Rob Donald on Avault.com podcast

[mestevo]

Just listened to it, took some notes.

http://www.avaultpodcast.com/shows/1...Episode+87.mp3

30:00-39:00
- History of NM and why they created Euphoria, realtionship with Rockstar and Lucasarts, being used in Max Payne 3 but wouldnt comment about LA Noir.

39:00-58:15
- Why create a game, why Backbreaker
- considered doing it as an XBLA title, didnt know if they could do 11 v 11
- one of the hosts is a 2k guy, doesnt like Madden, but needs 'his football teams in it'
- Rob: "if you are going up against someone like Madden, you don't make something like Madden"
- Rob mentioned the first person camera in an older game. In cockpit/first person views "are cool" and top down "easier to play". Compares it to the view of Gears of War.
- The version that released is 'a good few yards back' from what it was before
- dumps on the 'god view camera' and says you can't feel the crowd and stadium
- says crowd reacts to what happens on the field
- Avoids a lot of bait about Madden just being the same product every year, host says BB isn't difficult, just different
- "Madden is an absolutely brilliant simulation of all the nuances of and stuff like, we wanted to bring in people who were maybe a bit scared by that, maybe like people that werent traditional football gamers"
- Takes a shot at a review saying 'i had to do the training camp because the controls are different than Madden' and said that they took the rest of that review with a grain of salt
- Rob "sometimes you can run into someone and fall over, we dont rely on animations"
- Backbreaker animation blends from traditional animation, into euphoria, and back into traditional animation ... we're kind of kings of animation, we know what we're doing, and we think Backbreaker sets a bar.. will be hard to go back to warping and sliding animations which is an artifact of how animations are done in other games"
- Re: in-game seasons "Double your pleasure" Traditional season mode which is "as you expect".
- Describes RtBB, being a british developer this was a kind of common sense thing for us to do, fit in with our policy of doing everything as dramatic as possible.
- "Community has really taken to Backbreaker ... it is amazing"
- What's next for you guys? "Just got BB1 out of the way, exciting seeing all of the feedback ... not commiting necessarily rolling one out every year ... looking for what we can do in the future for Backbreaker, have gotten a lot of feedback from the community and paying attention to what the press has said as well, but we're not ready to announce anything yet"

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob

have gotten a lot of feedback from the community and paying attention to what the press has said as well, but we're not ready to announce anything yet"

I wish they'd done more of that while making BB1. Most of the negatives being said are things people were telling them about for 3 years, but they still did them anyway...

[mestevo]

I didnt want to add much/any commentary to the OP, but overall I'm really disappointed with the interview. Backed away from the 'working on BB2' claim that popped up before launch and replaced it with 'not ready to announce'. I think he completely misrepresents 'season mode' as "as you'd expect" because anyone who has ever played a season mode will be disappointed, as it's the most barren feature-wise of any football game ever.

The crowd is pretty weak in game, doesn't really seem to reflect the play on the field, I also don't get to 'enjoy the stadiums' as it's just a slightly moving backdrop on the camera view to me. The only time I notice im in a different stadium is when it shows a different scoreboard layout, or when I try and look at it during a replay to see the in-game stats since that's the only way to see any.

Says they aren't committed to an annual release either, so probably at least 2 years until BB2, or we find out it was 'shelved' whenever they tease a different title instead.

[Afrikan]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheWatcher

I wish they'd done more of that while making BB1. Most of the negatives being said are things people were telling them about for 3 years, but they still did them anyway...

Watcher, you are one of the posters who seems to pay attention to detail....where have people and reviewers been telling them about anything for 3 years? as far as negatives, most touched the game for the first time last year.

the first time a reviewer (IGN guy) offered advice in his hands on demo, was last year after playing an early E3 build......a build where they didn't even have that much passing options.

[RaiderKtulu]

Quote: Originally Posted by Afrikan

where have people and reviewers been telling them about anything for 3 years?

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here and say it has something to do with the camera angle and lack of receiver icons, among other things.

The cold hard reality is that this game is failing because it tried to be different.

People didn't want different.

[Afrikan]

Quote: Originally Posted by RaiderKtulu

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here and say it has something to do with the camera angle and lack of receiver icons, among other things. The cold hard reality is that this game is failing because it tried to be different. People didn't want different.

although I agree with you, but those people shouldn't be so self centered.

they are not the main people they were/are going after....

Quote:

"Madden is an absolutely brilliant simulation of all the nuances of and stuff like, we wanted to bring in people who were maybe a bit scared by that, maybe like people that werent traditional football gamers"

is it that hard to believe that NM is/was trying to cater to a totally different audience...or one that was open to the idea and gave their game a chance?

i'm guessing by going with this approach, they knew they weren't going to get good sales off the bat....but I think they are trying to build a new audience themselves.

[TheWatcher]

There are a number of posts over the years in different places with concerns about: the camera angle, the glowing objects, the player models, the lack of commentary, no refs on the field, no players on the sidelines, the size of the stadiums, the name of the game itself, customization restrictions that people didn't want... you name it, there has been a concern expressed about it.

Personally, I like BackBreaker. I like it a lot. A Football game is simply without question, the most difficult type of game to make. Knowing that, I'm much more forgiving of a first effort with a football game than most gamers are. But clearly, they needed some outside input. When a play is called dead after you've been hit by your own man, all you can do is feel bad for them and the choices they made in the overly secret environment they chose to cloak this game in while developing it.

[elgreazy1]

Pretty good. I will say this for the dev team: they really need to get under the hood to make the game much more deep and they need to add a lot of bells and whistles in order to make this a complete game. I really hope they don't push to try to make this next year, but rather they take their time - even if it's a 2 year break - and put out something great. In the meanwhile, community feedback and interaction is key if they want to sustain some sort of fanbase, and a patch or two wouldn't hurt either in between development cycles.