First off, just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the past 10 years of support on Youtube (well, 6 if you don't count my account i closed or my first few years of videos on NukesGoBoom's page). It has been a hell of a ride, and i still have a few things MK-related to post sometime down the road.
10 years ago, it was my dream to one day help NetherRealm Studios out with one of their games, and last february, i got the chance to. It was me, Konqrr, Tom Brady, Shock and Krayzie Bone (along with DreamTR and Moe/Throwerr) that got invited by NRS to come try out the game, and let me tell you, this was an experience that could last a lifetime. Even though it was only a week, i still had a lot of fun doing it and talking to them about their game. I'm glad to have played a small part in the making of Mortal Kombat. To see this game win Fighting game of the year was very special to me. Going to CEO and watching the game being played was also very special to me.
When i first got there, i met Hector, Shaun and a few other members of team, then we sat down and did some paperwork to solidify the deal.
After that was done, we walked through the studio and got a quick tour etc etc.
From there, it wasn't time to play the game yet. It was time for our first meeting.
In this meeting, we were given a piece of paper, which was kind of like a tutorial of "What they know already" and "What they want us to look for". I remember one of them being "1 frame links".
After examining that piece of paper, Hector, Jon, Rigo, and a few others came in, and we had our first meeting. Went over the piece of paper, asked if we had any questions, then Hector went around the table and asked us each what we were gonna be looking for. Of course, i said "The blocking."
We finally sat at our cubicles and got ready to play MK for the first time! Very exciting. I sat at the first cubicle. Konqrr sat next to me, and Shock all the way at the end. Other side was noone at first cubicle, Bone in the middle and Tom Brady all the way in the back. My console was a XBOX360, so that presented a problem. Hector was nice enough to let me use his ps3 pad until they got a PS3 system set up.
From there, we all dove in. Tom Brady stayed with Sub Zero the whole time we were there. Bone messed around with Jade mostly and a little bit of Stryker. Shock used Sonya mainly, but also messed around with other things. Konqrr did Kitana, Mileena, Ermac, Shang Tsung, Baraka and also messed around with other characters as tested with Shock. Bone tested with Tom, and i was by myself. I sort of oversaw what everyone else was doing, like a Lead Tester. The characters i broke down were Scorpion, Sub Zero, Kung Lao, Reptile, Nightwolf, Smoke, Sektor, Liu Kang and Noob Saibot. Mind you, this was in 4 days.
My 3rd character i picked, was indeed Reptile, and it wasn't before long that i noticed the block jab infinites. Let's just say, from that point on, the next few days were mostly just the other 4 guys finding the rest of them. There were a lot. I was glad they did that because i didn't want to spend my whole trip there having to go through the rest myself. The blocking was by far, the biggest problem with the game while we were there.
But it got a little out of hand on the 3rd day, and Hector had a meeting with us. He wasn't too happy at all. He wanted us to stop looking for the block jab infinites and start trying to find other problems with the game.
I admit, at first i was upset, but afterwards, i thought about what he said, and he was right. And so, i went through the entire cast for the next day and a half, went through all their moves, wrote down each input and gave my opinion on them.
Most of my comments were "this hits too high" or "this should hit low/mid" or "increase the speed of the animation once blockstun is improved". Well... the blockstun thing didn't end up going my way, but i'm glad to have helped anyway. It took me about 2 to 3 hours to write up a single character, and i got all the way up to Sheeva as i was walking out the door (the last day we were there was only a half a day). It was exhausting. We worked from 8 in the morning till 1 am. We were given the choice to leave at 5pm or stay till 2am. And without hesistation, we all wanted to stay as late as possible.
On that last day, we had a meeting with Ed Boon. They went through every character with us and whichever one of us worked on the character we spoke about. I also talked to Ed about the blocking and explained to him how moves can still be safe with less blockstun like how Hapkido was in Deadly Alliance. He was convinced and wrote it down on his piece of paper (victory!). That was my main gripe with the game.
After the meeting was over, i pulled Ed aside and talked to him about a future testing job. I let him know how i was currently going to college for a game testing a degree and have every intention of coming back when im done, in which he replied "OK!" very excitingly. I also talked to pretty much every developer while i was there about my future job and received a confirmation from them as well.
My dream finally achieved... After all these years. It was almost a year ago to this day that we went out there. I'm glad to see everyone here enjoying the game and moving the scene. It's a great feeling to have been a part of it.
Other notable events from my trip:
1) Ed walking past my cubicle on the 2nd day checking out my TV a little bit. I got up and introduced myself then. I was the only person there this happened to. ^_^
2) NBA All Star stuff (slam dunk contest, 3 point shootout etc) was going on. I remember asking Hector if i could watch it and he said yes. I wound up not watching it because i was so swamped with work, but it was cool to walk by the lounge room and see Hec, Brian, Jon, Shaun etc all watching the dunk contest together. Really cool to see them enjoying it. Wish i would went in there.
3) Goro's Lair - The arcade room with every Midway machine... right next to the lounge room... right next to kitchen. Can you say heaven? Got to play Moe in UMK3, which was special. Shock was showing everyone glitch jabs etc.
4) Days Inn - This hotel was great. When we got there, we explained to the guy behind the counter why we were there (to an extent). Of course, when he asked "What's it for?". I replied very tiredly (which sounded very villainous) "The day will come.... when you will know...." In which he replied "Ok, just wait for me to get off my shift before you blow up the hotel"... not gonna lie, i sounded very like a terrorist when i said it.
5) Watched ESPN every night after getting home from work. All i was watching was for Carmelo to finally sign with the Knicks (which wound up happening after our flight home).
6) One night, i hung out with a couple of locals in Chicago, and boy, let me tell you, the people of Chicago are the BEST. It was the most fun i had in a long time. We walked around Chicago signing Cypress Hill and drinking etc. Later on went up to their hotel room and chilled out till 4am (this was after working from 8am-1am) knowing i had to get up in 3 hours for another 15 hour day. I didn't care. I lived off adrenaline while i was there, because it was that intense
7) Flying over the living forest as we were about to land in Chicago.
8) Getting stuck at the airport on our way home and having to take a flight instead the next morning. boooo
9) Doing the Scorpion 4 jumpkick teleport combo in front of Hector and him replying afterwards "Why you always gotta be the hero for, Jason" I was sooo nervous doing that combo in front of him. Knew he was busy and that i had to land the combo quick.
10) "Jax is just a black dude with a gun" "Liu Kang is just a chinese dude with a headband"
11) Rigo giving us each another interview on the 3rd day asking about how we liked the game and what surprised us most. Maybe someday you'll see those interviews! He also filmed us at our cubicle. Of course, i did the Scorpion 4 jumpkick teleport combo while i was filmed. It was what i was most known for while i was there.
12) The developer i talked to most out there was none other than Brian Lebaron. This guy was great. He made you feel comfortable being there. He told me about his history back in NY. This guy deserved to be there. A true MK addict.
13) Carlos Pesina was extremly humble and very appreciative of us being there. I couldn't help but go "This is the life, man. This is the life!" which is from MK:Unseen. An unbelievable guy. Can't wait to see him again.
14) Lastly, it was great to finally meet Konqrr after 9 long years. He's been there since my beginning in this community. He gave me the strength to keep posting combos in his thread during MKD. And of course, getting to meet Bone was also great, a guy i've shared many games with and whom i inspired as a player when he first started taking MKA pretty serious.
Overall, it was a great experience and something that should be done again. I hope to be a part seeing as now that i've gone through it i'll know what to expect next time. Thanks NetherRealm for a chance to live my dream.
Thanks to everyone who read this and i hope it can be of some inspiration towards you.
-Jason
), but it's still rewarding to know that you were hand picked by NRS to help them and many fans alike to realize their ambitions for MK9 right? Thanks again man.
