The Mortal Kombat emblem is arguably one of the crucial recognisable in all of gaming: the silouetted dragon swooping round to resemble the Yin and Yang image is beautiful in its sheer simplicity.
It virtually wasn’t to be, nevertheless, if co-creator John Tobias had listened to a remark from his sister, who mistakenly thought that the unique sketch of the dragon was truly a seahorse (thanks, IGN).
Facet Notice: I virtually tossed the dragon icon sketch apart once I was at dwelling engaged on it at my drafting desk and my sister mistook the dragon for a seahorse ¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/d1omW1as1A— John Tobias (@therealsaibot) September 22, 2022
The amusing bombshell comes as a part of a thread lately posted by Tobias as he dives into the creation of the now-iconic Mortal Kombat emblem. In it, he remarks on how the brand is consultant of each the sport itself and the in-game event, explaining that using the dragon was impressed by the title ‘Dragon Assault’, which was in competition to grow to be the sport’s official title earlier than Tobias and Ed Boon settled on ‘Mortal Kombat’.
The inspiration to make use of a dragon because the fictional event’s image got here from “Dragon Assault,” which was in competition as our recreation’s title earlier than @noobde and I modified it to “Mortal Kombat.” Right here’s my tough marker sketch of the marquee emblem… (3/9) pic.twitter.com/g3UY2X2boX— John Tobias (@therealsaibot) September 22, 2022
As for the design of the dragon itself, Tobias recounts a quick story of when Mortal Kombat developer John Vogel seen a statue of a dragon on the desk of Halfway’s normal supervisor, Ken Fedesna. Vogel borrowed the statue to be used within the recreation’s backgrounds, however Tobias additionally used the dragon as inspiration for the in-game event, sketching out cupboard designs earlier than in the end implementing these into the brand itself.
I had been considering of making an icon to characterize the fictional event, but additionally to model the sport with a logo… like Superman’s “S” or Batman’s bat image. I used the dragon from my cupboard aspect panel sketch to tell the look of the dragon icon as our image… (7/9) pic.twitter.com/EV2NNQaXDg— John Tobias (@therealsaibot) September 22, 2022
It is a captivating look into the creation of such an unimaginable emblem and the way rapidly it was virtually derailed by one remark! As for the franchise itself, followers are at present speculating on the eventual reveal of Mortal Kombat 12 following the exceptional success of Mortal Kombat 11, which launched on Nintendo Swap again in 2019.
What do you make of John Tobias’s story across the Mortal Kombat emblem’s creation? Are you trying ahead to a brand new entry within the franchise? Tell us within the feedback beneath!
