Interview: Richard Moon, Lead Producer for Mini Fighter

August 15, 2009 by Jeffrey L. Wilson
Filed under: Beat Em Ups, Interviews, MMO

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MiniFighter02 Interview: Richard Moon, Lead Producer for Mini Fighter

Who would’ve guessed that 2009 would be the year of the MMO with fisticuffs leanings? Dungeon Fighter Online has been getting plenty of press both here and abroad, but CJ Internet’s Mini Fighter looks to deliver its own spin on hard-hitting, multi-player martial arts action. I spoke with Richard Moon, lead producer for Mini Fighter, about the title.

For those unfamiliar with Mini Fighter, could you please provide some background?

Mini Fighter was first published by CJ Internet about three years ago in Korea and has been well received by the local users since then. On the back of such support, the game has launched commercial service in Taiwan and China, and has started generating revenues. Better yet, it has been made available for mobile phones this year.

In this regard, the global service launch for Mini Fighter is a strong indication of our effort to take the game to the next level. We aspire to reach out and expand our user base across the world to let them share the fun of Mini Fighter.

Mini Fighter has gained popularity in Asia because of many characters to choose from and a wide variety of game systems. I believe such aspects will appeal strongly to users in North America and Europe. We plan to disclose the game systems in stages for the global service so users in the region can catch on quickly.

MiniFighter01 Interview: Richard Moon, Lead Producer for Mini Fighter

Mini Fighters sports charming super-deformed 2D graphics. What were the motivations to go that route as opposed to, say, a 3D look?

In Korea, online gaming is really huge. New online game titles are released almost every day, and I’d like to note that most of them are full-3D graphics. 2D-based game titles are hard to find and that’s created a niche demand. We opted to go out of the expected trend and offer users a fresh and different graphical style. The resulting 2D look has its own appeal with cute, hand-drawn characters and animations. Having said that, I’ll be more specific about the reasons why we opted for 2D graphics for Mini Fighter.

We wanted to consider users with low PC specifications. Students account for a large part of the gaming population and they usually can’t afford high-end PCs. We thus wanted to offer them enhanced accessibility to our game.

As I mentioned before, 2D graphics has its own appeal. I can firmly argue that 2D graphics are as good as 3D graphics in terms of color textures and design qualities. Not only that, but any users who have played Street Fighter II should certainly understand the thrill of hitting control pads. We wanted to bring that sense back to life in an online form.

We intended to attract and encourage beginner-level users. Many new players find it hard to play 3D games. Mini Fighter offers a look that‘s reminiscent of arcade-style games from back in the day. This is what makes players feel comfortable and encourages them to give Mini Fighter a try.

Tell us a bit about the gameplay mechanics. Do you think it’s a title better suited for a keyboard w/macros or can one jump in with a standard gamepad and mix it up?

Basically, gameplay in Mini Fighter is optimized for a keyboard. Besides the battle modes and dungeons, there are a number of community-based activities. Being able to chat with other players via keyboard is an essential part of enjoying Mini Fighter to the fullest. Of course, players may mix up a keyboard and a gamepad during the battle modes if that makes them feel more comfortable.

Let me briefly introduce the game modes of Mini Fighter:

Castle Siege – A battle where guilds fight with each other to conquer one of the four castles in the Castle Siege Field.

Sky Zone – Two teams fight each other in the air via their flying mobiles.

Boss Zone – Users transform into monsters or dungeon bosses to KO other users.

Coliseum – Users are assigned to one of the two teams and the team that reaches 100 KO first wins.

Quiz Zone – Users answer quizzes and get rewards.

Fishing Zone – Users catch fish and exchange them for items.

Grand Arena – 16 players have one-on-one fights according to the match list to single out the final winner.

Battle Room – Users fight each other in Battle Room and 15 battle modes are available.

Dungeon – There are 50 dungeon fields and 24 dungeon bosses. Users can get more powerful items in dungeons.

I’ve read in one of your press releases that up to 210 fighters can participate in a brawl. How does that work?

In the early version of Mini Fighter, up to 300 users could fight each other in villages. This was intended to help users to learn game controls naturally while engaging in battles. Unfortunately, novice players were not pleased with the idea and we decided to modify the system.

From that feedback, we created Castle Siege, a mode where up to 200 players can battle simultaneously, and the Boss Zone, an area where up to 100 users can go up against powerful boss monsters. In addition, users can enter the Coliseum to engage in a free-for-all battle with no limitations on the number of participants. Whichever one of the two teams reaches 100 KO first, wins. These features will be added in stages to the Mini Fighter global service.

If you’re interested in checking out Mini-Fighter, here are the minimum specs needed to run the game:

OS: Windows XP

CPU: Pentium 4 1.5GHz or higher

Video: 16-bit Graphics Card

Memory: 256MB or higher

DirectX: DirectX 9.0c

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Tags: 2D, cj internet, dungeon fighter online, hand drawn, mini fighter, PC, richard moon