Super Dragon Punch Force 3 Interview: Talent Digital Art Details New Live-Service Fighter

Super Dragon Punch Force 3 is a forthcoming, live-service fighter from South African developer Talent Digital Art that ties into the new Bill Skarsgard-led film, Boy Kills World. The indie title is playable on PC and mobile platforms and is entering open beta on April 26.

Game Rant recently spoke with TDA about Super Dragon Punch Force 3‘s (SDPF3) design, influences, and their ambitions for their debut fighter. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Fostering New Franchises

Q: How did you come up with the idea of making a real sequel to a fictional game?

Tanya Brits: We are Talent Digital Art, a new studio in South Africa. We are part of Talent and Holdings Group, and under the Talent and Holdings Group umbrella, is Motiva Pictures, which is the group that produces the film (Boy Kills World). They came to us with a script, and the group that we are, we all weigh in and give feedback and rate the script. At that stage, we were still busy with R&D, considering what game mechanics could work, not specifically fighting games at that point, but just as a team looking at where we wanted to go.

In the script, the main character of the film is deaf-mute, and he got his voice from a video game. All of us—loving video games—really thought the film really lends itself well to a fighting game, and on the other side, it’s all about creating cool IP and franchises. We really want to build out a franchise, so fighting movie, fighting game. We didn’t want to be “locked in” in terms of the style of the film, so we are doing an 8-bit/16-bit game style.

We really wanted to give the team the creative freedom to produce something that’s linked to the film and the franchise on the one part, but also on the other part, we wanted to maintain enough creative freedom to create our own characters and our own world.

Judd Fitzjohn: We obviously like pain, which is why we chose fighting games as our genre.

Q: Aside from being referenced in the film, what is the game’s relation to Boy Kills World? Is the game a promotion for the film? Is it going to be its own IP?

TB: I would say all of the above, so yes, it’s promotional for the film. The film is also promotion for the game. We really want to create a franchise, but also two really strong IPs. Bboth are standalone products, and we really believe in Super Dragon Punch Force 3 being a strong live-service game and IP. The group that we are part of is all about leveraging what we have and pushing the franchises. Plus, it just really makes two standalone IPs in an overarching world that is the franchise.

JF: We see both as separate entities with unique worlds and universes to explore, but our hope is that the product is more than the sum of its parts as well. You can enjoy the film’s characters and universe; you can enjoy the game’s characters and universe. But the fact that we get to share some space together is the cherry on top of the cake.

TB: To add a little bit more about the link between the film and the video game, we will kick off with eight characters. Two are from the Super Dragon Punch Force 2 world. Another two characters, Boy and June, are the main characters of the film. We’ll add four new characters who are unique to the Super Dragon Punch Force 3 world.

Q: How did you settle on a comic book store arcade cabinet setting?

JF: We don’t necessarily speak for the creatives behind the film because there are so many great opinions, takes, and histories resulting in what we think is a really fantastic film—but I think what everybody can agree upon is that games, the arcade, and early consoles are such a huge influence on what we call pop culture today.

The function of the arcade cabinet in the film—Boy, the main character’s relationship with Super Dragon Punch Force 2, is a reflection of the creatives behind the film’s relationship with games like Street Fighter 2 and the arcade era as a whole. For us, bringing that arcade theme to Super Dragon Punch Force 3 is honoring that theme, and touching on notes of nostalgia for us as well. We’re a bunch of big geeks. We love everything from arcades to comic books, and manga, and trading cards, and plushies, and merch, and all those things. We’re open about it. For us, it was just a cool gem from the film. Creating a sequel that did not honor that arcade theme would have been a miss for us.

Learning from the Best

Q: What differentiates SDPF3 from other fighting games? What sort of familiar mechanics does it incorporate?

JF: Like Tanya mentioned, we love fighting games and all of us have our favorites. You’ll find some Street fighter representatives, some Tekken representatives, Guilty Gear fans, and some Mortal Kombat fans and everything in between. I think you’ll find bits of a lot of games in the game. Maybe there are some combo streams that reference combo streams from other games, some animations reference animations from other games, because I think those are what cultivated our interest in fighting games.

What we really hope is different about SDPF3 is its accessibility. A big passion for us with this project was opening up the fighting game genre to people who don’t normally enjoy it, whether it’s because the box price is a little too steep for somebody who just wants to try a fighting game or the mechanics are just inherently a little bit too complex or off-putting for somebody who’s not really a part of the fighting game community. Everything from the way the UI is designed, to the fact that the game is mobile-first, is prioritizing accessibility. That being said, we’re still definitely keeping technicality in the game for people who like getting into the lab, or getting into the frame data—that’s still there.

TB: That also ties into the live service model. It’s really important for us to develop the game with community feedback in mind. Developing in parallel with our community is really important to us.

Q: What lessons did SDPF3 learn from other major fighting titles?

JF: I think it’s been a very spiritual experience for us all. Game Development is such an art, really. Fighting games have such a rich history of evolution within games as an industry. A big part of being part of the FGC (fighting game community) but also working in conjunction with the FGC is the appreciation for the nuance that goes into crafting these experiences. When it comes to fine-tuning an animation, you need to make something not just so it works, but so it feels really good. For example, does Marlo’s upper cut feel satisfying every time you pull it off? And I think that nuance and appreciate for the art is definitely something we’ve been able to cultivate a sense of. Diving back into these games and really trying to take apart what they do well has been a really good exploratory journey.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about SDPF3’s roster of fighters? Who are your favorite characters?

TB: Like I mentioned before, we are kicking off with a roster of eight characters. Four being film characters, four being original, and we really wanted a good mix of fighting styles. That’s definitely something that makes SDPF3 unique. We’ve got a bunch of unique characters with unique fighting styles and mechanics; none of them are the same. In terms of favorite characters, it really depends which one I can choose to beat Judd.

JF: Whichever one’s the most spammable.

TB: I like Marlo, because he ties into that button-mash category where I can button-mash. I’m not really a technical fighter. Well—I’ve started—but I just really want to win. I like Marlo, and I also really like Boy.

JF: The real reason you like Marlo is you don’t like change, and Marlo was our first character. Marlo is a solid pick though. I’ve got to honor our first character who came out of the pipeline.

But I’ve got a really special place in my heart for June27. She’s one of the live action characters from the film, and she’s able to switch between hand to hand and wielding her axes. She can change her positioning on the screen effortlessly, which I love.

TB: I think another character that we should mention, who to me stands out, is SK. SK is unique to South Africa. We’re not developing games for South Africans or Africans, but we really want to incorporate subtle pieces of heritage and where we come from in the game.

JF: SK is a not so subtle one.

TB: SK is a Pantsula dancer. She’s got a unique fighting style with her boombox, and I think that’s really unique to South Africa. Something else that we wanted to bring in was Zanzi Town, one of our environments. It has a reference to the Nelson Mandela Bridge in the background. It’s not something that’s really in your face as South African, but we know it, and we feel like it’s something that sets us apart in style and art. It’s something that we’ll continue pushing.

JF: That sentiment, coupled with our really powerful and ambitious art team, I think really came up with something magical. They definitely poured their hearts into the game—we all did—but we hope the art resonates with players.

TB: So yes, to get back to the roster. We’ve got Wally—

JF: Tanya just doesn’t like playing with Wally, let the record state.

TB: He’s just so slow! But our starting roster is Marlo, Wally, June, Boy, Yazya, SK, Deb, and Jace.

Comic Book Looks and Catchy Tunes

Q: What are some of the comic books and manga that inspired the look and feel of SDPF3?

JF: All of them. I say that jokingly and not jokingly. There’s no one specific comic book or manga that truly informed the art direction. For us, the idea of a comic book or manga is really powerful, because they are vehicles of joy and a means of escaping whatever might be happening. So we really wanted to carry that over.

What we take away from comics and manga is a real sense of joy of being lost in the world and its characters, and that’s why we poured so much time into creating characters we really are stoked about. Their design is not informed by big data, or whatever is super popular right now. They are characters who we would love to see get their own comic books and manga.

Q: Fighting games are often celebrated for their soundtracks. Who is handling the sound and music for SDPF3?

JF: We are definitely passionate about our soundtrack. We’ve got what we refer to as “streamable tracks” and environmental tracks. Obviously, environmental tracks play in the environments. We hope that they are annoyingly catchy and hope people end up humming them without realizing it. They are really just supposed to accompany the match, and we don’t want them to be too center stage. Mind you, all of these tracks will be streamable. We’ve got one track releasing with the game called “God Mode,” and we definitely poured a lot of love into that track. We hope that it is seen as the anthem of the game as it releases. But we’re also really excited to keep working with local artists. Because the company we worked with here in South Africa, Sound Foundry, and the artists that worked on the track… there’s so much talent here, and we just want to bring more of it to the world.

TB: That touches on what I mentioned earlier; the subtle touches that make us unique as South African. TDA feels a big sense of responsibility in terms of doing this from this continent. We don’t necessarily want to be trendsetters, but we want to show the younger generation that it’s possible from this continent. We have to pinch ourselves waking up every day. We’ve got this great privilege to develop games from this continent. This is something that not a lot people are exposed to at a young age in South Africa and Africa,. so we feel a strong sense of responsibility to the younger generation and showing them what is possible. And the sound is just one touch point in terms of what makes us unique.

Q: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?

TB: The game is available on iOS, Android, and Steam, launching its open beta on April 26. Please download the game, watch the film, and please share your feedback!

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Super Dragon Punch Force 3 enters open beta on April 26 for Mobile and PC.