Status: planning baseline, adopted 2026-06-12. Fills the "no content
production plan (mocap hours, VO throughput for ≥ 60 fighters × ≥ 8 locales)"
gap identified by V1_V7_PLAN_SET_AUDIT_2026-06-12.md §6.2.
Inputs: per-fighter content floor (V2/V2_features.md:1023-1025 — ≥ 4
specials, ≥ 2 supers, ≥ 2 finishers, ≥ 4 alt costumes, ≥ 3 taunts), signature
library (:1049-1066), VO quote floors (:1003-1006), asset budgets
(:2538-2541 — anim package ≤ 80 MB/fighter, audio bank ≤ 50 MB/locale,
≤ 80k tris LOD0), locale plan (:2445, :2454-2455 — 18 locales, full VO in
≥ 8), roster (V2LaunchRosterData.cpp:563-626).
Every number below is a planning assumption adopted 2026-06-12 unless it cites a spec line; each assumption shows its derivation. Owner-roles: PD Production Director (model owner), AD Art Director, AnD Animation Director, AuD Audio Director, LOC Localization Manager, MS Mocap Stage Supervisor.
1. Per-fighter animation seconds#
Derivation of unique authored animation per roster fighter:
| Block | Derivation | Seconds |
|---|---|---|
| Normals / command normals / throws | ~60 attack animations (per-ruleset normals share a base set; V2 fighters fight in multiple rulesets so the base set is larger than a single-lineage fighter's) × 1.2 s avg | 72 |
| Special moves | spec floor ≥ 4, plan 6 typical × 2.5 s (startup + active + recovery + move-specific hit react) | 15 |
| Supers | ≥ 2 × 8 s cinematic avg | 16 |
| Finishers | ≥ 2 × 12 s, authored as paired two-character animations | 24 |
| Movement & defense set | idle-to-locomotion, walk F/B, dash F/B, jumps ×3, crouch transitions, blocks ×3, ~20 hit reactions (L/M/H × head/body, crumple, launch, juggle, knockdown ×2, wake-up ×2, air-recover), throw + escape — ~50 anims × 1.0 s avg | 50 |
Signature library (V2/V2_features.md:1053-1056) |
unique idle loop 10 s + 3 taunts × 2.5 s + intro pose 5 s + 3 victory poses × 4 s + defeat/KO 3 s + knockdown/wake-up variation 4 s + slip/dodge/sidestep 3 s + pursue/air-recover/dust 4 s | 48.5 |
Intro / victory / defeat montages (:1023-1024) |
10 + 10 + 5 | 25 |
| Total per fighter | ~230 individual animation assets | ≈ 250 s |
Alt costumes (≥ 4) share the skeleton and animation set — they cost art
(§3) and cloth simulation setup, not animation seconds. Sanity check against
the asset budget: 250 s of compressed skeletal animation + curves fits the
≤ 80 MB anim package (V2/V2_features.md:2540) with ~3× headroom.
2. Mocap stage-day math#
Planning assumptions (derived from standard fighting-game capture practice: combat capture needs stunt performers, fight choreography rehearsal, and high take counts for crisp silhouettes):
- 40 takes/day, of which 25 usable selects/day after review.
- 3 s of retained animation per usable select (combat moves are short; much of a take is reset/approach).
- → 75 retained seconds per stage-day.
- 70% of the 250 s/fighter is mocap-sourced (175 s); the rest (supers, juggle-physics reactions, finisher VFX beats) is hand-keyed.
Per fighter:
- Combat capture: 175 s ÷ 75 s/day ≈ 2.3 stage-days
- Personality capture (idle, taunts, intros, victories — usually with the character's movement actor): 0.5 stage-day
- Paired finisher capture (two performers, rigging, slower): 0.7 stage-day
- ≈ 3.5 stage-days per fighter
| Roster | Fighter capture | Shared sets (universal normals, generic reactions, crowd) | Total stage-days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 fighters | 24 × 3.5 = 84 | 10 | 94 |
| 60 fighters | 60 × 3.5 = 210 | 10 | 220 |
Stage availability: a dedicated stage runs 4 capture days/week × 46 weeks = 184 stage-days/year (the 5th day is rigging/turnaround). So the 60-fighter roster is ~14 months of one dedicated stage, or ~7 months with two stages/ crews; 24 fighters is ~6 months of one stage. Owner: MS, with AnD on selects.
Cinematic capture is separate and larger (§4): at a planning rate of 1 stage-day per 2 finished cinematic minutes (performance capture with face
- audio), the uncut P1 cinematic load of ~930 min ≈ 465 stage-days — more
than double the roster capture. This forces either a performance-capture
vendor contract in addition to the in-house stage, or the cinematic de-scope
in
minimum-lovable-launch.md§2 (MLL-2a).
3. Character-art pipeline#
Per-fighter derivation (to the ≤ 80k tris LOD0 / ≤ 64 MB texture budget,
V2/V2_features.md:2538-2539, with LOD chain to LOD3/impostor):
| Stage | Artist-weeks |
|---|---|
Concept (explorations → turnaround sheet, incl. legal-distinctiveness review per rights-strategy.md §5.3) |
4 |
| High-poly sculpt → retopo → bake → texture (LOD0-LOD3) | 10 |
Rig + skinning + facial rig (V2/V2_TODOS.md §4.6) |
5 |
| Cloth / hair / soft-body setup (§4.5) | 3 |
| 3 alt costumes × 40% of the 14 costume-relevant weeks (concept/model/texture/cloth) ≈ 5.6 wk each | 17 |
| Total | ≈ 39 artist-weeks ≈ 9 artist-months |
Elapsed pipeline duration per fighter (concept lock → in-game with alts, stages overlapped across 2-3 artists): ~5-6 calendar months. Outsourcing expectation: 60-70% of sculpt/texture/alt-costume weeks to external vendors (industry-normal for this volume), with internal AD-owned review gates.
4. Cinematics load (the hidden giant)#
| Item | Spec | Finished minutes (60 fighters) |
|---|---|---|
| Arcade endings | 60 s cinematic each (V2/V2_features.md:1070) |
60 |
| Story mode | branching cinematic story (§20); planning assumption 150 min | |
| Per-fighter Side Stories | "1-2-hour standalone cinematic + 3-5 fight chapters" each (:1072-1074); planning assumption 12 cinematic min per side story |
720 |
| Total uncut P1 | ≈ 930 min |
At a planning rate of 1 person-month per finished in-engine cinematic
minute (≈ 21 person-days covering previz, capture share, layout, animation
polish, lighting, FX, audio mix — mid-AAA in-engine quality), uncut P1
cinematics cost ≈ 930 person-months (~78 person-years) — comparable to
the entire 60-fighter roster. This is the single largest content line in P1
and the designated first internal cut (MLL-2a ships side stories for 16
fighters: 150 + 60 + 192 = 402 min ≈ 402 pm). Tracked as risk R-06 in
program-risk-register.md.
5. Per-fighter total and roster envelopes#
Per-fighter all-in (planning assumption adopted 2026-06-12, sum of §1-§3 plus implementation):
| Discipline | Person-months |
|---|---|
| Character art (§3) | 9.0 |
| Animation polish: 250 s ÷ 3 s/animator-day (high-fidelity combat polish rate) ≈ 83 days | 4.0 |
| Combat design + GAS implementation + frame data + balance | 2.5 |
Per-fighter audio (impact stings ≥ 8, theme + 3 variants, foley — V2/V2_features.md:1057-1059) |
1.0 |
Per-fighter QA (signature checklist cert pass, :1064-1066) |
1.5 |
| Total | 18 pm/fighter |
| Roster | Effort | At steady staffing | Velocity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 fighters | 432 pm = 36 person-years | 24 FTE over 18 months | 1.3 fighters/mo |
| 36 fighters | 648 pm = 54 person-years | 36 FTE over 18 months | 2.0 fighters/mo |
| 60 fighters | 1,080 pm = 90 person-years | 45 FTE over 24 months | 2.5 fighters/mo |
Pipeline depth check: at 2.5 fighters/month completing, with ~9 calendar
months elapsed per fighter, ~23 fighters are in flight simultaneously at
60-scale — the staffing must support that WIP width (concept, sculpt, rig,
capture, polish, implementation, QA lanes all occupied). The 2.5/mo figure is
the velocity constant used by the MLL gates
(minimum-lovable-launch.md §4 G2).
Comparables for honesty: SF6 launched with 18 fighters, MK1 with ~23, Tekken 8 with 32. 60 at launch is 2-3× anything the genre has shipped this generation — which is exactly why the MLL ladder exists.
6. VO math: lines × locales × throughput#
Per-fighter line count per locale (derivation from spec floors):
| Category | Derivation | Lines |
|---|---|---|
| Win / loss / draw quotes | ≥ 30 + ≥ 15 + ≥ 5 (V2/V2_features.md:1003-1005) |
50 |
| Per-matchup win quotes | 1 × 59 opponents (:1006) |
59 |
| Mid-fight barks | 8 trigger categories (:1001-1002) × 4 variants |
32 |
| Battle efforts (attacks, hits, jumps, throws, KO screams) | ~60 | 60 |
Intros (generic, mirror, rival, final-round, comeback — :999-1000) |
~20 | 20 |
Codec / between-round bites (:1013) |
~10 | 10 |
Arcade ending narration 30 s (:1070) |
~6 | 6 |
Side Story dialogue (1-2 h experience, :1072) |
~150 | 150 |
| Story mode share (average across cast) | ~50 | 50 |
| Total | ≈ 437 → plan 450 |
Volume:
- 60 fighters × 450 = 27,000 lines per locale (roster only).
- Announcer + commentary teams + World Tour/hub NPCs + system VO: +40% overhead → ≈ 38,000 lines per locale full program.
- Full VO in ≥ 8 locales (
:2454) → ≈ 300,000 recorded lines; the remaining 10 of the 18 launch locales are subtitle-only (:2454-2455).
Throughput (planning assumption: a 4-hour session yields 60-80 finished performance lines or 150+ efforts; two sessions/studio-day; blended 120 finished lines/studio-day):
- Roster-only: 27,000 ÷ 120 = 225 studio-days per locale.
- Full program: 38,000 ÷ 120 = ≈ 317 studio-days per locale; with 2 parallel rooms per locale (≈ 42 studio-days/month) → ~7.5 months per locale, locales run concurrently through regional vendors.
- 8 locales total: ≈ 2,500 studio-days booked across vendors.
Casting: ~50 principal actors per locale (some doubling) × 8 locales ≈ 400
actor contracts, plus announcer/commentary casts. Contract terms must
include the AI-voice consent and strike-contingency clauses flagged in
program-risk-register.md R-08. Audio-bank budget check: 450 lines + efforts
compresses comfortably inside the ≤ 50 MB/locale bank
(V2/V2_features.md:2540-2541). Owner: AuD + LOC.
7. Stages#
Per-stage planning assumption: 7.5 artist-months average (range 5-12)
to the ≤ 4M tris / ≤ 256 MB / GPU ≤ 4 ms budget (V2/V2_features.md:2542-2543),
including interactables, destruction lifecycle, day/night variants, crowd
systems (:1085-1103). 30 stages = 225 pm ≈ 19 person-years; 12 stages
(MLL-0) = 90 pm. At a 9-10 person environment team: 30 stages ≈ 24 months.
8. Team-size / calendar envelope summary#
| Scope | Roster | Stages | Cinematics | Content total | Average content FTE (24-mo window) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLL-0 (24 ftr, 12 stg, endings only) | 432 pm | 90 pm | 24 pm | ≈ 546 pm (46 py) | ~23 over 18 mo (incl. mocap+VO crews) |
| MLL-1 (36 ftr, 18 stg, Act 1 + 12 side stories) | 648 pm | 135 pm | 225 pm | ≈ 1,008 pm (84 py) | ~42 |
| MLL-2a (60 ftr, 30 stg, 16 side stories) | 1,080 pm | 225 pm | 402 pm | ≈ 1,707 pm (142 py) | ~71 |
| MLL-2 uncut (60 ftr, 30 stg, all side stories) | 1,080 pm | 225 pm | 930 pm | ≈ 2,235 pm (186 py) | ~93 |
These are content-production figures only — systems engineering (GAS,
rollback, 7 rulesets, creator suite, online services, open-world modes),
shared art (UI, VFX libraries), and overhead are additive and largely
tier-invariant; the program-level totals are assembled in
market-rationale.md §5. Velocity, stage-day, and studio-day actuals from
the first 8 production fighters recalibrate every constant in this document
(PD owns the recalibration; cadence quarterly).