the man behind sifu

“SIFU” Video game by Sloclap

Los Angeles TIMES

“Sifu,” the revenge-focused kung fu action game with nearly 1 million copies sold since its Feb. 8 release, has become a breakout hit in 2022. What’s more, the game has earned praise for its fighting complexity as well as the respect it shows to a Chinese art.

But if the game is accurate in depicting the specific kung fu fighting style known as Pak Mei, that’s a debt owed to Benjamin Colussi.

Todd Martens

GAME CAMP

The choice of Pak Mei was very quick. For me it was an obvious choice. Because I was in Benjamin Colussi's school and what I saw touched me. I thought it was interesting to show it to a wider audience.

Jordan Layani, Creative Director & Lead Game Designer of SLOCLAP

MAIN CHARACTER MOVES INSPIRED BY BENJAMIN COLUSSI

The collaboration between Sloclap and Colussi took place over several months during early development, with the main character’s movements inspired by Benjamin Colussi, and his unique approach to Pak Mei Kung Fu. Emphasizing authenticity, Colussi and Layani worked closely together to draw from the best of two concepts: creativity and expertise. By blending these together, they created the signature fast-paced and action-packed fighting style you see in Sifu. 

Benjamin was tasked with creating more than 200 moves for the main character, including both hand-to-hand combat and the use of various weapons. He worked closely with the Sloclap developers to create visually impressive moves that have an authentic feel. Some of the most intricate fight scenes players will experience when Sifu launches were painstakingly created in real-time by Benjamin Colussi and a stunt team, in a motion capture studio. Benjamin created 213 moves for the Main Character including bare hands techniques, staff, baseball bat, machete, take downs and focus attacks. Most of the movements were made by keyframe based on Benjamin Colussi’s Pak Mei Kunfu style, the others are directly made in motion capture. Big Boss Yang use the same Move Set as the Prologue’s Boss which is the Main Character’s father.

· All of the following techniques have been created by Benjamin for “Sifu”: 

o   Bare hand technics, guards, strikes, kicks, parries, combos & take downs.

o   Bat movement technics, guards, strike, kicks, parries, combos & take down.

o   Staff movement technics, guards, strike, kicks, parries, combos & take down.

o   Machete movement technics, guards, strike, kicks, parries, combos & take down.

o   Codified sequence of movements of the main character. 

o   SKILL TREE

o   Opening Credit Form: Lightning hands

Kevin Roger, Lead Animator on SIFU: “In some Pak Mei training videos, students often learn to perform a sequence of movements very quickly. This learning process is really simple but very interesting. Basically it consists of doing a movement, repeating it until it is perfectly executed with a lot of strength and speed. Then you add another movement linked to the previous one and so on until you get a sequence of, I don't know, ten very fast moves. I was really immersed in it. I felt like I was learning the theory of Pak Mei. I found this process very visual and it fit perfectly with our basic concept which was, mastery through practice. So not only did I use this movement to experiment with the animation as you can see. And we also used it as a skeleton for our launch trailer, reveal trailer. And we also used it a few times in the marketing assets eventually this move found its way into the gameplay of the game.”

GAMEPLAY - Structure

Jordan Layani, Creative Director & Lead Game Designer of SLOCLAP : " A fundamental strategy is to impact what Sifu Colussi calls the “Structure” of his opponent. So the idea is to destabilize him so that he can destabilize him so that he can no longer be in a position to attack or defend himself, but also so that he's in a position where the blows received will have more impact, more effect, which will allow him to give decisive blows and thus to finish the fight quickly the fight ".

Théo Caselli, Game Designer of SLOCLAP : "In fact, we have made this principle of “Structure” the heart of our combat system and we implemented it very, very early on. The idea is that the enemies will have a white bar above their head and each time they pick up a hit, this white bar will go down. And when the enemy has no structure, we call that: “the broken Structure”, this is a terminology that we will use throughout this presentation. In fact, it will allow the player to trigger a finisher (Take Down) and to make a chain attack like you see in the videos of Benjamin Colussi”.

GAMEPLAY - Parry

Jordan Layani : “We were also inspired by the Pak Mei to design the “Parry”. Like all the parries, it allows to interrupt the attack of his opponent but also to give new opportunities. On Benjamin Colussi's videos, we can see a repositioning. As the strategy in Pak Mei, it is to impact the Structure and destabilize the opponent and in the end to finish the opponent with one or more decisive moves”.

Théo Caselli : So we decided to use this principle of parrying and to transpose it into the game. We interpreted this mechanic in the following way: if the player presses a button at the right time before he receives a blow, it will reduce the opponent's Structure and above all it allows him to catch his opponent and manipulate him, to throw him. And finally, if the opponent gets parried by an attack when he has no Structure left, it will automatically trigger a Take Down as presented earlier.

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY

Benjamin Colussi brought authentic fight techniques to the action design, by introducing unique fight mechanisms, struggling concepts, NPC guards, brawl conceptions, and iconic NPC moves. He worked hand in hand with Jordan Layani, Co-founder and Creative Director at Sloclap, and Kévin Roger, Animation Director at Sloclap to reach such ends. Benjamin greatly improved the speed and impact of the techniques within the video game by providing unique insights on the nature of combat and Pak Mei.  One of his ideas was to bring a new rhythm to fighting action in video games. In jazz, the rhythm of the music evolves in an unpredicted way surprising the audience. Benjamin wanted to recreate this same effect in “Sifu”, by constructing a changing fighting rhythm - surprising the player and making the playing action more real and intense. He came up with several other key elements implemented in the game like: letting the baseball bat slide along the fore arm, multiple strikes at once.

TAKE DOWNS

Take downs appear at specific moments of the game after a player initiates them. The Sloclap team wanted three kinds of Take downs: in a normal environment, with a wall, and with a ledge. The aim was to make them deadly and effective and at the same time surprising, letting you discover the Main Character's special skills. Benjamin wanted to expend these three kinds of take downs. Even though his search was limited by gameplay technicalities, he pushed the boundaries of take downs by introducing the following features to the character: 

Ferocity: The Main Character wants to kill all his enemies, making you will feel his violence and effectiveness.

Lightning speed: Even though Benjamin was limited by technicalities, he still managed to choregraph lightning speed strikes. For example, in a take down the main character throws a series of five to seven lightning strikes. 

Struggles: Benjamin wanted to show what happens in a real fight, sometimes you are just surprised by the opponent's reaction and need to adapt to it by finding quick solutions. This is why some takedowns start when the Main Character is in a disadvantage.

Accuracy: Focus attack... well you know the famous Dim Mak, right? You will feel how deadly those vital points attacks are.

BOSSES Fights cinematic

According to the specific demands of the Sloclap Team, Benjamin designed the take downs and special boss fights sequences.

WUDE

Benjamin was asked by the Sloclap team to bring some specifics about Kung-Fu's culture, Fengshui and a myriad of little details like the way the characters is dressed, lion heads, the entire school building architecture and many other.  The biggest one is the true ending WUDE.

At the end, Sloclap used Benjamin’s Pak Mei lineage altar as the altar of the school in the video game.