King of Fighters Producer Masaaki Kukino May Have Once Again Parted Ways with SNK Playmore

Shuri

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:annoyed:

While rumors concerning the future of SNK Playmore’s King of Fighter franchise over the past few years, development of upcoming titles may be done without a key producer from recent installments.

Masaaki Kukino, who previously worked on both King of Fighters XII and King of Fighters XIII, has apparently parted ways with the company as of October 31. This news comes from his personal Facebook page, the employment section of which was updated that same day with the details.

Kukino previously took leave from SNK Playmore a few months after King of Fighters XIII’s arcade release in 2010 before returning just last year.

http://shoryuken.com/2014/11/06/kin...ino-possibly-leaving-snk-playmore-once-again/
 

CORY

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I couldn't care less to be honest. It's not like his games were any good imo.
 

StaticX

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WTF?! KOF Xlll was probably the greatest KOF to come out. So yes this sucks, Fuck!
 

SNKorSWM

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Took him the second try to get results. An expensive mistake no doubt.
 

RabbitTroop

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Who did XI? That's my fav of the recent games. I thought XII was pretty universally hated, and XIII felt really off to me. Maybe XIV will rock, but game producers are glorified project managers. It's the underling staff that matters more, anyway.
 

Wachenroder

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Damn I remember he left but had no idea he had returned. Now i'm hearing he left again without even first making at least one more KoF?

Damn

Who did XI? That's my fav of the recent games. I thought XII was pretty universally hated, and XIII felt really off to me. Maybe XIV will rock, but game producers are glorified project managers. It's the underling staff that matters more, anyway.

I'd say with a company like SNK with the types of games they make, I think a good producer is exceptionally important.
 
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Neorebel

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I read this on SRK earlier as well. I wondered if this will have any real bearing on the future of the company... A single man is one of many responsible for a final product. I have not followed people's roles close enough to have an idea of how significant this may or may not be though...
 

RabbitTroop

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Damn I remember he left but had no idea he had returned. Now i'm hearing he left again without even first making at least one more KoF?

Damn



I'd say with a company like SNK with the types of games they make, I think a good producer is exceptionally important.

What would you say a Game Producer does... For a company like SNK, especially? We're talking King of Fighters here. What exactly did he bring to the table?
 

Wachenroder

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What would you say a Game Producer does... For a company like SNK, especially? We're talking King of Fighters here. What exactly did he bring to the table?

I don't know what this guy in particular brought to the table. I'm mainly talking producers in general with relation to KoF in its current position and SNK in their current position.

With KoF XII and KoF XIII, i'm pretty sure they were very difficult games to make both because they are fighting games (a genre that not a lot of people know how to do well) and 2D with large and highly animated sprites (also a skill that seems to be getting more and more scarce). When dealing with something as specific as a next gen 2D sprite based KoF game, it seems you need a good team and good management (producer) to make sure things you don't end up wasting a lot of time and money on bullshit. I'm sure you know this but them sprites aren't cheap and they are time consuming as FUCK.

Yeah I know the next game probably isn't going to be 2D sprite based.

My point is that their hasn't been a mainline KoF game in nearly 4 years and they don't even have an in house KoF development team anymore. Hell SNK is barely even a game studio at this point and getting pretty far removed from active development. I'm sure they are getting rusty at this point I worry that this will impact development efficiency (mostly being forced to cut corners and shit like that). They actually have to seek out and assemble an entire team of people with the necessary know how for to make the game for them. Seems like having a good producer who has experience with the previous 2 entries in the series would have helped with that process immensely. Knowing what kind of people and situations to look out for and being prepared for them, what went wrong, what went right and what to do different this time.

Pretty sure talking out of my ass here but that's just how I feel.
 

Mr Bakaboy

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The new KOF game was rumored to be completed by the end of the year. Seeing this I think of two scenerios.

#1 The game is all but completed (at least to the specifications of what his job entailed), and he wanted to leave the company as soon as he can. Either for other jobs, or he really doesn't like working there.

#2 The game is a f'n mess. Complaints all around and this guy either resigned cause he was not up to snuff or the company is a bunch of a-holes and he couldn't take it anymore.

My bet is somewhere on option #1. It seems about the right amount of time before it should be completed, but wouldn't be suprised with option #2.
 

wataru330

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They weren't sprites. They are 3D models, skinned.

I loved XIII, but honestly I'd rather them finish & re-release XII as an UM or something.

I'm w/ Nick; XI is the absolute business. Super cancels, hi-res backgrounds, and Eiji. Untouchable.
 

jeff bogard

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Clearly Dimps makes better KOF games, I have no idea why this is a big deal....
 

alec

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KOF XIII was amazing in every way except art style and game play. I was hoping for game play improvements next installment, but maybe reworking the game some will help the series move on.

Looking forward to 98UM and 02UM on Steam more than the next installment, honestly.
 

Fygee

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They weren't sprites. They are 3D models, skinned.

I loved XIII, but honestly I'd rather them finish & re-release XII as an UM or something.

I'm w/ Nick; XI is the absolute business. Super cancels, hi-res backgrounds, and Eiji. Untouchable.

Incorrect. 3D models were used as a baseline sketch, but the final product was sprites that were hand drawn/traced off of those sketches.

Also, XIII is basically the special edition of XII, though more accurately its the completed version of what XII was supposed to be in the first place.

I liked XIII a lot, and I'm glad that it got some pretty good attention and love for its release. SNKP clearly put in a lot of love and care for it.

That said, SNKP clearly doesn't seem like a pleasant place to work based off of the stories I've read on MMCafe and Kukino's second departure. Considering how stressful working for Japanese video game companies is in general, that says a lot. It's pretty obvious that if it weren't for the pachinko and mobile offerings (the latter of which they definitely deserve credit for), they'd be dead in the water.
 
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SNKorSWM

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Maybe SNKP cut his budget and moved it over to the pachinko department, so he has to leave and make a kickstarter to garner his own budget.
 

gray117

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Just some guy imho. Likely leaving due to an end of a contract period more than anything. More likely than not he was commissioned to get the ball rolling on something and he either didn't get picked back up or chose to leave. Either way I don't think there will be a (near) completed kof a cupboard awaiting release... 12 was a mess whose production enabled but also hampered 13 which was a great game... but was always what 12 should have been with some then inevitable compromises.
 

NeoGeoNinja

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XIII felt really off to me.
Same.

Could never quite place it, but the pacing and spacing of the fights didn't sit well with me at all. Felt like there was far TOO much space to be playing with, if that makes sense...?

Anyway, as someone who has enjoyed ALL of the 2D KOF's inc SVC & NGBC (but not NeoWave tbh), XIII really didn't have the effect on me I expected it to. It just didn't grab me at all...
 
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