• Light/Dark

[Imran Khan] Kimberly from Street Fighter 6 was designed by hiring Black Consultation.

BackwardCap

BackwardCap

The King of Games - One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
2,503
select_character6_over.png

"A lot of people on the team are fans of Black culture," Nakayama said. "In order to make her as authentic as possible, we spoke with many Black employees within the company. We also hired consultants to help us design the character and her mannerisms."

Nakayama mentioned that one of the things that defines Street Fighter to him is a diverse set of characters from all over the world and ensuring that they are real and authentic is an important part of development. Both Nakayama and Matsumoto repeatedly emphasized that "open communication" is a priority for them in Street Fighter 6 —a lesson they learned while working on Street Fighter V — and believe that designing characters authentically is part of that ethos.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There are very few (documented) cases of this happening, so its great to know and it certainly shows.

(Source)

Note: While this is a FanByte article, they are currently going scorched earth on their employees. So I have credited it to the writer in the title instead.
 
Det

Det

Member
Jul 30, 2020
13,276
Good shit. And I feel so bad for Imran and the rest of the Fanbyte crew today.
 
JusDoIt

JusDoIt

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,595
South Central Los Angeles
IT SHOWS

She is not only the best Black representation Street Fighter has ever had, she's also one of the freshest new designs the series has had in years.

Talking to Black people not only made a better Black Street Fighter character, but a better Street Fighter character period. This is how it should be done.

And shout out to Nakayama-san for putting it out there that the SF team is inspired by BLACK CULTURE. He ain't say "urban culture" or "hip-hop culture," or whatever bullshit euphemisms most people be using. He said Black culture. GOAT these mofos now.
 
Neoxon

Neoxon

Spotlighting Black Excellence - Diversity Analyst
Member
Oct 25, 2017
85,969
Houston, TX
JusDoIt said:
IT SHOWS

She is not only the best Black representation Street Fighter has ever had, she's also one of the freshest new designs the series has had in years.

Talking to Black people not only made a better Black Street Fighter character, but a better Street Fighter character period. This is how it should be done.

And shout out to Nakayama-san for putting it out there that the SF team is inspired by BLACK CULTURE. He ain't say "urban culture" or "hip-hop culture," or whatever bullshit euphemisms most people be using. He said Black culture. GOAT these mofos now.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Funny enough, this isn't the first time they consulted those being represented by a character. Rashid was made in cooperation with Sony's Middle Eastern branch.
 
Nepenthe

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
21,241
You mean if you include Black people in your design process your Black characters come out good?

I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
95,062
here
i can imagine the opening cinematic right now

the splash cards happen, and the last one is the Capcom tag, the one they been using

then it instantly cuts to the intro and its kimberly doing the tag
 
Dynamite Ringo Matsuri

Dynamite Ringo Matsuri

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,801
Absolutely loved what I saw of her in Maximilian's reaction video. I'm a lapsed street fighter fan but 6 might just pull me back in. The designs are the freshest I've seen in fuckin forevs
 

Vapor

Member
Oct 28, 2017
34
So all the Black people involved were "consultants?" Not regular employees directly working on the character?
 
Giga Man

Giga Man

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,387
Fantastic news. They're doing the right thing.

Now I'm wondering if they consulted the proper cultures for revising the world warriors...
 
FluxWaveZ

FluxWaveZ

Persona Central
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
10,906
Vapor said:
So all the Black people involved were "consultants?" Not regular employees directly working on the character?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"A lot of people on the team are fans of Black culture," Nakayama said. "In order to make her as authentic as possible, we spoke with many Black employees within the company. We also hired consultants to help us design the character and her mannerisms."

It's always possible that they weren't in positions to do so; it's Capcom Japan, after all.
 
bunkitz

bunkitz

Brave Little Spark
Moderator
Oct 28, 2017
13,554
Woah, that's awesome! SF6 doing so many things right, love it.
 
Lulu

Lulu

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,155
Neoxon said:
Funny enough, this isn't the first time they consulted those being represented by a character. Rashid was made in cooperation with Sony's Middle Eastern branch.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
hook beard on rashid was goofy but his sf6 design looks perfect
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
95,062
here
i feel like capcom are sort of reaching for the same spot that MK sometimes tries to reach for as well, which is appealing directly to the FGC and working with folks in and out of the FGC to make characters people not only want to play as, but always want to be seen played

folks generally wanna see cool characters, folks generally want to see diversity and representation, and folks want to see that representation done well

so it only makes sense to get direct input from black team members and consultants for design and character work

feels like progress has been glacially slow but improving in this regard
 
Neoxon

Neoxon

Spotlighting Black Excellence - Diversity Analyst
Member
Oct 25, 2017
85,969
Houston, TX
While I'm sure this Twitter banner was primarily made ahead of the beta, it's clear that Capcom knows they have a winner on their hands with Kimberly.

IMG_2631.jpg
 
TheCed

TheCed

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,437
Wow...

Capcom became a really different company in 10 years. From a company that I had boycotted in the past, to one of the best ones out there.

Crazy to think about it. But that being said, keep Winning Capcom, we love it that way.
 
EagleBen

EagleBen

Prophet of Regret
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
707
This is a nice improvement from Capcom. This is looking like a very impressive release.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
95,062
here
OrangePulp said:
This is such an important lesson. Not only is this sort of thing good in general, and something companies should strive for regardless, it also flat out makes your games better.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
while representation is always important, it feels even more important for fighting games

fighting games are expected to iterate, especially the big franchises, so getting a character right the first time will make them even more loved and cherished in the community, and you can build on them moving forward into future games with perspective to that community support as well

before the SF6 roster leaked, my boss said any time i'd bring up SF6 news "oh man, i hope they bring back Rashid", and he wasnt even super big into SFV, that was just his favorite character, as soon as the Rashid reveal first happened back in the day he was like "thats my main".

folks are gonna be saying when SF7 comes around "oh man, i hope they bring back Kimberly"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.