Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

[GiantBlue76]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

He was only the lead developer of the game we're all here talking about. He left in the middle of the development cycle. Not big?

Actually, he's not a developer at all. He was a creative director.

[quietcool72]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

That's one theory. Imo it's simpler than that--this generation's Madden series was compromised from the outset.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/655/655273p1.html

This was significant because it meant that the team responsible for developing the initial Madden 06 (360) (i.e. the basic code that would be the foundation for all of EA's next-gen football titles for years to come) had to do so with only limited knowledge of how the final 360 hardware actually worked.

I'm not saying that MS's failure to deliver beta dev kits on schedule was the sole cause of all of the problems we've seen with EA's next-gen fb titles. There were some very questionable initial design choices made as well, decisions that repeatedly forced the development teams of the subsequent Madden's to spend a fair amount of their time trying to find workarounds for the mistakes made in the past. I am saying that this generation's Madden got off to a dreadful start, one from which the series has never fully recovered.

They have had plenty of time to recover since 06, I'd say

[BezO]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Actually, he's not a developer at all. He was a creative director.

Not a big deal?

[SouthernBrick]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Unexpected. Not really worried about madden and it's future.

There is no telling if I'll wind up buying the game anyway.

[TheShizNo1]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

He was only the lead developer of the game we're all here talking about. He left in the middle of the development cycle. Not big?

It's April. Game is pretty much set in stone in June-ish? This is def not the beginning of the dev cycle. Isn't their something out there saying Madden sales have been dropping anyway?

[Hooe]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Actually, he's not a developer at all. He was a creative director.

That may have been his title but he has a computer science background and has been credited with different positions in previous Madden games. His coding efforts alone are the predominant reason we have surprise onside kicks to use in Madden 12, for example.

[RGiles36]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

It's really hard to say how the series will turn. Personally, I would like to see a entire new team and for Peter Moore and the gang to let the new team lead. Ya, they might make it a worse game....but IMO the games already ruined.

I hope not. I still say there are some capable individuals down there in Orlando (Ryan Burnsides comes to mind if he's still there and willing to be the lead designer).

I'm sure some will argue that the whole thing needs to be blown up. I disagree. Promote someone with a similar vision and keep the train moving.

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

That may have been his title but he has a computer science background and has been credited with different positions in previous Madden games. His coding efforts alone are the predominant reason we have surprise onside kicks to use in Madden 12, for example.

Are you sure ? Didn't he say that he started out as a game tester ?

[mike24forever]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

That's really not true on multiple levels (there isn't just one engine, and the multiple engines are quite obviously not the same as M01), but people continue to believe what they want on the whole engines issue.

No matter how many time this has been stated on this site, it never fails that "the same engine" is brought up over and over! As long as the EA name is on it, people will continue with this stagnate line of thinking. Why does being a member of OS, make some people think they know how to program code for a video game. My guess is, a lot of people that visit this site cannot even work a scientific calculator...let alone program a single code of programming for a game.

You know what they say about the Internet, "The great thing about the Internet is that everyone has access to it. The problem is that EVERYONE has access to it!"

[coogrfan]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

They have had plenty of time to recover since 06, I'd say

Not necessarily. Think about it: they haven't really had six years, they's had six one year cycles. During those cycles they have had to try to overcome a myriad of things that were done wrong initially while at the same time creating a new game that has to ship every August come Hell or high water.

[Hooe]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Are you sure ? Didn't he say that he started out as a game tester ?

Game tester would be a different title, so I'm correct on the former.

On the latter, someone can fact-check me on this but I'm pretty sure he graduated with a degree in CS from the University of Tennessee, and that he used the game tester position as an 'in' into EA.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Are you sure ? Didn't he say that he started out as a game tester ?

Yes he started out as a EA game tester, not Madden tester. But eventually he talked his way into better positions and eventually ended up at Orlando.

[mike24forever]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

I read this five times, and I still don't know what he was trying to say.

Maybe he was typing with his elbows?!?

[RGiles36]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

How long did it take for those people say they missed David Ortiz ?

I'd say 1-2 years before I saw people talking about how Ortiz was onto something with Madden 08 .

[TheShizNo1]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Not necessarily. Think about it: they haven't really had six years, they's had six one year cycles. During those cycles they have had to try to overcome a myriad of things that were done wrong initially while at the same time creating a new game that has to ship every August come Hell or high water.

Do they? Phase/Cycle/Year 2-3, you know have an understanding of things, improve on what you already have. I'm sorry, I cannot and will not cut slack for EA for what Madden has and hasn't become. Especially when I look at games like CH2K7&8, NBA2K7,8,&11, TheShow, Fifa, etc.