WIP Focus: Kratos, by Kratos and DooM Part 2

Back in April, Favorite Fiction started a two part question and answer session on one of the very most anticipated characters in all of Mugen, Kratos: God of War. Then we spoke with Kratos who is in charge of the programming of him, which you can read here: WIP Focus: Kratos part 1. Due to real life, we did not get a chance to have part 2 with DooM until now. He is tasked with everything graphical on Kratos, as well as overseeing the website they have designed for the character.

1) Why did you personally decide to start work on this character?

Heh...actually, I have some question for you: do you know the feeling when you're at work and working really hard, and your boss is watching you only when you're taking some little break from time to time ('cause you're tired), and he's thinking that you're probably doing so all the time? You want to prove him wrong, that you're worth more than that, that you deserve more.


Well, it's almost like that with me in the MUGEN Community. I spent a lot of time in the community, not leeching but learning how to program and design stuff for it. Opened a couple of MUGEN related websites, started few projects and released some screenpacks and stages, but never characters. So people are always like: "Umm... you consider yourself as a MUGEN veteran. OK. Did you release any characters?" I didn't. Why? I have had some real bad luck when it comes to the long term creations. There were a few accidents when I've been working on some (IMO) real nice characters (DM-Akuma, DM-Chun-Li, DM-Saiyaman and Nappa for the DBZ/GT MUGEN Project.) and when I was 50% or even 90% done(!), I always lost it somehow. My HDD crashed or my computer was so virused that there was no other option but to format all the drives. I know that I could backup all of those, but I didn't back then, so it's pretty late for such sayings now. And starting over? Well trust me that it's really hard to work on something again with such attitude you had before.

Now, when I'm turning 35 this year, I plan to quit MUGEN for good. But for that last time, I want to leave some EPIC character behind, to prove that those who had doubts on how I roll, were simply wrong.

When I was thinking about some epic character I could Mugenize, Kratos (GoW) popped up in my head really quickly. I was like "Yeah. Now that would be epic for sure!" When I showed a sprite of him at MFG, Robert (Kratos) came online on my MSN messenger. I thought "Dang, long time no see. Maybe he, as a great fan of GoW series, (like me) can help me out somehow - give some ideas about the gameplay, etc." So we started chatting for some few hours and decided to work together. Me spriting and Robert programming, because I knew his programming kicked ass.

2) Glad you too hooked up like that as Kratos looks amazing, what bases did you use for the character himself? Was it difficult transitioning him into a MvC style look?

First of all, let me thank you for the compliment. It's always nice to hear that it's not just me liking the results of my work.



As for the base, I'm using Urien and Gill from Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, just reducing their color count so it fits my private favorite spriting style: MvC. I reduce the animations' frames count too, 'cause SF3:TS is too smooth sometimes.

Generally, Urien and Gill are very good bases for my edits. They're almost naked, so I don't have to erase any parts of their bodies. But they're not that perfect either - You see... sometimes people use bases that already got some parts which they need, like folded pants, high boots or long jackets. To edit Urien and Gill into Kratos, I have to draw all the clothes and other stuff all by my own. Though, I enjoy it very much to be honest.

3) Most of the fans know that his signature weapons are the chained blades attached to his arms called Athena's Blades. They are probably also dying to know what are the bases that you are using for the various attacks with them? Also, can you go more into detail about some of the attacks that are planned?

Not just Athena's Blades. Blades of Chaos were his signature weapons in the GoW1 series, and those will be available in our character too (just a palette matter, but it's still some kind of a candy thing for the hardcore GoW fans).

Concerning the bases for the attacks, all of the attacks that you know from GoW 1,2,3 are going to be seen in our character, and only Urien and Gill will be our bases. You may ask how is that possible, so let me stop you there and answer right away.

There is a good friend of mine, GODzilla, that is taking care of all the frankenspritings needed for our Kratos. He made Urien run and perform such poses that you couldn't imagine. He's doing some seriously great job, really.

Chains itself are very fun to animate for perspectives, and me, but not the blades all those angles. Still, once I'm done with each animation of the blades, I look at it and know that it was worth it.

4) Last time we spoke of a few weapons and magical spells that will be accessible. In your opinion, which of each will be the most fun to sprite? Which will be the most difficult?

They all seem like fun to me and I can't wait to get to work on them. As for now, Kratos and I are working on the basics - all the simple movements and gethits - that's pretty boring, I can tell you that. Actually, I can show you one of the weapons that will be available in Kratos' inventory:

It was a lot of fun working on it.

5) Also before, there was talk of QTE events for fatalities, can you go into more detail about what we might see graphically when they happen?

Sure. If you played God of War: Betrayal (2d mobile game), you probably have seen that action where when you beat some boss almost to death, some rotating circle button pops up under the opponent's head letting you know that you can finish him in some brutal GoW style. Well, our Kratos is going to have couple of those too.

When this button will pops up under the opponent's head, you will have to press a button that's typed in that rotating circle, and then a list of buttons you will have to press quickly will show up. If you're successful pressing them all in the limited period of time, Kratos will jump in slow motion and do something nasty. On another hand, if you'll fail pressing all the button quickly, Kratos will jump and then fall on his back loosing a little of his life.

6) Your teammate said you all will push the graphical limits of Mugen with this creation, can you be more specific of what all is planned of this nature?

I believe he didn't mean just the graphical aspects, but everything in general - Programming and graphics. Sony pushed PS2 console to its limits when making the God of War games, and that's what we want to do with the MUGEN engine. We wanted people to ask themselves: "Wait, wait... how did they do that? Was that even possible in MUGEN?! It's the first time I've seen such things!!" We want to shock and surprise, because only those things decide on how much and how long a specific character is going to stay in their minds, and rosters.

7) Can't Wait! As I understand it, the website that is dedicated to the MUGENized version of Kratos is primarily under your charge? The site looks great; tell us more please about the decision process to make such elaborate plans of this nature.

Yes, you're right. There was a day when Robert (Kratos) told me that we got some new posts in our WIP thread and I should check them. I went there and there were no new posts. Then I realized that I'm checking the wrong forums. We agreed that it's a bit of pain for us to check all the forums where we have our WIP thread for new comments from people that are interested in our work, and that there should be some one place where people can leave their feedback and we can leave some progress reports and ALL of the interested people can be sure they're having all the freshest news, without the need to check few forums.

Also, we wanted to show how serious we are about that project. Our character is not going to be just some another release that's going to get drawn in dust in people's MUGEN rosters. We can promise you that we're doing all that's possible to make our Kratos epic, as he is in GoW 1,2,3.

You can check that website out right now at: God of War: Mugen Carnage - The Official Site

8) Speaking of the website, what updates can we expect to see in the future with each selection?

Recently, we added a FAQ where people can check all the common questions and answers that are floating around our work. As for the future, we plan to put more progress screenshots and videos. Nothing more on the website needs an update I think. Some people have been suggesting an official forum, but we think it would be a bit too much - as for now, the guestbook works fine.

9) Anything else you would like to share about this project?

Just like Robert (Kratos), I would like to thank all the people that are interested in our WIP for their support. We're receiving a lot of good comments, serious feedbacks and some great ideas. If I could ask for favors, I would like to say: Keep it coming people!
Peace out, DooM

For more info on Kratos in general, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_War_(series)

To follow their progress, take the following links:
http://forum.mugen-infantry.net/index.php?topic=124375.0
http://mugenguild.com/forumx/index.php?topic=93833.0

http://www.infinitymugenteam.com/Forum_345/index.php?topic=21237.0
http://www.scruffydragon.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6356
http://cvgunited.com/index.php/topic,214.0.html

To go to their website:
God of War: Mugen Carnage - The Official Site