Shannon Loftis, the general manager of Microsoft Global Games Publishing, recently spoke about Killer Instinct at the IGDA Leadership Summit. She specifically talked about one of the characters from the series that didn’t age well.
The development team wanted to bring back Chief Thunder from the first Killer Instinct. But as they designed the modern character, they realized that the it made sense to make a culturally sensitive version of the Native American warrior. To do that, they enlisted support from a Nez Perce tribal member in Washington state.
With Killer Instinct, “many of the characters don’t hold up well under today’s standards,” she said.
Chief Thunder from Killer Instinct was “well-intentioned” attempt at creating a Native American hero. He was one of the most popular characters, and series creator Rare wanted to add him to the new game, but in a respectful way. The original team had no Native Americans. The new game was created by Double Helix Games, Iron Galaxy Studios, Rare, and Microsoft Studios under the supervision of Ken Lobb.
Microsoft contacted Josiah “Black Eagle” Pinkum, an ethnographer and member of the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans. They invited him in to visit developer Double Helix and review the old character. He spent a day with the team, which explained to him that they wanted to “take risks” and create an “extreme character” based on real cultural values. They talked about how would a Nez Perce celebrate on defeating an enemy. He advised them to create someone who was “culturally heroic.” The character at the top of this story was the result.
“Thunder has been a big hit, and hopefully we created new gamers along the way,” Loftis.
This is more proof of how dedicated Double Helix and Microsoft Game Studios were to bringing back Killer Instinct correctly. The result was a lot of happy fans and as Shannon mentioned hopefully new ones.
You can read the full article here: http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/03/how-microsoft-enlisted-an-indian-tribe-to-design-thunder-character-in-killer-instinct/
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Excellent
Great article on KI overall
Honestly I disliked thunders new look and like how he was more in the first Killer Instinct. I don’t play with him as I once did in the older K.I. I never use him the only characters I use are sabrewulf, ahadow, Jago, orchid, maya, hisako, fulgore, spinal.