Madden NFL 11 News Post

Madden NFL 11: Ian Cummings Interview

11:20 AM - August 19, 2010 by RaychelSnr

OS recently had the chance to speak with Madden NFL 11’s creative director Ian Cummings during a conference call. Check out the interview below.

Operation Sports: How does the "shoulders squared locomotion" feature function? Can you comment on the philosophy behind it? It would appear that players naturally want to turn it up field -- when was this idea brought to the table?

Ian Cummings: The locomotion system for us was about really getting back to the core of the game, you know? We just had so many problems that we couldn’t really solve with the old system, and so one of the big facets of locomotion is actually layered animation. And, typically a run cycle is a small clip of animation, but what we have been able to do with layers (we implemented a little bit of it in Madden NFL 10 with quarterbacks being able to throw out of sacks early) is really the ability to separate the parts of upper body from the lower body.

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Member Comments

# 1 EarvGotti @ 08/19/10 11:43 AM

Good read. Wish Madden 11 franchises' had slider adjustments. Hope they fix that online quitting bug soon!

# 2 DocHolliday @ 08/19/10 11:47 AM

Kid skated and danced alot there.

# 3 jim316 @ 08/19/10 11:49 AM

yea, hopefully madden gets patched soon with the season right around the corner....thanks for the interview Steve.....

# 4 LuGer33 @ 08/19/10 11:49 AM

Good questions and liked the responses. Glad they are looking into many of the issues the community is having w/ the game. Here's hoping most of it can be adjusted soon enough.

# 5 ChicagoChris @ 08/19/10 11:50 AM

Ian: [Laughs] I’ve played our game, yeah. I use the play-action plays. I mean it’s something we’re looking at. You know a lot of people are complaining about it. I think it’s always kind of a balancing act in blocking, especially in locomotion -- we are trying to get everything solid. You know it’s something we’ll look at. Typically when I run play action, I run just a couple play-action plays that I like a lot and most of them have the fullback running out to the flat. I get rid of it really quickly. But yeah, play action is dangerous right now. I mean there’s no doubt about it -- you got to keep an extra guy in if you want to have a little extra time. We’re definitely looking at it. It’s something that people are complaining about. Same with the kick return blocking.

Good. At least they are aware of the PA and kick return blocking.

# 6 Senator Palmer @ 08/19/10 11:50 AM

Quote:

OS

Quote:


	: Yeah, I noticed in the open field that guys are breaking tackles and wide receivers are breaking tackles more often than not. And not only that, they are breaking them to the house after they wiggle free. Ian: Yeah, a lot of that comes from the ratings differentiation that we have. We make our guys spread out a lot more so that defensive backs tackling ratings are pretty low. They are not good tacklers for the most part so you’ve got to kind of try and swarm around the ball. Again, that is something we are trying to tune and see if we can make it any better -- if it warrants it. We are just always listening to the community and the hot-button issues, and we go from there.

The "if it warrants it" response to the tackle issue kinda has me scratching my head? If it warrants it?

And it's not just defensive backs that are getting shook off. I've seen smaller finesse back hit square in the hole by defensive linemen and 250lb linebackers who get brushed aside.

# 7 Gotmadskillzson @ 08/19/10 11:51 AM

Should have asked him when they going to put a QB scramble slider or tendancy in Madden and NCAA. Because as it stands now, mobile QB's don't take off like they should.

# 8 raguel @ 08/19/10 11:53 AM

This addressed most of my concerns with Madden 11. I hope that they realize though it's not just that defenders are slow to react, but sometimes take a step away from the receiver when the ball is in the air. This sometimes turn 4th and shorts into 1st and 10s. It's really annoying.

RE: AI snap. Ideally what they should do is give the user the control, like a slider. If I want the AI to snap the ball with only 1 sec left every time (sans no huddle) then I should have that ability.

I honestly hope that with any change to KO returns, one will think twice about running it out of the endzone. I kind of like that now, but if I get it at the 5 I should be able to get further than the 20.

# 9 mr_president @ 08/19/10 11:57 AM

1. i tried it and turning off accelerated clock does not force the Al into a longer snap count.
2. the fast throwing QB has been as issue for sometime, and they are just looking into it?? c'mon man, they tried to fix it last year with a patch, so they knew it was an issue then.
3.can we get some info on why the tackling is the way it is??

i don't know..he always seems to dance around questions during his interviews.

# 10 oneamongthefence @ 08/19/10 11:59 AM

No questions about pro-tak? Lol

# 11 jyoung @ 08/19/10 11:59 AM

There is definitely a lot of potential for this game if EA can patch the problems brought up in the interview.

Madden is almost unplayable right now without sliders (leaving online players SOL), but you can tell that there's a good game buried somewhere in there if only a couple of the defensive issues (tackling, pass coverage) could be fixed.

# 12 dannyr326 @ 08/19/10 12:02 PM

Does anybody know when they will re-implement the old pre-play adjustments back instead of being forced to use the strategy pad?

I really hope they bring back the old PS2 pre-play controls with the ability to shade an individual WR, bump an individual WR/ Double Cover. What happened to "spotlighting" a WR from last years game?? Why do they keep trashing the great pre-play controls?

# 13 Chivs @ 08/19/10 12:07 PM

I don't like this "Yeah, we're looking into that.." business. I mean, it's nice that they're looking into it, but does this mean they're looking to fix it for us soon, or for Madden 12, or is he just saying it even if they've not even thought about looking into it?

Hmmm

# 14 macaframa3 @ 08/19/10 12:21 PM

Most of you guys are babies. I mean yeah there are things wrong with the game, but if you have ever programmed anything you find there is always things that need to be tweaked once the general public gets its hands on it.

People need to understand the delicate balance it is for a sports video game between too hard and too easy. After they change one area it can adversely effect several others. Most of your complaints can be corrected with a little bit of slider work.

The issue that are the same year in and year out are very annoying but mostly these problems can be fixed with a patch. I think they spend so much time catering to all the whining people do that they dont fix the issues that are most important. A REAL defense doesn't make 3 or 4 changes at the line of scrimmage.

P.S. I agree with him about special teams, i thought it sucked at first but when you look at the stats, they are pretty on point.

# 15 boxboy99 @ 08/19/10 12:22 PM

Good read and Ian I actually love kick returns now. It is more relistic. No one would ever take a knee before this year. Kicking still needs revamped. It is too easy and almost always max power.

# 16 Hova57 @ 08/19/10 12:23 PM

chivis i don't know how long you been around here, but off all places you def don't want to say you are def doing something. its just a wild fire waiting to happen. i want to see the playaction, break tackle and man coverages and how the LB reacts fixed . i wish chris would have asked him bout tackles and that they are bout a second off the snap and the end is past them by then

# 17 bigsmallwood @ 08/19/10 12:24 PM

It is always interesting that no questions are asked about the Presentation....Come on OS.

And Ian seems to tap dance around the questions: In regards to broken tackles " Again, that is something we are trying to tune and see if we can make it any better -- if it warrants it. We are just always listening to the community and the hot-button issues, and we go from there"

If they were listening to the community, I believe we would have a much better game than what we are playing....

# 18 BezO @ 08/19/10 12:25 PM

There still "looking" at things? Everything sounds so up in the air like they're still wondering if these are problems.

And this...

Quote:


	Ian: Yeah, a lot of that comes from the ratings differentiation that we have. We make our guys spread out a lot more so that defensive backs tackling ratings are pretty low. They are not good tacklers for the most part so you’ve got to kind of try and swarm around the ball. Again, that is something we are trying to tune and see if we can make it any better -- if it warrants it. We are just always listening to the community and the hot-button issues, and we go from there.

LOL. He mentioned OS, but I don't think he's listening to this board. Swarm around the ball for what? To get knocked over like a bowling pin? We needed a Pro-Tak follow up question right there.

He did say around the ball, not to it though.

# 19 jvaccaro @ 08/19/10 12:32 PM

they should have the CPU snap the ball 1 second after you make your last defensive adjustments, with a max time of maybe 6-8 seconds before they snap anyways. obviously this would be overridden in a hurry up situation.

# 20 BezO @ 08/19/10 12:36 PM

Quote:


	And I think what you see is if we boost the CPU time that they wait, that frustrates way more people. The majority of people don’t want to wait seven seconds and wait while the computer stands still. So that’s kind of a tough balance we have to figure out. We always talk about making a slider but that seems sort of like overkill [laughs].

Dewiel12,

Yeah, I'm not sure how they can ever make a sim if the game only caters to the "majority of people". Of course not everyone has the same concerns. But if you go arcade at every turn, what happens to the sim gamer? At what point do you alienate us?

And the computer doesn't have to "stand still". It can make adjustments, line calls, ect. It's called football.

But the bigger problem is always skipped over. Many of us wouldn't be as concerned with the CPU snap time if we could call the plays we want in the huddle. Tier the play calling!!!

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