Those who are looking for some behind the scenes looks at
Mortal Kombat (2011) are in for a treat.
Steve Beran who is
Art Director of
NetherRealm Studios wrote a
great behind the scenes article over at the
Playstation.Blog. In the article Steve details step by step how fatalities are created in the game along with a few unseen screenshots and story boards like the one below:
Here is a snippet of Steve explaining the first step in Fatality creation, when Ed Boon and the other game designers lock themselves in a room to come up with gruesome ideas to maim victims in the game.
The fatality development process is extremely collaborative. In the past, we didn’t start designing and implementing fatalities until the majority of the game was finished. But with this game, the team began working on fatalities early in the development cycle in order to have the maximum amount of time to come up with ideas and polish them. Fatalities are born in the dark recesses of the designer’s minds – each fatality always starts with a general idea from [Mortal Kombat co-creator] Ed Boon and the designers. They basically lock themselves in a room for hours and lay out all of their ideas. Once the meeting begins, one brave soul is the first to share a sick and twisted way for the player to finish off their opponent, and the process begins.
It's a great read, so we suggest you head on over and
read the article. Thanks to JRF for the heads up!