Madden NFL 19: The Full Interview With Producer Ben Haumiller

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

My post was condescending because I felt it was in response to a condescending post.

I just asked a question.

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

You don't *have* to throw away the design every year, but every year sees turnover, reorganization, technical changes, new ideas. Maybe you just revisited the old one and didn't like it, maybe a tech lead suggested changes that would make it more viable. It's hard to overhaul a feature idea without overhauling the design document. I certainly never tried to lead a design I didn't write.

If there is that much turnover, then something is wrong. Otherwise, you have the same ones revisiting the previous design. If someone new comes on board, you have the others to get the person up to speed. You don't need to do a complete overhaul to the design every year.

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

I'll use another example. I'm currently writing a novel. I first conceived this novel in 1997. The story, the world, the characters... I had an outline written then. Never wrote it. I came back to it in 2008, just before I started working with EA. It got shelved when I started working my way toward becoming a game designer. Now I'm on my third attempt. It's never the same. I never come back to the exact same outline. I grow, the story changes in my head. I have new ideas, old ideas become more solidified. My old outline seems dated.

1997 to 2008? Yeah, you would have to revisit that even if you wrote it originally. But were talking about year to year, not some 11 year gap.

So you're Design and Flesh out every year, really means, they do enhance existing designs? So by now, they should have one heck of a pre/post/halftime designed?

[canes21]

Quote: Originally Posted by bucky60

Jeremy, Wow, no wonder NBA2K is so far ahead. I used to follow Basketball and went to a lot of Bucks games, but have not in probably 20 years. Though I won't miss a Packers game (except after they started kneeling). Yet I rarely touch Madden but love NBA2K. The game itself is what draws me in. That Pvarck (whatever his ID is) made a post about all the negativity. He said it's all deserving, but asked everyone to be constructive with it and also post something positive with the criticism. He recognizes that Madden deserves it, but gets tired of all the negative. I can understand that. I can't speak for others, but for me, if Madden's franchise was as deep and realistic as NBA2K's, I wouldn't be posting my displeasure. I probably wouldn't be posting much on OS. I have yet to post anything negative on any NBA2K site. I would do the same with Madden if it were just as good, realistic and deep.

This is what I think rally makes the difference between Madden and other sports games out there. The EA/Tiburon devs think they know what we want more than we know. They are hardly transparent with anything and often say things that are just insulting in a way or just make you shake your head.


At least with NBA 2k, OOTP, The Show, and other sports games out there you get more transparency, devs that listen to what the community says they want and implement it as well as they can, etc. The Show may have slowed down the last couple of years, but at least their additions all fall in line with what the community asks for. NBA 2k has been on an amazing run and you basically showed why. OOTP has really hit a groove the last few releases and it is in part because they are constantly communicating with members on their boards and other boards and really nailing in features the community wants and they are truly tinkering and tweaking things that the community has shown is off a bit.



Honestly, the Madden devs seem to be doing everything in their power to make their own jobs harder without realizing it. We aren't asking for them to be innovative with everything they do, we're just asking them to really listen to what we want and try to make it happen. Ben's comments on the highlight show and coordinators clearly show the disconnect there is and it is because they don't go about the proper ways to really see what we want, they just assume what we want.

[4thQtrStre5S]

Fallout 76 is going from single player gaming to multiplayer, online gaming.

[RogerDodger]

I'm not surprised to see the 3D office environment added to Madden because it was added to FIFA last year. It might also have been in Longshot but I didn't play that so I can't confirm. However... the part I'd have liked to see them take from FIFA that they didn't was the sit down negotiations between the team and the player and his agent when it was contract signing time. That would have genuinely added a useful and immersive layer to both the game and the contract side of things. Unfortunately that wasn't the step they took and while it would be nice to see this as a step towards that appearing next year, historically we've seen stuff added to Madden and abandoned leaving it almost unfinished. A good idea never becomes fleshed out or added to in the way it should have been.

However, the mistakes of the past could be a thing of the past. I'm putting THAT much faith in Ben to revolutionise the progress made in franchise mode from one year to the next.

2k has been mentioned here a lot and the biggest difference between them and EA is that I've never heard a 2k dev say that they had to simplify something, that it was too complicated for their users or that they that they were afraid to put a new feature in because it would be too confusing to users. I'm not sure what each company thinks of its users but we've heard that a lot over the years with regards to Madden. 2k has some amazingly in depth features to do with all facets of their franchise mode - from the individual player training schedules to sub in/out timeline and many more besides that I don't think EA would even attempt to implement in their own game.

[K_GUN]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rocky

I wish you guys would've asked them about coordinators and position coaches. Particularly reasons for them to not: 1. Even be in the game 2. They're quality to have a MAJOR impact over the progression system I want to know if it's some NFL thing going on or is Madden not just willing to put in the resources.

I think i saw this answered either here at OS or an article....EA basically said they used to have a “coordinators license” years ago for Head Coach but that no longers exists....so having to do individual deals with each coordinator is tedious/not feasible right now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stinkubus]

Isn't a basketball roster only 9 players? Micromanaging each player's development is going to be tedious with a 53 man roster.

[RogerDodger]

Quote: Originally Posted by stinkubus

Isn't a basketball roster only 9 players? Micromanaging each player's development is going to be tedious with a 53 man roster.

The option to have global management exists in NBA 2k. The micromanagement is on a basis of need only. You don't have to in other words, but if you want to you can. In Madden, you could do it globally by position and if it's done properly the game would have default settings that you could edit to your preference. But then maybe amend an individual player if you really want one of them working on something else.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by stinkubus

Isn't a basketball roster only 9 players? Micromanaging each player's development is going to be tedious with a 53 man roster.

Aren't basketball rosters 15?
What basketball game forced micromanaging player development? Not NBA2K.
Isn't, wasn't XP micromanaging? I hear this year it's been somewhat simplified.