Project Mugen's Lead Producer Reveals the Games and Films Inspiring this Open World Action RPG

After Project Mugen's announcement trailer hit last month at Gamescom, many were quick to draw parallels between the high-flying movements of its main characters and that of Marvel's Spider-Man. However, when I made the comparison to Project Mugen lead producer Ash Qi at Tokyo Game Show last week, he revealed that the inspiration actually came from another source.

"When I was maybe 10 or 12, I played Prototype and Prototype 2," explaned Qi, referring to the 2009 and 2012 open world games developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Activision. "Those are the games that inspired me to make Project Mugen. [Prototype] reminded me of the Venom character from Spider-Man, and it was so cool. And I loved the city."

Prototype and GTA were apparently big inspirations for the design of Project Mugen, but self-described "crazy movie fan" Qi and his team are also taking cues from plenty of action and sci-fi films in the design of their stylish-looking free to play adventure. My full interview with Qi from Tokyo Game Show can be found below.

IGN: How has the response been to the first two Project Mugen trailers?

Ash Qi: Well actually, the response has been surprisingly good. Yeah, in particular from overseas gamers. So this makes us very excited. It feels like a dream come true, and it makes us want to make this game better.

IGN: The trailers give the overall impression that Project Mugen might just be Genshin Impact but in an urban setting. How does Project Mugen differentiate itself from Genshin Impact?
Ash Qi: The reason why fans may feel us and Genshin look similar is because we all belong to the so-called nijigen culture. So it looks like animation and comics. It's like the players are immersed in an animation and comics world. So that may be the reason why we look alike.

However, the most important thing is that the storytelling, the setting of our urban open world, and the characters, are all very, very different from Genshin.

IGN: Speaking of the storytelling, what can you tell me about the narrative of Project Mugen?

Ash Qi: Not only are we under the influence of comics and animation, but also movies like Men in Black, The Matrix, and Minority Report. Our setting is that this is a world where human beings coexist with Chaos [monsters], with chaotic elements, and the gamers serve as an investigator. The task is to explore the cities to investigate various Chaos [monsters] and to control the dangerous elements. And during this process, the gamer will encounter partners, other characters, and he or she will also get involved in a lot of events. And in these events, he will also encounter some identity crisis.

So through all of these adventures, finally, the gamer will find out about the truth of the world and the truth about his or her identity. So this is the storyline and the object of Project Mugen. So we learnt a lot from the comics and animation and various movies in order to create such a world.

IGN: Do players get to create a character, or are there a set number of preset characters to choose from?

Ash Qi: There will be a main character, the hero for the gamer, and that main character will have his or her main storyline and during that process the gamer can encounter other other characters and other characters all have their own different backgrounds, and their unique stories.

And when the other characters join the main character to explore together, you can control these other characters and switch between them.

IGN: The city itself looks enormous. Is it largely procedurally generated, or will each area feel distinct to explore?
Ash Qi: First, we have several cities [in Project Mugen] and all of the cities are based upon one or several cities that actually exist in the world. Based upon the culture and the size of these cities.

Secondly, we actually create these cities with technology that is procedurally generated in order to reduce the repetitive, manual workload for our artists so that they can focus on more creative work. For example, there will be large cities, and in cities there are so many traffic lights, and if you have to draw those traffic lights one by one by hand, that’s very meaningless work.

So we can do this work with procedural generation technology so the artists can focus upon more creative work and create a city with various different features in different districts that the gamers can experience in different parts of each city.

IGN: Are you able to expand on which real cities have served as inspiration for Project Mugen, besides Tokyo?

Ash Qi: The city you see in the trailers is actually a representation of a few Eastern Asian cities, not just Tokyo. In the future we will try to develop more cities based on other cities around the world, such as London, or some Chinese cities with very strong cultural elements in them.

IGN: You say in the future, so at launch will Project Mugen just feature one city to explore?
Ash Qi: Yes.

IGN: What can you tell me about Project Mugen’s combat?

Ash Qi: Project Mugen is an RPG, so every character has their own weapon, fighting style, and different background. We also want to show the gamers freedom and give them an outlet for their daily stress in the game, so we like to give the player a lot of options for them to choose during a battle. Because the game is set in an urban open world, players can use objects on the street in their surrounding area during a fight. We think that it makes the battles more interesting, and we were [inspired] by various Jackie Chan movies, where Jackie Chan uses objects around him to attack his enemies with.

For example, you can use rubbish bins to hit monsters’ heads with, or if the monster is standing on a higher place you can destroy the piece of environment that the monster is standing on so that they will fall and be killed. Things like that. So you have various ways of battling, and lots of objects to use.

We were [inspired] by various Jackie Chan movies, where Jackie Chan uses objects around him to attack his enemies with.     

IGN: Will you also have a lot of variety in terms of vehicles? The trailers seem to hint at cars and motorbikes, along with Spider-Man style swinging?
Ash Qi: The keyword for this game is freedom. Each character is different so each character has some kind of a superpower. They are kind of superheroes, so they do not move just like ordinary men, they’re not just walking – they’re swinging, they ride their unique vehicles and more around very fast. And the city itself is a very complicated 3D world, so we developed so many different ways of traveling and moving. So for example, the character Taffy can get around on her motorbike, and her motorbike is also her weapon.

So there's so many ways of traveling, lots of options for the player, making them feel like they can really travel around the whole world.

IGN: Is there any multiplayer, and if so how does it work?

Ash Qi: Project Mugen has both single-player and multiplayer modes. However, our multiplayer mode is not like an MMORPG. Instead in Project Mugen multiplayer you invite your friends, your actual friends in real life, to join you and you can travel around together and play in this world together.

IGN: Project Mugen is free to play, which can have both positive and negative connotations. I’m just curious about monetisation and how much grinding will be involved?

Ash Qi: For now we are now focusing upon developing the game itself. So the business model is still not a priority for us now. We are quite flexible in the future so any business model is possible for us, and we are open for change, we just want to adopt a business model that is most suitable for this game.

But we think that the most important thing, the fundamental thing, is the game itself. It's the game's story and content. We don't want the players to have to pay to win. We want them to be excited to play and be passionate about the content and experience in the game.

IGN: On that note, where is Project Mugen at in its development and when is it likely to release?

Ash Qi: Unfortunately I can’t tell you right now the exact time frame for launch. We’re preparing to launch Project Mugen on PC, PlayStation, and many other platforms. Right now we are in the busiest stage of development, because we have so much content to create to fill this open world in order to provide our players with enough of an experience when they play it.

IGN: Are you designing the game to last five years? Ten years?

Ash Qi: After launch we will constantly keep updating Project Mugen – the contents, map, characters, and the storyline – making sure that players will constantly have new experiences. And we will update the modes, including multiplayer mode, so that the player will never feel alone or lose interest in the game. So Project Mugen [is intended to be around] for a very long period, and our whole team is going to put all our energy and time into this game for the future and hopefully a very long time, and keep updating it.

IGN: Thank you for your time, and good luck with the rest of development!
Ash Qi: Thank you.