WSMIP Budokai

WSMIP Budokai is a fighting game in development using the M.U.G.E.N engine, initially conceived by Smogon, providing the concept and the characters (based mostly off his friends that are alumni of the University of Łódź Faculty of International and Political Studies the game was named after) as well as graphics while The_None was assigned to do the coding. Development on the game began in 2006 and went on through the early 2010s at a rather inconsistent rate, mostly stemming from The_None preferring to work on his personal projects. An ambitious abandoned fullgame project, having its prototype released as well as the coder finishing a character that languished in other hands in development hell eventually incited The_None to return to the project on his own - Smogon himself would eventually give his blessing to the game's current shape and it's possible he would return to contribute to it - in the late 2010s, bringing with him large changes to the code, some revamped animations along with entirely new characters and stages, eventually releasing the first public beta of the game on September 15th, 2018, and has been receiving yearly updates since.

Gameplay
At its core, WSMIP Budokai is meant to be a combo-friendly accessible fighter, sporting a fairly simple control scheme consisting of four buttons (punches, kicks, and a "hard" button used for knockdown attacks and special moves, and a dodge button introduced with Beta 03) in addition to the movement keys, with movement keys influencing the choice of a move and simultaneous button presses being utilized for throws and super moves. The characters are capable of stringing along series of attacks (including being able to combo their basic attacks into throws) and their mobility options include dashes and a double jump that's more horizontal than vertical. The defensive options include the Guard Counters (named Tardy Counters after the Rival Schools mechanic) that has characters cancel from their guard into a hard attack or special move with proper timing of the hard attack button, and roll cancels are also possible.

The simplicity of the controls is deceptive however, as the design of the game goes quite a bit into cramming some depth onto the 4-button (3-button in earlier betas before the introduction of the dodge button) control scheme. Despite using only one button for special moves, many specials have "stronger" variants which can be performed by holding the hard attack button down when the move is being inputted (such as Jaco throwing a faster energy ball when the button is held compared to simply tapping it), or can be charged. A few of them can even be influenced with the movement keys.

Characters

 * Jaco
 * Patrick
 * Victor
 * Maggie
 * Dawgoe
 * Simon
 * Anna
 * Bartas
 * Vultaire
 * Franko (a guest character from Franko: The Crazy Revenge)

Boss and Hidden Characters

 * Roman Koocyphyr (see development section)
 * DudeReal
 * MordaKonia (mid-boss)
 * Ja Rule (final boss)

Development
The game initially started as Szydłowiec Fighter, and would've been based around a number of individuals from Smogon's hometown of Szydłowiec. Around three characters had their sprites developed for this incarnation of the game before it was retooled into WSMIP Budokai, with Roman Koocyphyr being a holdover from the early stages who ended up being included in the game as a hidden character.