EA Sports Tim Tschirner talks about NBA Live 07
By Michael Lafferty

“The biggest changes to the title this year are gameplay innovation and feature depth”

Basketball season is just around the corner and to gear fans up for the upcoming season, EA Sports has the next iteration of the NBA Live franchise almost ready to ship. While games such as football may feature more AI to realize within the confines of the playing surface, basketball is a much more random in that while there are set plays, there are also a lot of ‘creative’ plays involved.

That makes it a game that is, in some ways, much more difficult to realize in terms of a video game.

So what is on tap for the coming NBA Live title? For the answers to that, we went to the source and chatted with producer Tim Tschirner about the title.

Question: The NBA is such a fluid game, but one where even double-digit leads can evaporate quickly. How hard is it to actualize momentum and such within the confines of a game?

Tim: The great thing about momentum in a basketball game is that the players make it happen in the natural flow of the game. We step in to do things to highlight the momentum the player creates. For example, a 10-0 may trigger specific audio and crowd reactions. Our crowd audio pays close attention to the state of the game and the momentum to really create the atmosphere of an NBA arena.

In addition to these presentation elements, we have a new fun Gameplay feature that revolves around momentum. If you are hitting your shots, a player may get “In 'The Zone” which unlocks access to ultimate Freestyle Superstar moves for Level 3 Superstar players.

Q: How much motion-capture work is involved in this title?

Tim: Mocap is one of the greatest parts of the video-game development process and this year was definitely a lot of fun. Since we decided to re-write the AI and take on a new animation tool it allowed us to re-capture almost every animation in the game. All player movement (from dribbling, to running, to walking, to defensive shuffling, to planted turns and first steps), shots, rebounds, blocks, steals, lay-ups, dunks, etc. are new. We have over 5,000 animations in regular gameplay alone. We spent a lot of time in Mocap with a ton of different talent and you'll definitely see it when you're playing the game. This year we had over 25 guys suit up for us and we were fortunate enough to bring in some NBA players to capture their moves as well. Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Pau Gasol and Boris Diaw all suited up and we were able to get their shots, free throw routines, dunks, and lay-ups for NBA LIVE 07.

Q: Still in dealing with graphics, with the next-gen consoles coming out, was it necessary to revamp the game's engine to take advantage of the graphical capabilities of the new systems? Generally speaking, how have the graphics improved?

Tim: When we first approached making NBA LIVE 06 for next-gen consoles, we made the decision to build a next-gen game and not port the graphics from the previous version. This meant starting completely from scratch with all the visuals. All of the rendering code and art assets are purely next gen. Every player and every arena were built specifically for the new consoles with an extremely high level of detail. When we started, before we really knew what the system was capable of, we designed the art for what we wanted it to look like, not for what we thought our limitations might be. Once things came together technically, it turned out that we didn't have to reduce any quality to fit the art in the game. Our visual target prototypes ended up being the actual in-game assets.

For NBA LIVE 07 we put a lot of new effort into the appearance of the players. The first thing you'll notice is the skin. We spent a lot of time studying how real skin reacts to light and did quite a bit of R&D to get an amazingly realistic skin look. The player bodies have also been completely rebuilt to provide a much more realistic musculature, which deforms as the players move and flex. We have also added a new Procedural Awareness system to give the players much more lifelike reactions to events that are happening around them. A player will now look around intelligently at appropriate targets. His eyes won't just be locking onto the ball, but he will turn his head and eyes toward the ball, a teammate, an opposing player, the basket or any number of targets depending on what he needs to see at any given moment. His face will also be showing an emotional response to game events. These players are now totally aware and alive.

Environments have also seen some big improvements this year. You'll notice new lighting in the arenas and an all-new crowd. We have also given a new Next Gen look to All-star Weekend with rock concert lighting and pyrotechnics. Even the Practice Gym (which doubles as our main menu) has been given a whole new look for 07.

Since we've done a lot of work to the visuals this year, we wanted to make sure you get a chance to appreciate it so we've added a wide range of new camera angles for automatic in-game replays, or you can explore the court at will using the Instant Replay feature.

Q: Both the Wii and PS3 have motion sensors in their game controllers. Will NBA Live 07 feature anything that might take advantage of this control scheme for the PS3?

Tim: The motion sensors in the PlayStation3 controller are definitely exciting and we are currently in the process of evaluating possibilities.

Q: What are the biggest changes to the title this year?

Tim: The biggest changes to the title this year are gameplay innovation and feature depth.

As far as gameplay is concerned, we have completely re-written the AI and the animation system and we have created a new gameplay experience around authentic athletic performance. We are bringing characters to life and putting them in your hands by making them look, move, feel and play like real athletes.

We have also added Total Freestyle Control which will allow the players to play and move like you've never seen them before. In addition, the players can now have multiple Freestyle Superstar types and you are able to change these types on the fly, so you no longer have to decide if you want LeBron to be a High Flyer, Play Maker or Scorer - now he's all of them, just like his real life counterpart. We have also added in three Levels of Superstars this year which has allowed us to really differentiate between players in greater detail and allow more players to be Freestyle Superstars. From a control standpoint we have shifted the focus to mainly using the Right Stick to pull off these moves which has allowed us to simulate the movements in a very cool way.

Regarding Feature depth, we have added a full-featured Dynasty Mode, a Next Gen All-Star Weekend and an ESPN integration package that has the ESPN Ticker, ESPN.com articles, ESPN SportsCenter Updates, ESPN Radio and ESPN Motion (Video).

Q: Tell us about the multiplayer aspect - as in, will online deviate from what has been previously offered?

Tim: In addition to the regular MatchMaking options (e.g. ranked vs. unranked, quick vs. custom format) NBA LIVE 07 will feature a new Multiplayer Co-op online game mode. In this mode, up to four players on one machine will be able to play online against another group of up to four players. This feature also comes with its own specific Leaderboard and Lobby room and is really great for competitive action and easy match-up finding.

Q: How are you able to configure the impact of top rookies in league play?

Tim: Our Development has a lot of Basketball fans that do not only follow the NBA but also the NCAA and Worldwide basketball. We also read a lot of college and NBA basketball analysts who dissect players' performances, so we have a pretty good idea of the strengths and weaknesses Rookies will bring to the NBA. Once we created the Rookies we keep fine tuning their ratings based on Summer League rules and other scouting observations. Once the NBA season has kicked off we evaluate the ratings for the rookies and all other players again and will offer Roster Updates with updated ratings for download.

Q: How do you manage to put together play-by-play commentary that fits the action? How many lines of dialogue typically go into a title like this?

Tim: Getting speech commentary to sound like a real broadcast is a challenge that our audio team takes very seriously. With play-by-play, it was all about reverse engineering. We captured hundreds of videos of Marv Albert to analyze his tendencies and get a feel for exactly how he calls all kinds of different events. It is one thing to have him say his signature “YES!”, “A gorgeous move!” as well as “And it counts!” (on a 3-point play) but there are a lot of other nuances that make him the most recognizable voice in the NBA. For example, we have 18 different name variations for all of the players to capture exactly how he calls the action in real life.

We absolutely did not want Marv to read scripts or to sound like he was using someone else's words, so we had him ad-lib a number of situations to capture the material we wanted. Similarly, we wanted to capture the witty and insightful analysis that Steve Kerr brings to a broadcast. To get that natural feel, Steve has not read from one script in our game and you can tell that he is naturally analyzing our game exactly like he would on TV. For example, call a timeout late in a close game and Steve will give you all kinds of advice for how to deal with the situation you are in whether you are leading or trailing.

Our goal is to make the commentary entertaining and educational and both Marv and Steve work very hard to give us a great performance in the game. We take a lot of pride in not only being accurate for our speech (our team combs through every line of speech to make sure it plays at the right time) but in teaching people about basketball. Of course, the bane of any sports game is repetition and we have recorded over 25,000 lines in the past two years to keep the content fresh and entertaining. This year, gamers can expect to hear specific, in-depth commentary for over 120 of the NBA's best players.

Q: Who do you think will be the biggest impact players this year and what teams do you think may surprise NBA fans?

Tim: For players, there are the usual suspects who are going to have a major say in their team's success. Kobe will keep scoring, D-Wade has shown that he can carry a team to a title, Dirk seems to have taken his game to the next level by relying less on his jumper, LeBron will probably be the league MVP and Elton Brand will continue the type of play that he showed in the series against Phoenix. Nash of course will look to bring a title to Phoenix since their window for winning is probably 2 years and Boris Diaw will continue to surprise us.

Here are some players who we think will have the most impact (in no particular order):

Chris Paul will take huge steps this year to being one of the elite point guards in the NBA. The addition of Peja will keep teams honest on the perimeter and open up driving lanes for him, while he will still have David West as a nice interior scoring option. Add Tyson Chandler on the boards and blocking shots and they should be able to get out and run a lot, especially with Desmond Mason running the wing.

Emeka Okafor, assuming he is healthy, will return to his 2004-2005 pace of being a double-double machine.

Dwight Howard is ready to take over down low. He is only 20 and has all the tools to make a big splash on the NBA this year.

Josh Howard is also very young and his slashing and defense were big keys in the Mavs making it to the NBA finals.

Amare Stoudamire will be back to his explosive ways and will bring a more physical presence to Phoenix’s interior D that was sorely missing last year. He will also terrorize defenses on the break and off the pick-and-roll since Shawn Marion and Raja Bell will force defenses to stay at home.

And here are some teams that we think will surprise:

New Orleans: They just missed the playoffs last year and have added some much needed perimeter shooting in Stojakovic and a defensive presence in Chandler. Chris Paul will lead them to the post season and David West will pick up where he left off last season.

Charlotte: Okafor will be back and both Gerald Wallace and Adam Morrison will add a nice second and third scoring option. Raymond Felton came on at the end of last year and, with a year of experience under his belt, will provide strong floor leadership (as will backup Brevin Knight). The bench has a nice balance of role players as well. If Okafor can remain healthy, these guys will surprise a lot of people.

Chicago: The team has gained in maturity, especially with Kirk Hinrich's experience in the World Championships. The addition of Ben Wallace will provide veteran leadership and a huge defensive boost.

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