Check out this great intrerview with S-Kill talking about Balance in Street Fighter 4 and feedback MvC3 got at Evo 2010.
Capcom's Seth Killian took some time after EVO to answer a handful of questions from the iPlayWinner crew! He gives us some really in depth answers on EVO, Marvel vs Capcom 3 and some other odd-ball questions we threw his way. Once again, thanks to Seth for taking the time to answer these questions and be sure to sound off in the comments to let him know what you think!
iPW: You've obviously been going to EVO for a very long time and have seen it grow over the years but this year was much larger on multiple levels than previous years. What are your general thoughts on this years EVO? Did it exceed your expectations?
S-Kill: I dunno how, but EVO exceeds my expectations literally every year. Maybe that’s because I have low expectations? A lot of times it’s more about trying to make sure everything works, that the equipment is in place, brackets finish on time, etc. The hype is the icing on the cake—you put the elements in place for something rad, then let it unfold naturally.
EVO started just because we all loved that in-your-face arcade atmosphere, and didn’t want to see it disappear with the decline of arcades. Since then, most everyone involved was just focused on making the kind of event we always wanted to go to ourselves. It’s just been a matter of trying to let it grow organically, embracing new communities, and finding new ways to tell the story of fighting games to a wider audience. If marketers can contribute to the event, we welcome their help with growing it, but EVO doesn’t fundamentally change to accommodate them, and doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t. What I love most about EVO is that everyone there is proud of what we do—we’re proud of our players, our history, and our games. EVO lets everyone be loud and proud about what they love, and that’s always hot.
Photo courtesy of Kineda.comiPW: What was your favorite match of EVO2K10?
S-Kill: Tough question—waaay too many great matches. I loved GamerBee’s performance, but I was sad to see a great champion like Justin eliminated, so I can’t give the obvious answer. Overall I really enjoyed watching Vangief play, and I like rooting for NorCal, but in terms of dizzying highs and terrifying lows, it’s hard to argue with Mike Ross—he was a real roller-coaster ride. It seemed like he came within a few pixels of losing almost every match I saw him play, even before he got out of pools, but somehow he pulled it off and battled into the Final 8. I was definitely heartbroken by Lamerboi’s match with Daigo. He was under enormous pressure and made a few low-percentage decisions when it came down to the wire. Someday he’ll be at peace with himself completely, and everyone else needs to really be worried about that—if he gets any more mentally tough, that alone could make him one of the best players in the world.
As for GamerBee, what I liked most about his matches wasn’t that he won, it was that he gave it his all every time. He didn’t care who he was up against, and just had a good spirit going into every fight. He played his game, and left with no regrets. That’s the kind of performance we should all be jealous of, win or lose.
iPW: What was the reception for Marvel vs Capcom 3 like during the event?
S-Kill: I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to hang around the machines, but I was encouraged by what I heard. I spent a lot of time at EVO talking with some of the game’s biggest critics, and could really see where they are coming from, but I think they were able to see some of it from my end as well—this isn’t going to be MVC2. I called it “MVC3: A New Age of Shenanigans”. You aren’t going to be able to use every setup and shenanigan from MVC2 in MVC3, but—trust me—there’s a whole boatload of new hijinks developing in this game. Really brutal stuff. I felt like the tide of worry is starting to turn a bit into a tide of at least curiosity and interest, and I was happy because I think this build gave people a better idea about the direction we’re heading. Apart from people like Yipes that are already hyped up about the game, I think a lot of the critics are willing to give it an honest chance as we get closer to a final build (EVO build was not even 50% done). The game deserves it, and from the Capcom side, that’s all we can ask.
It was also great to have Niitsuma-san getting an earful directly from the players. He hears half of that stuff from me every day already, but hearing it from top players directly meant a lot.
iPW: Many players have made suggestions on how to change Marvel vs Capcom 3. Can we expect any of these player suggestions to have an affect on the final product or does the development team already have a good idea on what direction they are taking the game at this point?
S-Kill: The short answer is yes, it will unquestionably have an effect on the final product. The team does have a lot of ideas about general direction, but most of the comments I hear are not “general direction” stuff—they’re very specific comments about things like OTGs, flying screen, air dashes, etc. Some of those features have a lot to do with the nuances of the MVC2 engine, and since MVC3 is a new engine, some of it isn’t easy to just drop in, while other stuff (like air-dashes, etc.) are more easily implemented. You saw Trish at Comic-Con with an 8-way air dash and lots of ways to control space—that’s a new direction for the Capcom side of the cast.
iPW: Over the past year we've seen the fighting game scene change and grow immensely. 300-500 man local tournaments, live streams of events with over 10K viewers at a time, multiple websites surfacing to cover news, strategy and everything else. What do you feel is the next step in the scene? What new developments would you like to see from within the community to help the scene to continue to grow?
S-Kill: In spite of my background, I try not to be too philosophical about these things. I have ideas, but I don’t like to play “theory fighter” about what’s best for the FGC. I prefer to stick with what I know, and just focus on making good games, throwing hype events, and trying to do right by the players and fans first. More tournaments in more places = better scene, not a complicated equation. Now that the scene has come this far, I see people with stars in their eyes and someone telling them “we’re gonna go to the moon and everyone’s gonna make a million dollars!” That’s great, but that’s not where the scene came from, and it’s a step away from the scene’s core strength. Street Fighter is rad because of the players, their friendships, and their bond through a shared understanding of the game, and at the end of the day, that has nothing to do with money. I love to see players get paid, but the reality is that tournament finals are hype because of all the passion the competitors have collectively invested into it, not just because there’s cash on the line.
I’m working on some things right now, but the secret to getting at the “next big thing” is that the next steps are almost always baby-steps. That’s never going to sound as sexy as the guy making a bunch of big promises, but that guy doesn’t usually stick around for very long, and enough baby-steps will take you anywhere in the world. I do think we’re on the verge of something amazing.
iPW: We've had discussions in the past on Street Fighter 4 and how it dominates the "stream waves". What are you thoughts on why Street Fighter 4 is such a good "stream game" while virtually every other game will result in a viewer drop? Is there any one thing developers should add to their games to make them more watchable for people tuning into a stream?
S-Kill: I know people on almost every working team in the fighting game space today, and frankly I don’t think any of them think in terms of “watchability.” It’s an interesting concept, but in a lot of ways it’s just foreign to the way most devs approach game design.
As for SFIV and SSFIV, they just have the right elements in place—it’s not too insanely paced, it’s not based around an instantaneous series of high/low guesses, and there’s longer-term strategic elements you can see develop over time, as well as some surprising reversals to make it exciting. As a franchise, it’s also got a long history, iconic characters, and a player-base that’s smart enough about the game to be able to explain it to new viewers.
iPW: Deep down, everyone loves a tier list. Do you have a personal tier list for Super Street Fighter 4? What are your thoughts on tier lists and character rankings you see across the internet?
S-Kill: Haha—between SFIV and Super SFIV alone (so not even counting HDR, TvC:UAS and MVC3), I have close to 700 different versions of tier lists. I have a spreadsheet to track the rise and fall of certain characters, based on dev changes, as well as post-launch tournament performance. In short, saying I am a nerd about this stuff wouldn’t even come close to describing it. As for Super, as the most recent incarnation, I’m generally pleased with the way the balance turned out. There’s always more you wish could happen, but eventually time runs out and you have to ship the game.
I say overall I’m happy because the goals were to 1) keep the character playstyles distinct, iconic (“true to themselves”), and fun and 2) to create an overall balance where the stronger player tends to win. I would never want a matchup chart that has straight 5s across the board. I like bullying people where I have a character advantage, and I like the challenge of an uphill climb when I have a tough matchup. Those are part of a great fighting game’s DNA, but at the same time, you want to avoid that feeling of helplessness, like in a matchup where you know exactly what the opponent is going to do for the whole round, but you’re powerless (as a character) to stop them. Balance is never perfect, but I’m happy with SSFIV in most cases. Ironically I still don’t quite know what to think about Seth—I despise him as a character, but I think he’s actually underrated. Dhalsim is still underrated, and Fei seems somewhat overrated, though the idea that he could BE overrated, or said to be top-tier by serious players, is evidence that he’s about where we want him to be.
People are split on Ryu, but I think Daigo just makes the character look good. Pretty much nobody else plays Ryu like that in Super, and certainly in terms of tourney results, nobody else even comes close. I was also happy to see the return of the charge characters in Super—that was a real passion for me. As has been noted, the SFIV’s core Focus Cancel system is generally much easier for non-charge characters to take advantage of, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to winning at Street Fighter, so I’m really happy to see the return of “charge” characters to the top tier (Guile, Honda, Dictator, Boxer, etc.).
I was also happy to see a recent Japanese tier-list, mostly because it had only 3-tiers. Top, middle, bottom (with the bottom being a very small number of characters). There are basically no worthless characters in Super, and as the EVO Final 8 results show, it’s about the player. We saw a Dhalsim/Honda, Akuma, Zangief, Rufus, Honda, Chun-Li, Ryu, and Adon. What’s more, absolutely none of those performances were a fluke. That’s a clearer message about character balance than I could write in a thousand words, so I’ll let the results speak for themselves.
I could talk about this stuff literally all day. What I need most of all is less character balance and more life balance, which usually just means more sleep. I walk through half my life like a zombie these days. If this keeps up they’ll kick me off fighters and move me to motion-capture for Resident Evil game.
