When a fan group making a fighting game based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic received a cease and desist letter from Hasbro back in 2013, show creator Lauren Faust stepped in to help them develop an original game—Them’s Fightin’ Herds.

Developer Mane6 didn’t get a chance to make a free fighting game starring its favorite cartoon characters, thanks to a company likely worried about a violent game based on a show about friendship. Instead, they get to work directly with the creator of their favorite show on a game that might actually make them money. They’ve got a big name in animation, the engine from Skullgirls, and an Indiegogo campaign that’s seen plenty of action since it launched earlier today. All the fixins for a quality 2D PC fighting game.

The four-legged creatures inhabiting the world of Them’s Fightin’ Herds have enjoyed a peaceful planet since the banishment of the predators hundreds of years ago, but banishment never works, and animals hungry for venison, beef or whatever else the game’s competitors might have on-the-bone are on the verge of making a big comeback. Representatives from the world’s various herds partake in a tournament to see who gets to take on the alpha predator and seal its minions away for good.

So basically more story than most fighting games, as well as a lot more thought than goes into many fan projects. They’ve even got a dynamic music system that changes the style of background sound based on how each round of battle is going.

The Indiegogo for Them’s Fightin’ Herds is looking for $436,000. Since it launched this morning it’s raised nearly $75,000. I’m feeling good about this one getting funded—a lot of fans were keeping up with the original, and Hasbro’s quashing it broke their fragile little hearts. But you know what they say, threat of litigation is the mother of invention.

Contact the author, the fighting yak, at fahey@kotaku.com or follow him on Twitter at @bunnyspatial