Become The Baba Yaga (in your mind)
With E3 wrapped up and John Wick Hex development in full swing, things are looking up for everyone’s favorite retired assassin. Giving fans a chance to see the behind-the-scenes action, Mike Bithell and his team have uploaded a short featurette on how the action elements of their upcoming strategy game were created. Using a combination of keyframed animations and motion capture, Bithell and co went into the studio with the John Wick stunt team (87Eleven Action Design) and got to figure out some cool takedowns for the action title.
In fact, Bithell told me a lot of this at E3, but I recently caught up with him for more clarification. Getting specifically to the bit about the action elements, Bithell said, “We got to work with the stunt team a fair bit. That was super exciting. As with Chad [director of John Wick], a chunk of that was getting my head around their intent and thought processes, but we certainly also took the chance to film with them and capture some of their moves.” As you’ll see in the trailer, Bithell has a trained stuntman by the hand and barely moves while the dude flies through the air as if he’s been slammed by a truck.
These moments are what really sold the whole game to Bithell. “I love those movies,” he enthusiastically said. “If I didn’t, I definitely wouldn’t have taken the gig. For me, the “Red Circle Fight” was the moment I fell in love. The way that scene works up from the locker room to the dance floor, it’s amazing.” I can’t blame him for loving that scene, either. It’s one of the standout moments from the first film and should easily be something you try to emulate while making a game.
While there’s still no confirmation on when John Wick Hex will release, it will be coming to consoles and PC whenever it is finished. The PC version will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store at launch. I’m definitely excited as hell and you can tell Bithell is too.