Operation Sports Forums - The "Super Secret" project can now be revealed...

Operation Sports Forums (/forums/index.php)

- Madden NFL Old Gen (/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=33)

- - The "Super Secret" project can now be revealed... (/forums/showthread.php?t=314307)

The "Super Secret" project can now be revealed...

For those that might not have been in the know, I was moved off of the team during Madden NFL 09 to work on a "secret project", and I re-joined the gameplay team right when the game went gold to basically help with the community effort. I was then given the incredible opportunity to take the lead design job for Madden NFL 10, so work on the secret project ceased.

It was often speculated on (http://www.operationsports.com/forum...t-project.html) but I couldn't ever tell anyone what it was...

Well, what was it?

Funnily enough, it was the very beginnings of TeamBuilder. Yep, NCAA's monster create-a-team feature (that I think is quite possibly one of the most innovative and cool features we've ever done at Tiburon) was basically an idea that spawned from some random discussions between Phil, myself, and others that got pseudo-greenlit back last year. If you haven't seen how it works, definitely check it out here: http://insideblog.easports.com/archi...m-builder.aspx

We envisioned the feature at it's core as a global "create-a-team wiki" shared among all EA Sports games - a website where any team for any sport could be created by any person and then automatically streamed down into the game for all to use. Here's even some images from the PowerPoint presentation we created to get it greenlit:

Pretty pictures to get the execs brains moving:
Attachment 14731

Mock screen for how you could use a downloaded team in Madden:
Attachment 14733

Once the Madden job opened up and I was lucky enough to get it, the idea for a global EA Sports 'creation station' kind of died, but we all were really big on the idea and kept pushing it for Madden. Unfortunately with all the hot water that was happening with Madden and the NFL at the time around retired players, our Executive Producer recommended that NCAA take it as it was a perfect fit for them (who didn't have a create-a-team feature yet). I am really happy he made that call right now seeing all the other things that we still have to finish out on Madden.

What is so cool to me is that NCAA has made this WAY cooler than anything we had imagined. Our first mocks and ideas were just boring lists of dropdowns and checkboxes, and now I look at the early screens of TeamBuilder and I am just blown away. I am so glad they did it and ran with it.

Ahhh - one more secret off my chest - I feel better. :)

I am really proud as to having been part of getting this feature bubbled up to the surface, but I can't take any credit as to how it has turned out because they have something really special on their hands now. Major kudos to their design team...this year I've been pretty competitive with them but I have to definitely give them credit on this one as their work has turned our 'novel idea' into a truly big innovation in sports gaming. I personally can't wait to play a custom "high school" online dynasty with the guys here at work.