Another Super Street Fighter 4 development blog about Hakan
Posted by Jon 'Catalyst' Grey • March 23, 2010 at 4:35 a.m. PDT • Comments: 30
Another Super Street Fighter 4 development blog about Hakan was posted this week and translated by Azrael.
This entry focuses on his appearance and what it was like cultivating him for the game, but the most exciting news for other players comes at the end, as next week's entry from the Japanese SSF4 team will cover the returning characters and some of the changes they've undergone, starting with Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, E. Honda, Blanka, and Zangief.
Hello everyone! This is Tsukamoto.
Continuing on from last week, this time we'll be talking about how we decided on Hakan's appearance, and we've got people from the planning, design, sound, and engineering departments to all chip in. Well then, let's get right into it!
Continuing on from last week, this time we'll be talking about how we decided on Hakan's appearance, and we've got people from the planning, design, sound, and engineering departments to all chip in. Well then, let's get right into it!
Hakan's design is pretty individualistic, how did you decide on it?
Kamei:
Mr. Okada spoke about this last week, but we'd decided on 2 new characters (for the game). So we'd thought that for one, we'd like to make him in the feel of SFII, but just updated for the times - and that's how we came to make him.
At that time, we also had a slender capoeira guy.
Kamei:
Yes, the final two ideas were Brazilian capoeira and Turkish Yagli gures. For the capoeira guy, we had an interesting idea of moves where he would turn on his head and attack, but ultimately we wanted to go with something we hadn't done before, so that's how we came to use Yagli gures.
Tsukamoto:
We've featured capoeira in one of our previous titles.
Were there any other rejected ideas?
Kamei:
There were plenty of concepts that were thrown out. Not nearly as many as there were for Juri, but there were at least 100 or 200 rejected ideas.
Tsukamoto:
Looking at him now, Hakan's design is the best out of all the ideas we tossed. We looked at various videos and talked about it over and over, and at last the final image came about. Once we've decided the major direction, then the costume design also changes quite a bit.
Okada:
At first we had a proposal for a cool character. And that's fine in its own right, but just cool kinda feels lacking. We consulted with producer Ono, and thought up various things.
Tsukamoto:
Even after we decided on Yagli gures, just an orthodox fighter would be boring, so after thinking about it some more we came up with him being the president of a cooking oil company, he speaks in Osaka dialect (Osaka-ben*), and is traveling the world looking for oil! Then we came up with him having a beautiful wife and 7 daughters. Then we felt that it was kind of absurd, and that's the feel we wanted, so we really got into making him (laughs).
(*Osaka-ben is a version of Kansai-ben, the dialect spoken in western Japan. While not quite "country dialect", it's mostly famous for its use in manzai, the Japanese 2-man take on stand-up comedy)
Hakan is all about the oil, so how did you come up with that idea?
Taguchi:
The big thing about the oil was the glistening effect. If he was too shiny, it would have a negative effect on the background and the other characters. And if he wasn't shiny enough, then you wouldn't understand that he was oiled up. It took a lot of trial and error to get it to properly fit into the Street Fighter 4 world.
Kamei:
The glistening effect changes slightly depending on the stage. The lead designer worked on the background texture and reflection on the model on the shiny parts right up until the very end. If you take a good look at him when he's oiled up you'll be able to appreciate it.
Taguchi:
Also, oil has a high refractive index, so with a thin layer you get a prism effect, and you get a light that looks like a rainbow. So we used the oil on Hakan's body to simulate that effect. At a first glance, his glisten looks like its shining white, but really within that light there are other colors such as blue and purple.
This is how the shiny feel of the oil was brought about.
Taguchi:
Also, and this something you won't understand unless you really take a close look at it, but oil is a high-viscosity liquid, right? So we didn't just want to make the oil look shiny, we also set it up so that the oil would slowly flow down, as being pulled by gravity.
Tsukamoto:
That slow drip down - that's definitely the feel of oil! Getting Hakan's oil in the game really took a lot of trial and error.
Taguchi:
But because we put too much work into the oil, it really takes up a lot of processing power (laughs). So for his appearance and well as the processing burden, we adjusted those right down to the end.
Well then, how about the oil sounds?
Tomozawa:
Well, thank you for asking! (laughs) First, for the Oil Sliding, the slip sound you hear is our sound director Mr. Endo sliding his finger across a glass pane.
Tsukamoto:
That slip-n-slide sound! That's a nice sound. I can tell that its handmade!
Tomozawa:
Right, right? (laughs) He was even concerned about which way to slide his finger across the glass - this was trial and error as well. (laughs) And we even had to do a retake. We did it once and thought we had it, but Endo said that it didn't feel right. So, without compromise, we have sounds for Hakan sliding across the floor, grabbing his opponent and sending them flying - 3 distinct oily sounds, so if you can tell the difference between them we'd be really happy.
Tell us about Hakan's oiled up special moves.
Kamei:
For his special moves, we thought about how Hakan would use the oil to increase the damage dealed out to his opponents. At a first glance, Hakan seems like a ridiculous character, but Hakan himself is seriously thinking about how to defeat his opponents in battle. So the oil is a necessary item for hurting his opponents, and we spent a lot of time thinking about how to make that happen in the game.
Okada:
So with that image, the very first move we came up with was the Oil Dive where he slides across the floor and attacks. After deciding that Hakan would be a grappler, then we worried about how he would use the oil in his throws. The ultras and super were especially difficult, as we had to make them plenty interesting and showy. We couldn't come up with something that all involved staff would be happy with. So by that, I recall Hakan as a character who needed a lot or retakes.
Yes... throw characters, and the characteristic of oil being slippery don't exactly go well together. No matter what move we thought of, trying to get the slippery part in there just didn't work. The dev team worried about this quite a bit. At the time, Hakan had a giant-swing move where he'd grab the opponent and swing them around. But if he was oiled up, the opponent would slip out of his hands and go flying (laughs). What we eventually figured out what to have the sliding part do the damage to the opponent. And that became the basis of Hakan's moves.
Tell us your favorite special move.
Taguchi:
This was talked about last week, but I have to go with the Focus Attack while Hakan is oiled up from the Oil Shower. Moving around during the focus stance is my recommendation. The engineers feel like it has unlimited potential, so I'm looking forward to see what kind of uses the players come up with after the game goes on sale.
Tsukamoto:
Other characters can't move during their Focus Attack. If Hakan sings out his shower, then his opponents are going to have to be careful around him.
Yeah, the Oil Shower is essential. On the other hand, I would recommend his air throw, the Hakan Stamp. Hakan looks like a character who wouldn't have an air throw. So his opponents may take him lightly and try to jump at him. It's a simple move, sure, but nailing it feels really good.
I'm gonna go with the Oil Rocket. As Okada said before the first move we came up with was the Oil Dive, but the Oil Rocket - squeezing his opponent and then sending them flying through the oil's slipperiness - that idea is the base of his moves. After this, we came up with his ultras Oil Coaster and Oil Combination Hold, so in that regard this is the move that decided the general direction of the rest of his moves.
Based on sounds, I'm going with the ultra Oil Coaster. If you can listen closely to the slippery sound as he's hitting the move I'll be really happy (laughs). The sound the opponent makes when they are squirming in the Oil Combination Hold is also nice, but personally I just love the sliding sound of the Oil Coaster, so please listen to it! ... But I think whoever gets caught in it will be plenty unhappy (laughs).
Okada:
... Yeah. Basically, he's like the super-serious, stubborn ol' pops from back in the day. He himself is very serious, but to the people around him he's just kinda foolishly spinning his wheels.
Why does Hakan speak in Osaka dialect?
Okada:
At first, it wasn't Osaka dialect, but just an old-fashioned, tough way of speaking. But then the producer Ono said that as his appearance is pretty individualistic, we should make his lines match up with that. So Osaka dialect felt like the right choice for Hakan's character. Also, since we haven't had any Osaka-dialect characters in Street Fighter before, that also became a reason why.
Tomozawa:
But during voice recordings, the Osaka dialect was a bit of a hangup. Hakan's voice actor, Shintarou Ohata, is from the Chugoku region, and even though he was quickly able to match the Osaka dialect for us... even though its the same western Japan region, the accent was a bit off. Both I, the sound director, and the scenario director Kawasaki are from Osaka, so before recording we would check Hakan's Osaka dialect. The inflections at the end of a word are a bit different by region, and even though we are both from Osaka our opinions would differ. Even though its Osaka dialect that we should be familiar with, with those nuances adjustments took a bit of work, so recording also took some time.
By the way, how did Hakan's hair end up like that?
Kamei:
There is a reason for it, but for now we're keeping it as a secret (laughs). If you think about Hakan's characteristics and his moves in the game, you might figure it out. Incidentally, his hair color is turquoise.*
(*In Japanese, Turkey = "toruko". Turquoise = "toruko ishi". "Ishi" meaning "rock" or "stone".)
Tsukamoto:
We got a lot of questions from various departments about Hakan's hair during development.
Okada:
Yeah, we were often asked "explain his hair style" or how we made it.
Tsukamoto:
Yeah, we were constantly asked that. "Is that a hat?" or "Isn't that really a shower cap?" - this went on for months (laughs).
Okada:
And we always answered "No, that's his hairstyle!" (laughs) I'll say it here again for good measure, that's his hair. It's not a hat or shower cap. And it's not a helmet!
Tomozawa:
What I'd like players to give close attention to is the sound of the oil, but more than anything the Osaka dialect! Please expect good things from Mr. Ohata, who provided a great voice for him!
Kamei:
Hakan is a compilation of the characters that have evolved from the traditional cast of the SFII series. He's a character that the planners, designers, engineers, and sound staff all thought up. So for everyone who saw the reveal trailer and found him interesting, please give him a try at least once in the game.
Taguchi:
During development, the engineer who was the lead shader really put his all into the oil effect. Thanks to that, we have the oil that's very well done and doesn't disturb the SFIV world. I'd like for everyone to take note of that.
Okada:
It took us a while to decide on the Turkish Yagli gures concept for Hakan, but once we did and we got a rough character sketch we knew we'd found our man. It was a unanimous decision. As Yagli gures isn't really well known, working on him was difficult, but the development staff got extremely passionate about him. If the players could understand just a little bit of that passion, I'd be happy. If you're interested in Hakan from the videos or illustrations, your expectations will be met I think. Its a character that's just fun, presentation and play style, so please try him out!
Tsukamoto:
Well then, I hope you all enjoyed this week's entry. Definitely give this hot-blooded, oily yet great father a try!
As I promised before, its about time to talk about the adjustments for the old characters. Sorry to have kept you waiting, but over the next 4 weeks we'll give you plenty of good stuff.
First, next week we'll be talking about Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Honda, Blanka, and Zangief. I think there are plenty of things that people are interested in for Zangief's adjustments, so please look forward to that.
See you next week!
Kamei:
Mr. Okada spoke about this last week, but we'd decided on 2 new characters (for the game). So we'd thought that for one, we'd like to make him in the feel of SFII, but just updated for the times - and that's how we came to make him.
At that time, we also had a slender capoeira guy.
Kamei:
Yes, the final two ideas were Brazilian capoeira and Turkish Yagli gures. For the capoeira guy, we had an interesting idea of moves where he would turn on his head and attack, but ultimately we wanted to go with something we hadn't done before, so that's how we came to use Yagli gures.
Tsukamoto:
We've featured capoeira in one of our previous titles.
Were there any other rejected ideas?
Kamei:
There were plenty of concepts that were thrown out. Not nearly as many as there were for Juri, but there were at least 100 or 200 rejected ideas.
Tsukamoto:
Looking at him now, Hakan's design is the best out of all the ideas we tossed. We looked at various videos and talked about it over and over, and at last the final image came about. Once we've decided the major direction, then the costume design also changes quite a bit.
Okada:
At first we had a proposal for a cool character. And that's fine in its own right, but just cool kinda feels lacking. We consulted with producer Ono, and thought up various things.
Tsukamoto:
Even after we decided on Yagli gures, just an orthodox fighter would be boring, so after thinking about it some more we came up with him being the president of a cooking oil company, he speaks in Osaka dialect (Osaka-ben*), and is traveling the world looking for oil! Then we came up with him having a beautiful wife and 7 daughters. Then we felt that it was kind of absurd, and that's the feel we wanted, so we really got into making him (laughs).
(*Osaka-ben is a version of Kansai-ben, the dialect spoken in western Japan. While not quite "country dialect", it's mostly famous for its use in manzai, the Japanese 2-man take on stand-up comedy)
Hakan is all about the oil, so how did you come up with that idea?
Taguchi:
The big thing about the oil was the glistening effect. If he was too shiny, it would have a negative effect on the background and the other characters. And if he wasn't shiny enough, then you wouldn't understand that he was oiled up. It took a lot of trial and error to get it to properly fit into the Street Fighter 4 world.
Kamei:
The glistening effect changes slightly depending on the stage. The lead designer worked on the background texture and reflection on the model on the shiny parts right up until the very end. If you take a good look at him when he's oiled up you'll be able to appreciate it.
Taguchi:
Also, oil has a high refractive index, so with a thin layer you get a prism effect, and you get a light that looks like a rainbow. So we used the oil on Hakan's body to simulate that effect. At a first glance, his glisten looks like its shining white, but really within that light there are other colors such as blue and purple.
This is how the shiny feel of the oil was brought about.
Taguchi:
Also, and this something you won't understand unless you really take a close look at it, but oil is a high-viscosity liquid, right? So we didn't just want to make the oil look shiny, we also set it up so that the oil would slowly flow down, as being pulled by gravity.
Tsukamoto:
That slow drip down - that's definitely the feel of oil! Getting Hakan's oil in the game really took a lot of trial and error.
Taguchi:
But because we put too much work into the oil, it really takes up a lot of processing power (laughs). So for his appearance and well as the processing burden, we adjusted those right down to the end.
Well then, how about the oil sounds?
Tomozawa:
Well, thank you for asking! (laughs) First, for the Oil Sliding, the slip sound you hear is our sound director Mr. Endo sliding his finger across a glass pane.
Tsukamoto:
That slip-n-slide sound! That's a nice sound. I can tell that its handmade!
Tomozawa:
Right, right? (laughs) He was even concerned about which way to slide his finger across the glass - this was trial and error as well. (laughs) And we even had to do a retake. We did it once and thought we had it, but Endo said that it didn't feel right. So, without compromise, we have sounds for Hakan sliding across the floor, grabbing his opponent and sending them flying - 3 distinct oily sounds, so if you can tell the difference between them we'd be really happy.
Tell us about Hakan's oiled up special moves.
Kamei:
For his special moves, we thought about how Hakan would use the oil to increase the damage dealed out to his opponents. At a first glance, Hakan seems like a ridiculous character, but Hakan himself is seriously thinking about how to defeat his opponents in battle. So the oil is a necessary item for hurting his opponents, and we spent a lot of time thinking about how to make that happen in the game.
Okada:
So with that image, the very first move we came up with was the Oil Dive where he slides across the floor and attacks. After deciding that Hakan would be a grappler, then we worried about how he would use the oil in his throws. The ultras and super were especially difficult, as we had to make them plenty interesting and showy. We couldn't come up with something that all involved staff would be happy with. So by that, I recall Hakan as a character who needed a lot or retakes.
Yes... throw characters, and the characteristic of oil being slippery don't exactly go well together. No matter what move we thought of, trying to get the slippery part in there just didn't work. The dev team worried about this quite a bit. At the time, Hakan had a giant-swing move where he'd grab the opponent and swing them around. But if he was oiled up, the opponent would slip out of his hands and go flying (laughs). What we eventually figured out what to have the sliding part do the damage to the opponent. And that became the basis of Hakan's moves.
Tell us your favorite special move.
Taguchi:
This was talked about last week, but I have to go with the Focus Attack while Hakan is oiled up from the Oil Shower. Moving around during the focus stance is my recommendation. The engineers feel like it has unlimited potential, so I'm looking forward to see what kind of uses the players come up with after the game goes on sale.
Tsukamoto:
Other characters can't move during their Focus Attack. If Hakan sings out his shower, then his opponents are going to have to be careful around him.
Yeah, the Oil Shower is essential. On the other hand, I would recommend his air throw, the Hakan Stamp. Hakan looks like a character who wouldn't have an air throw. So his opponents may take him lightly and try to jump at him. It's a simple move, sure, but nailing it feels really good.
I'm gonna go with the Oil Rocket. As Okada said before the first move we came up with was the Oil Dive, but the Oil Rocket - squeezing his opponent and then sending them flying through the oil's slipperiness - that idea is the base of his moves. After this, we came up with his ultras Oil Coaster and Oil Combination Hold, so in that regard this is the move that decided the general direction of the rest of his moves.
Based on sounds, I'm going with the ultra Oil Coaster. If you can listen closely to the slippery sound as he's hitting the move I'll be really happy (laughs). The sound the opponent makes when they are squirming in the Oil Combination Hold is also nice, but personally I just love the sliding sound of the Oil Coaster, so please listen to it! ... But I think whoever gets caught in it will be plenty unhappy (laughs).
Okada:
... Yeah. Basically, he's like the super-serious, stubborn ol' pops from back in the day. He himself is very serious, but to the people around him he's just kinda foolishly spinning his wheels.
Why does Hakan speak in Osaka dialect?
Okada:
At first, it wasn't Osaka dialect, but just an old-fashioned, tough way of speaking. But then the producer Ono said that as his appearance is pretty individualistic, we should make his lines match up with that. So Osaka dialect felt like the right choice for Hakan's character. Also, since we haven't had any Osaka-dialect characters in Street Fighter before, that also became a reason why.
Tomozawa:
But during voice recordings, the Osaka dialect was a bit of a hangup. Hakan's voice actor, Shintarou Ohata, is from the Chugoku region, and even though he was quickly able to match the Osaka dialect for us... even though its the same western Japan region, the accent was a bit off. Both I, the sound director, and the scenario director Kawasaki are from Osaka, so before recording we would check Hakan's Osaka dialect. The inflections at the end of a word are a bit different by region, and even though we are both from Osaka our opinions would differ. Even though its Osaka dialect that we should be familiar with, with those nuances adjustments took a bit of work, so recording also took some time.
By the way, how did Hakan's hair end up like that?
Kamei:
There is a reason for it, but for now we're keeping it as a secret (laughs). If you think about Hakan's characteristics and his moves in the game, you might figure it out. Incidentally, his hair color is turquoise.*
(*In Japanese, Turkey = "toruko". Turquoise = "toruko ishi". "Ishi" meaning "rock" or "stone".)
Tsukamoto:
We got a lot of questions from various departments about Hakan's hair during development.
Okada:
Yeah, we were often asked "explain his hair style" or how we made it.
Tsukamoto:
Yeah, we were constantly asked that. "Is that a hat?" or "Isn't that really a shower cap?" - this went on for months (laughs).
Okada:
And we always answered "No, that's his hairstyle!" (laughs) I'll say it here again for good measure, that's his hair. It's not a hat or shower cap. And it's not a helmet!
Tomozawa:
What I'd like players to give close attention to is the sound of the oil, but more than anything the Osaka dialect! Please expect good things from Mr. Ohata, who provided a great voice for him!
Kamei:
Hakan is a compilation of the characters that have evolved from the traditional cast of the SFII series. He's a character that the planners, designers, engineers, and sound staff all thought up. So for everyone who saw the reveal trailer and found him interesting, please give him a try at least once in the game.
Taguchi:
During development, the engineer who was the lead shader really put his all into the oil effect. Thanks to that, we have the oil that's very well done and doesn't disturb the SFIV world. I'd like for everyone to take note of that.
Okada:
It took us a while to decide on the Turkish Yagli gures concept for Hakan, but once we did and we got a rough character sketch we knew we'd found our man. It was a unanimous decision. As Yagli gures isn't really well known, working on him was difficult, but the development staff got extremely passionate about him. If the players could understand just a little bit of that passion, I'd be happy. If you're interested in Hakan from the videos or illustrations, your expectations will be met I think. Its a character that's just fun, presentation and play style, so please try him out!
Tsukamoto:
Well then, I hope you all enjoyed this week's entry. Definitely give this hot-blooded, oily yet great father a try!
As I promised before, its about time to talk about the adjustments for the old characters. Sorry to have kept you waiting, but over the next 4 weeks we'll give you plenty of good stuff.
First, next week we'll be talking about Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Honda, Blanka, and Zangief. I think there are plenty of things that people are interested in for Zangief's adjustments, so please look forward to that.
See you next week!
