100 cameras
installed in one place.

This time...

More bugs.

How?

There's gonna be war.

We'll apologize.
I'll do it.

A band of dedicated pros create...

A long-awaited global blockbuster.

A new entry in the legendary
Street Fighter series!

Creating hyper-realistic
characters.

The storm becomes a tornado!

Eagle Fist!

What?

Is there a problem?

I don't get it.
There are so many issues.

The new Resident Evil
A gold standard for horror games!

At this rate we won't finish.

Just 1 month to go...
there's a sudden flood of bugs!

Oh come on!

Thanks for your time.

Will they make the deadline?

There's no way out.

100 CAMERAS.

Ready, set.

Go!

Motion Capture
Human movement is captured digitally
and mapped to game characters.

I can hit faster.

Seriously?

Boxers, wrestlers, and other experts
are assigned to appropriate characters.

What are they making?

Shoryuken!

Street Fighter 6.

A new super-detailed
and realistic fighting game.

What do you think?

My Bruce Lee!

Looks like him, right?

Street Fighter merch.

Hardcore fan for 30 years.

The team are die-hard fans
of fighting games.

Clench!

Punch!

Grunt!

Clench!

Open, clench!

You okay? Need a break?

More work is the only break I need.

5 years in development.
Around 300 total staff.

The last stage of development:
A top-secret project.

A.K.I. is tough.

A.K.I.'s character battle music.

A.K.I. is so hard to pin down.

A brand new character.

New character:
A.K.I.
A cold-blooded poison wielder.

Creates CG for poison wielder A.K.I.

Every detail counts.

Shaping brows one hair at a time.

Perfecting her icy expression.

Creation Timeline:
Face, Body: 3 months.
Clothes: 2 months.
Tweaks: 1 month.

How does she put that hairstyle
together every morning?

Lot of blowdrying.

Straighteners wouldn't do the job.

Habit 1
Imagining life as a poison wielder.

Ready, Teratani?

The Crouching Medium Kick
doesn't flow into a combo.

Yeah, okay.

- A Crouching Light Kick as
a decoy into the main combo?
- Yeah, okay.

A Drive Rush linked to a Medium Punch?

Mm.

Maybe use a Medium Kick to the front?

Heh heh heh.

Battle Planner
Decides on A.K.I.'s speed and attacks
Decides on game balance.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Eight frames.

Frame adjustments are made in
increments of around 0.017 sec.

The Standing Medium Kick is 26 frames.

But Luke's is 29.

A.K.I.'s shorter return
gives her an advantage.

Should the return be lengthened?
They check it against every character.

1 hour later.

2 hours later.

3 hours later.

Add two frames to lengthen the return?

It'll make the gameplay more strategic.

They decide to slightly lengthen her return.

Habit 2
Gaming 8 hours a day.

A.K.I.'s Special Move
Nightshade Pulse: Dominate an enemy
with poison gas.

A signature move like Hadoken.
4 months to create.

A more experienced colleague
must perform a check.

Can you check A.K.I.?

I started by making the texture softer.

It doesn't look right! How do we fix it?

It's too dark overall.

It looks like water when it hits.

Maybe rethink the whole approach.

Play up the feel of breathing poison.

Emphasize the 'poison.'

That's really hard!

Tweaking color and texture.

Repeated tests.

Nightshade Pulses fired
by Yoshida in 2 days:

Around 3200.

Habit 3
Real-life training.

2 days later.

Sei, can you check A.K.I., please?

I tweaked the Nightshade Pulse bubble.

Oh!

That's much better.
Looks great.

Watery - > Emphasize the poison smoke.

But!

Maybe make the bubble bigger?

You do this every time.

The first-frame bubbles are small.

You can go big.

But it's more convincing now.

Okay.

Habit 4
Continue till you win.

After work.

Time for fun.

Relaxing with a game in development.

These guys are relaxing too.

I'm so mad!

I hate you!

Respect your elders!

We're gaming now, age is irrelevant!

Habit 5
Games are made with love.

This isn't good.

It's very bad.

Hell.

Resident Evil.
The globally long-awaited new edition.

1 month
to the deadline.

Have to eat, no matter what.

Oh!

I missed.

I died.

The director's dead!

It's a difficult game.

Final check.

It froze?

Here too?

Yeah, it's not moving.

So I'm stuck here?

Seriously?

A storm of bugs!

Every Developer's Enemy:
Bugs.

Bug 1
Game freezes, can't be played.

Bug 2
Visual issues.

Hands aren't connected.

Bug 3
Sent to another dimension.

The whole development team
works on debugging.

- How many new bugs yesterday?
- Around 70.

At this rate we won't make the release.

I want this project to be finished.

Over.

Done with.

More bugs....

Another crash.

Debugging Frontlines.

This is not good.

It really is flashing, isn't it?

Bug: flashing puddle edges.

- Can we fix it?
- Tricky.

Bugs are chased through
countless settings and programs.

Some bugs take days to fix.

Why's this vanishing all of a sudden?

Wait, seriously?

Come on, PC, work with me.

I'm gonna say that there's no problem.

Just pretend it's not there.

Are we on top of the checks?

Not yet.

We need to keep ahead or
it'll never be finished.

Okay?

Do you remember Block The Clock?

No?

You're too young. It was a board game.

There was a clock,
and it ran on a track.

If the clock went beyond
the end of the track it fell off.

We're playing the same game.

You need to lay the track faster.

Habit 6
Chased by deadline zombies.

Behind the Battle of the Bugs:
A Terrifying Group.

QA will be mad.

So QA is furious.

He's getting chewed out by
QA right now.

I'm sorry.

Quality Assurance.

A group of pros who spend days
playtesting the game.

Text Expert
Checks character alignment
and corruption.

All 13 languages are checked.

Bridge fall checker
Makes sure “Game Over” triggers.

Man Dies 300 Times A Day.

Oh!

Found it.

You need to report it straight away.

The storm of bugs
awakens a terrifying boss.

The bugs aren't fixed. What now?

Why are the fixes so sloppy?

If they're gonna do it,
they should do it right.

Is Development keeping their promises?

I'm getting very worried.

I've done my fair
share of checking.

I've never seen bugs
like this.

Let me repeat myself:
I am very concerned.

Some elements were added
at the last minute.

Development's still
adding new elements.

Adding menu screens.

Adding extra elements.

New changes mean
new bugs.

That's not normal
at this stage.

If something's not
finished, flag it.

I understand.

Yes...

Ito was breathing fire.
Never seen anything so bad, he said.

It's his job to make that call.

I guess.

And there are other
foes to face...

No more excuses.
You just said things were moving.

What did you just say?

"We could do it in the last game,
why not this one?"

That's what players will say.

No half measures!

We'll have to push back the release.

I think the current brightness
is fine though.

The issue is
screen brightness.

Horror games evoke terror
through light and dark.

It's been tweaked repeatedly,
but now...

"Darker is scarier."

Another adjustment!

The deadline's getting so close.

This is hell.

Meanwhile.

Changes mean bugs.
No more!

Habit 7
Caught between the boss and the demon.

I don't want to do this.
But there's no choice.

Too many tweaks.
That's the root of the problem.

If we don't stop doing that
we'll just generate more bugs.

If this causes more
I'll apologize on my knees.

Darker, scarier visuals
Complete the game's development.

Is the moonlight too strong?

Super faint visibility is fine.

They make adjustments from the start.

Ashley looks washed out.

No wonder. Look at our situation!

Got something from Mr. Hirabayashi.

Ugh, I don't believe it.

Ramón's room is too dark.

'Too dark to play.'

- What's up?
- Direct order from the producer.

Too dark. Brighten it up.

That - that was
YOUR decision!

We darkened it, now it's too dark.

Habit 8
The demon is upending the tea table.

Image quality check
by the top producers.

Wipes the screen so
everything looks perfect.

Hey.

You're here.

- Hi!
- Thanks for your time.

The verdict?

We adjusted the previous
standard visibility.

It's two notches darker.

Then we tweaked it so it was
still playable at this visibility.

We added faint fog here.

Otherwise, it looks like a dead end.

Just a bit, to keep the path clear.

Soothing the Demon 1
A light mist to brighten the path.

It's an improvement.

Still scary but it
maintains baseline visibility.

We added a few more details
above this dark path.

It was pitch black before.

Soothing the Demon 2
Adding décor to guide the way.

The route is clear now, yes.

Terrifyingly dark but easy to play.

We asked for lots of adjustments,
but this is great work.

He kept saying,'Again?!'

Thank you so much.

It's better. Much better.

Are we good to sign off on this?

Everyone agree?

- Great work.
- Thank you.

- I'm on it.
- Thank you.

Debugging is all that's left.
The whole team can focus.

There's a report from Ito in QA.

It's a bit more optimistic.

He wrote, 'I hope
the project is going well.'

It's taking longer than he expects.
That's the issue.

So he's frustrated,
and that makes him annoyed.

That's a feature of his character,
not a bug.

He's not a mean guy.

We all share the same goal.

Habit 9
The boss and demon share the same goal.