The co-creator of the saga, John Tobias, talks about the original plans before the phenomenon exploded
The last episode of the Mortal Podkast, the show about the lore of the saga led by the saga expert Ben Mekler, has had an exceptional guest: John Tobias "Saibot", the co-creator of Mortal Kombat with Ed Boon ( Noob Saibot's character bears the last name of both, backwards). He is no longer part of the saga or in NetheRrealms, although he remains in the industia, involved in the study of Warner Bros Games in San Diego and with an unknown project. But beyond that, the interview went through the past, the origins of the saga, its plot construction, and the plans of the team that gave life to one of the most iconic names in the video game.
Among the details that brought out, he explained that the idea of making a fighting game came motivated strictly by the popularity of the genre, and that once in slaughter, the influences of it were classic films such as Hit in Little China, Operation Dragon and other martial arts movies, but also Star Wars. It was a set of very diverse ideas and Tobias recognizes that it was all the result of the moment, of the joint work of Ed Boon and him, and of having that opportunity at that specific moment to create foundations that last in our days – with more health than ever further-.
The influence and desire of Star Wars
About Star Wars, Tobias shared a couple of curious details. On his influence on Mortal Kombat, the main one is the lesson of creating the illusion of a larger world beyond what appeared on the screen. In Star Wars they pointed to details such as the figure of the Emperor, the Empire and other details that never appeared in the film, but were present and served to build the world, make it bigger in the imagination of the spectators – and to have attractive plot elements to build in the possible sequels. Tobias noticed this and introduced it to recreation through details on the stages, in the descriptions of the fighters and in his victory texts.
The other related detail is that they never thought they would make a sequel, despite introducing those little narrative elements, there was no plan to create a sequel and continue to expand the world, in fact they were convinced that it would be the last time they would be left. Do something like that. Once finished with Mortal Kombat, both he and Ed Boon were talking to Midway executives to let them make a game based on Star Wars. But the recreational one was an absolute triumph and the plans changed quickly to a sequel. Tobias didn't share what kind of game they had in mind, but it would certainly have been curious to see the creative duo use Lucas's license.
Source | Mortal Podkast
