Goro (Mortal Kombat) - Concept and Design

Concept and Design

According to John Tobias, Goro was created when he and Ed Boon discussed bringing "a big brooding character" to the first Mortal Kombat. The original concept of the character was a two-handed humanoid character Rokuro, a member of "a race of demon warriors called Rokuro-kubi (demons of the dark)" wrongly "reputed as savage barbarians", who would join the tournament "to restore the pride and respect of his race." The idea for a character with four arms came from one of the Sinbad movies. In 2011, Tobias recalled: "Goro was originally called Gongoro, but we decided to shorten his name. My original concept sketch had Goro with 3 fingers and a thumb on each hand. Curt wisely changed it to 2 fingers and a thumb."

Unlike other characters in the first Mortal Kombat, Goro was not based on a digitized actor but instead on a clay sculpture created by Curt Chiarelli. After creating it, he used it as a base for a latex model to make a 12-inch tall painted miniature. After recording a video of an actor making motions similar to those Goro would make in the game, Tobias used stop motion animation to move the miniature's body to match the actor's movements frame for frame. According to Ed Boon, the clay sculpture used to animate Goro in the first Mortal Kombat was twisted around and bent so many times that it simply fell apart. In Goro's Deception bio card, when explaining how Goro was animated, Boon mentions a second model for Goro had also been created; this second model was not used for animation and is still in usable condition to this day, and is also currently in Boon's personal possession.