Mortal Kombat Deception: John Podlasek Interview

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Please give us some background as to who you are and what titles you've worked on in the past. What are your current responsibilities in the development of Mortal Kombat: Deception?

 

 

John Podlasek: My name is John Podlasek, and I've been at Midway a little over 4 years now. I was the producer on Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and helped out on the home ports of Arctic Thunder before that. I got my start in the industry back in 1989 on NEC's TurboGrafx-16 system. From there I ran my own testing company for a little bit, went to ICOM Simulations (which was bought and turned into Viacom New Media), worked at Blue Byte Software, did a short consulting gig at 3Com, then worked for a developer called TerraGlyph before joining Midway. I've worked on a bunch of games, but the ones I've enjoyed the most were some of the Beavis and Butt-head titles, an obscure PC game called Incubation: Time Is Running Out, and of course, the last Mortal Kombat.

 

My responsibilities on Mortal Kombat: Deception includes stuff like dealing with schedules, working with testing, communicating with Sony and Xbox, reporting progress to senior management, helping out artists and programmers where I can and working with our PR and marketing depts.

 

 

What are the dev team's main goals in creating Mortal Kombat: Deception?

 

John Podlasek: Our two main goals have been to expand and enhance the core fighting game, and create a unique Mortal Kombat universe full of different gameplay types. By adding multiple fatalities, multi-tiered environments, new and classic returning characters, better fatalities and new weapons in the environments we're really expanding how you think about and play a fighting game.

 

The other goal was to introduce different modes of play set within the context of Mortal Kombat. The biggest and most challenging one is our new Konquest mode. Instead of a linear path of training tasks like in the last one, we're creating something of an RPG-like experience. If you're into strategy and fighting our Chess Kombat mode has 5 different piece classes and mixes board game thinking with classic one-on-one fighting. And the last mode we're really excited about is called Puzzle Kombat. As you move around all these blocks that are falling vertically, a simulated "fight" tied into the player's progress will be going on in the foreground with mini MK characters. At the end of a round the losing side will have a fatality done to them, or things like a 1 ton weight fall and crush the player like a grape. It's real easy to pickup and play, and very addictive (it's not uncommon to hear yelling down the hallway when people are playing it).

 

The previous installment, Deadly Alliance, was the first fully 3D Mortal Kombat title. What lessons were learned with Deadly Alliance that you're taking into consideration for this next chapter? What type of feedback did you get from MK loyalists that were more accustomed to 2D fighting?

 

John Podlasek: We learned to place more importance on the environments. Although they looked great, the environments in MKDA contained the fighting to basically an oval arena. With this game it's going to be much cooler. Many of the environments have two or more levels, players will blast opponents through walls or off tall buildings, and they'll be weapons to pickup and beat up on your opponent with. But the best new feature in our environments will be the death traps. There'll be all kinds of gruesome ways to finish off your competition, like kicking them into rotating spikes, spinning gears, a giant metal stamper or an avalanche of falling boulders.

 

The MK loyalists aren't shy about sharing opinions, although I don't remember a lot related to the transition from 2D to 3D. The big things in general we heard were more than one fatality and better fatalities. When they see the upgraded fatality system we have now, along with multiple fatalities and a hari kari move per character I think the majority of them will be impressed.

 

 

By the way, are there any plans to bring Deception or a new MK title to the arcades?

 

John Podlasek: There have been a few rumors floating around, but we don't have any plans to bring the new game to the arcades.

 

 

How does Deception compare to previous games in the MK series?

 

John Podlasek: MK: Deception is massive in size and scope compared to the previous games, even the last one. It won't have the shock value of the original MK or MKII which were revolutionary for the time with the blood and digitized graphics, but I think most will say it's a deeper and more rewarding game.

 

 

Throughout the Mortal Kombat franchise, the story has always played a key role. One could say that Mortal Kombat is a story-focused fighting game. What can you tell us at this point about the storyline?

 

John Podlasek: We're working on a new FMV sequence that picks up where the story left off in MKDA. It progresses with the theme of "deception" although to really experience the storyline you'll want to play through the expanded Konquest mode which moves the plotline along with dozens of NIS sequences. And speaking of the FMV, the one in this game will be much better than the last one. There are a whole bunch of new team members, good returning ones and management in the group now who are serious about the story and quality.

 

You're implementing new weapons in the latest MK saga. What direction are you taking this time around with the latest weapons?

 

John Podlasek: Weapons will continue to be an important offensive and defensive element in the gameplay. Besides expanding the type of weapons that default as one of the three fighting styles for most characters, we've added the ability to pickup totally new weapons in certain backgrounds. Some weapons will be hidden in a lower level dungeon or within a giant spinning gem, and they'll all be something a player wants get their hands on because of the range and damage they'll inflict.

 

 

We've heard that Deception will feature 16 old characters and 8 new ones. Is this correct?

 

 

John Podlasek: I can't name off the exact amount or all the names of all the characters, but there will be returning classic characters, returning MKDA characters and a bunch of new ones. A lot of the fans wanted to see their favorite characters from the MKII and MK3 series, so we brought back ones like Baraka, Sindel, Kabal, Noob, Smoke, Ermac and others. If you're a fan you'll be able to recognize all of them by their looks and moves, although we've taken some steps to update and enhance their appearances. Besides all the returning classics we think there are some really cool new ones that new and old fans will like.

 

 

What can you tell us about the new characters?

 

John Podlasek: There's a female one that's dressed in white, and hunts demons. There's a new member of the Black Dragon clan and a samurai. We have a bunch of other new ones in development, but I can't get into the details right now...

 

 

What can we expect from the new, interactive environments and how they'll affect matches. What role will they play?

 

John Podlasek: The new environments are one of my favorite additions to this game. Walls blast open, players get kicked through glass floors, a giant stamper with molten lava can melt you, and prisoners can grab your player so your opponent can get some free shots on you. Another one of the cooler ones is a giant rock platform with an active earthquake breaking the perimeter and making it smaller. The longer you fight the smaller the area becomes until one's health is wiped out or falls off the edge onto a giant spike. We've also reworked a few of the MKDA backgrounds and added a few new surprises. In one of them the lava will now actually damage players and another had lasers added to the perimeter for ring outs that'll slice up the loser.

 

We have seen the new indicators lights. Tell us a bit more about how they will work, and how mastering these indicators will affect the gameplay?

 

John Podlasek: The indicator lights will help players recognize dangers in the environments more quickly. Sometimes you're so focused on the action you aren't aware you're inching closer to a death trap behind you. By having the small indicator lights up top you'll be able to get a quick read if you're getting close to trouble.

 

 

The MK series has some of the best combos in the fighting genre. What types can we expect in Deception?

 

John Podlasek: We're adding more combos for characters and fighting styles, but we're also allowing players to bust out of a combo attack more. We think it'll make the fighting even more intense since the better players will learn how to break out of multiple fighting style attacks and make the rounds closer.

 

 

You're adding a number of new gameplay modes to Deception as a departure from the fighting norm. We've seen Tetris-like puzzle games and a chess type of strategy game. Give us an overview of these new modes.

 

John Podlasek: The Puzzle Kombat mode gives a new twist to the puzzle game genre. Will special blocks that trigger special moves, players can fill or wipe out an opponent's screen (depending which side you're on). As one player starts dominating the other, the mini characters on the bottom of the screen will react accordingly with one getting its ass kicked. But a well-timed special move can turn the tables and find the other player about to get crushed. Then at the end of the round something funny and gruesome will happen.

 

The Chess Kombat mixes the idea of board game strategy and head-to-head fighting. Although we call it Chess Kombat it's definitely not the official rules of chess?it's much simpler and more immediate to pickup and play. Certain squares will have power-ups; other ones will have hidden offensive elements. Depending on which pieces are fighting, one character might have less health at the beginning of the single round fight to even things up. Plus the board game backgrounds themselves will be familiar to many longtime fans.

 

When you think of Mortal Kombat, you instantly think of Fatalities. We've seen the "meat grinder", but please elaborate for our readers on how Fatalities have progressed and what new types we can expect in Deception.

 

John Podlasek: Fatalities are one of the cornerstones of the series, and besides adding multiple ones per character we've reworked the fatality system. Besides the new graphics and level of detail, character limbs will be part of some fatalities. Let's just say arms and legs will be used against a hapless victim in some cases. As mentioned earlier, the environments will also play a role with death traps. Spikes, grinders, stampers, killer fish?they'll all be part of this.

 

 

 

The series started to get a little "out there" when Babalities and Animalities were introduced. Will we see anything like this in Deception?

 

John Podlasek: Nope. Although our game and the series in general have always had a sense of humor, we have no plans to bring those back. In terms of humorous content, the Konquest mode has some funny stuff in it already.

 

 

Before the game was even announced, we revealed in a world exclusive that the next MK game would feature Xbox Live support. This may be a long-winded answer, but spill the beans about the online plans for Deception on Xbox Live.

 

John Podlasek: We're still working out all the details for which features we'll support (side note: the developer support and Live folks at Xbox are great to work with), but it's safe to say people are going to have a blast playing the game on Xbox Live. I think the headset adds so much to the experience, and for a game like Mortal Kombat it's perfect for talking trash to an opponent. I play a few games on Live when I have time (which was back around the holidays , but the idea of fighting head-to-head reminds me of the old arcade days. Putting your token on top of the marquee, taking on an opponent, then staying on it until beaten was some of the best parts of the whole arcade experience. That sense of competition had been lost with the death of traditional arcades, but now with things like Live, people will again be able to fight and talk smack to strangers, only on a much more massive scale now.

 

Are you planning to take advantage of Xbox Live 3.0 features (tournament ladders, clans, etc)? Will this strictly be one-on-one online battles, or can we expect online battle royals?

 

John Podlasek: We're working on the one-on-one battles, and evaluating all the other 3.0 features. I can't get into the details about which ones we're going to support at this time. Some secrets have to remain?after all, this IS Mortal Kombat we're talking about [laugh].

 

 

Of all the Mortal Kombat games, what personally is your favorite and why? MKII is by far the favorite here at TeamXbox.

 

John Podlasek: I'd have to say MK: Deadly Alliance. I played a lot of MKII back in the Genesis days, but the last game is my favorite. I loved some of the moves, like Sub-Zero's throw where he rides the opponent like a surfboard still makes me laugh. Plus the fact that I worked on the last one and didn't on MKII has something to do with it too.

 

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