HeavyNorse
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Fighting games haven't traditionally been hailed for having the strongest story modes among gaming genres, but Ed Boon and his development team at Midway Games changed the landscape in some significant ways with the release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe back in 2008.
This game saw an immense upgrade from a reliance on a handful of text-ridden stills or a few 30-second clips to using a full cinematic experience complete with motion-captured actors, but this was no easy feat to pull off and Boon's team wasn't exactly sold on the idea to begin with.
IGN has posted an interview with the MK co-creator in which he articulates some of the early struggles and challenges of starting this massive change that would eventually raise the bar for the entire fighting game genre.
"It involved a ton of work, a ton of new tech that wasn't in place yet, in terms of streaming video while loading the next fight in, and a whole memory arrangement that we didn't have," explained Boon.
"And so it met with a decent amount of resistance, and not from the standpoint of, 'oh, we don't want to work,' but it was more like, 'is this going to be cool? Really? How? This is a single-player game, people are just going to play it once and then be done with it.'"
In their initial run at the new concept, Boon's team brought to him more of a glorified comic as opposed to a cinematic experience that would make fans feel like they were essentially inside of a Mortal Kombat movie.
In spite of the fact that his team clearly didn't have too much faith in or clear vision of what he was aiming for, Boon did not relent. This wound up being an instance wherein the boss needed to throw their weight around a bit to get others to see and believe in the big picture, a move that would prove very fruitful in the long run.
"I remember experiencing some frustration with it because I was like, 'how are you guys not excited about this?'" continued Boon. "And eventually, I just kind of forced it through. So [it was] one of the few times that I feel like, I pitched an idea, people weren't excited about it, and I was like, no, you guys aren't going to kill this. This is going through, we're going to do this, whether you're on board or not."
We've seen gotten Mortal Kombat 2011, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat 11, and the newly released Aftermath update to MK11 which tacks on an additional few hours of story campaign.
Other fighting game developers have clearly followed suit as NetherRealm Studios (Boon's current endeavor which followed the bankruptcy of Midway back in 2009) has become the matter of fact standard for fighting game story modes, but none have really come close to becoming competition for NRS in this department.
Ed Boon has shown innovation many times over the years through Mortal Kombat titles as most have brought with them some kind of new angle or experience for players who aren't simply interested at being the best competitors.
This has proven especially important in modern times as the genre has been prodded to do a better job at appealing to both casual and competitive audiences simultaneously.
https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2020/jun/04/were-going-do-whether-youre-board-or-not-ed-boons-team-wasnt-initially-behind-his-idea-overhaul-mortal-kombat-story-modes/
This game saw an immense upgrade from a reliance on a handful of text-ridden stills or a few 30-second clips to using a full cinematic experience complete with motion-captured actors, but this was no easy feat to pull off and Boon's team wasn't exactly sold on the idea to begin with.
IGN has posted an interview with the MK co-creator in which he articulates some of the early struggles and challenges of starting this massive change that would eventually raise the bar for the entire fighting game genre.
"It involved a ton of work, a ton of new tech that wasn't in place yet, in terms of streaming video while loading the next fight in, and a whole memory arrangement that we didn't have," explained Boon.
"And so it met with a decent amount of resistance, and not from the standpoint of, 'oh, we don't want to work,' but it was more like, 'is this going to be cool? Really? How? This is a single-player game, people are just going to play it once and then be done with it.'"
In their initial run at the new concept, Boon's team brought to him more of a glorified comic as opposed to a cinematic experience that would make fans feel like they were essentially inside of a Mortal Kombat movie.
In spite of the fact that his team clearly didn't have too much faith in or clear vision of what he was aiming for, Boon did not relent. This wound up being an instance wherein the boss needed to throw their weight around a bit to get others to see and believe in the big picture, a move that would prove very fruitful in the long run.
"I remember experiencing some frustration with it because I was like, 'how are you guys not excited about this?'" continued Boon. "And eventually, I just kind of forced it through. So [it was] one of the few times that I feel like, I pitched an idea, people weren't excited about it, and I was like, no, you guys aren't going to kill this. This is going through, we're going to do this, whether you're on board or not."
We've seen gotten Mortal Kombat 2011, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat 11, and the newly released Aftermath update to MK11 which tacks on an additional few hours of story campaign.
Other fighting game developers have clearly followed suit as NetherRealm Studios (Boon's current endeavor which followed the bankruptcy of Midway back in 2009) has become the matter of fact standard for fighting game story modes, but none have really come close to becoming competition for NRS in this department.
Ed Boon has shown innovation many times over the years through Mortal Kombat titles as most have brought with them some kind of new angle or experience for players who aren't simply interested at being the best competitors.
This has proven especially important in modern times as the genre has been prodded to do a better job at appealing to both casual and competitive audiences simultaneously.
https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2020/jun/04/were-going-do-whether-youre-board-or-not-ed-boons-team-wasnt-initially-behind-his-idea-overhaul-mortal-kombat-story-modes/
