Save yourself the trouble, just pay J Wong money to say the game is amazing and deep, people will buy it then
Do you have a link to somewhere that shows Skullgirls’ progressive development?
I believe the engine was built while Mike Z was studying, ideally you should be doing as much simultaneously as possible. Obviously not possible with 1 person though.
Your parameters for epic are kind of low.
Also, found something for Scirra Construct.
http://www.scirra.com/forum/tutorial-fighter-updated-9-15-10_topic40104_page5.html
Download the tutorial file in the first post of that page of the thread.
This tutorial file only works with Construct Classic, found here:
http://www.scirra.com/construct-classic
This alone isn’t going to help you create a full game or anything like that, but this does introduce a few concepts you’re going to want to keep in mind.
The only suggestion I have is to make one character embody two aspects such as love/hate or war/peace which they can switch between. When the character is in one form he powers up the other through successful hits either normal or special in a meter based fashion. The meter starts to drains once switched to the opposing form.
if you are very dedicated to this you will realistically be sitting on this idea for a long time unless you manage to find other individuals willing to fill in the pieces you are missing to construct a worthy game ( unless you are willing to settle for mediocrity).
I wish you luck though, as I have had a story I feel has a lot of potential stuck in limbo for 3 years.
Read up on hit boxes. They are useful for so many things, even enemy AI.