DF Retro takes on Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct

23 years on from its initial release, Donkey Kong Country remains one of the most influential games of all-time. Combining a unique approach to visual design and a pivotal reimagining of a classic Nintendo character, DKC was a landmark release. It was Rare's unique response to the move from 2D to 3D visuals in gaming, and - perhaps surprisingly - the platform holder's answer to the arrival of Aladdin on Mega Drive the previous year.
While David Perry and his team would pioneer a technique called Digicel - moving hand-drawn animation into the digital space - Rare pursued something very different. Characters and environments were rendered on Silicon Graphics workstations, before being down-sampled and converted to the more constrained pixel-counts and palettes offered by the Super NES. The initial results were highly impressive, prompting a substantial investment from Nintendo, and a closer relationship that gave the firm an opportunity to work with an iconic character of their choice.
In this episode of DF Retro, we dig deep into the origins of Rare's CG techniques and how they were deployed across both Donkey Kong Country and its fighting game sibling, Killer Instinct. And what makes this episode special is that key members of the Rare development team - now working on Yooka-Laylee at Playtonic - share their stories and experiences of working on these games. Everything about the SGI method is covered here, from the earliest demos through to how the technique was rolled out in full production.
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