Hello, fellow Mighty Beckers!
Monday. For some of us it means back to school, but for many of us it means back to work -- so we wanted to give you one boss each Monday you’d actually look forward to seeing!
And our original idea was just that: drop a new, final Mighty No. boss image for you to see each Mighty Boss Monday of our Kickstarter campaign. But given the HUGE response to our design-evolution walkthrough of Mighty No. 5 for the last Comcept Concept Wednesday (still our most commented update so far!), director Koji Imaeda and lead character designer Kimo Kimo volunteered to give you another peek behind the process on how another of our big baddies came about! Take it away, guys:
PHASE 1: FIRING BLANKS
Imaeda: As we mentioned in our previous boss design update, part way through the creation of Mighty No. 5, we decided to flesh out the basics of all the other Mighty Numbers. As part of that process, Mighty No. 1's theme was set as "fire."
We asked Kimo Kimo to come up with a design that was more than just breathing fire, or using a flamethrower, or any of the usual stuff; we wanted his entire body to be like a flaming sun or a furnace -- difficult to even get close to.
After that, Kimo Kimo and Inafune worked together to develop and refine Mighty No. 1’s look. I've asked Kimo Kimo to provide comments on his illustrations below.
Kimo Kimo: We’ve been thinking of the Battle Colosseo that the Mighty Numbers fight in as something like a cage deathmatch -- which is where I got the idea for the illustration above on the left: a boxer-type robot, burning with fighting spirit. At this point, I wasn’t officially assigned as the designer for Mighty No. 1, so it was just a rough sketch.
The images on the right side are from after I took on design responsibilities. Inafune told me that the design didn't have to be humanoid, so I took Imaeda’s ideas literally and came up with sun- and furnace-themed robots.
Kimo Kimo: Around this time, we starting having trouble on the design for Mighty No. 5 (Note: if you haven't already, see Phase 3 of our update on the making of Mighty No. 5), and decided to set basic designs for all the bosses, so I came up with this wrestler-like body for No. 1. But I still didn’t know exactly what the end-goal was for this boss design, so every day was just non-stop trial and error, over and over. I started having thoughts like, "Well, if the world ended today, at least I wouldn't have to worry about (Mighty No. 1) anymore!" (laughs)
Inafune asked me to add some kind of special feature to the design, so I came up with this mechanism on the boss’s back that can fire out ropes to create a wrestling ring, and then he could do moves off those ropes. Looking at it again now, I'm surprised I thought something so plain would be a good idea. In retrospect, the whole design was a little too hung-up on the whole wrestling-robot theme.
PHASE 2: INAFUNE’S SPARK OF INSPIRATION
Kimo Kimo: When I showed the above illustrations to Inafune, he drew the following sketch as a counter-proposal:
PHASE 2: INAFUNE’S FEEDBACK:
“The key element here could be the change in appearance from one form to another: Maybe when he’s on fire, Mighty No. 1 looks big and muscular, but when the fire is extinguished, it turns out he’s actually quite thin, revealing gas burners and such responsible for the massive flames. Gameplay-wise, it’d be fun if Beck, too, would get all bulked-up after he steals this ability and transforms, but then he could turn off the flames to enter smaller passageways.”
PHASE 3: ALL FIRED UP
Kimo Kimo: With a clear direction set by Inafune, I changed the main body to have it composed entirely out of flames, and soon, Mighty No. 1’s design was finally complete!
(above) No. 1 in the nude, as it were (left), and fully ignited (right).
Kimo Kimo: The roaring flames make the chest area resemble a face, giving No. 1 a very aggressive feel -- but with the fire extinguished, his body brings to mind a gas lantern, or the top part of a (Zippo-style) lighter that actually produces the flame.
Imaeda: With a design like this, he's dangerous when his body is burning, so perhaps when the flames go out, that's the time to attack. Maybe the flame on his head could be his weak point? Hmm... We’ve still got plenty more to think about!
(above) On the left, we see the color of his flames change as he takes damage; on the right, we see another view where his inner skeleton is starting to show.
And that wraps it up for the Mighty Boss Monday portion of our update -- but speaking of having plenty more to think about...
STRETCH GOAL UPDATE!
Here is is, folks! We are very proud to announce that, after hours of discussion and some long weekend meetings sifting through and discussing your feedback, different costs, and what the team believes would be best for the game overall, we have our next set of expanded stretch goals! A few notes before we dive into them:
1. These are not all of our stretch goals! If we’re lucky enough to get through a good number of these goals, we have lots more ideas. We’re up for it if you are!
2. Handhelds are still a possibility! Just because you don’t see them in this next set of goals doesn’t mean we aren’t working on this.
We know many of you have been asking about the possibility of Vita and 3DS versions of Mighty No. 9, so now we know the desire is most definitely there -- what’s left is to figure out if the money and production realities can make this possible. We wish we could say more at this point, but we can say this: There might be other ways to make this happen (besides stretch goals) that we are currently investigating. (Or maybe it will end up being a later stretch goal after all?)
Either way, we hope to have an update of some kind on this by later next week -- and just to be 100% clear, this is not a confirmation we can or will be able to offer handheld versions, only that we hear your feedback here, and there are some interesting possibilities we are busy looking into!
3. These new ??? goals are not exactly the same goals as they were before. We think you’ll ultimately agree this isn’t that important in the long run, but we know a good number of people have been curious about what our original two ??? stretch goals were that we ended up moving to make way for cheaper PS3/Xbox 360/Wii U console versions. For those who are still curious, we plan to discuss the evolution of the stretch goals in the next podcast -- but suffice to say, we feel these new ones match better where we are in the campaign now, what we feel is best for the game, and the desires we’ve been hearing through your feedback.
4. We understand no list of goals and features will make everyone happy, but we hope you understand that we only came up with this list after a lot of careful consideration, balancing the team’s plans for the game, our budget and schedule, and most importantly feedback from all of you! A big part of any major undertaking is inevitably compromise -- something that, as a big, diverse group and extended part of our dev team now, we hope everyone is ready to learn or acknowledge, since we want to continue to be open and honest about every part of the process we can. That said, we are really happy and proud with the list we came up with and we hope you will be, too! :D
And so, without further adieu:
$2.0 Million: BONUS Boss Rush Mode!
That’s right -- we’re adding a stretch goal here without pushing any of the other goals back! (Think of it more like a stretch reward.)
After a lot of feedback (which we agreed with) on the big gap before the next goal of PS3/Xbox 360/Wii U console versions, the team really wanted to have something for everyone to aim for and celebrate along the way. So we took our best-bang-for-the-buck potential future goal and will include it as a bonus feature if we can hit $2 million: a separate mode where you can challenge all the Mighty No. Bosses, back-to-back, with a clock ticking to keep track of your best time, so you can share, compare, and show off your skills to your friends!
$2.4 Million: Challenge Mode!
Similar to the Challenge Modes in games like New Super Mario Bros. U, this special extra mode would remix parts of existing levels and enemies to create dozens of mini-missions you can use to test your skills in a variety of enjoyably frustrating ways!
$2.55 Million: Extra End Stage & Boss!
We’ll add another full stage, complete with an intense, original boss battle (!), to the final area Beck will take on once he defeats the other eight Mighty No. bosses!
$2.75 Million: BECK & CALL ONLINE CO-OP CHALLENGE MODE!
We’re excited about all our stretch goals, but even so, this one is really special to us: based on your feedback, we wanted to offer something that both included Call as a playable character and put her on equal footing as Beck, while not breaking our schedule or budget. We also wanted this to be something new -- something the genre has never seen before. And that’s how we came up with this: over a dozen missions you can play online with a friend, playing as Beck and his community-appointed partner, Call! Like the single-player offline challenge Mode, these missions will be parts of levels remixed, but this time around the theme of cooperative play. Players will need to use Beck and Call’s different powers to complement each other and defeat these special challenges!
$2.9 Million: ???
TBA ASAP!
$3.1 Million: ???
Mysterious mystery is mysterious...
$3.3 Million: PS4 and XBox One Versions!
Yes! We heard your calls and are proud to report we can finally offer next-gen versions of Mighty No. 9 here! We know by the time the game ships in 2015, many of you will be proud owners of one next-gen system or the other -- or maybe both! If we reach this level of funding, we can add the PS4 and the Xbox One to the list for every backer getting the digital version of Mighty No. 9 to choose from! To recap, that would mean you could choose one of the following: PC, Mac, Linux, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS4, or Xbox One!
Aaand that’s all for today! As always, let us know what you think -- both of Mighty No. 1 and our new stretch goals -- and know that we will keep doing all we can to make them a reality, but it’s your help that will be the true deciding factor!
Thanks again from all of us, and hope you enjoyed update #9 on this 9/9 Mighty Day!
Sincerely,
- @markmacd (Mighty No. 84), @johntv (Mighty No. 99), and the Mighty No. 9 Team