If you can’t watch the Killer Instinct EVO 2014 panel or haven’t yet we got you covered with our text highlights from the panel.

Panel consisted of Alex Jebailey (Community Manager for Iron Galaxy), Torin Rettig (Producer at Microsoft), Adam Heart (Lead Combat Designer at Iron Galaxy), Adam Isgreen (Creative Director at Microsoft), James Goddard (Design Director at Microsoft), Ken Lobb (Creative Director at Microsoft), Campbell (Game Designer at Microsoft), Chad Newhouse (Art Director at Iron Galaxy), Dave Lang (CEO of Iron Galaxy)

Double Helix did an amazing job in Season 1, Killer Instinct has been a huge success

With Double Helix moving on there was a short time table to find the right developer

Iron Galaxy made tons of sense, lots of experience with fighting games and lots of passion for fighting games

Iron Galaxy has lots of technical acumen, had to take over an engine that wasn’t theirs, they are skilled in doing so from past endeavors

Paraphrasing Dave Lang, “Picking up another game is like dating a friends ex-girlfriend. She is super hot and this is gonna be awesome but I need to make sure my friend is cool with it.”

Double Helix said they can’t do Season 2 and they would love for Iron Galaxy to do it, Double Helix had lots of respect for Iron Galaxy

Iron Galaxy had less than 3 months to produce the E3 demo

Philosophy for starting Season 2 was if it ain’t broke…



Still learning a lot about Killer Instinct from Season 1 so it is important not to break it

“Putting crazy new shit in Season 2”

A ir recaptures now a part of Killer Instinct with TJ Combo

Don’t break what’s there but need to compete with the new crazy stuff that is being added with Season 2

2 way interaction is the base of Killer Instinct, there are a couple situations where 2 way interaction is broken right now

Roster diversity is also very important and was set by Season 1, very little overlap with current characters, Season 2 will continue to add new diverse characters

Season 2 will be more wild with diversity and ways to play Killer Instinct than Season 1

Killer Instinct how you want it, free game with rotating game and buy individual characters or get a bundle

More content coming, cooler content coming and new modes coming

Continue to release content over time just like Season 1

Outreach to community and listening to the community will still be important

Jail System from Season 1 needs some fixing, the community voted and most people wanted to keep Jail on until a new approach or fix is implemented

Jail will be kept on for now until a solution is ready

Huge update is coming (not sure when) and it will reset stats on Jail, there is now a way to detect who disconnected (will only penalize person who quit, had the problem or pulled the cable) and they will accurately appropriate wins based on this new detection

Selective buffing and adjusting

Fulgore right now is very difficult to use, Iron Galaxy is going to try some things in studio to make Fulgore more accessible

Main problem is Fulgore has to charge meter instead of playing the game

Leash put on Ken Lobb before he leaked all of Season 2

There will be more content in Season 2 than Season 1

Drastic change coming to how you access the content in Killer Instinct, the changes are not just about characters and stages, there will be stuff to expand online, expand single player experience

Recapture changes a lot

Air Counter Breakers are coming, expand 2 way interaction into the air, juggling and counter breaker will no longer be free

Every character will be able to recapture with air counter breaker, example is when Sadira throws a character into the air, she can counter breaker and if successful put the player back on the ground and continue the combo

TJ Combos mechanical elements have been surgically removed so he has scaring on his arms, MMA styled with gloves and wraps

TJ Combo can cancel out of his powerline into footwork options, you can now do these footwork options without the powerline

TJ Combo’s appearance has also been changed since E3, keep the comments coming as changes can still happen

TJ Combo is actually just shy of Thunder’s size and not as small as people think but regardless changes are going in that will make TJ Combo appear bigger with changes to his rig

8 characters will be in Season 2, mix of new and returning characters

By the time the Season launches we will know most of the cast, will probably hold a couple back just like Spinal and Fulgore in Season 1



Insanely varied and insane crazy new archetypes that are going to be brought into Killer Instinct, even some stuff that has not been seen in other fighting games, wild cast is very important

Ranked in fighting games is kind of stuck in a rut right now, no leagues at the moment, looks at Starcraft for example

The ladders will be changed, can’t say how exactly yet but it will be changed

Should it be one or best of 3 for a ranked match, let Iron Galaxy and Microsoft know

Mortal Kombat owns fatalities, stage interactions will appear first as “Stage Ultras”, “Stay Tuned”

Maya announced

Maya is a warrior, hunter, badass

Incan inspired, Latin origin, monster hunter

Gameplay focus is ancient blades

Still has twin daggers named “Temperance” and “Vengeance”

Her daggers will be the bread and butter of her offense

They will be used in all of her punch-based normals

She can throw each of them independently and quickly after each other as they rebound off her opponent

If you miss with a dagger throw you will lose access to all the moves associated with it until the dagger is retrieved from the ground

All dagger associated attacks will be temporarily disabled while in this state which will hinder offensive options

The daggers level up with consecutive hits

When the daggers level up they will gain new properties until you miss a throw

At the highest level you can combine the two daggers that can be used as a homing, unblockable projectile.

New stage called City of Dawn set in South America

A lot more links between characters stories and pasts than Season 1

And of course you can watch the panel your self below:

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