Znalazłem ciekawy fragment wywiadu z producentem SF Yoshinori Ono wypowiadającym się o zachodnich deweloperach produkujących fajtery. Oto on:
Who in the genre are you looking at as inspiration and competition at the moment?In the grand scheme of myself and where I want to take fighting games I don't think there's anyone in particular that has taken the genre to where I want to take it. I myself am not even half way to that point. At the moment I don't see anyone headed towards that same direction. In that sense I respect Mori-san from Arc Systems and Harada-san from Namco Bandai but in terms of what I want to do we're in different dimensions. At the moment everyone is saying fighting games have made a real comeback, everyone is into it but I'm quite scared that we're going to repeat what happened in the early 90s where fighting games were big and everyone got comfortable. More and more people come and make lesser types, people might not think too much about it and the whole market could stagnate again - that is what I'm fearing. I'm glad that more people are playing but I really want to make sure that developers don't stop innovating because it's easy to get comfortable once the market is big. At the moment I kind of feel as if I'm on my own heading towards my own ideals.
Why do you think the west hasn't traditionally been as good at making fighting games?At the moment I think it probably comes down to the nature of Japanese game developers, in that they don't find it difficult to just sit and do tedious number calculations. Looking at how routines work in programming, how hits translate to numbers... it's not very glamorous to make a fighting game despite how it may appear. It's almost like a craftsmanship, for the moment I feel that those craftmeisters only exist in Japan.
The one exception is Mortal Kombat. Have you played it and what do you think of it?I've played it and I like it but it's obviously very different. I think it represents the difference in philosophy. I find Japanese games tend to find the 'process' of playing the game as the activity and the result may not matter. So in Street Fighter when you're playing it's the moment to moment gameplay that should be the best, whether you win or lose doesn't really matter. Whereas in Mortal Kombat the fighting and playing is just a pathway to get to the result - it's the Fatality you want to see and you almost want to skip the fighting bit and get to the Fatality because that is the result. I think western fighting games tend to put more weight in the result rather than the process. So it's fun when you win but while you're playing it doesn't have the intricate build up where it's 'opponent did this, so you try this'. Street Fighter is more like a game of chess, it's very quite almost. You sit there, do the moves and enjoy that, there's not really a lot of fireworks or explosions at the end. I think that's the fundamental difference; whether you put the importance in the process or the result. In Street Fighter when you pull off the Hadoken command you see a fireball, but in Street Fighter philosophy seeing the fireball fly over isn't the main draw, it's the decision making process in when to pull it off - that is what is important. Whereas I think in Mortal Kombat once you pull it off you enjoy the result of what happens with the fireball effect and when you do it doesn't really matter as long as it hits. Street Fighter is about timing and distance not the visual result from the fireball.
What advice would you give a western studio creating a fighting game?I admit that western developers are far better than the Japanese in terms of presenting the result and exciting people with what happens, so I don't think there's any worry about that. What I'd suggest is that they think about - in fighting game terms - distance and timing. This probably roots from martial arts, which is the same thing - it's all about distance and timing. There's also the intricate balance act with characters. If they can pull that off they don't need to worry about the rest. For us we have to learn about how to show everything to make it more dynamic and exciting rather than a dull chess game. So it goes both ways.
Cóż wg mnie ten Pan grał chyba tylko w MK 3d