During my first two articles about Skullgirls‘ crowdfunding, the funds raised grew exceptionally fast. So fast that Squigly was funded within 24 hours. Big Band’s funding moving is a little bit slower than Squigly’s. But with just 22 days left and $308,302 raised as of this writing, there’s no question that Big Band will get the funding he needs by the end of the month (or even this week!). The stretch goal is $375,000 for Big Band’s creation, $400,000 for story and stage. And remember, he himself does not cost $375,000, but only $200,000 since 1) he’s a stretch goal and funding is combined with Squigly, and 2) he cost slightly more than Squigly to make because his creation wasn’t as far ahead as Squigly’s when the Indiegogo campaign started. It’s safe to say that Squigly was in development before publisher Autumn Games’ financial assets were frozen, halting funding for Squigly and forcing Lab Zero to find other means of funding.

Now then, Big Band has less than $75,000 needed to be created, another $25,000 for stage and story mode. Beyond him is a secret third character that fans can choose from if Lab Zero can raise $600,000 for the whole campaign. Those characters are hidden as silhouettes, revealed one by one for every $20,000 raised for the whole campaign. Of the 32 characters presented, 15 have been revealed. Shown so far are:

Click for larger view

• Tutorial teacher Mrs. Victoria
• Final boss Marie without the trappings of being a Final Boss (thankfully),
• Parasoul’s younger sister, Umbrella
• Andy Anvil, one of Peacock’s cronies-as-special attack
• Hive, one of the Anti-Skullgirl people that appears in Peacock’s story
• Leduc, same as Hive and can be seen next to Big Band in this image.
• Brain Drain, the entity that controls Painwheel
• Feng, Cerebella’s roomate
• Annie, probably the character in one of the TV shows Peacock likes called “Annie: Girl of the Stars”
• Black Dahlia, Vitale’s assassin and the one who cut Ms. Fortune into pieces

Talesin, Stanley, D. Violet, and Hubrecht are either entirely new or little known background characters. If you wish to contribute to the crowfunding, head over to the Indiegogo page for Skullgirls.