Press Row Podcast NHL 16 Thoughts & M16 Interview with CFM Creative Director Kolbe L.

[jpdavis82]

http://operationsportspressrow.libsy...-dev-interview

Thought you guys might want to check this one out as well, I haven't heard it yet, but hopefully there's another nugget or two for the CFM guys.

I couldn't say anything before now, but I'm pretty optimistic about CFM under Kolbe's direction, that's another piece to the puzzle that has me very excited about Madden 16 and it's future, more pieces will be revealed in the next few weeks

[DeuceDouglas]

Interview starts at around 1:01:00.

They asked him about whether he thought about the concern that MUT may be taking over sports games and he said the same thing before about how they invested more resources in CFM than any other mode and that it would upset him personally if he couldn't play CFM more. Also mentioned how there was no creative director for game modes last year and how things were disjointed in terms of what was going on.

Talked about the perception of "MUT being the same as CFM but having to pay" and said that's not the message that they provide. The message they want to provide is that MUT is the competitive way to play Madden built around building different kind of teams while the goal of CFM is giving you the experience/fantasy of actually being in the league whether it be an athlete, coach, etc. and trying to meet the expectations people have for being each of those.

Was asked about strengths and weaknesses of Madden and said a strength was that he thinks Madden is a fun game and that it thrives on the head-to-head aspect. Weaknesses he said that holistically it's disjointed and that there's a ton of leftovers, options, features, etc. that are in the game for a long time that haven't been touched or cared for and that they have to get better at caring for all the things they're carrying around and year-to-year they have to look at what's next most important to fix and bring up to date for the player. Said a lot of their effort probably feels invisible because of the amount of effort put in to ship the game with no bugs, etc.

Asked him about how they go about determining what to attack, leave in, leave out and make a plan and he said that they look at reviews and that they seek out feedback from more casual fans because they don't get nearly as much feedback from them as they do from the hardcore crowd. Bring different groups of people in to see how people react and try to add in the areas that the majority of people want.

Host mentioned how sports gaming reviews are probably least reliable out of any other genres because they're not, for the most part, from people that really enjoy and play the game and Kolbe talked about how they get a lot of feedback from other places like Twitter and that sports game reviews have been silly for a really long time.

Asked him about balancing what people want with his personal vision and he said it's really hard and that he plays many games and studies what other games do well that's entertaining that could potentially be brought over into Madden. Mentions that when he worked on The Show he pitched Road to the Show and the first year it was crap and that the player had to make it fun for it to be that and it was the second and third year where people started really liking it and that it's not something people were outright wanting in a baseball game but it ended up being successful.

He was asked about his move from The Show to Madden and he said the easiest way to answer was that an EA recruiter contacted him about a position and he had been on The Show for nine years and was with Sony for 16 years and wanted to know what EA could teach him and when he found out it was Creative Director for Madden he was even more excited because he loves football. Mentioned that he accepted the job, moved across the country, bought a new house, and had a baby in a six week span.

Talked briefly about going back and playing The Show after he'd worked on it. Was asked about the differences working on a game like The Show vs. a game like Madden and he talked about how the teams are totally different and that the resources at your disposal are greater but the challenges are also greater. Said that dealing with gameplay for football is a much bigger challenge than something like baseball and that baseball doesn't have to deal with 22 different individuals running around looking intelligent all the time and that baseball can use very simple AI. Said game modes are similar, solving similar problems, promoting similar experiences. Said the idea of CFM was great to him and that he thinks it's one of the most unique things in the sports space and that the problem is they haven't done a superb job of delivering those individual experiences.

Host said they can't get into the details but next week they will (maybe more info this week?).

Asked why CFM people should be excited and he said he could only say a couple things and that they added a lot to the user functionality on a week to week basis and that they focused on making things easier while retaining the depth. The other thing he said they could talk about was the scouting system and that they made it both easier but along with added depth with some additions to online leagues and making them easier to handle and manage.

[StefJoeHalt]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

http://operationsportspressrow.libsy...-dev-interview Thought you guys might want to check this one out as well, I haven't heard it yet, but hopefully there's another nugget or two for the CFM guys. I couldn't say anything before now, but I'm pretty optimistic about CFM under Kolbe's direction, that's another piece to the puzzle that has me very excited about Madden 16 and it's future, more pieces will be revealed in the next few weeks

Ok as lifetime player but don't get into the technical part of the making of the game..is this the first true year this fellow is in charge of CFM?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by StefJoeHalt

Ok as lifetime player but don't get into the technical part of the making of the game..is this the first true year this fellow is in charge of CFM? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For Madden, yes. Last year he worked all on MUT and getting that up and running.

He formally worked at MLB The Show.

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by StefJoeHalt

Ok as lifetime player but don't get into the technical part of the making of the game..is this the first true year this fellow is in charge of CFM? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, Josh is still there but Kolbe is in charge now. Kolbe comes from MLB the show and I'll just throw this out there, he said he wants to bring the story mode element like road to the show to Madden, now we don't know when but that would be huge for CFM! The main point he stresses in the interview is how broken a lot of CFM is currently and they want to get it right and he also talked about how stuff has been untouched and was developed by people who aren't even at ea or even in the industry anymore. Basically guys CFM is getting a much needed overhaul.

[Sausage]

Hopefully not another 3 year plan; these small increments of change need to go. They need to get a pep in there step, lol.

[PeoplesChampGB]

Every year its a three year plan. I, too, am sick of hearing it.

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sausage

Hopefully not another 3 year plan; these small increments of change need to go. They need to get a pep in there step, lol.

No it's not another 3 year plan. Rex and Cam are still making the game and continuing to build off of what they did in M13, 25, 15, Kolbe is just being implemented to try to help make all the game modes of Madden great and pull them out of their staleness they've had for the last several years. Rex is doing big things for gameplay and now we finally see the game modes are going to start to match it. This has been one concern of many, even if the gameplay becomes great, what about CFM? Now you're starting to see the bigger picture and it will become more and more evident as more info drops. Madden 15 was the turning point, M16 is the year people start to believe, quote me on that😁