Acclaim's ASB2005 Developer Diary

[Comp625]

This is mainly for the people who've never read the Developer's Diary posted on Acclaim's website. I never knew this had existed until I visited Acclaim's site today. I'm glad the developers are recognizing the flaws in last year's game (mainly gameplay issues) and are willing to address it. That's a VERY good sign. Without further ado...

[i]Tom Green is the Producer of All-Star Baseball 2005. He was an artist on ASB'99 and '00, the lead artist of ASB'01, '02, '03, and oversaw ASB '04 while acting as the Asst. Art Director at Acclaim Studios Austin. He has never had his own comedy on MTV...[/b]

Introduction

All-Star Baseball has been a passion for many gamers and ASB team members for years. Currently we feel we are on the brink of releasing a great baseball experience and expect to get 'Best Sports Game of the Year' awards for the 2005 version. (no joking!) Several members of the ASB development team have vast knowledge of the sport and are extremely competitive. We have a few Red Sox fans, Cubs fans, Yankee fans, Braves fans...it almost got violent around here during the playoffs this past month. Almost all the team members are in fantasy leagues...a lot of guys played at least high school ball, one of our designers was drafted by the Cubs as well, so we have a great deal of baseball experience at our fingertips. We realize other games will have larger teams and higher marketing budgets, so in order for ASB to win we must be beat the competition hands-down.

Priorities

Last year, ASB2004 was huge. We had twice as many features as anyone else. Pick-up mode, Scenario mode, Expansion mode, Franchise Mode including Spring Training, 75 stadiums (including past, present and even future stadiums), Trivia Game, DVD content with exclusive interviews, Legendary MLB players from the past, the Negro Leagues, Downloadable Rosters, etc...the game was loaded with extras. You could sit down with a copy of ASB and have a blast without actually playing an actual 9 inning game. For ASB'05 we are addressing what was overlooked last year: the gameplay.

First things first: I loved ASB'04. I played an entire 162 game season with the Mets. (and did a lot better than the real Mets this year by the way). We know what worked well in the game and also know what areas needed tweaked. For '05 we have addressed a lot of the glaring issues such as ball vaccums, dives, jumps, wall-scaling (for robbing home runs and foul balls), pitch speeds, batting controls,baserunning controls, cameras, presentation, graphics, animations, and more.

Difficulty

ASB'04 had a very difficult learning curve. There were 3 difficulty levels and the default had the 3-D batting interface. The pitch speeds were fast, really fast and did realistically portray MLB pitch speeds...but most people just weren't ready for that. (I think of Michael J.Fox playing his guitar in Back to the Future). Fans of the series will be glad to know that we still have those challenging fastballs in the game, but not as the default.

For ASB'05 we have 5 difficulty levels and 3 different pitch speeds to choose from. The default pitch speed is much more hitter-friendly than those in '04, and the pitcher will not have the same pin-point control either. As the game progresses, his aim worsens...and accuracy will depend on his real-life counterpart. The default controls will be with zone-batting (similar to High Heat or MVP), but we will still have our 2-D, 3-D, and timing based options available. We felt it very important to have all of these batting modes to choose from to cater to different tastes. This year, a fan of High Heat can play ASB online with zone-batting on and play against a WSB enthusiast who prefers to use the 2-D curser.

Things to come...

In the next developer diary we will get more in-depth as to what tweaks have been made to the game. The camera work and graphical improvements are pretty significant, I think everyone will be impressed with what all has gotten accomplished thus far and will get excited to see where we are going with All-Star Baseball 2005.

[cub]

Re: Acclaim\'s ASB2005 Developer Diary

That was also posted on IGN. Here's Part 2:

Despite his jaw dropping good looks and constant offers to join the next boy band sensation, Tom Green is still the Producer of All-Star Baseball 2005.

Part 2 Introduction

For All-Star Baseball 2005, the first major improvement the user will notice this year is the enhancement of the graphics. Since we continue to build on the same engine we've used since ASB'02, our programmers had to do (and have done) an excellent job with optimizations to allow us to keep adding significant improvements to the game.

Player Graphics

This year we re-built the player model to make him appear much more muscular. The model we had been using was a full-body cyber-scan of myself...so whenever someone would criticize our model's proportions I would take it very personally. Well I am very glad we spent the time this year to 'bulk-up'. Also, the uniform textures have been redone so the wrinkles on the jersey look a lot more realistic.

Our players will also move more realistically in '05, as we motion-captured 200 new moves. In previous versions of ASB you didn't see the catcher/homeplate umpire very often so we didn't really focus on how they looked. Now that we have added the behind-the-pitcher view, it was a necessity to add about 50 new animations for behind home plate. We also have implemented 40 new pitcher motions (Dontrelle Willis had to get his own delivery), 40 new batting stances (our Alfonso Soriano stance looks exactly like him now), check-swing hits, bats slipping out of the batter's hands during a swing, mascots ducking from those very bats, new HR celebrations (including the Sosa hop and Klesko bat toss), 1st baseman animations (they'll throw it around the horn if no one's on base), outfielder animations (on a pop fly with runners on, they will back up and charge the ball to get the throw off more quickly), infielder animations (Jeter's patent jump-throw from the hole), injuries, pick-off animations, and more. That was a run-on sentence if I've ever seen one.

Stadium Graphics

The first thing we added was mip-mapping and anti-aliasing to improve the stadiums' atmosphere in ASB '05. ASB'04 didn't have these methods of blending which caused the game to look 'pixely' or 'jagged'. We also have added a distance haze which adds to the realism. (The distance haze is thicker in LA). Our artists have done a fantastic job enhancing our parks this year. First off, they improved the fields by raising the grass 2 inches. Then they applied a 'multi-pass' to the textures which stamps one texture on top of another. This really helps replicate the areas on a field where there are dirty spots on the grass areas. We also got a lot better/more recent stadium references. Some team members visited various parks throughout the season and took some great photos so our artists could re-create the stadiums as accurately as possible. We also added animated geometry to our stadiums this year, so if the Mets hit a homerun in Shea the apple animates...as does the train in Minute Maid Park. We have 80 stadiums this year...we've added 2 new spring training facilities, 1 classic stadium that people have been asking for, 1 new future stadium (for the World Champion Marlins), and 1 new expansion stadium.

Cameras

We have re-worked most of the cameras in our game to try and make the user feel more like they're on the field. When you bat, the camera is behind the batter. When you pitch, the camera's behind the pitcher... and when you field, the camera's behind the fielder. Our FielderCam&153; is not a 1st person camera, but has more of a 3rd person platform game style to it. A lot of people have asked over the years if this could feasibly work...I can say with complete confidence that it does. It adds a level of excitement that hasn't been in sports games before. You really get that nervous feeling right at the crack of the bat that you experience in real life when you're out on the field. While we've been testing the FielderCam&153;, some have found they are throwing to 1st instead of 3rd and vice-versa, due to the reversed camera angle. We have given the user the ability to re-configure their controller to change which button throws to what base...this helps remedy this problem. We also have left our old fielding camera angle in as an option if people would like to use it as well....although I do believe that anyone who plays a few innings with our new cameras will love them. We've also added new presentation and in-between inning cameras which really show off our beautiful stadiums.

Things to come...

In the next developer diary we will reveal more about online play, how our leaderboards will be structured, and what difficulty modes/options the user will have. We'll also talk about some of the new enhancements we've made to ASB's audio...there's been some amazing improvements.

[cub]

Re: Acclaim\'s ASB2005 Developer Diary

That was also posted on IGN. Here's Part 2:

Despite his jaw dropping good looks and constant offers to join the next boy band sensation, Tom Green is still the Producer of All-Star Baseball 2005.

Part 2 Introduction

For All-Star Baseball 2005, the first major improvement the user will notice this year is the enhancement of the graphics. Since we continue to build on the same engine we've used since ASB'02, our programmers had to do (and have done) an excellent job with optimizations to allow us to keep adding significant improvements to the game.

Player Graphics

This year we re-built the player model to make him appear much more muscular. The model we had been using was a full-body cyber-scan of myself...so whenever someone would criticize our model's proportions I would take it very personally. Well I am very glad we spent the time this year to 'bulk-up'. Also, the uniform textures have been redone so the wrinkles on the jersey look a lot more realistic.

Our players will also move more realistically in '05, as we motion-captured 200 new moves. In previous versions of ASB you didn't see the catcher/homeplate umpire very often so we didn't really focus on how they looked. Now that we have added the behind-the-pitcher view, it was a necessity to add about 50 new animations for behind home plate. We also have implemented 40 new pitcher motions (Dontrelle Willis had to get his own delivery), 40 new batting stances (our Alfonso Soriano stance looks exactly like him now), check-swing hits, bats slipping out of the batter's hands during a swing, mascots ducking from those very bats, new HR celebrations (including the Sosa hop and Klesko bat toss), 1st baseman animations (they'll throw it around the horn if no one's on base), outfielder animations (on a pop fly with runners on, they will back up and charge the ball to get the throw off more quickly), infielder animations (Jeter's patent jump-throw from the hole), injuries, pick-off animations, and more. That was a run-on sentence if I've ever seen one.

Stadium Graphics

The first thing we added was mip-mapping and anti-aliasing to improve the stadiums' atmosphere in ASB '05. ASB'04 didn't have these methods of blending which caused the game to look 'pixely' or 'jagged'. We also have added a distance haze which adds to the realism. (The distance haze is thicker in LA). Our artists have done a fantastic job enhancing our parks this year. First off, they improved the fields by raising the grass 2 inches. Then they applied a 'multi-pass' to the textures which stamps one texture on top of another. This really helps replicate the areas on a field where there are dirty spots on the grass areas. We also got a lot better/more recent stadium references. Some team members visited various parks throughout the season and took some great photos so our artists could re-create the stadiums as accurately as possible. We also added animated geometry to our stadiums this year, so if the Mets hit a homerun in Shea the apple animates...as does the train in Minute Maid Park. We have 80 stadiums this year...we've added 2 new spring training facilities, 1 classic stadium that people have been asking for, 1 new future stadium (for the World Champion Marlins), and 1 new expansion stadium.

Cameras

We have re-worked most of the cameras in our game to try and make the user feel more like they're on the field. When you bat, the camera is behind the batter. When you pitch, the camera's behind the pitcher... and when you field, the camera's behind the fielder. Our FielderCam&153; is not a 1st person camera, but has more of a 3rd person platform game style to it. A lot of people have asked over the years if this could feasibly work...I can say with complete confidence that it does. It adds a level of excitement that hasn't been in sports games before. You really get that nervous feeling right at the crack of the bat that you experience in real life when you're out on the field. While we've been testing the FielderCam&153;, some have found they are throwing to 1st instead of 3rd and vice-versa, due to the reversed camera angle. We have given the user the ability to re-configure their controller to change which button throws to what base...this helps remedy this problem. We also have left our old fielding camera angle in as an option if people would like to use it as well....although I do believe that anyone who plays a few innings with our new cameras will love them. We've also added new presentation and in-between inning cameras which really show off our beautiful stadiums.

Things to come...

In the next developer diary we will reveal more about online play, how our leaderboards will be structured, and what difficulty modes/options the user will have. We'll also talk about some of the new enhancements we've made to ASB's audio...there's been some amazing improvements.

[cub]

Re: Acclaim\'s ASB2005 Developer Diary

That was also posted on IGN. Here's Part 2:

Despite his jaw dropping good looks and constant offers to join the next boy band sensation, Tom Green is still the Producer of All-Star Baseball 2005.

Part 2 Introduction

For All-Star Baseball 2005, the first major improvement the user will notice this year is the enhancement of the graphics. Since we continue to build on the same engine we've used since ASB'02, our programmers had to do (and have done) an excellent job with optimizations to allow us to keep adding significant improvements to the game.

Player Graphics

This year we re-built the player model to make him appear much more muscular. The model we had been using was a full-body cyber-scan of myself...so whenever someone would criticize our model's proportions I would take it very personally. Well I am very glad we spent the time this year to 'bulk-up'. Also, the uniform textures have been redone so the wrinkles on the jersey look a lot more realistic.

Our players will also move more realistically in '05, as we motion-captured 200 new moves. In previous versions of ASB you didn't see the catcher/homeplate umpire very often so we didn't really focus on how they looked. Now that we have added the behind-the-pitcher view, it was a necessity to add about 50 new animations for behind home plate. We also have implemented 40 new pitcher motions (Dontrelle Willis had to get his own delivery), 40 new batting stances (our Alfonso Soriano stance looks exactly like him now), check-swing hits, bats slipping out of the batter's hands during a swing, mascots ducking from those very bats, new HR celebrations (including the Sosa hop and Klesko bat toss), 1st baseman animations (they'll throw it around the horn if no one's on base), outfielder animations (on a pop fly with runners on, they will back up and charge the ball to get the throw off more quickly), infielder animations (Jeter's patent jump-throw from the hole), injuries, pick-off animations, and more. That was a run-on sentence if I've ever seen one.

Stadium Graphics

The first thing we added was mip-mapping and anti-aliasing to improve the stadiums' atmosphere in ASB '05. ASB'04 didn't have these methods of blending which caused the game to look 'pixely' or 'jagged'. We also have added a distance haze which adds to the realism. (The distance haze is thicker in LA). Our artists have done a fantastic job enhancing our parks this year. First off, they improved the fields by raising the grass 2 inches. Then they applied a 'multi-pass' to the textures which stamps one texture on top of another. This really helps replicate the areas on a field where there are dirty spots on the grass areas. We also got a lot better/more recent stadium references. Some team members visited various parks throughout the season and took some great photos so our artists could re-create the stadiums as accurately as possible. We also added animated geometry to our stadiums this year, so if the Mets hit a homerun in Shea the apple animates...as does the train in Minute Maid Park. We have 80 stadiums this year...we've added 2 new spring training facilities, 1 classic stadium that people have been asking for, 1 new future stadium (for the World Champion Marlins), and 1 new expansion stadium.

Cameras

We have re-worked most of the cameras in our game to try and make the user feel more like they're on the field. When you bat, the camera is behind the batter. When you pitch, the camera's behind the pitcher... and when you field, the camera's behind the fielder. Our FielderCam&153; is not a 1st person camera, but has more of a 3rd person platform game style to it. A lot of people have asked over the years if this could feasibly work...I can say with complete confidence that it does. It adds a level of excitement that hasn't been in sports games before. You really get that nervous feeling right at the crack of the bat that you experience in real life when you're out on the field. While we've been testing the FielderCam&153;, some have found they are throwing to 1st instead of 3rd and vice-versa, due to the reversed camera angle. We have given the user the ability to re-configure their controller to change which button throws to what base...this helps remedy this problem. We also have left our old fielding camera angle in as an option if people would like to use it as well....although I do believe that anyone who plays a few innings with our new cameras will love them. We've also added new presentation and in-between inning cameras which really show off our beautiful stadiums.

Things to come...

In the next developer diary we will reveal more about online play, how our leaderboards will be structured, and what difficulty modes/options the user will have. We'll also talk about some of the new enhancements we've made to ASB's audio...there's been some amazing improvements.