|
|
|
Tuesday, January 09, 2007 |
|
Gamebreaker Q & A
IGN asks the questions, EA has the answers!
Todd Batty
Producer
EA Canada
1. How has the gamebreaker changed?
In NBA Street Homecourt, the money ball represents the gamebreaker. Doing tricks and executing combos during regular gameplay builds up your trick meter, and once that meter is filled your team can unleash the money ball from its place in the HUD. This is where the fun really begins. Once in play, whoever holds the money ball holds the gamebreaker until somebody finally scores. The player in possession of the moneyball can unleash different tricks, passes, and dunks with abilities magnified well beyond his regular gameplay abilities. This means little guys like Nash can air it out and score huge dunks, and big guys like Shaq can do tricks like you’ve never seen before. It’s only for a brief period of time, and it makes it loads of fun to both play and watch.
2. How is this style of gamebreaker a shift from the past? Why is this better?
Our vision for the gamebreaker this year was to make it a completely outrageous, fun gameplay activity. Probably the biggest difference is that NBA Street Homecourt is the first of the Street series to introduce a true defensive element into the gamebreaker. Since the franchise was really built on the premise of fun-to-play defense, we thought that it would be a good idea to carry that philosophy over into the gamebreaker and give the defense a chance to not only stop the gamebreaker, but to actually steal it from the other team. We think this is a nice addition for a number of reasons, and it really creates some frenetic, incredibly fun stretches of gameplay when the ball ends up going back and forth a couple times before somebody finally scores.
3. How does scoring work?
When the gamebreaker is initially activated and the money ball is released from the HUD, we instantly reward the team that activated it by taking a point away (-1) from their opponent. This is important, since the money ball can be stolen, along with the potential reward for the team that actually puts it in the basket. Once play begins, the User has a couple of options. They can try and score immediately and be content with receiving the regular points for the basket. Or, they can try and execute Trick Remixer moves, heezy passes, and Jump-off dunks in an attempt to build up an additional reward. This reward can be 1, 2, or even 3 extra points, resulting in some pretty huge point swings. Just as in regular gameplay, however, these points are only ‘cashed in’ if the player finishes the play with a basket. If the ball is stolen, his potential reward is lost.
4. What's the risk/reward?
If you want to score instantly and take your small reward of (-1) deducted from the opponent’s score, that is a pretty safe bet. We give defense a chance during gamebreaker, but the play still favors the offense with this strategy. However, if you want to try and build your reward up to the maximum of (+3) added to your score, you are going to have to execute some pretty good tricks. The riskier the tricks you pull off, the quicker your reward will build. But with every trick comes an added possibility the defense will counter your moves and steal the money ball, thus stealing the gamebreaker. If that happens, they will then be faced with the same decision. So, the reward can be very high, but so is the risk. It is a pretty simple system to learn, but the outcome possibilities are limitless.
5. What different tricks can you pull off when in it?
Yet another feature to entice you to try and build up your reward during the gamebreaker is that all of the skill moves such as dunks or tricks are replaced with bigger, even more stylish moves when you are holding the money ball. There are so many moves to discover we even allow you to audition them in practice mode. Here you will see a whole collection of things you’ve never seen before in a basketball title - everything from back flips and backboard grabs to a kick-pass off a defender’s head to an alley-ooping teammate.
6. What strategy do you usually use when you go head to head?
One of the things we really wanted to do with this title was to give the consumer enough weapons on both offense and defense that they would be able to shift gears at multiple points in a game. This means that there are many different strategies to employ and you will see people switch it up depending on who they are playing and what strategy that person is using against them. Overall, though, most people tend to gravitate towards the bigger reward during the gamebreaker. If it was only about the extra points, you would probably see more people playing it safe, but when you factor in all of the crazy moves, it is just too entertaining to resist.
|
Tuesday, December 19, 2006 |
|
Trick Remixer Q&A
Todd Batty
Producer
Electronic Arts
1. What will be the biggest/most noticeable difference between NBA STREET V3 and Homecourt?
With the move to Next-Gen hardware, we wanted to start with a fresh slate and truly rewrite the game from scratch. This actually allowed us to look at all 3 previous versions from the Street series and pick and choose the features that our consumers told us they liked best. At a high level, the raw gameplay/fun of Street V2 seemed to be the consensus favorite, so we actually started with that as our inspiration and added a whole lot of gameplay innovation on top.
2. What is the biggest gameplay innovation in this year’s game?
Our primary focus for NBA Street Homecourt was gameplay, so it should come as no surprise that our biggest innovations are found there. I’m not sure which feature will resonate loudest with consumers, but the Trick Remixer and the new Dunk controls are both very different than anything that has been done before in basketball video games. Neither of these features would have been possible on current-gen hardware, so they really show off the power of the new consoles and hopefully justify the decision to rewrite this game from scratch.
3. How will the Trick Remixer control change the way I play a basketball video game?
For the Trick Remixer, we had a few high-level goals as a design team. First, we wanted consumers to feel like the ball was actually in their hand when they were dribbling. To do this, we realized we needed the basic building-block animations of the system (various crossovers) to be highly responsive. And by highly responsive, we mean that every time the User presses a button they need to get an instantaneous reaction from their player. So when you play the game, you can do something like 5-10 crossovers per second. It really does feel and look incredible, and definitely makes it feel like you are controlling the ball. Secondly, we wanted to create a system that would allow a User to pick up a controller and be instantly rewarded, but that had depth enough for long-term replayability. If you analyze the move tree you will see that the combinations of tricks are endless, so it never feels like you are doing the same trick over and over again like it does when triggering canned animations, yet you can also pick up the basics in a matter of seconds.
Overall, you will be using both trick buttons so often and so rapidly that you will feel a connection to your player and the ball that the auto-dribble in all previous basketball video game titles just never delivered.
4. Can you walk us through the move tree? How can you get so many different moves out of one button?
The basis of the system starts with tapping the [X] button (on XBOX 360). Tapping the button executes a basic crossover. Where it starts to feel instantly different is when you tap the button at different speeds. Depending on how fast you tap, your player will adjust his posture to allow him to do really quick low crossovers, or higher slower crossovers.
Next, we added in the hesitation move. If you hold the button for any length at all, the player starts to go up into a hesitation move with the ball. If you release it before he gets to the top (the whole motion will ultimately feel like a normal button ‘press’), the player will execute a quick, trick crossover such as jumping over the ball, or slipping it behind his head to the other hand.
If you hold the button a beat longer, however, the player will then execute a bigger trick, such as a spin move.
Finally, if you were executing crossovers very quickly and had your player down low to the ground and THEN held the button, his hesitation move will change from an upright, more fundamental hesi to a lower, hand-on-the-ground pose. From the lower hesitation move, there are different tricks that are triggered when you hold the button to the end.
That pretty much exhausted the possibilities of what we felt we could get out of a single button, but we didn’t stop there. In NBA Street Homecourt we use the [LB] and [RB] buttons (XBOX360) to modify all skill moves. For the Trick Remixer, this means being able to cross the ball between your legs or cross the ball behind your back, depending on what button is held while using [X]. Each of those crossovers has yet another move tree associated with it for the User to discover and learn, and the result is that they can ultimately mix up all the tricks however they want.
We also added something else that we have never done before in Street – a second trick button. All of these tricks are characterized by the player putting the ball on the ground and popping it back up to himself in various different ways - even with a Steve Nash soccer-style kick-flip. When you start to combine these moves with your [X] button moves you will really feel the possibilities are endless.
5. What tips can you give me to master the new Trick Remixer?
We have included a Practice Mode in the game this year and we highly recommend spending some time there to get used to the new controls. Because the underlying system is very logical and predictable (there are no randomly triggered animations in the entire Trick Remixer system) it is pretty easy to figure out when you don’t have to worry about defenders. You can also figure out what tricks earn the most trick points, earn a gamebreaker and then practice your Trick Remixer Gamebreaker moves. These are some of the most entertaining animations in the game, and you can literally spend hours in practice mode playing with this feature. The best part is dribbling to the music, which is interactive and changes based on what tricks you do - such as crossovers doing record scratches to the beat.
6. Can every player have the same level of ball handling skill?
One of our key goals for gameplay was ensuring that our players were clearly differentiated from one another, and that we could be the first game to actually make a defensive superstar like Ron Artest a valuable commodity to have on your team. I will speak more to our defensive controls in future Q&A’s, but I can tell you definitively that not everyone is capable of doing all of the tricks in Trick Remixer. We actually have 4 ability levels for various players: Big Men with no handles at all can only do crossovers. A player with mediocre handles can do crossovers and trick crossovers (the ‘press’ move), players with good handles can do all the tricks noted above, and finally a player with a Master Skill in handles can actually also do a subset of the gamebreaker trick package in regular gameplay. This really forces you to select your teammates wisely.
|
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MassiveGameDude
Jan 13 '07 7:18 pm PST
Wii Fitness
Since I finished Zelda a few weeks back, I have decided to take some time to go back and work...
Erik-IGN
Jan 13 '07 7:07 pm PST
Getting Sick Sucks
The last two times I've flown somewhere, I've caught some nasty bug from someone on the plane....
SuperLaMasterChief
Jan 13 '07 5:46 pm PST
Why Video Games Are Scapegoats For Murder And Violence
Video Games have been blamed for countless murders and acts of violence for over 30 years....
Peer-IGN
Jan 12 '07 11:57 pm PST
And the Winners Are...
All members of the IGN family of sites have announced their Game of the Year winners: ...
sng-ign
Jan 12 '07 6:49 pm PST
Holy Fuck ZeldaTP!
Above and beyond the call of duty for an FAQ for sure -- updated Legend of Zelda Twilight...
chris-ign
Jan 12 '07 2:19 pm PST
The Real Pai Mei: Fist of the White Lotus
For those who have seen Kill Bill Vol. 2, you will undoubtedly remember the white haired...
cidhighwind55b
Jan 11 '07 4:07 pm PST
Crackdown? Yes Please.
Halo and Crackdown: The combination we were all waiting to see! Well, not really... but I'm...
Chantaljoy
Jan 11 '07 1:45 pm PST
Slow is Lame
It's been a relatively slow day in the office today - which totally sucks. When there...
vidgames
Jan 10 '07 5:30 pm PST
They Know Who You Are...
Here's something that shows how technology has advanced in recent years and how different data...
meghan-ign
Jan 10 '07 2:15 pm PST
New Final Fantasy XIII Info/Pics!!
New Final Fantasy XIII scans and information can be found here: http://www.ff-xiii.net/ ...
|
