Kung Fu Superstar

[wenshu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neijHKudUKg

What happens when Wing Chun is found to be useless in a Wing Chun fighting game?

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neijHKudUKg

What happens when Wing Chun is found to be useless in a Wing Chun fighting game?

In all honesty I have played a few of these kinetic games and that don't read **** all what you do !!
You have to move so slow and wide that it's just freaking silly.

[Hebrew Hammer]

In all honesty I have played a few of these kinetic games and that don't read **** all what you do !!
You have to move so slow and wide that it's just freaking silly.

You mean like as in Chinese martial arts forms? :)

[sanjuro_ronin]

You mean like as in Chinese martial arts forms? :)

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

[Lucas]

i played the street fighting game on kinect. in that game i really realized that you have to work in the framwork of what the game wants you to do as being the controller.

in that one you can punch and kick as fast as you want in solo techniques. so for a 3 punch combination, you can throw the first punch as fast as you want, but the second and third must be thrown at the right timing, but still as fast as you want hte punch to be.

same with any combinations in that game.

personally ive noticed a vast degree if variance between games. So i think the sensor is limited by the game programming in many cases. if you try out the actual fitness programs they are MUCH more sensitive to movement than many of the games.

for instance in the racket ball style game, i'll do kungfu forms while im waiting for the other player, in a linear side fashion, and the game keeps up with fast movements.

[sanjuro_ronin]

for instance in the racket ball style game, i'll do kungfu forms while im waiting for the other player, in a linear side fashion, and the game keeps up with fast movements.

Yeah, WTF is up with that ??

[Lucas]

you mean it being fast with the censor or me doing kungfu at the other player?

[sanjuro_ronin]

you mean it being fast with the censor or me doing kungfu at the other player?

How the sensor picks up what we do at that time but doesn't translate the moves when it comes to the game.
Weird and I noticed that before.
Its the software "translation" language I assume.

[DannyCheng]

Hey all,

I am one of the lead developers over at Kinesthetic Games (http://www.kinestheticgames.com) and I am happy to just have joined this great forum.

Our studio recently announced our upcoming game, which I thought members of this forum will find very interesting.

The game is called Kung Fu Superstar and it's about a young aspiring martial artist who sets off on a journey to become Hollywood and Hong Kong's most loved and respected action hero. He does this by training in martial arts an endeavor that players themselves will experience through the course of the game. As this game has a motion control element however (Kinect, Move etc) the players themselves actually learn real martial arts through playing this game.

Check out the launch trailer at:

www.kungfusuperstar.com (http://www.kungfusuperstar.com)

We think it's a very innovative and cool concept and we're very excited to finally be able to share our hard work with the world.

The support of the martial arts community is obviously of paramount importance to us as we really want to authentically capture the spirit and culture of Kung Fu and other martial arts and promote it to a wide audience through the fun and family friendly context of our game. This is why we're here promoting the project as we'd love to hear from you and hear what you think about the game. If you want to connect with us join us on facebook at www.facebook.com/kungfusuperstar (http://www.facebook.com/kungfusuperstar) or reply to this thread with your comments and feedback.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy our announcement trailer!

[doug maverick]

Hey all,

I am one of the lead developers over at Kinesthetic Games (http://www.kinestheticgames.com) and I am happy to just have joined this great forum.

Our studio recently announced our upcoming game, which I thought members of this forum will find very interesting.

The game is called Kung Fu Superstar and it's about a young aspiring martial artist who sets off on a journey to become Hollywood and Hong Kong's most loved and respected action hero. He does this by training in martial arts an endeavor that players themselves will experience through the course of the game. As this game has a motion control element however (Kinect, Move etc) the players themselves actually learn real martial arts through playing this game.

Check out the launch trailer at:

www.kungfusuperstar.com (http://www.kungfusuperstar.com)

We think it's a very innovative and cool concept and we're very excited to finally be able to share our hard work with the world.

The support of the martial arts community is obviously of paramount importance to us as we really want to authentically capture the spirit and culture of Kung Fu and other martial arts and promote it to a wide audience through the fun and family friendly context of our game. This is why we're here promoting the project as we'd love to hear from you and hear what you think about the game. If you want to connect with us join us on facebook at www.facebook.com/kungfusuperstar (http://www.facebook.com/kungfusuperstar) or reply to this thread with your comments and feedback.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy our announcement trailer!

someone actually posted about this already.

[pateticorecords]

Looks pretty cool. Nice trailer, too!

[DannyCheng]

Thanks Tom! And thanks for the twitter follow too ;)

If anyone else wants to follow we're tweeting from @KungFuSuperstar

[DannyCheng]

Ah, apologies doug_maverick. Scrolling through the main forum page now I did spot the post you were referring to.

Well... I guess it'll be good to have this thread too in case people want to direct their discussions/questions directly at the people behind this project :)

[doug maverick]

cool!! a friend of mine wanted to know...what king of kung fu styles would be shown/taught?

[DannyCheng]

Hey doug_maverick,

Apologies for the delay in getting back, having been E3 week it's been pretty frantic for us.

To answer your question:

Q: "What styles of Kung Fu will be taught through the game?"
A: There will be various multiple styles of Kung Fu taught in Kung Fu Superstar and used to play the game. We will be announcing more on this in the coming months. Right now we don't want to spoil the surprise so we're pretty much sticking to whatever information we've unveiled through the trailer (so through that you can see that Wing Chun will definitely be one of the Kung Fu styles taught through the game).

However the game, despite the title, will not be teaching/be played using just Kung Fu but also other, non-Chinese martial arts. Much like an RPG it will be down to the player to choose which "skill tree" of martial arts they will want to go down through and unlock as they develop their in game hero (as well as themselves!).

Hope this answers your question!

Please direct your friend to www.facebook.com/kungfusuperstar which is where we will periodically be announcing more information on this as well as many other things that have to do with the game.

[couch]

Thought it pretty cool that they had been working on this and I had some questions about the project.

http://darkwingchun.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/dwc-talks-to-kung-fu-superstar-game-developer/

CTK

[couch]

Thought it pretty cool that they had been working on this and I had some questions about the project.

http://darkwingchun.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/dwc-talks-to-kung-fu-superstar-game-developer/

CTK

Thanks for the thread merge.

[GeneChing]

Isn't martial arts already for the masses? :rolleyes:

Kung Fu Superstar: Martial Arts for the Masses (http://www.gamespot.com/features/kung-fu-superstar-martial-arts-for-the-masses-6385658/)
July 5, 2012 6:45AM PDT
By Mark Walton, Staff Writer

Mark speaks to Kostas Zarifis, head of indie studio Kinesthetic Games, about motion controls, life as an Indie, and how he's teaching martial arts to gamers.

Would you give up a job working on one of the biggest franchises, at one of the biggest development studios in the world, in order to go out on your own and pursue a dream? To trade job security and that seldom used gym membership for a life of late-night programming, daytime TV, and the knowledge that--if all goes horribly wrong--it's more than just your livelihood on the line? That might be too risky a move for some, but for Kostas Zarifis, formerly of Lionhead and now leading newly formed indie studio Kinesthetic Games, it was the only move that made sense.

"I had something of my own that I really wanted to pursue--I had to do it," says Zarifis with confidence. "If you'd asked me if I thought I was going to be doing it so soon, I'd probably say no. But, at the same time, opportunities arise and you have to take them. It was just a case of really believing in the project I'm working on now, and it looked like other people believed in it too."

That project is Kung Fu Superstar, a motion-controlled action game born out of Lionhead's Creative Day, a yearly event where staff at the studio are free to come up with and pitch their own game ideas.

"When I first demoed Kung Fu Superstar, the reaction to it was really positive. I was frequently in discussions with Peter [Molyneux] about it, and it was perceived by everyone as a potentially successful project. But the thing is, Lionhead is very much focused on the Fable franchise right now, because it's amazing, and it's been doing really well for them. Kung Fu Superstar is drastically different. Potentially you could say it's not even a Lionhead game."

There's no denying how different it is. Kung Fu Superstar puts you in the shoes of an aspiring movie star called Danny Chang, a kid who spends his days throwing punches in his bedroom and watching Jackie Chan DVDs. His dream? To become the greatest of martial artists and star in his own films. The twist is that not only does Chang increase his skills onscreen, but you learn real martial arts moves too--"the ultimate RPG", Zarifis calls it. Naturally, that means there's a motion controller aspect to the game, but Zarifis is a little cagey when I ask exactly how it's all going to work.

"There's a motion controller aspect to the game and there's a controller aspect too. We're not focusing on a particular motion controller platform at the moment. The project started on Kinect, but we're looking at other platforms and integrating an actual controller too. Of course, in order to physically learn the moves you have to experience the motion control side of the game. But, if you're just interested in playing a really fun, awesome fighting game, then you've got a choice.

There's currently two schools of thought when it comes to motion controls. The first is 1:1 control, which is the Star Wars approach. Then you've got the Dance Central approach, which doesn't show the player, but instead registers what they're doing. There's an argument that if you do it the Dance Central way, there's a disconnect between the player and the game that shouldn't be there. It's not an easy design choice, but as a developer you have to ask yourself, what's the most fun?"

It's a risky proposition, particularly as fast-paced action games and Kinect haven't exactly set the world on fire--just take a look at Kinect Star Wars and Steel Battalion--but Zarifis seems confident it will work, and work well.

"I think it's a problem with the design approach when it comes to Kinect, rather than the technology. At the hardware level Kinect is really fast. The amount of lag it has is completely miniscule. You've probably seen it yourself when you go into the Kinect tuner and you see your wireframe skeleton--that's very quick, almost instant. As a developer that's the kind of data we get, so it comes down to how you deal with it. In our case, I'd love to say it's really fast and it's really accurate because of the way we're approaching design. We're not fighting against the technology. That's where some people get it more right than others."

Despite this, Zarifis tells me he's "not trying to replace kung fu schools" but merely setting out to make an enjoyable game. And he's assembled quite the team to do so, which includes former Codemasters man Alasdair Martin and ex-Lionhead friend Anish Antony. But the biggest member of the team isn't one person, but rather a collection of people from across the globe--a sort of crowdfunding model where instead of seeking money, Zarifis is seeking programming talent.

"It's amazing, because it's a very kind of different and unorthodox kind of model--I wasn't even sure it would work out to be honest. But it's working amazingly well for us. It's great to have the friction of the two worlds of industry veterans working with people with less experience, or that are just really keen. My thinking was that there are amazingly talented people out there who, for whatever reason, haven't had the chance to get a break. We were lucky enough to find a lot of those guys and bring them onboard."

There's a long way to go before Kung Fu Superstar is in the hands of gamers, and still a few months to go until there's even some concrete information on how exactly the game will work. And despite Zarifis' confidence, there's still a little bit of me that's sceptical that Kinect really can deliver a fast-paced action experience, never mind actually teaching someone kung fu. But it's easy to admire someone who's eager to risk it all in pursuit of a dream.

"If you think me leaving Lionhead was a big deal," says Zarifis "obviously Peter leaving to try out his own thing was a huge deal. I think that's pretty cool, because a lot of people in his position might not want to take that risk. For someone like him to go, 'You know what? Screw this' and go see what else he can do is pretty impressive. That's the biggest lesson I've learnt from Peter: to follow your dreams."

[DannyCheng]

Hah :) Indeed they are!

We don't pick the headlines I'm afraid! You know what journalists are like when it comes to headlines ;)

Hope you enjoyed the interview regardless!

[GeneChing]

I get so many martial Kickstarter bids. Most of them don't fly. I've heard of some scammers who used schills to meet their Kickstarter goal in order to extract money from the other contributors.

Tue, Jul 09, 2013 | 23:02 BST
“Launching on Kickstarter UK day one was a bad idea” – Kung Fu Superstar dev (http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/09/launching-on-kickstarter-uk-day-one-was-a-bad-idea-kung-fu-superstar-dev/)

Kinesthetic Games founder Kostas Zarifis believes crowdfunding efforts for his Kinect fighter Kung Fu Superstar were hampered by Kickstarter UK’s early launch issues.

“Launching on Kickstarter UK day one was a bad idea,” Zarifis said at the Develop conference in Brighton.

The developer said Kickstarter’s UK portal launched with a poor payment interface, with confusing currency conversions. He believes that if he had waited until Kickstarter ironed out these issues, the project might have been successful.

That said, Zarifis admitted that Kung Fu Superstar was a “niche market” game, and that Kinesthetic didn’t help itself out by implementing a confusing reward tier structure.

Happily, the story does have a happy ending; Kinesthetic is working on two projects for US companies, having drawn sufficient attention to itself via the Kickstarter.

[DannyCheng]

Hey Gene,

Not sure of the point you are making in this post? Any chance you could elaborate?

Thanks,
Kostas.

[GeneChing]

I post news here. It fortifies our archives. Our forum is set that if you put anything in quotes, it doesn't register as text in the post (except for when you max out the character count). So I commented on Kickstarter.

Now it's your turn. You elaborate. ;)

[DannyCheng]

Oh right. Sure ok I understand you're reporting the news, that's great! Just wasn't sure about the commentary. If there's any questions basically that you need me to answer or you're unsure about any aspect of the Kickstarter campaign we ran back in November, I'd be more than happy to explain! As you can see our tiny team tries to engage with the community as much as physically possible. I'd hate for questions to go unanswered or for false impressions to be formed since we try to be so readily available to clarify things that might need clarification is what I am trying to say :)

[GeneChing]

Let's hear it then. What's up with that news piece and the Kickstarter campaign?

My comment was directed more towards Kickstarter than to this Kinect project specifically. You got to understand - I get lots of Kickstarter campaign requests and they get rather tiresome.

[DannyCheng]

Of course.

The Kickstarter campaign for Kung Fu Superstar ended back in early December 2012. Unfortunately it was unsuccessful: we set a goal of £200,000 and in the end we just hit just under half that. Just to make it absolutely clear Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing funding platform so we never actually raised any funding at all out of this. This was a conscious decision as we didn't want to collect money from people unless we made absolutely certain we had enough to deliver on what we were committing for this campaign. I am not sure based on your original comment whether this was clear so I just want to make sure I clarify this (some platforms like indiegogo do allow campaigners to keep partial funds raised even if target has not been met so I can see how someone could be confused about this)

About this news piece: this is coverage of a recent talk I did at Develop, a games development annual conference in the UK. In it I talked about the project and it's development and I also talked about our experience with Kickstarter UK (which seems to have gotten the most coverage) and just generally passed advice to conference attendees. I wouldn't have thought this news piece would be of interest to a non games industry audience but I am very glad you cover it here nontheless (we sure need the exposure and help from the community if we're ever going to get this to happen!)

About the current state of the project: obviously having spent all of our personal savings trying to get the project to the state it is now and not making it on Kickstarter has taken its toll on the team and it's ability to keep pushing. However we're not ones to give up easily so we're still out there fighting for 'better' fighting games that promote the use of the brain as well as the body and most of all promote the values of Kung Fu and other martial arts (a goal I am sure we can all get behind!). Hopefully there will be exciting developments soon that I will be able to announce (as always our Facebook page for early access to announcements is www.facebook.com/KungFuSuperstar)

Lastly I appreciate you must be getting a ton of request from martial arts themed Kickstarters therefore I must thank you even more for actually choosing to report kn our project out of all those projects even long after its Kickstarter has been closed. Like I say even if that is the case the project is still very much alive so I definitely appreciate your interest and the exposure.

Hope this helps and do let me know if there's more questions!

Many thanks,
Kostas