Mortal Kombat: it all started with an uppercut. Interview with one of the creators of the MK game series
Interview by Ed Boon (Ed Boon), taken by Andrew Reiner and Suriel Vasquez.
At Williams, I was programming Pinball machines. Eugene Jarvis returned to the company at that time. He opened a department engaged in new equipment. His team began work on the NARC game, which was released in 1988. They had interesting new cars. I often went down to them, looked at what they were doing and repeated: "Lord, this is so cool." I liked to make pinball machines, but the guys on the floor below worked on video games and it was interesting to communicate with them.
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I persuaded them to put the video system in my office, so I had pinball and video games at the same time. I remember that I borrowed some of the graphics from NARC to create explosions and something else. Eugene and I were already working together on the F-14 Tomcat pinball machine gun and were good friends. Therefore, he suggested: “Why don't you come down to us and start a new video game project?” They finished working on NARC and wanted to start several game projects in parallel.
Mark Tremell joined the company. Together with John Tobias, he worked on Smash TV. It was an awesome game like Robotron. Then I started to work with Eugene on the High Impact Football game. It was an American football with digitized graphics. Then we did not hire professional actors. I portrayed a football player: put on protection and ran on a treadmill.
Rainer: Looks like it was just a friendly invitation. Almost the same approach Valve uses now, something like: "Hi, participate in my project."
Everything was much less ambitious. The teams consisted of four, five, six developers working together on the game. The project was created nine months or a year. Now it sounds funny. Much was taken just out of my head, impromptu. There were no design documents, no formalities. “How do we do this? Let's try it like this. ” Inventiveness is a must.
So this was my first video game. It was strange to process the images on which I was. The game was a great success. And it was the Williams corporate graphic style, first in games such as NARC, High Impact Football and Terminator 2, and then in Mortal Kombat. Williams games stood out thanks to the digitized graphics. The game High Impact Football turned out good, so we did a sequel called Super High Impact Football. All these were games for arcade machines that worked from the quarters. So we began to create a name for ourselves and the company.
After Super High Impact Football, I wanted to work on something new that will not have any sequels. Therefore, I took up Mortal Kombat. [Laughs] While working on High Impact Football, I met many guys in the studio. One of them was John Tobias. We hung out together, chatted. At that time, Street Fighter II came out and everyone discussed it: “Look how big the images on the screen are! Oh my God! Look at them! ”In this fighting, there was very stylized graphics, similar to hand-drawn anime. And we decided: “Let's make a version of this game, only about bad guys. Let there be blood. This will be the MTV version of Street Fighter. ”
Rainer: When you started working on Mortal Kombat and tested characters, did you digitize them from yourself? Or from the very beginning invited actors?
At the very beginning we wanted to make a game with Jean-Claude Van Damme and wanted to do this ... I think at that time his last film was “Blood Sports”. “Bloody Sport”, “Exit of the Dragon” and other similar films, where someone gathers fighters for the tournament, were exactly the topic that we wanted to work on. She gave us the opportunity to add a variety of characters. Therefore, we took the film "Bloody Sport", launched a video tape, digitized the necessary images and connected everything that we could find into something like a worm.
We made a demo and sent it to Jean-Claude Van Damme. We took this tape, demo and graphics layouts, which we saw of it, and then we contacted the person who worked for us with licenses and all that. He said: “Alas, he has already signed an agreement with Sega”, if I'm not mistaken. This is strange because we never saw the game with him. 25 years have passed, and I'm still waiting for the release of this game.
Therefore, we decided: "Well, let's make our characters." John Tobias said: “Oh, I have a bunch of friends involved in the martial arts. He studied with them in high school. Let's invite them and take them off. ” At the time, we didn't even have a blue or green screen. We just shot them near the wall and manually cut off the edges of each frame. And we coped with it very quickly. We have a working demo of the game. God, it took us only a few weeks. Maybe a month.
The most amazing was the uppercut. Once we did this uppercut, the screen shook, the enemy flew into the air and suddenly everyone started to come to my office and ask me to show the game. Our bosses are also interested. It was something really cool. Everyone began to discuss the demo.
Since we made games for coin machines, we worked in the building where the machines were made. There was a factory with a production line, which all the time made pinball machines. But the management tried to expand our volumes. It seems that in Gurney (a city in Illinois) we had video game production and we were told: “This month we will finish work on all the games we are currently producing. Guys, can you manage to finish your game with fights to complete the production plan? ”Well, we answered:“ We will try. ” Then we were much younger than now, and we had much more energy.
We tested the game on an arcade machine about five months after the start of development, after that first demo. There were six characters. Sonya Blade did not exist yet. There were four people on our team: me, John Tobias, a guy named John Vogel and Dan Forden who did music. It was all pretty weird. In my memories there were only two characters on the screen. How difficult was it to do all this, jumping and everything else? I do not remember. We started testing and ... I swear I have a video of this first test somewhere in my basement. Surreal picture: 30-40 people surrounded the game. When something crazy happens, for example, they see an uppercut or blood, or something like that ... they literally start running around with delight. Run around the machine.
It shocked us. We have already tested the game before and knew how it usually happens. And now we saw something completely different. Our company began to call distributors from Los Angeles. I remember how one of the distributors got angry at us and shouted: “What kind of game are you testing?” People flew in from New York because they heard about testing this game. Again, Street Fighter was a hit, the game rooms were filled with people playing Street Fighter. And then suddenly a new version of Street Fighter about bad guys appeared and captured everyone. It was very funny. And some flew in from New York to appreciate the game. A few days later we began to refine it, because there were bugs. So, people came, but there was no game, and we began to receive phone calls. It was like nothing. We saw the beginning of what will become larger than our team.
And we finished the game in eight months. The game from start to finish took eight months. Four guys. Frequent nocturnal sleep. We didn't even have a person like a designer. Positions of the designer did not exist. There were a programmer, an artist, a sound engineer. Here are three posts of our team. Design consisted of ideas. John Tobias came up with costume design and everything. I developed the actions of the characters, their special abilities and their game mechanics. We worked very closely, but I did all the real work, the realization of ideas, the programming of movements. Design and animation in parallel did John Tobias. The graphics were created by John Vogel, and Dan Forden recorded the sound. It was a very close team of four. We strongly helped each other. This is how the 25-year-old chapter of my life dedicated to fighting began.
Rainer: What was the name of the game then? Obviously, it was something like Jean-Claude Van Damme's Blood Sport. What were the original names?
There was no name, only the surname “Van Damme”. We wanted the advertisements to contain only the huge letters “Van Damme”. But failed. When we abandoned this name, we dropped a bunch of others. In the list of the best was Kumite (" Kumite "). Dragon Attack is the name of the song Queen. Over him, we also thought. Death Blow (Death Breath) and things like that ... Death Blow, Final Fist (or "Final Fist") or something like that. We have rejected many such insane, almost stereotypical titles of martial arts films. And then one day I wrote the word "Combat" on the board and replaced the first letter with "K".
Rainer: Why on "K"?
Just to be different. That the name was unique. I worked on a pair of games with pinball designer Steve Richie (Steve Ritchie), he had a whole bunch of very successful pinball machines. Once he was sitting in my office, we chatted and he asked: "What is this?". I replied: “Well, we are trying to come up with a name. For now, just Kombat. ” And he asked: "Why not call the game Mortal Kombat?". And I like this: "My God, yes, here it is!"
Rayner: Do you remember your initial discussions about creating the Street Fighter version about bad guys or a fighting game? Can you remember what the vision was at first?
Yes. Nobody expected anything special from us. We just quietly worked, went to the store to buy costumes, tried to come up with a suit that would look good with our technology of digitized graphics. It was great. Nobody expected anything from us and we worked quietly.
And then suddenly there were expectations. Can we finish it quickly? Can we do it? It was the first game for me and John, in which we ourselves were bosses. John used to work on Smash TV with Mark Tremell, an experienced game designer and programmer. And I did High Impact with Eugene Jarvis, who is just a legend. We ourselves made only one or two games. In fact, John did Total Carnage, a game similar to Smash TV. There was still the voice of the chief villain, General Ahbub. So John and I knew each other a little and worked very little together. There were no expectations, and it was great, because we were not pressured and not forced to make the game beautiful and interesting. And then the pressure began.
Surel: After the game was released, everyone probably knew that she would have to face the actions of people like Joe Lieberman (approx .: US Senator), who lobbied for the introduction of the ESRB . Did your team feel this pressure?
Not. The time was interesting, a lot of people did not know that we created our game, and then it became an arcade hit. Tens of thousands of machines were sold. In the context of that game era, we almost three times exceeded sales of our best-selling game. It was awesome. Our company focused on creating as many automata as possible. I think at some time the assembly line worked around the clock.
Acclaim "felt the smell of blood" and, to her honor, recognized in Mortal Kombat the potential hit of the mass market. They told us: "We will spend 10 million dollars on advertising this game." I remember that I replied: “Guys, you had better slow down. [Laughs] You are betting too much! And I was completely wrong. They brought the game to the market and started advertising on TV, the disgraceful one where the teenager shouts: “MORTAL KOMBAT!”. Suddenly, they learned about the game and paid attention to the violence. And the game has already been sold for several months, maybe even a year. She came out a long time ago, we have already worked on a sequel.
There were no rating systems at the time. And that was never a problem. Then hip-hop appeared and it suddenly became clear that there were obscene texts in it. And people got worried: “Wow, audio recordings? Do you need to do something with them? ”So on the albums, the label appeared“ Explicit Lyrics ”(“ Obscene Vocabulary "). We were also unexpectedly demanded to make a mark" There is violence in this game. " Trap too. These games made it clear that a rating system is needed. And we agreed with that. We never tried to make young children see the game.
Rainer: Have you ever thought that playing a game would affect people so much? That you will have such a glorious way in the video game industry, and that you will work in one company for almost your whole life?
No, of course, I did not guess about it ... You know, for me it was like different levels of education. At first there was an elementary school, an average, then a college. I was a pinball programmer, a video game programmer, a programmer and a designer, and then there was Mortal Kombat with all the sequels. The first game we made four. The second is five of us. We worked on the third in all. Then we became nine. Then, all of a sudden, 25 people began to work on the Deadly Alliance. And with each game more and more people were added. Now only in our studio there are 180 people. And the game involved more people from other studios. We are like one huge monster.
Among other things, to Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3 people attracted secrets. We had a bunch of secret characters, a guy jumping out of the corner, screaming "Toasty!", Just some random "chips." I always wanted to make a question mark at the end of the game. I did not want anyone to even think that he knew everything about the game. Around the game constantly arose many legends, fictions and deceptions. And I liked it because it intrigued people. The fact that the game had secrets gave significance to rumors like: “My God, maybe there is a secret ninja in the game? Maybe there is a secret character there? ”And by the time the MK4 was created, the Internet had already become popular. At least there were news groups in which players shared secrets among themselves. Not everyone had the same patience to explore the game. And home video games began to win, people began to spend more time on them.
By the time the PlayStation came out. It was a completely different car, especially compared to the arcade market. Then we made an important decision. I remember everyone saying: “Madness will release Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance only for home systems.” It was the first game that was not released on arcade machines. We were all very nervous about this. Oddly enough, it became one of the best-selling, because we could focus on single-user mode. We didn’t have to create a game that takes you a quarter for every two and a half minutes, or whatever formula was there. And our team has become more.
Previously, the game was about how players choose characters, fight, and this cycle repeats endlessly. But now we started adding more content. Recently, I compared my work with school and college. So, these were our years in college, the game became aimed at home platforms. It was then that we seemed to have won at the time of Tekken and Street Fighter. At that time Tekken appeared and, it seems, Virtua Fighter. But the largest was Tekken and then we were competitors. Then we left the coin machines and began to sell much more. Commands and volumes have become larger.
Rainer: We discussed the insanity going on around Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II. You talked about people who went to the gaming halls, and all that. Maybe we should go to Midway and talk about it, its unfortunate closure and a new chapter - the creation of NetherRealm? Or maybe we missed something from the era of Mortal Kombat 4 or Deadly Alliance?
These two stages are related to each other. Acclaim had exclusive rights to all Midway games for several years. They had rights to Mortal Kombat 1, NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat II and NBA Jam Tournament Edition. These were four hit games sold in millions of copies that all belonged to Acclaim. And I know that then the leadership of Midway decided to switch to publishing home games. We were engaged only in games for automatic machines, therefore Acclaim undertook transition to house systems and advertising.
Therefore, Mortal Kombat 3 did Midway. It seems that she bought Trade West from San Diego so that we could get into the home platform market. There was a lot of hype during MK3 because we released it ourselves. Therefore, it was very serious. A few years later, the arcades began to gradually lose popularity. And we worked on Mortal Kombat 4, which was in 3D. Mortal Kombat 4 came out and we published it from a distance, but it didn’t go on arcade machines as well as the MK1, 2 and 3. The market for arcades quickly went down.
Therefore, we published the home version of Mortal Kombat 4 and wondered: “Should we publish the next Mortal Kombat game for home systems?” We talked to the sellers of our arcade machines. For several years, it has been heard that the market is sinking, games are very expensive, and equipment is becoming more expensive. Therefore, after talking with them, we made the difficult decision to abandon the arcades and target home platforms. And so there was Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
In those days in 3D there was a trinity of similar games. Tekken came out and made a strong impression. There were other 3D games: Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive. Not as big as Tekken, but Mortal Kombat also turned to 3D, even Street Fighter switched to 3D. A series of games Street Fighter EX was devoted to battles in 3D.
And Deadly Alliance has gained immense popularity. It sold more successfully than Mortal Kombat 4. We added a bunch of features specifically for home versions. The formula for creating an arcade game was completely different. In 2002, the Deadly Alliance came out, in 2004 - Deception, and in 2006 - Armageddon. Between them, we did an action adventure game Shaolin Monks, it seems, between Deception and Armageddon.
So there was a period when we baked games like pancakes. It seems to me that too often.Although Shaolin Monks was an action adventure game, a different type of game, it was still Mortal Kombat, and it came out just a year after the fighting. At that time we had a lot of work.
But after Armageddon, in which there were about 50 characters, I felt that we had reached the limit. “We will not do 70 characters in the next game. We will not expand anymore. ” And we really completed on this, I tried as best I could.
Then one of the marketing executives contacted DC Comics and we began to discuss the creation of a fighting game for DC. He suggested: “What about the merging of the characters DC and Mortal Kombat?”
The problem was obviously that we couldn’t cut off the head, for example, Batman. We can't cut off Superman's head. But this is a game of mortal kombat. Will we do it with an M rating (for an adult audience) or a T rating (for teenagers)? And we decided to make a game with a rating of T. People who loved Mortal Kombat for what it is, could not see all of our sophisticated bloody fatalities. But the novelty appeared: “Wow! Batman and Sub-Zero on the same screen, and they fight with each other! ”It was an interesting“ what if? ”Experiment
The game sold well, but it created a need for a return to the classic, proven Mortal Kombat system. She prepared the stage for Mortal Kombat 9. We completed Mortal Kombat vs. DC is literally in the midway bankruptcy process. We worked on the game, and people left. The building of our office became more and more empty. I remember that at some point we had the Mortal Kombat team, the NFL Blitz team, the Red Card Soccer team, all from the Hangtime and Showtime teams, and from NBA basketball games and even Psi-Ops and Stranglehold. During the year, people became less and less, until we were left.
Rainer: So, closing down Midway had absolutely no effect on your team?
Yes, we have not fired a single person from our team since it consisted of the first four guys. And it was important for us. When you meet with financial difficulties, a subject always appears with suggestions: “Guys, can this be a little shrink?” And here you can cut? With all this, some team members had a clear sense of nervousness. And I personally insisted that we are not going to dismiss anyone, because this team makes the product and copes well with it. It really was a slippery moment. And they understood everything.
Then came Warner Bros. In fact, we wanted to buy several other companies. I remember communicating with several companies. But Warner Bros. came, and it was definitely our option. The first thing they said when we finished Mortal Kombat vs. DC and worked on the MK9, it was: “We want to give you another six months to create the game. We really want it to be as good as possible. ” It was very different from the usual “Hey, two years have passed. Where is our new game? ”
Mortal Kombat 9 was a loud return. It was a return, because we just made a game with a T rating. It was a return, because we went back to 2D. Popular 3D-fighting games like Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive were not as strong as before. It looked like they had reached their peak. Therefore, we thought: “It’s time for a real hit.” We decided to return the nostalgic characters from Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3. And this turned out to be amazing. The ninth part was the best-selling of all the Mortal Kombat games in almost 20 years, it was just insane. Usually the best selling are the first few versions of games. Therefore, it was unexpected, and Warner Bros. really helped us.
Rainer: I want to note that when I talk to the developers, they always say that such a “reset” of the series that you did is the last thing that they would think about. Were there other areas in which you thought before returning to 2D?
Not.As for me, I usually used the term: "So the planets came together." It was the perfect choice. MK vs. DC thanks to the new characters and T rating was good, but we received a lot of feedback like: “Yes, it was funny, but now you will make a real Mortal Kombat?” It was a clear message from the players, so we simply had no choice. In the discussions of this game, I used to say that its history is the history of returning to 2D and M rating, returning to characters, retelling the history of MK1, 2, 3. I don’t think that such a coincidence will ever happen again.
After we talked about our plans, the real insanity began. In MK vs. DC introduced a cinematic presentation of the story mode in which you go from combat to combat, and we felt that we could further improve it in Mortal Kombat 9. Therefore, it was another successful repetition of detail that everyone liked. And this was the first game of Warner Bros., Mortal Kombat 9. MK vs. DC is the latest Midway game. We did MK vs. DC in the building, which gradually became less and less crowded every week. It was strange.
Suriel: It seems that in Mortal Kombat 9 you focused on adding guest characters. Where did this idea come from?
In addition to the appearance of guest characters, this was the first game with downloadable characters. For MK vs. DC we actually partially developed Quan Chi and Harley Quinn as DLC characters. But again, because of the difficulties of the transition from Midway to Warner Brothers and the timing, we have not released them.
Therefore, we knew that we would make DLC-characters for Mortal Kombat, besides Warner Bros. - a huge entertainment company, and we had access to a variety of franchises. For example, from TV shows, movies and video games. Therefore, thanks to their business agreements, we have access to some characters. And it was again an excitement of interest like: “Wow! Freddy Kruger on the same screen as Scorpio? ”We received inspiration from horror films and nightmare games on Elm Street. Films of the series “Nightmares on Elm Street” often appeared at our meetings, where we invented fatalities. “Oh, remember that movie, where did they do that?”
Rainer: Tell me more. Have you sent a letter to Warner? Something like “Hi, can I add Freddy Kruger to the game?” And then the lawyers did it? How was all this?
It was more like “We would like to add a guest character, who are we allowed to?” And we were given a list of 10-15 characters. We didn’t want another DC character, because we made a game with a rating of M. I remember, we were offered Neo. So there was a whole bunch of heroes who, for business reasons or in terms of creativity, did not suit us. After further discussions, we realized that the characters of horror would fit in here. Jason, Freddy, Leather face. So in the discussions of Mortal Kombat 9, many characters surfaced, but for some reason we chose Freddy.
Suriel: “Nine” was, as you said, a return to the shape and style of 2D, as well as the “reset” of many storylines. What made you change direction in Mortal Kombat X? You have moved away from the classics, replacing many old characters with new ones. Feels like in X introduced the most characters from the time of the fourth part.
It was a conscious decision. You are right, I think we added the most characters to this part. In terms of strategy, this was the exact opposite of Mortal Kombat 9, because we felt the MK9 as a return to the first three games. We literally re-told the story of the first three parts in a steeper cinematic presentation. We did not add new characters. Kabal, Stryker, Raiden and the others returned, hitting nostalgic feelings.
After that we decided that the opposite should be done. "Now this game will be completely new." All this is due to a bunch of new characters. Obviously, we will save Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and other basic characters, but we will also add a lot of new elements to them: the system of character variations, Brutality, new characters, a completely new storyline and all that. Mortal Kombat 9 was a return to the roots. Mortal Kombat X is a time of novelty, new opportunities, new everything.
Suriel: An interesting thing happened recently with Injustice and Mortal Kombat - cyber competition began to develop. They were before the MK 9, but did not have popularity in the fighting communities. But in recent years, starting with the "nine", this scene began to draw more and more attention to itself. Did you rely on this when developing the 9, or did it come as a surprise to you?
When we were doing 9, the EVO was obviously popular for a long time. People suddenly began to play much more online, including fighting games. And it turned out that they are becoming more and more. We have seen this revival of interest. Twitch appeared and people started streaming their games, and this was an important factor when returning to 2D gameplay. I think in Mortal Kombat 9 we had a much better fighting engine compared to MKDC or Armageddon.
And we suddenly attracted a lot of players who played really seriously. In addition, the eSports itself was just beginning to pick up speed and take off. Yes, when we did the MK9, it was something like “Oh, it will be cool,” but when creating the MKX we thought: “Something new has appeared. We need to support and master this, insert features into the game that make new functions easier. ” Part of the recipe for creating a fighting game today is the mandatory support for e-sports.
Rainer: Tell us about the Injustice discussion and about the first days of its creation.
When we moved to Warner Bros., DC was part of Warner Bros., so it was a convenient coincidence. There were some changes in DC too, so we had to communicate with different people. In DC, were pleased with MK vs. DC, and we saw two options for continuation. One of them was the return of Mortal Kombat to the roots and the creation of another game dedicated only to superheroes. And it became Injustice.
In fact, we knew what we were going to do with Injustice, even when we were working on Mortal Kombat 9, because for me it was an obvious next move. We made Mortal Kombat vs. DC, and then they said: “So, now we are creating a game only about Mortal Kombat, why not make a game only about superheroes? Fighting about the battle of the gods. At the same time, we proposed a broader view of the fighting games with several arenas, large transitions and super-movements. In our eyes after Mortal Kombat 9, the creation of this game was obvious.
Rainer: Obviously, comic companies have their own set of rules regarding their characters, they protect them. What ideas did you exchange when creating the game? You are known for playing games with ultra-violence, character breaking through walls, etc. What compromises did they make for you to make a game about superheroes for them?
Working on Injustice was our first collaboration with the era of Jeff Jonesand the guys from DC who worked with him. It seems that he then just became the chief creative director. I do not remember the exact dates, but it was with him that we mostly consulted. He was surprisingly open to new ideas. Therefore, we have introduced all sorts of new features. For example, throwing cars into people. And he always said: “Everything is in order, as long as you keep the spirit of these characters.” He never stuck with the requirements of the type: "This boot should be a little higher on the calf." There was nothing like that. The main thing was to preserve the style and spirit of the characters, this was his main criterion. I really respect him for that. Work on the game was completely different from the creation of Mortal Kombat vs. DC.
Rainer: One of the strange consequences of this game was the borrowing of the plot. Your story still continues in comics. They are just now starting the transition back. Did you foresee that the plot of the fighting game, especially this one, will have a lasting impact?
Not.We were delighted with the fact that we founded a new alternative universe in which Superman went crazy and became a tyrant. And it was within the limits that were allowed to us. DC had such a handy thing as a multiverse, so one could say that this is not the same Superman you know. It was necessary to correspond to decades of accumulated history. We said, “No. Our Superman is like that. Our Batman is like that. ” This gave us so much creative freedom that allowed us to create extraordinary characters. Superman killed the joker? What is the story?
I think some other people associated themselves with this idea. One of them was Tom Taylor, who wrote the comic. He just fell in love with this idea. There were many gaps in our history, because we moved very quickly. Therefore, we suggested: "Tom, can you fill these gaps?" He fully supported us. Comics and mobile games were also surprises. These were our grown children. Our children grew up, finished school, left home and became successful themselves. It was so interesting to watch the comics, which received life regardless of the game. Mobile game was also a surprise, a bright flash from nowhere, which has become a popular game. Suddenly, the three independent incarnations of the Injustice universe rose to their feet. For me, this is the most amazing in the whole history of Injustice.
Rainer: Obviously, after the first Injustice and its success, the creation of a sequel was imminent. You have not yet spoken in detail about the Injustice 2 narrative. Can you talk about it and the plot superstructure on the first game in more detail?
Now we have a big campaign. We show the most interesting content. Then we are going to reveal the story, so now I can’t go into details yet. What can I say to not spoil anything? Yes, it will definitely be a continuation of the story, and many more characters will be introduced. We have already spoken at Comic-Con that the Supergirl plays a very important role. So I have to restrain myself a lot.
Rainer: [Laughs] I understand. But it will be a continuation to a certain extent.
Of course.Both the story and its presentation will be more elaborated. There will be many options and forks. Everything will not be black and white, as in the first part.
Rainer: You are working on Injustice 2, which will be released next year. Turns 30 years from the beginning of your work in the industry. Looking back, what are you thinking about first?
Recalling the past, I do not feel these 30 years. I recently went to the Pinball Expo. It is held in Chicago every October, I always go there and meet with friends with whom I worked on games at the time of pinball machines. They always say: “Look how we look young here! And how old we have become! ”And the idea that I don’t feel the past 30 years often haunts me. I do not feel that so many years have passed. As for Mortal Kombat, even after 25 years, the MKX is strangely superior in sales to Mortal Kombat 9, which is even crazier. I feel lucky to be part of this wave, its ebbs and flows. I do not feel that 30 years have passed.
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I have always been of the opinion that if we do not significantly change each new part, then people will begin to feel that they are playing the same game. I'm a big fan of other fighting games, and I watched some series degenerate a bit, repeating the same thing on one engine for 10-15 years, only with more beautiful graphics. It works for some time, but then people get bored. While we are doing something new and making significant differences, I find this interesting. At the same time, it is always exciting to create something new, like Injustice and Injustice 2, where we could learn a different type of combat mechanics and other types of characters, storytelling, etc.
Rainer: So 30 years later, when you wake up in the morning, you still love your job, and you can't wait to make new games?
Yes.I don’t have so much energy as when I was a programmer. We worked all night to meet deadlines. Someone said: “We do not have time. Well, then we remain working. ”
Rainer: I see two options for the last game for you. After 30, maybe 40 years, having retired, you either achieve the addition of Van Damme from Blood Sports to Mortal Kombat, or go back to basics and make a Mortal Kombat pinball machine in your garage.
[Laughs]
Rainer: I see only these two options.
Yes, then the cycle of stories will close. We need to think about it.
Translator Bonus: An interesting video about digitizing video for the first part of Mortal Kombat.
At Williams, I was programming Pinball machines. Eugene Jarvis returned to the company at that time. He opened a department engaged in new equipment. His team began work on the NARC game, which was released in 1988. They had interesting new cars. I often went down to them, looked at what they were doing and repeated: "Lord, this is so cool." I liked to make pinball machines, but the guys on the floor below worked on video games and it was interesting to communicate with them.
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I persuaded them to put the video system in my office, so I had pinball and video games at the same time. I remember that I borrowed some of the graphics from NARC to create explosions and something else. Eugene and I were already working together on the F-14 Tomcat pinball machine gun and were good friends. Therefore, he suggested: “Why don't you come down to us and start a new video game project?” They finished working on NARC and wanted to start several game projects in parallel.
Mark Tremell joined the company. Together with John Tobias, he worked on Smash TV. It was an awesome game like Robotron. Then I started to work with Eugene on the High Impact Football game. It was an American football with digitized graphics. Then we did not hire professional actors. I portrayed a football player: put on protection and ran on a treadmill.
Rainer: Looks like it was just a friendly invitation. Almost the same approach Valve uses now, something like: "Hi, participate in my project."
Everything was much less ambitious. The teams consisted of four, five, six developers working together on the game. The project was created nine months or a year. Now it sounds funny. Much was taken just out of my head, impromptu. There were no design documents, no formalities. “How do we do this? Let's try it like this. ” Inventiveness is a must.
So this was my first video game. It was strange to process the images on which I was. The game was a great success. And it was the Williams corporate graphic style, first in games such as NARC, High Impact Football and Terminator 2, and then in Mortal Kombat. Williams games stood out thanks to the digitized graphics. The game High Impact Football turned out good, so we did a sequel called Super High Impact Football. All these were games for arcade machines that worked from the quarters. So we began to create a name for ourselves and the company.
After Super High Impact Football, I wanted to work on something new that will not have any sequels. Therefore, I took up Mortal Kombat. [Laughs] While working on High Impact Football, I met many guys in the studio. One of them was John Tobias. We hung out together, chatted. At that time, Street Fighter II came out and everyone discussed it: “Look how big the images on the screen are! Oh my God! Look at them! ”In this fighting, there was very stylized graphics, similar to hand-drawn anime. And we decided: “Let's make a version of this game, only about bad guys. Let there be blood. This will be the MTV version of Street Fighter. ”
Rainer: When you started working on Mortal Kombat and tested characters, did you digitize them from yourself? Or from the very beginning invited actors?
At the very beginning we wanted to make a game with Jean-Claude Van Damme and wanted to do this ... I think at that time his last film was “Blood Sports”. “Bloody Sport”, “Exit of the Dragon” and other similar films, where someone gathers fighters for the tournament, were exactly the topic that we wanted to work on. She gave us the opportunity to add a variety of characters. Therefore, we took the film "Bloody Sport", launched a video tape, digitized the necessary images and connected everything that we could find into something like a worm.
We made a demo and sent it to Jean-Claude Van Damme. We took this tape, demo and graphics layouts, which we saw of it, and then we contacted the person who worked for us with licenses and all that. He said: “Alas, he has already signed an agreement with Sega”, if I'm not mistaken. This is strange because we never saw the game with him. 25 years have passed, and I'm still waiting for the release of this game.
Therefore, we decided: "Well, let's make our characters." John Tobias said: “Oh, I have a bunch of friends involved in the martial arts. He studied with them in high school. Let's invite them and take them off. ” At the time, we didn't even have a blue or green screen. We just shot them near the wall and manually cut off the edges of each frame. And we coped with it very quickly. We have a working demo of the game. God, it took us only a few weeks. Maybe a month.
The most amazing was the uppercut. Once we did this uppercut, the screen shook, the enemy flew into the air and suddenly everyone started to come to my office and ask me to show the game. Our bosses are also interested. It was something really cool. Everyone began to discuss the demo.Since we made games for coin machines, we worked in the building where the machines were made. There was a factory with a production line, which all the time made pinball machines. But the management tried to expand our volumes. It seems that in Gurney (a city in Illinois) we had video game production and we were told: “This month we will finish work on all the games we are currently producing. Guys, can you manage to finish your game with fights to complete the production plan? ”Well, we answered:“ We will try. ” Then we were much younger than now, and we had much more energy.
We tested the game on an arcade machine about five months after the start of development, after that first demo. There were six characters. Sonya Blade did not exist yet. There were four people on our team: me, John Tobias, a guy named John Vogel and Dan Forden who did music. It was all pretty weird. In my memories there were only two characters on the screen. How difficult was it to do all this, jumping and everything else? I do not remember. We started testing and ... I swear I have a video of this first test somewhere in my basement. Surreal picture: 30-40 people surrounded the game. When something crazy happens, for example, they see an uppercut or blood, or something like that ... they literally start running around with delight. Run around the machine.
It shocked us. We have already tested the game before and knew how it usually happens. And now we saw something completely different. Our company began to call distributors from Los Angeles. I remember how one of the distributors got angry at us and shouted: “What kind of game are you testing?” People flew in from New York because they heard about testing this game. Again, Street Fighter was a hit, the game rooms were filled with people playing Street Fighter. And then suddenly a new version of Street Fighter about bad guys appeared and captured everyone. It was very funny. And some flew in from New York to appreciate the game. A few days later we began to refine it, because there were bugs. So, people came, but there was no game, and we began to receive phone calls. It was like nothing. We saw the beginning of what will become larger than our team.
And we finished the game in eight months. The game from start to finish took eight months. Four guys. Frequent nocturnal sleep. We didn't even have a person like a designer. Positions of the designer did not exist. There were a programmer, an artist, a sound engineer. Here are three posts of our team. Design consisted of ideas. John Tobias came up with costume design and everything. I developed the actions of the characters, their special abilities and their game mechanics. We worked very closely, but I did all the real work, the realization of ideas, the programming of movements. Design and animation in parallel did John Tobias. The graphics were created by John Vogel, and Dan Forden recorded the sound. It was a very close team of four. We strongly helped each other. This is how the 25-year-old chapter of my life dedicated to fighting began.
Rainer: What was the name of the game then? Obviously, it was something like Jean-Claude Van Damme's Blood Sport. What were the original names?
There was no name, only the surname “Van Damme”. We wanted the advertisements to contain only the huge letters “Van Damme”. But failed. When we abandoned this name, we dropped a bunch of others. In the list of the best was Kumite (" Kumite "). Dragon Attack is the name of the song Queen. Over him, we also thought. Death Blow (Death Breath) and things like that ... Death Blow, Final Fist (or "Final Fist") or something like that. We have rejected many such insane, almost stereotypical titles of martial arts films. And then one day I wrote the word "Combat" on the board and replaced the first letter with "K".
Rainer: Why on "K"?
Just to be different. That the name was unique. I worked on a pair of games with pinball designer Steve Richie (Steve Ritchie), he had a whole bunch of very successful pinball machines. Once he was sitting in my office, we chatted and he asked: "What is this?". I replied: “Well, we are trying to come up with a name. For now, just Kombat. ” And he asked: "Why not call the game Mortal Kombat?". And I like this: "My God, yes, here it is!"
Rayner: Do you remember your initial discussions about creating the Street Fighter version about bad guys or a fighting game? Can you remember what the vision was at first?
Yes. Nobody expected anything special from us. We just quietly worked, went to the store to buy costumes, tried to come up with a suit that would look good with our technology of digitized graphics. It was great. Nobody expected anything from us and we worked quietly.
And then suddenly there were expectations. Can we finish it quickly? Can we do it? It was the first game for me and John, in which we ourselves were bosses. John used to work on Smash TV with Mark Tremell, an experienced game designer and programmer. And I did High Impact with Eugene Jarvis, who is just a legend. We ourselves made only one or two games. In fact, John did Total Carnage, a game similar to Smash TV. There was still the voice of the chief villain, General Ahbub. So John and I knew each other a little and worked very little together. There were no expectations, and it was great, because we were not pressured and not forced to make the game beautiful and interesting. And then the pressure began.
Surel: After the game was released, everyone probably knew that she would have to face the actions of people like Joe Lieberman (approx .: US Senator), who lobbied for the introduction of the ESRB . Did your team feel this pressure?Not. The time was interesting, a lot of people did not know that we created our game, and then it became an arcade hit. Tens of thousands of machines were sold. In the context of that game era, we almost three times exceeded sales of our best-selling game. It was awesome. Our company focused on creating as many automata as possible. I think at some time the assembly line worked around the clock.
Acclaim "felt the smell of blood" and, to her honor, recognized in Mortal Kombat the potential hit of the mass market. They told us: "We will spend 10 million dollars on advertising this game." I remember that I replied: “Guys, you had better slow down. [Laughs] You are betting too much! And I was completely wrong. They brought the game to the market and started advertising on TV, the disgraceful one where the teenager shouts: “MORTAL KOMBAT!”. Suddenly, they learned about the game and paid attention to the violence. And the game has already been sold for several months, maybe even a year. She came out a long time ago, we have already worked on a sequel.
There were no rating systems at the time. And that was never a problem. Then hip-hop appeared and it suddenly became clear that there were obscene texts in it. And people got worried: “Wow, audio recordings? Do you need to do something with them? ”So on the albums, the label appeared“ Explicit Lyrics ”(“ Obscene Vocabulary "). We were also unexpectedly demanded to make a mark" There is violence in this game. " Trap too. These games made it clear that a rating system is needed. And we agreed with that. We never tried to make young children see the game.
Rainer: Have you ever thought that playing a game would affect people so much? That you will have such a glorious way in the video game industry, and that you will work in one company for almost your whole life?
No, of course, I did not guess about it ... You know, for me it was like different levels of education. At first there was an elementary school, an average, then a college. I was a pinball programmer, a video game programmer, a programmer and a designer, and then there was Mortal Kombat with all the sequels. The first game we made four. The second is five of us. We worked on the third in all. Then we became nine. Then, all of a sudden, 25 people began to work on the Deadly Alliance. And with each game more and more people were added. Now only in our studio there are 180 people. And the game involved more people from other studios. We are like one huge monster.
Among other things, to Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3 people attracted secrets. We had a bunch of secret characters, a guy jumping out of the corner, screaming "Toasty!", Just some random "chips." I always wanted to make a question mark at the end of the game. I did not want anyone to even think that he knew everything about the game. Around the game constantly arose many legends, fictions and deceptions. And I liked it because it intrigued people. The fact that the game had secrets gave significance to rumors like: “My God, maybe there is a secret ninja in the game? Maybe there is a secret character there? ”And by the time the MK4 was created, the Internet had already become popular. At least there were news groups in which players shared secrets among themselves. Not everyone had the same patience to explore the game. And home video games began to win, people began to spend more time on them.
By the time the PlayStation came out. It was a completely different car, especially compared to the arcade market. Then we made an important decision. I remember everyone saying: “Madness will release Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance only for home systems.” It was the first game that was not released on arcade machines. We were all very nervous about this. Oddly enough, it became one of the best-selling, because we could focus on single-user mode. We didn’t have to create a game that takes you a quarter for every two and a half minutes, or whatever formula was there. And our team has become more.
Previously, the game was about how players choose characters, fight, and this cycle repeats endlessly. But now we started adding more content. Recently, I compared my work with school and college. So, these were our years in college, the game became aimed at home platforms. It was then that we seemed to have won at the time of Tekken and Street Fighter. At that time Tekken appeared and, it seems, Virtua Fighter. But the largest was Tekken and then we were competitors. Then we left the coin machines and began to sell much more. Commands and volumes have become larger.
Rainer: We discussed the insanity going on around Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II. You talked about people who went to the gaming halls, and all that. Maybe we should go to Midway and talk about it, its unfortunate closure and a new chapter - the creation of NetherRealm? Or maybe we missed something from the era of Mortal Kombat 4 or Deadly Alliance?
These two stages are related to each other. Acclaim had exclusive rights to all Midway games for several years. They had rights to Mortal Kombat 1, NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat II and NBA Jam Tournament Edition. These were four hit games sold in millions of copies that all belonged to Acclaim. And I know that then the leadership of Midway decided to switch to publishing home games. We were engaged only in games for automatic machines, therefore Acclaim undertook transition to house systems and advertising.
Therefore, Mortal Kombat 3 did Midway. It seems that she bought Trade West from San Diego so that we could get into the home platform market. There was a lot of hype during MK3 because we released it ourselves. Therefore, it was very serious. A few years later, the arcades began to gradually lose popularity. And we worked on Mortal Kombat 4, which was in 3D. Mortal Kombat 4 came out and we published it from a distance, but it didn’t go on arcade machines as well as the MK1, 2 and 3. The market for arcades quickly went down.
Therefore, we published the home version of Mortal Kombat 4 and wondered: “Should we publish the next Mortal Kombat game for home systems?” We talked to the sellers of our arcade machines. For several years, it has been heard that the market is sinking, games are very expensive, and equipment is becoming more expensive. Therefore, after talking with them, we made the difficult decision to abandon the arcades and target home platforms. And so there was Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
In those days in 3D there was a trinity of similar games. Tekken came out and made a strong impression. There were other 3D games: Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive. Not as big as Tekken, but Mortal Kombat also turned to 3D, even Street Fighter switched to 3D. A series of games Street Fighter EX was devoted to battles in 3D.
And Deadly Alliance has gained immense popularity. It sold more successfully than Mortal Kombat 4. We added a bunch of features specifically for home versions. The formula for creating an arcade game was completely different. In 2002, the Deadly Alliance came out, in 2004 - Deception, and in 2006 - Armageddon. Between them, we did an action adventure game Shaolin Monks, it seems, between Deception and Armageddon.
So there was a period when we baked games like pancakes. It seems to me that too often.Although Shaolin Monks was an action adventure game, a different type of game, it was still Mortal Kombat, and it came out just a year after the fighting. At that time we had a lot of work.
But after Armageddon, in which there were about 50 characters, I felt that we had reached the limit. “We will not do 70 characters in the next game. We will not expand anymore. ” And we really completed on this, I tried as best I could.
Then one of the marketing executives contacted DC Comics and we began to discuss the creation of a fighting game for DC. He suggested: “What about the merging of the characters DC and Mortal Kombat?”
The problem was obviously that we couldn’t cut off the head, for example, Batman. We can't cut off Superman's head. But this is a game of mortal kombat. Will we do it with an M rating (for an adult audience) or a T rating (for teenagers)? And we decided to make a game with a rating of T. People who loved Mortal Kombat for what it is, could not see all of our sophisticated bloody fatalities. But the novelty appeared: “Wow! Batman and Sub-Zero on the same screen, and they fight with each other! ”It was an interesting“ what if? ”Experiment
The game sold well, but it created a need for a return to the classic, proven Mortal Kombat system. She prepared the stage for Mortal Kombat 9. We completed Mortal Kombat vs. DC is literally in the midway bankruptcy process. We worked on the game, and people left. The building of our office became more and more empty. I remember that at some point we had the Mortal Kombat team, the NFL Blitz team, the Red Card Soccer team, all from the Hangtime and Showtime teams, and from NBA basketball games and even Psi-Ops and Stranglehold. During the year, people became less and less, until we were left.
Rainer: So, closing down Midway had absolutely no effect on your team?
Yes, we have not fired a single person from our team since it consisted of the first four guys. And it was important for us. When you meet with financial difficulties, a subject always appears with suggestions: “Guys, can this be a little shrink?” And here you can cut? With all this, some team members had a clear sense of nervousness. And I personally insisted that we are not going to dismiss anyone, because this team makes the product and copes well with it. It really was a slippery moment. And they understood everything.
Then came Warner Bros. In fact, we wanted to buy several other companies. I remember communicating with several companies. But Warner Bros. came, and it was definitely our option. The first thing they said when we finished Mortal Kombat vs. DC and worked on the MK9, it was: “We want to give you another six months to create the game. We really want it to be as good as possible. ” It was very different from the usual “Hey, two years have passed. Where is our new game? ”
Mortal Kombat 9 was a loud return. It was a return, because we just made a game with a T rating. It was a return, because we went back to 2D. Popular 3D-fighting games like Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive were not as strong as before. It looked like they had reached their peak. Therefore, we thought: “It’s time for a real hit.” We decided to return the nostalgic characters from Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3. And this turned out to be amazing. The ninth part was the best-selling of all the Mortal Kombat games in almost 20 years, it was just insane. Usually the best selling are the first few versions of games. Therefore, it was unexpected, and Warner Bros. really helped us.
Rainer: I want to note that when I talk to the developers, they always say that such a “reset” of the series that you did is the last thing that they would think about. Were there other areas in which you thought before returning to 2D?
Not.As for me, I usually used the term: "So the planets came together." It was the perfect choice. MK vs. DC thanks to the new characters and T rating was good, but we received a lot of feedback like: “Yes, it was funny, but now you will make a real Mortal Kombat?” It was a clear message from the players, so we simply had no choice. In the discussions of this game, I used to say that its history is the history of returning to 2D and M rating, returning to characters, retelling the history of MK1, 2, 3. I don’t think that such a coincidence will ever happen again.
After we talked about our plans, the real insanity began. In MK vs. DC introduced a cinematic presentation of the story mode in which you go from combat to combat, and we felt that we could further improve it in Mortal Kombat 9. Therefore, it was another successful repetition of detail that everyone liked. And this was the first game of Warner Bros., Mortal Kombat 9. MK vs. DC is the latest Midway game. We did MK vs. DC in the building, which gradually became less and less crowded every week. It was strange.
Suriel: It seems that in Mortal Kombat 9 you focused on adding guest characters. Where did this idea come from?
In addition to the appearance of guest characters, this was the first game with downloadable characters. For MK vs. DC we actually partially developed Quan Chi and Harley Quinn as DLC characters. But again, because of the difficulties of the transition from Midway to Warner Brothers and the timing, we have not released them.
Therefore, we knew that we would make DLC-characters for Mortal Kombat, besides Warner Bros. - a huge entertainment company, and we had access to a variety of franchises. For example, from TV shows, movies and video games. Therefore, thanks to their business agreements, we have access to some characters. And it was again an excitement of interest like: “Wow! Freddy Kruger on the same screen as Scorpio? ”We received inspiration from horror films and nightmare games on Elm Street. Films of the series “Nightmares on Elm Street” often appeared at our meetings, where we invented fatalities. “Oh, remember that movie, where did they do that?”
Rainer: Tell me more. Have you sent a letter to Warner? Something like “Hi, can I add Freddy Kruger to the game?” And then the lawyers did it? How was all this?
It was more like “We would like to add a guest character, who are we allowed to?” And we were given a list of 10-15 characters. We didn’t want another DC character, because we made a game with a rating of M. I remember, we were offered Neo. So there was a whole bunch of heroes who, for business reasons or in terms of creativity, did not suit us. After further discussions, we realized that the characters of horror would fit in here. Jason, Freddy, Leather face. So in the discussions of Mortal Kombat 9, many characters surfaced, but for some reason we chose Freddy.
Suriel: “Nine” was, as you said, a return to the shape and style of 2D, as well as the “reset” of many storylines. What made you change direction in Mortal Kombat X? You have moved away from the classics, replacing many old characters with new ones. Feels like in X introduced the most characters from the time of the fourth part.
It was a conscious decision. You are right, I think we added the most characters to this part. In terms of strategy, this was the exact opposite of Mortal Kombat 9, because we felt the MK9 as a return to the first three games. We literally re-told the story of the first three parts in a steeper cinematic presentation. We did not add new characters. Kabal, Stryker, Raiden and the others returned, hitting nostalgic feelings.
After that we decided that the opposite should be done. "Now this game will be completely new." All this is due to a bunch of new characters. Obviously, we will save Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and other basic characters, but we will also add a lot of new elements to them: the system of character variations, Brutality, new characters, a completely new storyline and all that. Mortal Kombat 9 was a return to the roots. Mortal Kombat X is a time of novelty, new opportunities, new everything.
Suriel: An interesting thing happened recently with Injustice and Mortal Kombat - cyber competition began to develop. They were before the MK 9, but did not have popularity in the fighting communities. But in recent years, starting with the "nine", this scene began to draw more and more attention to itself. Did you rely on this when developing the 9, or did it come as a surprise to you?
When we were doing 9, the EVO was obviously popular for a long time. People suddenly began to play much more online, including fighting games. And it turned out that they are becoming more and more. We have seen this revival of interest. Twitch appeared and people started streaming their games, and this was an important factor when returning to 2D gameplay. I think in Mortal Kombat 9 we had a much better fighting engine compared to MKDC or Armageddon.
And we suddenly attracted a lot of players who played really seriously. In addition, the eSports itself was just beginning to pick up speed and take off. Yes, when we did the MK9, it was something like “Oh, it will be cool,” but when creating the MKX we thought: “Something new has appeared. We need to support and master this, insert features into the game that make new functions easier. ” Part of the recipe for creating a fighting game today is the mandatory support for e-sports.
Rainer: Tell us about the Injustice discussion and about the first days of its creation.
When we moved to Warner Bros., DC was part of Warner Bros., so it was a convenient coincidence. There were some changes in DC too, so we had to communicate with different people. In DC, were pleased with MK vs. DC, and we saw two options for continuation. One of them was the return of Mortal Kombat to the roots and the creation of another game dedicated only to superheroes. And it became Injustice.
In fact, we knew what we were going to do with Injustice, even when we were working on Mortal Kombat 9, because for me it was an obvious next move. We made Mortal Kombat vs. DC, and then they said: “So, now we are creating a game only about Mortal Kombat, why not make a game only about superheroes? Fighting about the battle of the gods. At the same time, we proposed a broader view of the fighting games with several arenas, large transitions and super-movements. In our eyes after Mortal Kombat 9, the creation of this game was obvious.
Rainer: Obviously, comic companies have their own set of rules regarding their characters, they protect them. What ideas did you exchange when creating the game? You are known for playing games with ultra-violence, character breaking through walls, etc. What compromises did they make for you to make a game about superheroes for them?
Working on Injustice was our first collaboration with the era of Jeff Jonesand the guys from DC who worked with him. It seems that he then just became the chief creative director. I do not remember the exact dates, but it was with him that we mostly consulted. He was surprisingly open to new ideas. Therefore, we have introduced all sorts of new features. For example, throwing cars into people. And he always said: “Everything is in order, as long as you keep the spirit of these characters.” He never stuck with the requirements of the type: "This boot should be a little higher on the calf." There was nothing like that. The main thing was to preserve the style and spirit of the characters, this was his main criterion. I really respect him for that. Work on the game was completely different from the creation of Mortal Kombat vs. DC.
Rainer: One of the strange consequences of this game was the borrowing of the plot. Your story still continues in comics. They are just now starting the transition back. Did you foresee that the plot of the fighting game, especially this one, will have a lasting impact?
Not.We were delighted with the fact that we founded a new alternative universe in which Superman went crazy and became a tyrant. And it was within the limits that were allowed to us. DC had such a handy thing as a multiverse, so one could say that this is not the same Superman you know. It was necessary to correspond to decades of accumulated history. We said, “No. Our Superman is like that. Our Batman is like that. ” This gave us so much creative freedom that allowed us to create extraordinary characters. Superman killed the joker? What is the story?
I think some other people associated themselves with this idea. One of them was Tom Taylor, who wrote the comic. He just fell in love with this idea. There were many gaps in our history, because we moved very quickly. Therefore, we suggested: "Tom, can you fill these gaps?" He fully supported us. Comics and mobile games were also surprises. These were our grown children. Our children grew up, finished school, left home and became successful themselves. It was so interesting to watch the comics, which received life regardless of the game. Mobile game was also a surprise, a bright flash from nowhere, which has become a popular game. Suddenly, the three independent incarnations of the Injustice universe rose to their feet. For me, this is the most amazing in the whole history of Injustice.
Rainer: Obviously, after the first Injustice and its success, the creation of a sequel was imminent. You have not yet spoken in detail about the Injustice 2 narrative. Can you talk about it and the plot superstructure on the first game in more detail?
Now we have a big campaign. We show the most interesting content. Then we are going to reveal the story, so now I can’t go into details yet. What can I say to not spoil anything? Yes, it will definitely be a continuation of the story, and many more characters will be introduced. We have already spoken at Comic-Con that the Supergirl plays a very important role. So I have to restrain myself a lot.
Rainer: [Laughs] I understand. But it will be a continuation to a certain extent.
Of course.Both the story and its presentation will be more elaborated. There will be many options and forks. Everything will not be black and white, as in the first part.
Rainer: You are working on Injustice 2, which will be released next year. Turns 30 years from the beginning of your work in the industry. Looking back, what are you thinking about first?
Recalling the past, I do not feel these 30 years. I recently went to the Pinball Expo. It is held in Chicago every October, I always go there and meet with friends with whom I worked on games at the time of pinball machines. They always say: “Look how we look young here! And how old we have become! ”And the idea that I don’t feel the past 30 years often haunts me. I do not feel that so many years have passed. As for Mortal Kombat, even after 25 years, the MKX is strangely superior in sales to Mortal Kombat 9, which is even crazier. I feel lucky to be part of this wave, its ebbs and flows. I do not feel that 30 years have passed.
: , , Mortal Kombat. ? , , ? ?
I have always been of the opinion that if we do not significantly change each new part, then people will begin to feel that they are playing the same game. I'm a big fan of other fighting games, and I watched some series degenerate a bit, repeating the same thing on one engine for 10-15 years, only with more beautiful graphics. It works for some time, but then people get bored. While we are doing something new and making significant differences, I find this interesting. At the same time, it is always exciting to create something new, like Injustice and Injustice 2, where we could learn a different type of combat mechanics and other types of characters, storytelling, etc.
Rainer: So 30 years later, when you wake up in the morning, you still love your job, and you can't wait to make new games?
Yes.I don’t have so much energy as when I was a programmer. We worked all night to meet deadlines. Someone said: “We do not have time. Well, then we remain working. ”
Rainer: I see two options for the last game for you. After 30, maybe 40 years, having retired, you either achieve the addition of Van Damme from Blood Sports to Mortal Kombat, or go back to basics and make a Mortal Kombat pinball machine in your garage.
[Laughs]
Rainer: I see only these two options.
Yes, then the cycle of stories will close. We need to think about it.
Translator Bonus: An interesting video about digitizing video for the first part of Mortal Kombat.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/372945/
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