"Hello everyone, I hope I'm not disturbing you?" Takuya's face held a friendly smile as his gaze swept over faces that were excited, curious, or nervous.
"Nakayama-san!"
"Hello, Nakayama-san!"
The office instantly fell silent, everyone stopped what they were doing and stood up to greet him, their eyes practically overflowing with admiration and curiosity as they looked at Takuya.
Team Leader Shimizu also went up to him: "Nakayama-san, your presentation just now was truly splendid."
Takuya smiled in response and naturally walked to the center of the office, "For the new project, we will still rely on the elite soldiers of Team Three. I am very happy and look forward to fighting alongside all of you."
"Nakayama-san, you can rest assured!" Shimizu immediately patted his chest and guaranteed in a loud voice, "All of us in Team Three will put in two hundred percent effort and definitely live up to your trust and the President's expectations!"
"I believe in everyone's abilities." Takuya nodded, his gaze once again gently sweeping over every team member present, making them all feel noticed, "However, before we dive into a brand new battle, I'd like to understand the status of our previous ground battle—how is the tetris porting coming along?"
When this project was mentioned, Shimizu's expression immediately relaxed considerably, and he answered with clear confidence: "Reporting, Nakayama-san, the console version's porting has entered the final stage, and all test feedback is good. The handheld version is also being pushed forward with full effort; programming and art are working overtime, and we expect both versions to be completed smoothly and meet delivery standards within next month."
"Very good." Takuya's face showed satisfaction as he nodded, "tetris is our first collaborative project. Although simple, it proved our communication efficiency and execution ability. This is the cornerstone of trust between us."
He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in, "It's precisely because of this pleasant cooperation that I believe we have already established a good rapport. This lays a solid foundation for us to jointly face the bigger challenge of the 'K' project."
These words were both a clear affirmation of Development Team Three's past work and a cornerstone for facing future challenges.
"Regarding the specific content and development direction of the 'K' project," Takuya continued, his voice not loud, but carrying a power that could ignite people's hearts, "I will provide a detailed introduction and discussion with everyone at the official project kickoff meeting later."
"But I can give you a core hint first: this is not just a new game; it will define a brand new game genre."
"I believe that with everyone's talent and passion, plus a little bit of the courage to be the first in the world, we will definitely be able to overcome obstacles and jointly create a truly new era for fighting games!"
Takuya's voice was full of infectiousness, as if he had already unfolded that magnificent future scroll before everyone's eyes. The members of Development Team Three felt their blood begin to flow faster, filled with unprecedented anticipation and fighting spirit for the upcoming work.
It was evening when he left Development Team Three.
The golden glow of the setting sun generously bathed the streets of Tokyo, casting a warm hue over the cold skyscrapers.
Takuya returned home, the aura of strategic command and inspiration he exuded at the company gradually receding, but there was no sign of his spirit relaxing. After a quick dinner, he plunged into his study.
He didn't contemplate grand worldviews or cool characters; instead, he took out several technical documents from his briefcase—detailed specifications and performance reports for Sega's latest generation arcade board, the early "pre-System 16."
Under the light, Takuya's fingers traced over the dense data and interface definitions, his brows slightly furrowed as he fell into deep thought. For fighting games, action is the core, and the fluidity of action and the realism of impact largely depend on frame-accurate hit detection. Especially the settings for the Hitbox and Hurtbox are of utmost importance.
"Manually adjusting the pixel-block detection range for each animation frame is too slow, inefficient, and prone to errors…" he muttered to himself, "There must be a tool."
An idea gradually became clear in his mind: to create a visual pixel-block detection editing tool. It could directly draw, edit, and preview hitboxes intuitively like painting on imported character animation sequences, and even simulate collision effects in real-time. This would not only greatly accelerate the iteration speed of action design but also ensure the precision of hit detection, laying a solid foundation for subsequent balance adjustments.
However, before that, the story for the fighting game still needed to be set.
Although he possessed memories from the future and knew the development history and classic works of fighting games, creating a truly epoch-making fighting game in this era still required extensive research and preparation.
He carefully compared the pros and cons of street fighter and fatal fury, and ultimately decided to choose fatal fury as the initial story blueprint for the "K" project.
While street fighter certainly had higher recognition and a broader audience, its ensemble narrative and relatively loose storyline were not conducive to long-term IP operation, at least for a debut series without a foundation, it was somewhat too difficult to manage.
fatal fury, on the other hand, centered on the revenge of the Terry brothers, with tighter character relationships and a clearer storyline, making it more suitable for adaptation into derivative works like animation and comics.
More importantly, the original fatal fury had a moderate number of characters, meeting the requirements of early arcade capacity and development resources, making it easier to complete development in a short time. Being the progenitor of fighting games was more important than anything else. Once technical levels and storage capacity increased later, it would naturally be other works in The King of Fighters worldview, and finally the grand gather of The King of Fighters series!
After settling on the story blueprint, Takuya began to consider how to integrate Kurumada Masami's strong and handsome style into characters like Geese, Terry, Andy, and Joe, and how Ooba Jutarou could use animation storyboards to showcase the darkness of South Town and the passion of fighting.
He knew that to create a successful fighting game, it required not only exquisite technology and innovative gameplay but also a captivating story and a group of charming characters.
Only by perfectly integrating these elements could he truly move players' hearts and create an enduring classic IP.
As for the choice of animation director, the name Ooba Jutarou might not be as widely known in later generations, but Takuya clearly remembered his directed work, "Tekken Kid," which was introduced in China as "Kung Fu Kid." That animation had fluid action scenes and cleverly designed fights, and even more remarkably, it wasn't just about fighting; it depicted the protagonist Jimmy's growth and the camaraderie among friends quite delicately. Being able to handle hard-hitting action scenes, tell a touching story, and create memorable characters—this was the ideal director he sought for the animated version of fatal fury. The darkness and cruelty of South Town, the Terry brothers' path of revenge, the passion and dedication of the fighters, entrusting these to Ooba Jutarou, Takuya felt very reassured.
And for Kurumada Masami's character designs, anyone who has seen the early Hainan Publishing House version of "Saint Seiya" should remember that the last few pages of each volume were character and Cloth design sketches for the Saints. Both male and female characters were very handsome, and their temperaments were also very suitable, with unique lines that also possessed a classical beauty. Whether it was a hot-blooded youth like Seiya or a complex villain like Saga, they all exuded a unique charm. This style, used to shape Geese Howard's villainous charisma, Terry Bogard's sunny unruliness, Andy Bogard's calm introversion, and Joe's Muay Thai dominance, was simply a perfect match. Of course, the body proportions could be slightly adjusted according to the animated version.
As for Masami Obari, the original director and character designer of the fatal fury game? Takuya slightly pursed his lips. Obari's style was very distinctive, full of power and exaggerated perspective, truly unique in mecha and certain specific themes. But for the pioneering work of the "K" project, it seemed a bit too "self-indulgent." That highly personal art style might be more suitable for "Angel Blade" or for creating deceptive OPs for other robot animations. At the moment, he needed a style that was both powerful and elegant, widely accepted by a broader audience, and suitable for long-term shaping of classic characters.