Mortal Kombat: It all started with an uppercut. Interview with one of the creators of the MK game series

Original author: Game Informer
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Ed Boon Interview by Andrew Rainer and Suriel Vasquez.



At Williams, I was programming pinball machines. At that time, Eugene Jarvis returned to the company. He opened a department dealing with 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 making pinball machines, but the guys downstairs worked on video games and it was interesting to talk to them.

I persuaded them to install a video system in my office, so I had pinball and video games at the same time. I remember that I borrowed part of the graphics from NARC to create explosions and something else. Eugene and I had already worked together on the Tomcat F-14 pinball machine and were good friends. So 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 Eugene and I started working on High Impact Football. It was 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.

Reiner: Looks like it was just a friendly invitation. Almost the same approach Valve uses now, something like: "Hello, take part 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 that sounds funny. Much was taken simply from the head, impromptu. There were no design documents, no formalities. “How do we do this? Let's try it like this. ” Inventiveness out of necessity.

So this was my first video game. It was strange to process the images that I was on. The game was a great success. And that was Williams' signature graphic style, first in games like 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 to be good, so we made a sequel called Super High Impact Football. All these were games for arcade machines working from 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, which will have no sequels. So I took up Mortal Kombat. [Laughs] Working on High Impact Football, I met many guys in the studio. One of them was John Tobias. We hung out together, talked. At that time, Street Fighter II came out and everyone was discussing it: “Look how big the images on the screen are! Oh my God! Look at them! ”This fighting game had very stylized graphics, similar to a hand-drawn anime. And we decided: “We’ll make a version of this game, only about the bad guys. Let there be blood. This will be the MTV version of Street Fighter. ”

Reiner: When you started working on Mortal Kombat and tested the 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 the participation of Jean-Claude Van Damme and aimed at this ... I think, at that time, his last film was "Bloody Sport". “Bloody Sport”, “Exit of the Dragon” and other similar films where someone collects 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 “Blood Sport”, launched a video cassette, digitized the necessary images and combined everything we could find into something like a demo.

We did a demo and sent it to Jean-Claude Van Damm. We took this film, demo and graphic layouts as we saw it, and then contacted the person who was engaged in licenses for us and all that. He said: “Alas, he has already signed a contract 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 acquaintances involved in martial arts. He studied with them in high school. Let's invite them and take them off. ” At that time, we did not 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 dealt with this very quickly. We have a working demo of the game. God, it only took us a few weeks to do this. Maybe a month.

The most amazing was the uppercut. Once we made this uppercut, the screen shook, the enemy flew into the air and suddenly everyone began to run to my office and ask to show the game. Our bosses are also interested. It was something really cool. Everyone started discussing 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 that made pinball machines all the time. But the leadership tried to expand our volumes. It seems that in Gurney (a city in Illinois) we had a production of video games and we were told: “This month we will finish work on all the games that we are currently producing. Guys, can you finish your game with fights in order to complete the production plan? "Well, we replied:" 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 was involved in music. All this was rather strange. In my memories, there were only two characters on the screen. How difficult was it to do it, jumping and everything else? I do not remember. We started testing and ... I swear, I have somewhere in the basement somewhere a video of this first test. Surrealistic 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 to run from delight. Run around the machine.

It shocked us. We already tested games 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 mad 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 gaming rooms were filled with people playing Street Fighter. And then, quite suddenly, a new version of Street Fighter about the bad guys arose 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 modify it, because there were bugs. So, people came, but there was no game, and we began to receive phone calls. It was nothing like that. We saw the beginning of what’s getting bigger

And we finished the game in eight months. The game from start to finish took eight months. Four guys. Frequent nighttime sleep deprivation. We didn’t even have such a person as a designer. The position of designer did not exist. There were a Programmer, an Artist, a Sound Engineer. Here are three posts of our team. The design consisted of ideas. John Tobias came up with costume designs and all that. I developed the actions of the characters, their special features and their game mechanics. We worked very closely, but I was engaged in all the real work, the implementation of ideas, and the programming of movements. Artwork and animations were simultaneously done by John Tobias. John Vogel created the graphics, and Dan Forden recorded the sound. It was a very close team of four. We helped each other a lot. This is how the 25-year-old chapter of my life devoted to fighting games began.



Reiner: What was the name of the game then? Obviously, it was something like Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Bloody Sport. What were the original names?

There was no name, only the surname "Van Damme". We wanted only huge Van Damme letters on the ads. But failed. When we abandoned this name, we discarded a bunch of others. The list of the best was Kumite (" Kumite "). Dragon Attack is the name of the song Queen. We also thought about him. Death Blow (Death Breath) and the like ... Death Blow, Final Fist or something like that. We rejected many such crazy, almost stereotypical martial arts movie titles. And then one day I wrote the word “Combat” on the board and replaced the first letter with “K”.

Reiner: Why on K?

Just to be different. To make the name unique. I worked on a couple of games with pinball designer Steve Ritchie, he had a 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. So far, just Kombat. ” And he asked: “Why not name the game Mortal Kombat?”. And I’m like, “Oh my God, yes, there it is!”

Reiner: Do you remember your initial discussions about creating the Street Fighter version of bad guys or fighting game? Can you remember what the vision was at first?

Yes. No one expected anything special from us. We just worked quietly, went out to the store to buy costumes, tried to come up with a costume that would look good with our digitized graphics technology. That was great. Nobody expected anything from us and we worked quietly.

And then suddenly there were expectations. Can we finish it quickly? Can we handle it? This was the first game for me and John, in which we were our own 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, which is just a legend. We ourselves made only one or two games. In fact, John was making a Total Carnage game similar to Smash TV. There was still the voice of the chief villain, General Akhbub. So John and I knew each other a little and worked together very little. There were no expectations, and it was great, because we were not pressured or forced to make the game beautiful and interesting. And then the pressure began.

Suriel: After the game was released, everyone probably knew that she would have to deal with the actions of people like Joe Lieberman (approx. Per: US Senator), who lobbied for the introduction of ESRB . Did your team feel such pressure?

Not. The time was interesting, many people did not know that we created our game, and then it became an arcade hit. Tens of thousands of machine guns were sold. In the conditions of that gaming era, we almost three times exceeded the sales of our best-selling game. It was awesome. Our company focused on creating as many machines as possible. I think in some period the assembly line worked around the clock.

Acclaim “smelled blood” and, to her credit, recognized Mortal Kombat’s potential mass market hit. They told us: "We will spend $ 10 million on advertising this game." I remember that I answered: “Guys, you better slow down. [Laughs] You bet too much! And I was completely mistaken. They brought the game to the market and launched an advertisement on TV, the shameful one where a teenager shouts: “MORTAL KOMBAT!”. Suddenly they learned about the game and drew 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 were already working on a sequel.


There were no rating systems at that time. And that was never a problem. Then there was hip-hop and it suddenly became clear that there were obscene texts in it. And people were worried: “Wow, audio recordings? Do you need to do something with them? ”So the labels“ Explicit Lyrics ”began to appear on the albums. Suddenly, we were also required to make a note“ There is violence in this game. ”Not only from us, in Doom and Night Trap, too. These games made it clear that a rating system is necessary. And we agreed with that. We never wanted the little children to see the game.

Reiner: Have you ever thought that the game will affect people like that? What will you have such a glorious path in the video game industry, and that you will work in the same company for almost all your life?

No, of course, I had no idea about it ... You know, for me it was like different stages of training. First there was a primary school, secondary, then college. I was a pinball programmer, video game programmer, programmer and designer, and then there was Mortal Kombat with all the sequels. The first game we made four. The second - five of them. On the third, we worked in full measure. Then we became nine. Then, all of a sudden, 25 people started working on the Deadly Alliance. And with each game more and more people were added. Now only 180 people work in our studio. And people from other studios are also involved in the game. We are like one huge monster.

Among other things, to Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3 people were attracted by secrets. We had a bunch of secret characters, a guy popping out of the corner, shouting “Toasty!”, Just some random “tricks”. I always wanted to make a question mark at the end of the game. I didn’t want anyone to even think that they knew everything about the game. Around the game there were constantly many legends, fabrications and deceptions. And I liked it because it intrigued people. The fact that there were secrets in the game 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 of the creation of MK4, 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 started to win,

By then, the PlayStation was released. It was a completely different machine, especially compared to the arcade market. Then we made an important decision. I remember how everyone said: "Madness will release Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance only for home systems." This 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 did not have to create a game that takes a quarter from you for every two and a half minutes, or whatever the formula was. And our team has become larger.

Previously, the game was about how players select 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 win against Tekken and Street Fighter. At that time, Tekken and, it seems, Virtua Fighter appeared. But the largest was Tekken and then we were competitors. Then we left coin machines and began to sell much more. Teams and volumes have become larger.



Reiner: We discussed the frenzy that was 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 ill-fated 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 steps are connected to each other. Acclaim has 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 by millions of copies that all belonged to Acclaim. And I know that then the Midway management decided to move on to publishing home games. We only focused on slot machine games, so Acclaim took over the switch to home systems and advertising.

Therefore, Mortal Kombat 3 did Midway. She seems to have bought Trade West from San Diego so we can enter 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 arcade 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, but it went on arcade machines not as good as MK1, 2 and 3. The market for arcades quickly went down.

So we published the home version of Mortal Kombat 4 and asked ourselves: “Should we publish the next Mortal Kombat game for home systems?” We talked with sellers of our arcade machines. For several years it has been heard that the market is drowning, 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 aim at home platforms. And so came the 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 switched to 3D, even Street Fighter switched to 3D. The Street Fighter EX series was dedicated to 3D fighting.



And the Deadly Alliance 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 the action adventure 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 of a different type, it was still Mortal Kombat, and it came out just a year after the fighting game. At that time, we had a lot of work.

But after Armageddon, in which there was something about 50 characters, I felt that we had reached the limit. “We will not make 70 characters in the next game. We will not expand further. ” And we really concluded on this, I tried as much as I could.

Then one of the marketing executives contacted DC Comics and we started discussing the creation of a fighting game for DC. He suggested: “What about combining the characters of DC and Mortal Kombat?”

The problem was obviously that we could not cut off our heads, for example, Batman. We can't cut off Superman's head. But this is a Mortal Kombat game. Will we do it with a rating of M (for an adult audience) or with a rating of T (for teenagers)? And we decided to make a game with a rating of T. People who loved Mortal Kombat the way it is, could not see all of our sophisticated bloody fatalities. But the novelty appeared: “Wow! Batman and Sub-Zero are on the same screen and they are fighting each other! ”It was an interesting experiment,“ what if? ”

The game sold well, but it created a need to 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 was becoming 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 team, and from basketball games with the NBA and even Psi-Ops and Stranglehold. Over the course of the year, people became smaller and smaller until only we remained.



Reiner: So the closure of Midway didn't affect your team at all?

Yes, we haven’t fired a single person from our team since it consisted of the first four guys. And that was important to us. When you encounter financial difficulties, some kind of subject always appears with suggestions: “Guys, can it get a little shrunk here? Can you cut it here? ” With all this, some members of the team developed understandable nervousness. And I personally insisted that we were not going to fire anyone, because this team makes the product and does it well. It really was a slippery moment. And they understood everything.

Then came Warner Bros. In fact, several other companies wanted to buy us. I remember communicating with several companies. But Warner Bros. came, and that was definitely our option. The first thing they said when we finished Mortal Kombat vs. DC and worked on MK9, was: “We want to give you another six months to create the game. We really want her to be the best possible. ” It was very different from the usual “Hey, two years have passed. Where is our new game? ”

Mortal Kombat 9 was a resounding comeback. It was a comeback because we just made a game with a rating of T. It was a comeback 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 seemed that they had reached their peak. Therefore, we thought: "The time has come for a real hit." We decided to bring back the nostalgic characters from Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3. And that turned out to be amazing. The ninth part was the best-selling of all Mortal Kombat games in almost 20 years, it was just crazy. Usually the first few games are the best-selling. Therefore it was unexpected, and Warner Bros. really helped us.

Reiner: I want to note that when I talk to developers, they always say that the “reboot” of the series that you did is the last thing they think about. Were there other directions you thought before returning to 2D?

Not. As for me, I usually used the term: "So the planets converged." It was the perfect choice. MK vs. Thanks to the new characters and the T rating, DC was good, but we got a lot of reviews like: “Yes, it was funny, but now you will make a real Mortal Kombat?” It was a clear message from the players, so we just had no choice. In the discussions of this game, I’m used to saying that its history is a story of a return to 2D and rating M, a return to characters, a retelling of the history of MK1, 2, 3. I don’t think that this set of circumstances will ever happen again.

After we talked about our plans, real madness began. In MK vs. DC introduced a cinematic representation of the story mode, in which you go from battle to battle, and we felt that we could further improve it in Mortal Kombat 9. Therefore, this was another successful repetition of the part that everyone liked. And this was the first game of Warner Bros., Mortal Kombat 9. MK vs. DC was the last Midway game. We did MK vs. DC in a building that gradually became less and less crowded every week. That was weird.



Suriel: It seems that in Mortal Kombat 9 you focused on adding guest characters. Where did this idea come from?

Besides 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, due to the complexity of the transition from Midway to Warner Brothers and the timing, we never released them.

Therefore, we knew that we would be making DLC ​​characters for Mortal Kombat, and also Warner Bros. - A huge entertainment company, and we had access to many franchises. For example, from television shows, films and video games. Therefore, thanks to their business agreements, we now have access to some characters. And it was again an excitement of interest like: “Wow! Freddy Krueger on the same screen as Scorpio? ”We got inspiration from horror films and the Nightmare on Elm Street games. Films of the series “Nightmares on Elm Street” often appeared at our meetings, where we invented fatality. “Oh, remember that movie where they did it?”

Reiner: Tell us more. Did you send an email to Warner? Something like “Hello, can I add to the game of Freddy Krueger?” And then the lawyers did this? How was it all?

It was more like “We would like to add a guest character, who will we be allowed to do?” And they gave us 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 discussion, we realized that horror characters 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: The Nine was, as you said, a return to 2D form and style, as well as a “reload” 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 X introduced the most characters since the fourth part.

It was a conscious decision. You're 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 MK9 felt like a return to the first three games. We literally retold the story of the first three parts in a cooler cinematic representation. We did not add new characters. Kabal, Stryker, Raiden and the rest returned, hurt nostalgic feelings.

After that, we felt that we needed to do the opposite. "Now this game will be completely new." All this is connected with a bunch of new characters. Obviously, we will save Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and other basic characters, but we will also add many new elements to them: a system of character variations, Brutality, new characters, a completely new plot story and all that. Mortal Kombat 9 was a return to the roots. Mortal Kombat X is a time of novelty, new features, new everything.
Suriel: Recently, an interesting thing happened with Injustice and Mortal Kombat - cyber competitions began to develop. They were before MK 9, but did not have popularity in fighting communities. But in recent years, starting with the "nine", this scene began to attract more and more attention. Did you count on this while developing 9, or was it a surprise to you?

When we did 9, EVO was obviously already popular for a long time. People suddenly began to play much more online, including fighting games. And it turned out that there are more and more of them. We have seen this resurgence of interest. Twitch appeared and people began to stream 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 game compared to MKDC or Armageddon.

And we suddenly attracted a lot of players who played really seriously. In addition, eSports itself, in general, was just starting to pick up speed and take off. Yes, when we did MK9, it was something like “Oh, it will be cool”, but when creating 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 eSports.



Reiner: Tell us about the Injustice discussions and the early 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, so we had to communicate with different people. The DC were happy with MK vs. DC, and we saw two options to continue. 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 Injustice would do when we worked 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 the game only about superheroes? Fighting about the battle of the gods. " Then we offered a broader view of fighting games with several arenas, large transitions and super-movements. In our eyes, after Mortal Kombat 9, the creation of this game was obvious.

Reiner: Obviously, comic book 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 with ultra-violence, breaking through walls with characters, etc. What compromises did they make so that you make a superhero game for them?

Work on Injustice was our first collaboration with the Jeff Jones eraand the DC guys who worked with him. It seems that he just became the main creative director then. I do not remember the exact dates, but it was with him that we basically consulted. He was surprisingly open to new ideas. Therefore, we have introduced all sorts of new features. For example, car throws at people. And he always said: "Everything is in order as long as you maintain the spirit of these characters." He never met requirements like: "This boot should be slightly higher on the calf." There was nothing like that. The main thing was to maintain 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 creating Mortal Kombat vs. DC



Reiner: One of the strange consequences of this game was the borrowing of the plot. Your story still continues in comics. They are only just 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 thrilled to have founded a new alternative universe in which Superman went crazy and became a tyrant. And it was within the boundaries that we were allowed. DC had such a convenient thing as a multiverse, so you could say that this is not the same Superman that 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 it 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 book. He just fell in love with this idea. There were many gaps in our history, because we moved very fast. So 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, graduated from school, left the house and became successful themselves. It was so interesting to watch a comic strip that got its life regardless of the game. The mobile game was also a surprise, a bright flash from nowhere, which has become a popular game. Quite suddenly, three independent incarnations of the Injustice universe stood firmly on their feet. For me, this is the most amazing thing in the entire history of Injustice.

Reiner: Obviously, after the first Injustice and its success, the creation of the sequel was inevitable. You have not talked in detail about the Injustice 2 narrative. Can you tell us more about it and the plot add-on for the first game in more detail?

Now we are going through a big campaign. We will show the most interesting content. Then we are going to reveal the story, so right now I can not go into details. What can I say so as not to ruin anything? Yes, it will definitely be a continuation of the story, and many more characters will be introduced. We have already said at Comic-Con that Supergirl plays a very important role. So I have to hold back a lot.

Reiner: [Laughs] I understand. But it will be a continuation to some extent.

Of course. Both history 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.



Reiner: You are working on Injustice 2, which will be released next year. It will be 30 years since the beginning of your work in the industry. Looking back, what is the first thing you think about?

Remembering 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 friends with whom I worked on games during the time of pinball machines. They always say: “Look how we look young here!” And how old we have become! ”And I often get the thought that I don’t feel the past 30 years. I don’t feel that so many years have passed. As for the Mortal Kombat, even after 25 years, the MKX is strangely outperforming the Mortal Kombat 9, which is even crazier. I feel lucky to be part of this wave, its ebbs and flows. I don’t feel that 30 years have passed.

Reiner: I can’t remember a single developer who has been making a series of games for as long as you with Mortal Kombat. Is this series of games supporting creativity in you? How do you feel, do you get up every day, rejoicing in the creation of a new game? What is your motivation?

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 am a big fan of other fighting games, and I watched how some series degenerate a little, repeating the same thing on the same engine for 10-15 years, only with more beautiful graphics. It works for a while, but then people get bored. While we are doing something new and making significant differences, I'm interested. At the same time, it’s always exciting to create something new like Injustice and Injustice 2, where we could learn another type of combat mechanics and other types of characters, representations of history, etc.

Reiner: So 30 years later, waking up in the morning, you still love your job, and you are eager to make new games?

Yes. I don’t have as 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 stay to work. ”

Reiner: I see two options for the last game for you. After 30, maybe 40 years, when you retire, you will either get Van Damme from Blood Sport to Mortal Kombat or you will return to the roots and make a Mortal Kombat pinball machine in your garage.
[Laughs].


Reiner: I only see these two options.

Yes, then the cycle of stories closes. We need to think about it.


Bonus from the translator: an interesting video about digitizing the video for the first part of Mortal Kombat.

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