Rebalancing Street Fighter 2 HD Remix

Post-mortem with lead designer David Sirlin.

Everyone knows that Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix is absolutely brilliant (cos you've read our review, right?). But what everyone doesn't know is that it might not have made it out the virtual door. Here, in the second part of our massive post-mortem interview series with lead designer David Sirlin (click here for the first part), he reveals just how close the game came to getting the chop from the powers that be at Capcom, and explains why it's better off for Backbone that he doesn't dish the dirt on his departure from the developer.

VideoGamer.com: Did you ever get the feeling that Capcom might cancel the project at any time during the development of the game?

David Sirlin: Yeah that was a possibility. It felt the most possible during that first phase with the art that we had to throw away. It was unspoken but everyone just knew it that if that art wasn't going to work out then maybe they would cancel the whole thing. And turns out they didn't. I wonder if there was just so much pressure from the outside that kept them going.

VideoGamer.com: Who do you mean when you say from the outside?

DS: I mean from just the world of gaming. Everyone knew about the project by then.

VideoGamer.com: So this is quite early on in the development of the game?

DS: Yeah it was pretty early. We were worried and Udon was worried, too. Actually Udon had a lot of foresight I guess. They were the ones that said, 'it's going to take this long and cost this much'. They were pretty correct. If only someone had gone with them from the very beginning and followed their plan. Udon saw what was coming.

VideoGamer.com: They realised it was a bigger job than Capcom realised it was going to be.

DS: Yeah. Yeah they did. Also when this change over was maybe going to happen they were very worried about even staying on with the project. I talked to them directly. That's one of 100 ways in which I broke the rules to get this project out. I talked to Udon directly many times and I'm not supposed to do that. Everyone else was very mad that we had that contact, but it's really dumb because the project is much better because of it. Anyway, they were telling me that, if the changeover did happen, they felt they needed to ramp up higher level of people and doing so would take X number of months and Capcom didn't seem to be on board with that. It was more like, 'no don't worry about it, don't worry about it'. Then one day, 'BAM! OK we're changing gears'. And Udon's like, 'yeah but don't you see we said we would need all these new people?'. So even when the changeover happened, that's why there was more delays. Udon didn't really have time to prepare like they said they would need to. By the end they did, I think, half the characters' art in a month and a half. It was some crazy fast thing, because they finally honed the whole process to be so efficient that most of the project's art was done right at the very end.

VideoGamer.com: Looking at the art now, is it as good as it could have been?

DS: Well you could always say it could be better, right?

VideoGamer.com: Did the characters whose art was done right at the end of the project suffer as a result?

DS: No. I know what you're getting at. It's not that certain characters suffered. Even though a lot of the art was done at the end, after that was finished there was a phase of fixing problems, which applied to all the characters. So even the ones at the very end got attention to be fixed up just like the earlier ones. So it's not so much that particular characters suffer. It was more that if we had just been on a more continuous track from the beginning, maybe we would have had a different shading style or something.

VideoGamer.com: You've worked on a number of Capcom published titles. What do you think of the company?

DS: Well Backbone advises all of its employers to say that a publisher is great to work with!

VideoGamer.com: You're not with Backbone now though!

DS: No I'm not. Well I don't know how to answer that. I've worked with SEGA so I have some comparison. It's not like I can say they're better or worse than Activision...

VideoGamer.com: From a personal point of view how do you find them to work with? Are they receptive to new ideas, or are they close minded? Do they play things safe regarding new projects?

DS: I guess the reason that that is a hard question to answer is that most of my experience with them is with a different Capcom than exists right now. They all changed management. So all those relationships I had about, maybe during that other Street Fighter game, like I mentioned I was not involved with Commando or 1942 but Capcom asked me if they would like to write into the contract the obligation on Backbone's part that I'd lead those projects. And I said no, I don't really want to stir up that trouble. But that was the old Capcom that I worked with. They wanted me on those front lines making sure things were as good as they can be, and they're the ones that said they would love to approve my card game having Street Fighter characters, and they're the ones that when Capcom Classics Collection 1, which is the thing that started the whole relationship, that project had struggled too and we managed to finish it on time and on budget and we got through those problems, but I felt like I was really working on the same side as the executives at Capcom on finishing that. Now this new Capcom I just don't have as much of a relationship with them so it's hard for me to say.

VideoGamer.com: It sounds, though, that you've had a positive relationship and experience with Capcom during your time working with them.

DS: I would say definitely yes to that for several years, but now I really don't know what they think. For all I know they're tired of working with me because I'm a trouble maker. I don't know. Maybe they love me, maybe they don't. I really am not sure. I know that I caused a lot of trouble on this project and I felt that I had no choice. This was the only way to deal with all this bureaucracy. So I'm really not sure how they perceive that.