The Retriever Weekly 15 Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Middle school students Skullgirls: 2D learn how to “get techy”Technologyfighting at its finest By Courtney Perdue Contributing Writer

The past several months have seen the release of many great fighting games. Skullgirls, an all-female 2D developed by

addition to this long list of Revergegreat fighters. Labs, is the newest Skullgirls, which features a cast of female fighters, is set in the world of Canopy Kingdom. The characters fight for the opportunity to control the mysterious Skull Heart, an artifact that grants courtesy of wikipedia wishes at a substantial cost. Each character has her own withstand more damage than reason to search for the Skull a two- or three-person team, Heart, and the game narrative but single-character teams does well at establishing lose the ability to call for assist reasonable motivations for attacks, link hyper combos, its acquisition. and recover lost health when The game features the basic swapped out. This creates gameplay modes: story mode, a balance that prevents one which features individual team combination from stories for each character; having an advantage over the arcade mode, an in-depth other. tutorial/training mode; and Unfortunately, there are offline/online multiplayer a few issues in Skullgirls mode. that need to be addressed. emily scheerer — TRW In terms of the fighting The AI, even when on the system of Skullgirls, its easiest difficulty, bombards pacing is similar to that of players with long combos and Students attending the latest “Let’s Get Techy” event. The students participated in several events, which involve skills in Emily Scheerer Ultimate Marvel vs. aggressiveness usually seen IT and engineering. the CWIT Student Council, said, taken on a campus tour that 3, although not quite as in harder levels of difficulty. Staff Writer “The collaboration between showed them everything from intense. Infinite detection Fighting game veterans the administration building to gives players the chance to won’t have many problems, On April 13, several on- the library. According to SWE break out of a loop combo. but newcomers may become campus student organizations thestarting different in late organizationsSeptember of thewas There are also easier inputs disinterested if they can’t got together to ignite a great.Fall semester. Officers Each met organization regularly the number of buildings a for more complex actions make it through a match. passion for engineering in 80 had its own unique strengths Presidentcollege campus Lily Johnson, has and “Seeing the and protection options for There is also no spectator middle school students. The and experiences to contribute variety of activities going unblockable attacks. Players mode in online play which on-campus chapters of the to the planning and execution on added to the students’ can customize their character is a staple for most current American Society of Mechanical of the outreach project. The experience.” The students assist attacks, as well as fighting games. Nonetheless, Engineers (ASME) and the grant proposal was submitted concluded their day with lunch perform super moves by at only $15, Skullgirls is a Society for Women Engineers in December and approved in at the dining hall. charging their special meter great value. (SWE) teamed up with the early February.” with offensive attacks. Although Skullgirls is light Information Systems Council The event itself consisted of the many programs on campus The game also features on content, the game itself of Majors and the Center for three activities for the students: intendedLet’s Get to Techy get young is just students one of online play using the GGPO is a success. The fluid and Women in Technology (CWIT) an engineering initiative, an (Good Game Peace Out) well-done animation masks IT initiative and a general When I asked if there would be netcode, which serves to the game’s solid basics, and Get Techy” day. introduction to the UMBC interestedmore events inlike STEMthis one, fields. I was delay the reaction time of the well-imagined roster of Student Council to create “Let’s campus. For the engineering told that “grants are intended button pressing when playing characters provides plenty as an initiative to win the ASME activity, the students designed to be seed money with the online to compensate for lag of possibilities for different nationalLet’s Get Diversity Techy Action was started Grant and built cars with sails out hope that development of during online play. strategies and play styles. (DAG). One of the objectives of a successful program with The team fighting dynamic There are currently the DAG Program is “to increase building toys). The students set reportable results (attendee in Skullgirls is one of the two additional characters the number of students oftheir K’Nex cars in (Lego-like front of box modular fans to surveys in our case) would be most unique in a fighting scheduled for release as who pursue engineering see how far they would travel. motivation for businesses or games. It lets the player bring to education.” During the IT activity, other organizations to provide one to three characters into round out the total number According to Jason Dunthorn, students programmed a funding for future events.” each fight, even if the player’s of fighters to 10. Skullgirls president of ASME, “Teaming simple web form in Visual Hopefully funding can be opponent chooses a different is currently available on the up with other organizations Basic using Visual Studio. This combination. Different PlayStation Network and provided more support for exposed students to basic web activities to students. combinations provide developing a project and development and introduced found to continue to offer these interesting variability to how broadened the possible scope.” programming languages. the game plays. . Shreya Mohan, president of The students were also A single character can [email protected] [email protected]