![]() ![]() “Designing fatalities is always a tricky thing,” Beran said. While the developers have only ramped up the gore in the fatalities over the years, Beran clearly takes pride in the sense of levity that they bring to the series. ![]() Ed always sets the benchmark for where we’re going.” And that’s a rhythm we’ve had for the last. ![]() “But that was definitely the first one that Ed came up with. “There’s just a lot of us imitating what an effect should sound like and discussing what they should look like,” Beran said. So it makes sense that work on the game would begin there. But they’re also a release for the tension of a match, and something that the fans look forward to with every iteration. “‘His head has to go BAH!’”įatalities are the ultimate taunt, a way of performing dominance over an opponent at the end of a round of Kombat. “‘No, his eyes need to be wider, more open,’” Beran said, playfully mimicking Boon’s enthusiasm. He remembers Boon going over the final renders. Every detail has been executed precisely, Beran says, from the flick of the thumb that unsheathes the sword to the look on the victim’s face. Once in place, he swiftly decapitates him, only to pluck his gaping head out of thin air with his signature bladed grapple. In it, Scorpion transforms into a flaming demon before leaping forward to burn a hole through his adversary, Raiden, stunning him. You can see that fatality in the clip below, around the 93-second mark. That first fatality came courtesy of Scorpion, a classic character that Boon has voiced since the beginning of the franchise. “He knows what new tech we have for every new game,” Beran said, “and always sums it up in the first fatality and then we’re like, ‘Oh, that’s what we’re going - that’s where we’re going with this.’” Boon keeps tabs on it all in his role as creative director when the team sat down to begin brainstorming, he was the first one to step to the board and start drawing. The team has a new collection of digital effects in its toolbox, as well as completely new animation systems. “So many of the ideas he has, he’ll draw these little stick figures and he’ll set the bar early in the game.”įor MK11, the first Mortal Kombat title since 2015’s Mortal Kombat X, a lot has changed at NetherRealm. “Ed always sets the bar with the first fatality,” Beran told Polygon during a studio tour last week. Steve Beran, the team’s art director, remembers the meeting well. In fact, it was the very first one that the studio showed to the public back in December. But the creative process began with a single fatality drawn on a whiteboard by series co-creator Ed Boon. When Mortal Kombat 11 arrives this spring, it will be thanks to the work of a massive team of artists, programmers, and writers who have been toiling away at NetherRealm Studios in Chicago for years. ![]()
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