Top Reads from "The Future15"-MaddenMania

[Exonerated]

Pretty encouraging and insightful posts. Thanks for the hookup.

[myownsun]

Thanks for the link

[cdon2k]

I really liked what he said about the speed of the game. I think the reasons he stated are why people have so much trouble adjusting to next gen. People are missing those sped up animations (qb release as an example), but I think Ian is really on to something when he talks about keeping the game at a consistent speed. I was playing some 03 on PS2 today and the speed of the game (while slow) is very consistent and less jerky than say madden 08 for ps2. I really dug it.

[Vikes1]

I think whats pretty neat about the time we're living in now is...theres actually reasons to be hopeful for the future of Madden.

Just a short time ago, EA/TIB was nothing more than a faceless Co to me. Now...we have someone who seems to really care about how the game is received. And is willing to take the lumps if necessary.

Hope about Madden's future was for me, in rather short supply a while back. Now...I'm looking forward to what the next few years will bring. Thats one helluva difference.

[Agame]

05-23-2008., 11:22 PM #6
TheFuture15
Lead Gameplay Designer






Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 147
Rep Power: 5
Xbox Gamertag: TheFuture15 Quote:
Originally Posted by Sven Draconian
In the EA forums you asked what you could do to win back "lost" fans. I don't post on the EA forums (I've only read your one post there), but I do have a pretty good idea of why relations are sour over here at Madden Mania. I can't speak for everyone, bu I can generalize most reactions.

For most of us, we want to play NFL football. We want are game to resemble NFL football. Through the years, you've given us EA football instead. Some years its closer to its true to life counterpart then others. Even in the "good" years, the fact remained that it was always "Madden EA Football" and not "Madden NFL football developed by EA". This distinction is important.

...

Blocking. Tackling. Running. Passing.

Awesome post - thanks for your opinions. It has been a tough balance for us with new features and general tuning and improvements. If you had to walk a mile in my shoes, just think how hard it would be internally for me to sell a game where the high level feature set was:
* Better blocking
* Better passing
* Better tackling
* Better running

Dear god I wish we could :-), but we just can't. I think even the hardcore guys would be like "that's it?". Everyone expects that stuff from us pretty much every year...but the problem I suppose is that we haven't delivered on those in the best way. When you broke it down by year, I actually just sat here scratching my head thinking, "wow, he really is pretty spot on...that sucks". Luckily we made huge strides this year with tackling and running (brand new underlying tech - AKA many man-months of work), a nice leap in passing (3+ weeks of tuning), and much improved blocking (2+ weeks of tuning). But nothing's perfect yet (and to someone like me I always will find something wrong with our game)...though that's what we're striving towards.

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I believe that if you get the tuning of blocking, passing, running, and tackling where YOU think it is almost perfect (and add animations to the aforementioned)………The game would sell better. Yes people want more atmosphere, details of equipment, but GAME PLAY always rules.