GZ Interview
August 28, 2002

Kick off the new collegiate football season with a behind-the-scenes look at EASports NCAA game
By Michael Lafferty

Gold helmets glistening in the sun with the unmistakable strains of its school fight song echoing throughout the stadium, Notre Dame takes the field for an important game that could determine post-season hopes.

Notre Dame’s not your team, well, that’s Ok – there are 143 others to choose from in the latest edition of NCAA Football 2003 from EA Sports. (For a review of the game on the Xbox platform, please see http://xbox.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r20201.htm and the PS2 platform here http://ps2.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r20201.htm )

This game has it all, the roaring, chanting crowds, pregame analysis from the commentators (who may not speak well of your team, but are only being honest), and graphics that are sharp and amazing to look at. It’s little wonder that EASports has been a Heisman candidate when it comes to collegiate football games.

While some games have the luxury of 16 months or more to develop, games like NCAA Football 2003 have to have a quick turnaround time. So how do they do it? Jeffrey Luhr, producer of NCAA Football 2003, steps up under center to call the signals on EASports latest collegiate gridiron program.

Question: How many playbooks are used when designing a gridiron game with this kind of scope?

Jeffrey: “We spend time researching all 117 Division 1-A teams to figure out what kinds of plays and sets they run out of. In addition we use the real-life run/pass ratio of each team to determine their playing style in the game.

Q: Considering the numbers involved in terms of players and schools, how is it possible to keep the rosters reasonably accurate, and then translate that to the game itself?

Jeffrey: “It's definitely a challenge to accurately represent all of the 144 teams in the game (117 1-A and 27 1-AA). With so many different stadiums, uniforms, et cetera, we have people here who focus almost all of their attention on keeping all of this team data up to date.”

Q: Are there any differences in game structure between the various platforms? Before the proliferation of the console systems, was it easier to design the game for one or two platforms, or does the scope of available systems make it more enjoyable to design and redesign the game?

Jeffrey: “Overall the games are very similar across all three platforms, but we do a few things to take advantage of the hardware, specifically on XBox. For example, the face and uniform textures are at a much higher resolution; the helmets can get knocked off, spectacular lighting, stuff like that. It's very enjoyable any time we can take advantage of a particular system's capabilities. Of course it was easier to design the user interface for one platform because we didn't have to worry about the different button layouts.”

Q: When you begin work on a new edition, what key elements are immediately taken from the previous edition of the game?

Jeffrey: “Our products are generally cumulative. First, we take the previous edition and identify any areas that need to be improved. Then we spec out a list of new features we'd like to add to the new edition. Very rarely do we take something away (unless there's a good reason). Our fans play a large role in this phase, as we listen very closely to their suggestions as well as complaints.”

Q: Many games are in development for more than a year, but you really don't seem to have that luxury when designing such a topical game as this. Can you give us some idea of the timeline used to develop the next edition of the game?

Jeffrey: “The day we finalized NCAA Football 2003 was the same day we started pre-production for NCAA Football 2004. With only a year to develop the next edition, we don't want to waste any time. The pre-production phase usually lasts 2.5 to 3.5 months and then we spend the rest of the year on implementation.”

Q: What new elements (in terms of game play or design) have been incorporated into this year's edition of the game? Does the game use anything new technology-wise?

Jeffrey: “We added so much atmosphere to NCAA Football 2003 – over 200 newly recorded fight songs, male & female cheerleaders, 50 mascots, and all 117 authentic 1-A stadiums. Other new features include create-a-school, trophy room, custom schedules, mascot game, and rivalry game mode. Gameplay-wise, we added new controls for pre-play adjustments, defensive coach cam, strafe move, and defensive swats. We added new animations like standing catches, stiff-arm broken tackles, speed options, receiver routes, and a bunch more.”

Q: Does this game have any recruitment options, or attrition elements? If a player goes through an entire season, including bowl games, will he or she lose players to the draft? What kind of bowl game system does this game use?

Jeffrey: “Yes, Dynasty Mode has it all and you can play up to 60 consecutive seasons! In dynasty mode you will get features like custom schedules, redshirting players, top 25 polls, bowl rankings and projections, coaching contracts and expectations, conference championships, individual player awards like the Heisman trophy, all 28 bowl games, the national championship, season-by-season and career stats for over 6,000 players, and that's only during the season!

“In the off-season, you get a chance to see your players graduate or leave early for the pros. You can even export your draft class and import it into Madden NFL 2003 franchise mode. There is also a very in-depth recruiting feature where you go out and try to land yourself a quality recruiting class that will become the backbone of your team in years to come. After cutting your roster size down to 55 and setting up your depth charts, you're ready to start another season all over again!”

Q: What do you consider is the most impressive element of this game?

Jeffrey: “Other than the fantastic college gameplay and atmosphere, I think that dynasty mode and create-a-school are the two most impressive and deepest features in NCAA Football 2003.”

Q: In terms of on-field execution/excitement (and this is a personal question and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of EASports), what team do you favor the most? What home stadium do you like the best (if the team and stadium do not belong to the same university)?

Jeffrey: “N-E-B-R-A-S-K-A. Of course that may have something to do with the fact that I grew up in Husker Nation and we brought home three National Championships while I was attending college there. If you asked my non-biased opinion, I'd probably say Tennessee and Neyland Stadium – that place is amazing.”

Q: Based on what you know from the design of this game, who do you think will be No. 1 at the end of the upcoming gridiron season?

Jeffrey: “I'm already on record picking Oklahoma and I think I'll stick with that Sooner defense.”

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