We recently had a chance to sit down with Ed Boon and Producer, John Podlasek, to briefly discuss some of the beginnings of the series and how things have drastically changed as they currently work on the latest iteration, Mortal Kombat: Deception.
In case you missed our previous in-depth interview with John Podlasek, be sure to check it out at:
Mortal Kombat: Deception Interview Part 1
Obviously Mortal Kombat: Deception is a long way from one of the first games you programmed for, High Impact Football. At the time of creating the MK series, what was the driving point behind the idea?
Ed Boon: Wow! What a memory you have.
Looking at how things were done back then versus now, that is like the difference between a garage band and an orchestra. We were in our twenties at that time, so we were like, "hey, let's put some blood on the screen, let's rip a guy's head off�" We were like kids just playing around on the original game and now we have a team of 30-40 people working on Deception. So now it's like a movie production with several people working on separate aspects, and a lot more is expected.
Life back when we started the Mortal Kombat series was a lot simpler. I was the only programmer on the game, where I'd lock myself in a room and try to change the world. Now it's this huge conglomerate.
It's almost as if the series has come full-circle with the first three games to be featured in Midway Arcade Treasures 2.
Ed Boon: Yeah, it's funny because I was just watching some people play the original MK in Arcade Treasures 2 and seeing Raiden, Johnny Cage, and crew was like this nostalgic trip back to 1992. It reminded me of testing the game in the arcades, being there all weekend, seeing peoples' first reactions to the game, and so on. Now it's more of delegation and going to each person and finding out what they've just implemented or put into the game instead of being part of every single detail.
Deadly Alliance did phenomenally well, but there were obviously certain aspects that had to be put on the backburner until the next game. When Deadly Alliance was completed what did you immediately think about incorporating into what would eventually become Deception?
Ed Boon: We obviously did a lot of listening to gamers on bulletin boards as to what worked in Deadly Alliance, what didn't, characters that they wanted to see in the next game, bringing back old characters like Baraka; the whole scope of feedback. Then we really wanted to do something that wasn't expected. We had a goal from the beginning to really throw something at gamers that would totally surprise them. So we put in the puzzle game, threw in a board game; a really extensive single-player experience. We wanted to hit people really hard so that those expecting just the natural progression of a fighting game would be caught off guard by all the new modes and how deep the game really is.
