July 1, 2009

The BIGS 2's Rob Nelson and Damon Perdue Discuss the Evolution of the Series
By Louis Bedigian

“With The BIGS 2, the goal was to improve on everything we've done ... We're not taking any steps back; we're taking two steps forward.”

Every sport has had a magical moment where it goes from being a simulator, such as the dominating Madden franchise, to an arcade-inspired masterpiece that anyone will enjoy – even those who don't typically like sports games. Starting with basketball in the early '90s (NBA Jam), then football at the end of the decade (NFL Blitz), followed by hockey (NHL Hitz) and finally baseball (The BIGS), these unconventional sports games have given us some of the most memorable moments in video game history.

After the dust settled and numerous sequels were released, NBA Jam eventually died. Blitz soon followed, though Midway tried to revive the series before its own demise. Hitz – we haven't heard from that series in several years, and likely never will again. This leaves one franchise to carry the load of pleasing sports and non-sports fans alike. With The BIGS 2, 2K Sports intends to do just that.

"We're arcade. We're over-the-top," said Producer Rob Nelson. He says he believes that playing The BIGS 2 is akin to the experience of watching a highlight reel. "But [this is] a real baseball [game]. We're not out to make you play the game in a way that takes you away from what baseball is."

Those words seemed to be the most essential part of The BIGS 2's development. 2K Sports was determined to make a game that was different from the usual baseball experience yet still retain everything we love about the sport. "The BIGS 1 was about finding out what kind of a game this was. How far can we go [with arcade gameplay], finding that balance, we feel like we did that with The BIGS 1. With The BIGS 2, the goal was to improve on everything we've done. Now that we have a firm mold and identity of the game, the basics, controls, and everything we wanted to do, we [now] wanted to pile on tons of new features. We're not taking any steps back; we're taking two steps forward."

In doing so, you have to wonder: what changes have been made to accommodate those steps? "In terms of what we change and what we leave alone, we've pretty much touched everything," he says. "There's no part of the game where we just kind of let it go. Everything has been tweaked, everything has been changed. Even things that haven't been massively changed, you play the game differently based on other [new] features. The game is very much a new experience.

"But one of the things we didn't change was the way you bat, the way you pitch. We felt we hit a nice balance where it was functional and fun to play. We didn't want to change it so that someone who played The BIGS 1 couldn't play The BIGS 2 before taking a step back and re-learning the controls. That's less true on Wii in the sense that we have adjusted the pitching and base running controls. We made them easier."

Despite the emphasis on making The BIGS 2 as user-friendly as possible, Nelson doesn't like the idea of labeling his game. "I don't think it's right to put us in one category, to say we're overly arcade or overly sim. I think sports fans will like that we have strategy in the game that makes sense for real baseball. We have real baseball touches. We're not ignoring that side of the game. Non-sports gamers will enjoy it because the controls aren't overly complicated. The fast-paced action is fun and exciting and it doesn't require you to know [anything about the sport of baseball]."

Regarding the idea of including a season mode, Nelson said the development team discussed the idea frequently, dating all the way back to the first game. "There was a lot of discussion about a season mode in the first BIGS and in The BIGS 2. There were a lot of questions about how we [should] do a season mode. We definitely wanted it in there, the community asked for it. We decided to do it but not get too complicated with contracts and all those sorts of things. This is The BIGS; [we wanted players to be able to simply] jump in and play."

Visually, The BIGS 2 was not made from one particular source of inspiration. Rather, Nelson said that the development team "wanted a look that would service what we were trying to accomplish with the feel of the game. That's what's most important, that we're not giving you [awkward] camera angles that make it so you can't play. It's [also] about making the grass, camera and lighting feel epic."

Some of those visual treats will be present in the updated Home Run Pinball mini-game. "We have a Las Vegas environment, Tokyo, a retro Times Square environment," Nelson reveals. "We didn't change the physics too much. What we did add was more targets, more combos, hidden things that you can hit or unlock."

Finally, Damon Perdue, Associate Producer, had a few things to say about the career mode. "One of the big things we did with career mode was that rather than it being just one year of your player's career, we're now having this be the entirety of your player's career. That makes a big change in the flow of the game, the milestones you're aiming for, and the kinds of challenges that come up reflect that. The power-up system for players really makes an impact in career mode because now you'll be able to play games where you can steal players from the opposing team once you've won. That makes a big difference in the way you play, because you're not just going to be going after the guy with the best stats. Sometimes it may be worth it to take a player with [weaker] stats because he may have a power-up that will really enhance your team's play style."

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---