Read the in-depth and informative interview with Infil Here: http://www.ultra-combo.com/?p=1014
Discuss Below
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Great stuff. Infil, your guide is absolutely amazing, keep on doing what you’re doing, it’s awesome. I have read the guide three times now, first when I was starting out, then when I was trying out Cinder, and recently when I played Thunder for a while. Every single time I do this, I learn not one, but several new things that just went over my head previously. Definitely one of the best resources out there, and the only one that throughly covers all the bases and angles.
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Hey, thanks for letting me do this interview! I had fun answering the questions. Hope you guys learned a little bit about me.
I’d encourage you guys to watch the set between Grimmmz and FilthieRich that was posted in the article if you haven’t. It’s a great set. Link is here.
Also, I’ll check back in this thread periodically, if anybody has a random question they want to ask me, I’ll respond in here.
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Good read, thanks for fillin’ us in. 
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Whoa, that went deep. Great interview Infil. 
There is actually still one overarching issue with the guide, and that’s the name. I call it “A Killer Instinct Guide for SFIV Players”, and I absolutely wrote many of the initial pages with that audience in mind (if you read my Basics section, you’ll find tons of references to SF4-specific mechanics).
Incidentally, I still think the basics section is the most valuable part of the guide. When I was starting out (and I mean actually starting out, i.e. a complete fighting game novice with no SFIV experience with which to relate), that section provided a really vital suite of grounding intuitions about the properties of moves, mobility, et al that an experienced player would key in on when trying to understand the “character” or “essense” of a fighting game (and KI in particular), helped me understand what made particular kinds of moves strong or weak within the context of their roles, and gave me (at least part of) a working vocabulary with which to arrange my thoughts (and questions!) about the game. As someone who maybe wasn’t the intended audience of that section, it helped me quickly get a handle on the game via the concepts and properties which offered the most explanatory leverage (at least according to the intended audience!).
If you feel you need to modernize that section or make it more background-agnostic, then of course, go ahead. But I hope you don’t shy away from the focus on really mechanically characterizing the game, or from the methodical approach and vocabulary you adopted for that section, because I feel it would be diminished if it didn’t provide the reader an opportunity to acquire that kind of grounding.
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A very very small correction needed that I just spotted on Thunder’s page under the General Strategy section:
“If your opponent likes to keep to the air, like Sadira, use Call of Sky to convince them to stay grounded.”
That doesn’t really apply anymore with the COS changes (I love the original COS!) does it? Maybe I’m missing something.
I really appreciate all the hard work I’m sure it took to make this guide, and I really ought to refer to it and study it a lot more than I currently do!
Great interview!
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Infil dropping truth bombs…
Great and insightful read. Strong analysis of what makes KI special.
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Terrific interview. This is my favorite one so far. It’s always a joy to see the thoughtful way you approach the game and it was fun to see you put the same energy into answering the interview questions. You write well - which is probably a skill possessed by fewer people than hitting one frame links (and the number of people who can do both is vanishingly small). The whole community probably needs to drop a thank you note to the guy who made that Fulgore combo video.
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Maybe we can collectively send him a gift basket of fancy cheeses.
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Great piece. Very long and good read!
I owe my jump up in skills to having a guide like Infil’s available at all times. It’s my first reference for character matchups.
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This was a fantastic read. It’s been nice chatting with you over the past year, and this interview definitely gives good insight to your perspective. The thought put into articulating these not-so-plain headspaces is definitely noted and appreciated. And that second to last paragraph… 
It was cool for me to hear that you published your guide just before I picked up the game. It was definitely instrumental to bulding a foundation of understanding for me. I’m sure I speak for many when I say that we’re thankful that you not only found the time and energy to create and publish your guide, but also that you persevered through doubt and exhaustion to see the project through to its current state.
Oh, and lastly… my Hisako has a message for your Jago:
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infil i was really interested in hearing all you would like to see in season 3 like systems mechanics or whatever. i wish u had elaborated more about that in the interview. thanks so so much for all you have done for the ki community you are awesome bro . i am really looking forward to your response
I’ll be honest @Infilament, your guide is the sole reason I am still currently playing KI and playing Jago. I would have given up, but your guide is a live saver. If you’d like to know the whole story, I can tell you in PM. It may give you inspiration to keep going on and Updating this guide for S3. Thanks Infil. Really. I speak for everyone when we say, Thank you, for your time and dedication to this Community, to help make it better, and to inform us about the game we all grew up with. 
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Ditto - this rings true for me as well. When the game 1st came out, during S1, I had a heck of a time trying to learn the system, even with how great the dojo mode was and I was increasingly becoming disheartened by how unfair I felt the ranked matches were (I would consistently fight players who were 10+ ranks higher than me during rank up matches, when I felt it should’ve only been 3-5, and even worse - it did the same during rank down matches as well, creating what I saw as a lose-lose situation). However, as good as the dojo was, it didn’t cover the minute details that were hidden throughout the game with EVERY character and game mechanic. It took Infil’s guide to help me truly make heads or tails of most of it, because he set up his guide in a very straightforward and detailed manner that included multiple ways of showing you what he was talking about (such as with the graphs and GIFs). He turned my night into day - thanks, @Infilament. I credit you with why I love this game so much. 
It’s about time they put you up on the community spotlight, BTW - I’ve been waiting for it! 
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That was great…really like these weekly interviews with community members
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Loving these interviews! The people chosen definitely deserve it! Keep them coming! <3
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Yea I love these interviews, but this was particularly great! The amount of depth in the answers is great, so thanks for that! I love hearing about people’s stories and inspirations, thought processes etc. Keep up the great work Infil!
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Really? Interesting… every time I read my Basics section, all I can think is how much of an overhaul I need to give it, heh. That’s just me being weird about my own writing at times, though. This is good feedback, I’m glad you liked the section even as written now.
My goal with a theoretical rewrite would be to simply make SF4 less of the focus of all the comparisons. I would still mention SF4 by name, including the specific numbers, but I might do it in pop-up boxes or the like, rather than drill people with numbers that might not really matter to them 6 months from now, when new SF players to the scene will not be starting with SF4. Really, calling it a “rewrite” is a little dishonest, it would mostly be a bunch of tweaking.
Yeah this is a correction I’ve been meaning to make for a while but keep forgetting. I’ll see if I can remember in my next guide update!
Thanks, I do a lot of academic writing for my career and I have clearly type a lot of theory stuff in FGC forums for 10+ years, so it’s something I’ve grown accustomed to. I do agree that there are generally few people who are good at fighting games who can also write, teach, and explain to others in a clear manner. Lots of top players can’t explain why they are so good or aren’t skilled writers or organizers of thought, and lots of people who talk a lot don’t have the experience. I don’t claim I’m the world’s greatest player but I’ve put my time in across various games and I think I’m an above average player in the games I’ve taken seriously, and I have a pretty good top-down view of the genre.
I’m all for encouraging content creators, so feel free! His twitter is https://twitter.com/DreamKing23_EH and I don’t think he’s read the interview, so I’m sure he’d enjoy hearing it!
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The organization of the guide was actually one of the most difficult things I had to do. I went through numerous drafts on it, and KI is a really hard game to break down into related chunks. I settled on Basics, Meter, Combos, Combo Breakers, and Characters after many worse ideas (and even so, my organization is far from perfect). Even within a section like “Combos”, how do you start talking about it? For example, I don’t talk about manuals right away (because it’s confusing), but I still very carefully wrote all my pages so that none of my sentences would be incorrect if you DID know about manuals. This is actually surprisingly hard, especially across 40 pages, but I think I did an okay job at it.
This means a lot guys, really! I actually go back and read some old threads about my guide when I’m feeling down/stressed about the prospect of continuing it in Season 3 (it just keeps getting harder and harder to maintain as more characters are added), and I’m never one to try and drag compliments out of people to make me feel better, so any time people say something nice like this, you can consider it future fuel that helps me through some stress.
Sure, I’d like to hear it! Feel free to post it in this thread if you like, or if it’s too personal, then sending me a PM is fine.
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