Hi, hope this inquiry isn't that silly but I'd figure it'd be good to ask someone about this.

So I've had a bit of a personal project in my head that I've wanted to bring to life for the longest time but only recently figured out that I wanted it to be a fighting game.

Thing is, I'm just a digital artist, not a programmer or game dev in anyway. So I'd like some advice on where to start in this situation.

I do have a bit of game dev planning atm, I've drafted out some of the characters movesets (idles, normals, aerial normals, crouching normals, command normals, specials, and supers). And I think that it'd be wise to establish all of the character's moves and sprites before I move onto any programming, that way I have an idea on what I have to program in the future.

But other than that? No idea on what else I'd need to do for it game dev wise.

If anybody has any advice on how I can develop a fighting game, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you in advance if you do.

It might not be fully relevant, but I think if you have the time and resources to, I would definitely take a look at something like MUGEN's documentation and their common states so you can see what your characters need at their core to be a basic character (such as things you mentioned like idle states, movement states, getting hit states, and everything else that is just generic between all your characters).

Having those done means that you can take the sample character (Kung Fu Man) and literally splice your art into his place and use him as the basis and bones for expanding and working more on what you'd actually want out of your characters.

But I'm in a similar boat .. and the art process is definitely taking so long. >_<

Good point, I think I'll check that out when I can, thank you!

Stablishing the bases for the game like defining possible characters, their movesets, some scenarios, and the main mechanics is a good way of starting a game develop (you're aiming for something fun and addictive after all).

However, animations might be better to be polished once most of game is programmed, as you see: In a fighting game, you want characters to look good fighting, but also want them to react smoothly to controls. Because of that, a dissonant animation to the game's rhythm affects the game at it's most in many ways. You also need that every character has their own personality in moveset, so they don't feel like a pure reskin. This doesn't only mean that they have different animations or type of moves, but also that their gameplay feels faster, slower, balanced, etc. Not every player fights the same way.

Also, i'd recommend you to take one focus in the game for gameplay basis: in games like street fighter and mortal kombat, the design in general leans to more of a "confrontation", while in games like Super Smash Bros., everything focuses mainly in space position and a more platforming gameplay.

That is a good point, how a game feels is INCREDIBLY important. I think that's what defines different games from another (Street Fighter is heavy and punchy while Blazblue is light and flighty) and what can kill an FG (like all of those FGs in Matt McMuscles's "The Worst Fighting Game" Series. Like Shaq Fu and Paws of Fury). A video game can look like the most beautiful work of art ever conceived, but if walking feels like piloting a fork lift through a field of molasses then why play it?

With that said, I'd like to make simple moveset drafts since that'll be a good starting point for me to know what to do in the game. But looking for an engine to make the game is probably much more important at the moment.

And learning how to code, that's extra extra important.

As for how I'd like it to feel... probably something like KOF - with it's solid gravity, speed, and impact - and Blazblue - with it's fluid mobility, snappiness, and chaos - because they're my two favorite FGs and how they feel is a big reason as to why.

I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to get something close, but I want to try. At least try to make some thing that feels good to play.

This was kind of why I referenced MUGEN (and potentially IKEMEN, which is a third-party engine that aims to be capable of adapting MUGEN-made characters/screenpacks and attempts to add much more on top of that too) as something to work with. Maybe you won't stick with it in the end and would look into either something else (maybe something like Godot for either 2D/3D fighting game kinds of things) .. but I think learning and being able to reference either MUGEN or IKEMEN would give you the kind of insight on what you want and need for both how you'd handle character creation .. and also utilize built-in functions to replicate the sorts of functionality you want because there are already so many creations of different styles and games pretty much mashed together.

I know personally, I'd much rather make my own form of fighting game that goes in a different (and more closed-off) direction than what MUGEN did .. but I don't quite know if I'd commit that far in advance if I didn't already know what I wanted things to look and feel like in something else to reference what I want. I see it like the equivalent of opening up RPG Maker to make maps and mockups of a game .. not because I'm seriously making an RPG Maker game, but because having the bones set up makes it easier to replicate and pick-and-choose what you really want to bend things around towards more of what you want with the freedom while making your own game out of an engine (if not making your own engine, which would be really cool but such a pain when considering where games can be nowadays).