Senior Producer David Perkinson skates in with details on Gretzky NHL ‘06
By Michael Lafferty

“There have been lots of other impressive additions to the game”

When the NHL season was cancelled for 2004/2005, fans of the sport had to turn elsewhere for their hockey fix. Some found solace in the “minor leagues,” while others simply tried to find other avenues of entertainment to pursue. For their part, videogame publishers and developers stepped up to the plate and tried to generate hockey games that were both fun and challenging, as well as trying to give hockey and gaming fans their seasonal fix.

The games of strike season were good, and did an excellent job of providing hockey entertainment. But how do you follow that up? The answer is simple – you build on the foundations of the previous season’s games and take it a step forward. That is precisely what the folks at Page 44 Studios and SCEA are doing with the game that bears the stamp of one of the greatest players ever to lace on a pair of skates.

Gretzky NHL ’06 promises to be bigger and better than its 2005 stable mate. Exclusive to the PlayStation 2 and PSP systems, the features of this game are sure to tickle the fancy of gamers and hockey fans alike.

David Perkinson, Sr. Producer, Sony Computer Entertainment America, talked about what Gretzky NHL ’06 will be bringing to the videogame sports world.

Q: First off, with the lack of an NHL season to drive the fervor for a hockey title, did you feel that you really had to work harder to make this a much more involving game to lure sports gamers to it, or do you believe that the name brand and the lack of a season will bring in gamers regardless of what is happening in the real world with the NHL?

David: “I think we put the same level of effort into a title whether the NHL teams are playing or not. The development teams at Page 44 Studios and SCEA are constantly trying to make the game as great and innovative as it can be, and that level of dedication is not impacted by the state of the league.

“That said, we missed NHL hockey last year as much as every other fan and look forward to the guys getting back on the ice.”

Q: The game features some new experiences for this title - such as the Wayne Vs. Wayne mode. Explain a little bit about how that works and what players can hope to accomplish. What is the new Team Chemistry feature?

David: “Wayne vs. Wayne is a very fast, arcade-style mode in which users are rewarded for good play with ‘99 Time.’ When you acquire enough time you can activate Wayne as a skater for your team for the amount of time that you have earned. When Wayne is on the ice, your players’ attributes increase by about 5% and increase in physical size by 15%. If you can wait to activate Wayne until your timer reaches 99 seconds, you will earn one of the five letters in the name W-A-Y-N-E. Once you have earned all five letters you will skate with five Waynes on the ice for the remainder of the game! The advantage that you have when you have five Waynes on the ice is incredible! Wayne vs. Wayne is really cool not only because of all of the fun, strategic elements to bringing Wayne out and the sense of accomplishment (not to mention the huge time bonus) when you score on your opponent when he has his Wayne on the ice, but also because of all of the unique presentation elements that go into making it a distinctive mode.

“Wayne vs. Wayne is not simply a sub-game of the regular simulation-style version of Gretzky NHL ’06 – it is an entirely separate mode that has had a lot of time and attention paid to it and I think gamers will pick up on that.

“While Wayne vs. Wayne is designed for the pick-up-and-play type of game; Team Chemistry is designed to be a little subtler and reward the user that will play lots of games in Franchise or Rivalry mode. Team Chemistry is a factor both on and off the ice, though the more instantly noticeable of the two will be on the ice. When the user has players that share the puck, score goals and play tough defense they will be rewarded with Team Chemistry boosts. Chemistry boosts come in the form of slight, periodic increases to several player attributes and impact not only the team as a whole, but individual lines and individual players. So, it’s possible to have lines that play exceptionally well together and have great chemistry on teams that aren’t necessarily headed to the playoffs. We gave each player in the game a Chemistry attribute, because we wanted to give players that may not necessarily be the flashiest guys on the team real value. In videogame terms, anyone would want to have the most highly skilled players on their team, but sometimes those guys are not the greatest ‘team’ players. I think there are real-world examples of this – star players that don’t make the team as a whole better. On the other side of the coin, there are players that will do the little things that help the team win, but those types of things don’t necessarily show up on the score sheet. We wanted to give those guys, the grinders or character guys, value to the game player.

“Granted, you may need the flashy players to succeed, but if you put a group of highly skilled, but low Chemistry-rated, players together, they may never reach their true potential. You will want to have a player with them that can live without the puck, a player that will sacrifice personal glory for the good of the team. A more savvy user will pay attention to the chemistry attribute for each individual player when considering which players to put on which lines, which players to trade or trade for, which players to sign as free agents and which to let go. Also, another key to building good Chemistry is the amount of time players spend together on the ice. So, making a ton of trades and bringing in new players can jeopardize the Chemistry that your team has built – or, if your team has questionable Chemistry, you may want to add some players to try to shake it up. Team Chemistry will be viewable in its own section right off of the main Rivalry or Franchise mode menus and will be very detailed. The user will be able to instantly view the Chemistry for the entire team, single lines and individual players (and the players that the selected player has the best and worst Chemistry with!).”

Q: Will players be able to create their own player and guide him to stardom in the NHL? How deep is the franchise/owner mode of the game?

David: “Players will be able to create both their own players as well as their own teams in the game. The create-a-player is really cool and even incorporates the EyeToy. Users can use the EyeToy to take a picture of themselves, apply it to a player and have their face appear in the game.

“The other really interesting feature, and a very underrated feature in my opinion, is the Create-a-Team. The user can actually create a team of their very own and add it to the NHL as a 31st team. In addition to creating the NHL team, they will be creating an AHL affiliate as well.

They will have total control over the location of the teams (over 100 cities to choose from), the names of the teams, the uniforms of the teams (logos and uniform designs) as well as the rosters. It’s very cool!”

Q: There is that cliché joke about "watching a great fight when suddenly a hockey game broke out." How big a part does fighting play in this game? Will players be able to customize the game to forego that element? Is fighting an exercise in button mashing? How have you tailored the controls to allow for optimal control with simple control schemes?

David: “Like it or not, fighting certainly is part of the sport of hockey and it is definitely a part of ‘Gretzky NHL ‘06.’ There are a couple of different ways that the user can choose to not fight. First of all, to even get into a fight within a game the user has to accept the fight when a prompt appears onscreen. If they never choose to accept the possible fight, then they will never enter the fight.

“Secondly, we have a fight frequency slider that the user can crank all the way down if they so choose, which will cause the prompts to occur a lot less frequently. As far as the controls for the fighting are concerned, they are designed to be as simple and straightforward as possible. There’s a punch button and a block button. Pressing up with the left analog stick will cause the player to throw a high punch; pressing down on the left analog stick will cause the player to throw an uppercut. Pressing the block button will block opponent’s punches. There’s a stamina meter beneath each player’s name, and when the meter is completely red, the player will fall to the ice and the fight will be over.”

Q: What are the major differences between the PS2 and PSP versions of the game?

David: “There are a couple of features in the PSP version of Gretzky NHL ’06 that are going to be exclusive to that platform.”

“First of all, the PSP will have a mode called ‘Three on Three Countdown.’ Countdown is, obviously, a mode that features three skaters on the ice for both teams. However, instead of playing for a set number of periods for a pre-determined time and counting goals up from zero, Countdown is played without a clock and goals are counted down from either 3, 5, 7, 9 or 11.

"The presentation style of the game will be more like that in Wayne vs.Wayne mode, so there will be lots more arcade-style elements than you would find in the five-on-five version of the game.

“The other mode exclusive to PSP is ‘NHL Showdown.’ In Showdown, like in Season Mode, the user takes control of a team and tries to take that team to the top. However, in Showdown, you don’t play a set schedule and vie for playoff spots and home ice advantage – you start play against the lowest-rated team in the game and attempt to win your way all the way to the top and you play not five-on-five but using “Wayne vs. Wayne” mode gameplay. If you are able to beat every team you will face off against a team of Gretzkys. The beauty of Showdown is that you have to beat every team – you will not advance to the next team until you win and you can lose as many times as it takes to make it to the next level. Detailed stats are tracked throughout the mode as well as a game-by-game summary of your successes and failures on your way to the top.

“It bears mentioning that the PSP will not only support these two features, but also great five-on-five play in Single Game, Season, Wayne vs. Wayne, Ad-Hoc, Infrastructure and the Gretzky Challenge. Also making the jump to PSP will be the full commentary of the PS2 game featuring Mike Emrick and Darren Pang. Clearly, the second version of Gretzky for the PSP is not just an updated version of the launch title, but something markedly different (and with much better framerate to boot).”

Q: Some motion capture for hockey games are created on skate-able plastic sheets, which do a fine job, but really don't have the same responsiveness as ice would. When you create a game that plays out on such a slick surface, how do you go about ensuring the physics of the game are rendered realistically?

David: “There’s a lot that goes into creating realistic hockey physics in terms of player animation but also in terms of puck behavior. When it’s all said and done, what you need to capture the nuances of the sport is great engineers and animators and we are very lucky to work with a group like Page 44 Studios that is rich in both. There are so many great new check and check-receive animations in the game this year that really convey the power and impact of hockey. Likewise, our puck is very realistically animated and will have all of the crazy bounces and collisions that a real puck would have. Also, keep an eye on the nets when a goal is scored – they have physics, too!”

Q: What is the biggest challenge facing the development team when creating a game of this nature?

David: “There are always different technical, design and logistical hurdles to overcome in any production cycle - especially when considering we shipped the last version of Gretzky on the PS2 in November, delivered the PSP launch title in March and another PSP title for October on top of the new PS2 for September – but we leap those hurdles on the fly and come out with great product that keeps the game of hockey available to it's fans.”

Q: With his name on the project, there are obviously certain standards that Wayne Gretzky would demand. How much input (and what kind) does he provide?

David: “There is certainly pressure we all feel to live up to the Gretzky legacy. Wayne is the greatest player of all time, and we want more than anything to deliver a game that is worthy of his name. The greatest thing about working with Wayne is that he understands what we are trying to do with the game and has been instrumental in providing insight into to the game - and that's what MasterCard would call ‘Priceless.’ Offering true hockey fans what no other hockey videogame can, Gretzky NHL 2006 is the only game designed with insight from ‘The Great One.’

“Also, he understands that there are occasionally going to be interesting ideas, like 'Wayne vs.Wayne,' that stray far from the norm – but that ultimately make for fun videogames. Wayne totally gets that and couldn’t be more supportive. He may think it’s a tad different to have five gigantic versions of him skating around (don’t forget, everyone gets bigger when Wayne is on the ice in ‘Wayne vs. Wayne’), but if it’s fun for the person that buys the game, he’s all for it. Wayne has input on practically every level of the design and marketing of the game. He’s involved with the development team throughout the cycle and even lends his time to host the newly expanded tutorial movies for the game. We have expanded our on-the-fly play calls to support 30 selectable strategies that the user can call at any point during gameplay and Wayne will teach you about all of them, and even the more basic controls of the game, in the Tutorial section – which are videos you can view from the ‘Features’ menu in the game.

Q: Does this game support multiplayer online play?

David: “Yes, gamers can go online and enter the next level of hockey competition in head-to-head play. In addition to head-to-head play we support tournaments of up to 64 players and offer full USB headset functionality as well as message boards, polls and detailed stat tracking. We will support online play for both broad and narrowband users, and, best of all, it’s free.

"There is no subscription fee to play Gretzky online, so make sure to try it out.”

Q: Will we be able to download updated rosters if there is a NHL season, and if so, how will that work?

David: “Yes, we will allow offer downloadable rosters. Getting the rosters is very simple, all you have to do is create a login name (if you don’t already have one), and go online and find the new roster file. Select the new file for download and save it to your memory card. When you are ready to play, the game will prompt you to say whether you want to use Default, Updated or Pro Manager rosters. Select ‘Updated’ and you’re ready to go. It’s very simple, and, again, there is no subscription fee. This is going to be a very important feature for this very unique year in hockey and I hope everyone knows about it and takes full advantage of it.”

Q: Anything you want to highlight that we may have missed in our questions?

David: “Absolutely!

“There have been lots of other impressive additions to the game. First of all, we have completely implemented all AHL teams into every mode of the game. You’ll be able to skate with all of the AHL teams in all of the AHL arenas in Exhibition, Rivalry, Tournament and Online. You can play AHL vs. AHL games or even NHL vs. AHL games. All of the AHL rosters are up to date through the end of last season and we have rights to over 500 players through our partnership with that league. It’s very cool!

“We have expanded our Rivalry Mode, which allows two users to square off in a series against one another, in a myriad of ways. First and foremost, we have added another version of Rivalry called ‘Head-to-Head,’ which allows the users to switch teams – if they choose – for every game. Last year’s version of Rivalry, now called Series Rivalry, is still supported as well. For both Series and Head-to-Head, users can now select from one of many series lengths options. Users can choose to play series lengths of 11, 25, 51, 75 or 101 games and the magic number for victory is listed on the Rivalry History screen at all times. We’re tracking tons more stats on the Rivalry history screen for both Series and Head-to-Head and have added not only Team Chemistry but hot and cold streaks as well. In short, we’ve taken a mode that was already unique to ‘Gretzky’ and made it even better.

“Our Franchise Mode has been completely overhauled and supports greater financial control, improved trade and fantasy draft logic, much deeper financial controls and, of course, the ability to play or sim all AHL games and have full control of the NHL and AHL rosters.

“In terms of the game itself, we’ve got improved player models and faces, improved ice textures, arena-specific goal horns and intros (check out the Shark!) and the most realistic arenas in all of videogame hockey. We’ve improved gameplay animations and defensive AI. We’ve brought back our innovative shot-aiming option from last year that allows the user to visually aim a slap shot by moving a cursor around in the net. I’ve already mentioned the improvements to the on-the-fly play calling system – but that will really appeal to the serious hockey fan. We’ve completely overhauled our in-game presentation, overlays and front-end look, and we’ve written and recorded tons of new commentary.

“The teams at Page 44 and SCEA have worked incredibly hard to produce a fun, fast hockey game that will have the right combination of simulation and arcade elements and modes to appeal to the hard-core hockey fan and the novice as well. We are very excited about Gretzky ’06 for the PSP and the PS2, and hope gamers are as well.

“Gretzky™ NHL® 2006 will be available exclusively for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system September 6th and on the PSP™ (PlayStation® Portable) entertainment system October 11th.”

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