Dev BTS 11/20/2022 Kana

And here we are, the return of the more in depth devlogs.  I'll be trying to get one of these out a month. Along with the monthly streams I think this should add a little extra variety to things. Now, since I've been rendering her all day a good place to start is with Kana.

For those of you playing this game it shouldn't be a surprise that I'm passionate about MMA. I've been training myself going on a decade, with the bruises, breaks and concussions to prove it.  I'm intimately familiar of the kind of damage the sport does and have a deep appreciation for the athletes who destroy themselves in such a manner.  I have an equal amount of respect for professional wrestlers.  Despite the reputation of being staged the damage wrestlers take is equal if not more than some of the most seasoned combat sports athletes. Kana is something of my love letter to them.

Kana is an interesting character from a development standpoint, in the original planning stages she didn't exist, or rather the Kana we currently have didn't.  In original drafts Amrit was the original Kana, instead of a young kickboxer she was a prodigal wrestler.  As the story became fleshed out and I looked at the themes I was trying to share with each character I realized that Amrit was incongruent with the themes I wanted for my wrestler, and so a new character had to be created.

The physical creation of Kana was fairly straightforward, I knew I wanted her to be a bit more "Ass focused" with characters like Els and Vi who are more top heavy it seemed appropriate to have somebody a bit more trunk focused. After that I focused on her backstory , ethnicity and the like. I knew I also wanted her to be an expat like Valentine, somebody who was something of an outsider, eventually I settled on her hailing from New Zealand. Given the long history of Pacific Islanders in the professional wrestling scene it seemed apropos to give her Māori heritage as well. Her varied and mixed background accounting for her darker skin tone, but brighter eyes. Also if I'm honest I just really enjoy the contrast visually. 

Kana is modeled after three wrestlers who I hold in great esteem, her ring name Kana Hojo is an amalgamation of two of them and her title of Princess of the Clouds is a nod to the nickname of the third. Just a silly little fun fact I've shared before. 

I think I've rambled enough here, and any more will start getting into spoiler territory so I'll wrap up with this.

The history of wrestling is a really nasty place, anybody who's been a fan for a long time will know about the politicking, the drugs, the injuries and of course the crimes associated with the business. As we come to know a little more of Kana I wouldn't be surprised if we encountered those sorts of things. Also people might get hit with steel chairs.  But she is a sweetheart and has a big ass so it might be worth it.

Hopefully you enjoyed learning a little bit more about our wrestling phenom, and I'm excited for you to experience more of her. 

As always thank you for continuing to support me, and I hope you have a lovely upcoming week. And for my fellow Yanks I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving.

Sláinte!