From the Capcom Forums.
How come the player models in Street Fighter are mirrored when they change sides instead of having them changing sides properly, was this a technical limitation? i.e. Vega's claw changing hands depending on the side he's on.
Technically, [Capcom has] been able to do this ever since 3rd Strike (Gill had different sprites for left and right side), but they keep it that way (character facing the player) since it just looks better for 2D fighters. —d3v
Weren't all of the Street Fighter games rushed and they did this mirror effect thing to save time?
Seth: [...] The mirroring is not some kind of artifact of a "rush job" -- and as for every installment being a rush job (really? every single one of 50+ games was "rushed" out the door?), I think it's correct to say that the scope of some games was sometimes larger than the product that was eventually shipped, but that's not especially interesting to say, since it's true of pretty much every single game ever made. You start with an expansive plan, and usually trim things down as you approach release. This is done to meet schedules, yes, but is a very normal part of every game development cycle, not some kind of "wow, is it October already?! We gotta ship it even though it's not done!" thing...
Wasn't it the case that certain features were axed that were originally planned because you didn't have time to do them? Please correct me if I am wrong here.
Seth: You're not "wrong" so much as the scaling back is just part of every development cycle. At other developers, there are even features, levels, bosses, etc. that actually get flagged in terms of where they are planned to be cut. You start big, then pull back to realistic levels once you see which parts are working, so you can execute on the core experience. You could look at this as "rushing" things out, but I was just saying that's misleading, since these cuts are a part of the process in every single game.
