire and ice powers and also martial arts skills. In terms of gameplay, he’s fast and specialises in close-range beatdowns. He’s what we call a rushdown character.
🕹️ Shawn
A teenage boy who parodies the stereotypical gamer. He fights at mid-range, wields a laser sword with good reach, and shoots projectiles. In fighting game terms, he’s a shoto. His ultimate summons a magical girl who deals massive damage.
🌑 Emily
Another teenage girl, she has darkness powers. She’s one of the most complex characters to master because she’s a summoner. She can summon mirrors, minions, and a huge scythe-wielding monster. Her combos aren’t too difficult, but mastering the minions is key: they let you bridge your own combos together. She also has a special mechanic called an “install”—her ultimate transforms her into a superpowered version of herself.
⚡ Sarah
A gymnastics trainer with electric powers. Her combos aren’t very strong by themselves, but she can electrocute opponents, stunning them for a second—this creates opportunities to extend combos. She also has projectiles and works well at mid-range. She’s the slowest and has the worst mobility, but if you master electricity, she’s very powerful.
These four characters are designed to show the variety in gameplay styles. The other four—already shown at EVO—are even crazier, but haven’t been officially revealed yet 😁
---
Where do you reveal character info? And how can people play the game?
Right now, we have a Patreon. People in the second tier can access a demo with the first four characters and exclusive game updates. As we get closer to launch, we’ll reveal more characters.
---
Do you have a release window? What platforms?
We don’t have a fixed release date yet, but we’re aiming for late this year or early next. The game will be on Steam, Switch, and we’re working hard to bring it to PlayStation and Xbox too.
Porting is tough—Switch has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in game development 😂. Because of the massive number of animations and frames, fitting everything into the Switch’s limited memory is a big challenge. We may need to launch on some platforms first and others later, but our goal is to release simultaneously.
---
What was your experience like at EVO this year in Las Vegas? How did you get selected?
Honestly, it was a dream come true. We’d been talking about how cool it would be to go to EVO since the characters were just rough sketches. We met tons of people who played the game, and since EVO is filled with our target audience, it was incredible to see them having fun.
We got in thanks to a Canadian Twitch streamer named Mr. MKL, who played the demo from our Patreon on his streams. He was chosen to run the indie zone at EVO and invited us!
---
Was this the first year EVO had an indie zone?
I’m not sure if it was the first ever, but definitely the biggest one yet, and it got a lot of visibility. 14 studios participated, and the indie area was packed with people.
---
Have you organised any tournaments?
Yes! We held one at EVO with about 20–22 participants. The final winner had to face us, the developers, as the “final boss.” Of course, we always win 😂
Our ultimate dream would be to return to EVO next year with the game fully released, and have a tournament on the main stages.
---
What was your favorite moment at EVO?
When people see the ultimate attack cinematics and go wide-eyed. They’re so impressed that some of them even drop the controller because they think the animation will finish the fight. It’s not so much what they say—it’s their reactions.
---
Which fighting game would you love to collaborate with?
We take a lot of inspiration from Arc System Works games, like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear. Their worlds are very different from ours, so it would be cool to see how FrostFire characters interact with theirs. We actually met some of them at EVO 😏
---
Can you recommend any other Spanish studios?
Yes! Check out Nukefist, they’re from Valencia. Their game is called Genokid, a hack and slash with anime vibes. Very cool.
---
By the way, congratulations on the music—it’s amazing.
Thanks! Our composer is Gaute Vistgrong, and he did a phenomenal job. It was super important to us that each character not only looks and plays differently, but also sounds different. And he nailed it.
---
Who are your favorite content creators?
Definitely Mr. MKL. Thanks to him, we went to EVO this year. Every Monday, he streams a new indie fighting game. At EVO, he even organised a “passport system” with stamps for each indie game, which people could trade in for special EVO tokens at gacha machines. It really encouraged people to try out all the indie titles.
---
Any other indie games from the event that stood out to you?
Yes! I really liked Swatcher Blitz, a 3D fighter with a PlayStation 1 aesthetic. Also Explosion Judo Masters. And from Latin America, Resistance 2040X was super interesting.
---
If you had a blank check, what would you make?
I’d focus on improving my skills as a programmer and developer. I'd love to try something totally new—maybe VR, or a giant open-world RPG. Something ambitious I’ve never done before.
---
What game would you take to a desert island? (With internet and power!)
I’d finally play Red Dead Redemption 2. Or maybe Pokémon GO—and if the island had exclusive Pokémon, even better!
---
That’s it!
We hope you enjoyed this chat with Joseph. [user]@CandelaSynth[/user] loves seeing this niche of indie fighting games grow and learning more about their development.
And now, tell us: Which FrostFire character would YOU pick first? Reply below to enter the raffle!
Hello Legion Gamers!
Today we're excited to share with you an interview that our very own [user]@CandelaSynth[/user] recently had with Joseph Sutcliffe, programmer of one of the most artistic indie fighting games in Spain. Besides being one of the founders of the studio SUMACHU, they recently had the honour of participating in one of the most important fighting game events in the world: this year’s EVO in Las Vegas.
And to celebrate, we’re also hosting a raffle giveaway! 🎲
🎁 Raffle Prizes
- 1 x Game Key
- Reply in this thread: Which FrostFire character would you try first and why?
- React to this post with a 👍 or 🎮
📰 Full Interview with Joseph Sutcliffe (SUMACHU / FrostFire)
Tell us how SUMACHU was created (where does the name come from?) and what inspired FrostFire?
The core team met during the EVAD Game Jam, held at the video game school in Málaga. I was studying the programming master’s course, and the other two members of SUMACHU were in the 2D art track. They needed a programmer, and I needed artists—so we met by pure chance, made a game for the jam, and it turned out pretty well: we won awards for Best Game and Best Visuals. That jam game from 2019 ended up being published on the Android Play Store, under the name SUMACHU Games.
The name SUMACHU comes from the word "Smash", as in Smash Bros. But since that name was already taken, we “Japanified” it 😁
---
The inspiration for FrostFire?
It comes from our love for fighting games. We knew we wanted to create a fighting game and bring something of our own to the genre. Our lead artist has incredible animation skills and a charismatic, expressive art style, so the game was born by combining all of that.
The goal was to create a fighting game that’s easy to play, so newcomers attracted by the art and characters wouldn’t get overwhelmed, but one that also has deep mechanics for fighting game veterans to really dig into. Judging by the reactions at EVO, it seems both casual and hardcore players really enjoyed it.
---
What have been the most interesting aspects of the game’s development? And the most difficult?
Being a small team with limited resources, we knew from the start we’d have fewer characters than a big AAA fighting game. So our goal was to make sure the characters we do have are very different from one another: movement speed varies by character, each one has their own unique mechanics, different ways of combining attacks, and even different methods for executing their ultimate.
Just to give you an idea: each character can have up to a thousand frames! So producing and optimising those frames (especially for some consoles) is extremely tedious. We’ve had around 3 or 4 artists working just on inking and rendering frames. To reduce workload, we try to use "smears": instead of 20 frames for an attack, we reduce it to 10.
Another big challenge is real-time synchronisation for online multiplayer, which is pretty complex. And we also had to work hard on AI so that the computer-controlled characters play like real humans.
---
Tell us about your character creation process, inspiration, etc. In the EVO videos, I saw a character that seemed like he was from northern Spain…
Yes! He’s Basque, since our lead artist is Basque—it’s kind of a self-insert 🤣
---
What’s the story of the game’s world? Why are the characters fighting?
In the game world, there are tons of evil corporations, aliens, and monsters ruling the city: there are a lot of problems. But our characters don’t care about that. They have their own personal issues, rivalries, and petty revenge stories. So the story focuses on their daily lives and conflicts with each other. There's a strong parody of heroism going on 😂
---
What inspired the game’s art style?
The art is heavily inspired by Skullgirls, another fighting game, and also anime like My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen, especially for the cinematic ultimate attacks.
---
Tell us more about the characters!
🔥 Shadow
He has fire and ice powers and also martial arts skills. In terms of gameplay, he’s fast and specialises in close-range beatdowns. He’s what we call a rushdown character.
🕹️ Shawn
A teenage boy who parodies the stereotypical gamer. He fights at mid-range, wields a laser sword with good reach, and shoots projectiles. In fighting game terms, he’s a shoto. His ultimate summons a magical girl who deals massive damage.
🌑 Emily
Another teenage girl, she has darkness powers. She’s one of the most complex characters to master because she’s a summoner. She can summon mirrors, minions, and a huge scythe-wielding monster. Her combos aren’t too difficult, but mastering the minions is key: they let you bridge your own combos together. She also has a special mechanic called an “install”—her ultimate transforms her into a superpowered version of herself.
⚡ Sarah
A gymnastics trainer with electric powers. Her combos aren’t very strong by themselves, but she can electrocute opponents, stunning them for a second—this creates opportunities to extend combos. She also has projectiles and works well at mid-range. She’s the slowest and has the worst mobility, but if you master electricity, she’s very powerful.
These four characters are designed to show the variety in gameplay styles. The other four—already shown at EVO—are even crazier, but haven’t been officially revealed yet 😁
---
Where do you reveal character info? And how can people play the game?
Right now, we have a Patreon. People in the second tier can access a demo with the first four characters and exclusive game updates. As we get closer to launch, we’ll reveal more characters.
---
Do you have a release window? What platforms?
We don’t have a fixed release date yet, but we’re aiming for late this year or early next. The game will be on Steam, Switch, and we’re working hard to bring it to PlayStation and Xbox too.
Porting is tough—Switch has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in game development 😂. Because of the massive number of animations and frames, fitting everything into the Switch’s limited memory is a big challenge. We may need to launch on some platforms first and others later, but our goal is to release simultaneously.
---
What was your experience like at EVO this year in Las Vegas? How did you get selected?
Honestly, it was a dream come true. We’d been talking about how cool it would be to go to EVO since the characters were just rough sketches. We met tons of people who played the game, and since EVO is filled with our target audience, it was incredible to see them having fun.
We got in thanks to a Canadian Twitch streamer named Mr. MKL, who played the demo from our Patreon on his streams. He was chosen to run the indie zone at EVO and invited us!
---
Was this the first year EVO had an indie zone?
I’m not sure if it was the first ever, but definitely the biggest one yet, and it got a lot of visibility. 14 studios participated, and the indie area was packed with people.
---
Have you organised any tournaments?
Yes! We held one at EVO with about 20–22 participants. The final winner had to face us, the developers, as the “final boss.” Of course, we always win 😂
Our ultimate dream would be to return to EVO next year with the game fully released, and have a tournament on the main stages.
---
What was your favorite moment at EVO?
When people see the ultimate attack cinematics and go wide-eyed. They’re so impressed that some of them even drop the controller because they think the animation will finish the fight. It’s not so much what they say—it’s their reactions.
---
Which fighting game would you love to collaborate with?
We take a lot of inspiration from Arc System Works games, like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear. Their worlds are very different from ours, so it would be cool to see how FrostFire characters interact with theirs. We actually met some of them at EVO 😏
---
Can you recommend any other Spanish studios?
Yes! Check out Nukefist, they’re from Valencia. Their game is called Genokid, a hack and slash with anime vibes. Very cool.
---
By the way, congratulations on the music—it’s amazing.
Thanks! Our composer is Gaute Vistgrong, and he did a phenomenal job. It was super important to us that each character not only looks and plays differently, but also sounds different. And he nailed it.
---
Who are your favorite content creators?
Definitely Mr. MKL. Thanks to him, we went to EVO this year. Every Monday, he streams a new indie fighting game. At EVO, he even organised a “passport system” with stamps for each indie game, which people could trade in for special EVO tokens at gacha machines. It really encouraged people to try out all the indie titles.
---
Any other indie games from the event that stood out to you?
Yes! I really liked Swatcher Blitz, a 3D fighter with a PlayStation 1 aesthetic. Also Explosion Judo Masters. And from Latin America, Resistance 2040X was super interesting.
---
If you had a blank check, what would you make?
I’d focus on improving my skills as a programmer and developer. I'd love to try something totally new—maybe VR, or a giant open-world RPG. Something ambitious I’ve never done before.
---
What game would you take to a desert island? (With internet and power!)
I’d finally play Red Dead Redemption 2. Or maybe Pokémon GO—and if the island had exclusive Pokémon, even better!
---
That’s it!
We hope you enjoyed this chat with Joseph. [user]@CandelaSynth[/user] loves seeing this niche of indie fighting games grow and learning more about their development.
And now, tell us: Which FrostFire character would YOU pick first? Reply below to enter the raffle!
Last edited by UnapologeticDino; 01-10-25 at 08:49.
