, also known as Vanguard Princess: Senjin no Himegimi (ヴァンガードプリンセス 先陣の姫君) is a Japanese freeware

Freeware

Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...

 dōjin

Dojin soft

, also sometimes called , are video games created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups , more for fun than for profit; essentially, the Japanese equivalent of independent video games. Most of them are based on pre-existing material, but some are entirely original creations...

 2D

2D computer graphics

2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...

 fighting game

Fighting game

Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...

 for Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, developed by a single programmer and illustrator called Tomoaki Sugeno, nicknamed Suge9. The game was released on June 26, 2009 and was created using Fighter Maker 2nd

Fighter Maker

Fighter Maker is a series of games for PlayStation consoles and Microsoft Windows. It features a robust character creation system, letting players even create animations...

. The latest version of the game is 1.08, released on January 14, 2011.

Development

Vanguard Princess was almost fully developed by Tomoaki Sugeno (or Suge9), an ex-Capcom programmer and sprite designer who worked in games like Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, released in Japan as is a survival horror video game and the sequel to Resident Evil 2, developed and published by Capcom. The game was released for the PlayStation, and was subsequently ported to the Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo GameCube...

and made character sprites for The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood. Sugeno uses Fighter Maker 2nd for his work, a popular graphic engine for Windows by ASCII

ASCII (company)

was a publishing company based in Tokyo, Japan. It became a subsidiary of Kadokawa Group Holdings in 2004, and merged with another Kadokawa subsidiary MediaWorks on April 1, 2008, and became ASCII Media Works. The company published Monthly ASCII as the main publication...

. Sugeno programmed, illustrated and designed the game by himself, but the music was taken from "nash music library", a GNU

GNU

GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...

 library of songs. Sugeno also resorted to voice actors for recording the voices for all the characters.

Reception

After the official release, Vanguard Princess was initially picked up on by video game websites such as Daiken, Kotaku

Kotaku

Kotaku is a video games-focused blog. It is part of Gawker Media's "Gawker" network of sites, which also includes Gizmodo, Deadspin, Lifehacker, io9 and Jezebel. Named to CNET News' Blog 100, Kotaku is consistently listed in the top 40 of Technorati's Top 100...

and Siliconera. Later it was reported by Famitsu

Famitsu

is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Enterbrain, Inc. and Tokuma. Currently, there are five Famitsū magazines: Shūkan Famitsū, Famitsū PS3 + PSP, Famitsū Xbox 360, Famitsū Wii+DS, and Famitsū Wave DVD...

and IT+Media.