October 6, 2008

Building a Better Baller: Q&A With NBA 2K9's Erick Boenisch and Rob Jones
By Louis Bedigian

“One of the things we're doing this year is tracking how well you play as part of a team. The idea here is to encourage the player to do more while you're playing.”

"NBA 2K9 is the next step in the 2K series," begins Erick Boenisch, Lead Feature Designer on NBA 2K9. "We've made a lot of improvements this year. We set forth with two goals in mind. The first was to deliver the full package experience, and what that means is improving every aspect. Not just the gameplay but everything in the game.

"We have top-of-the-line features like improved facial animation, revolutionary AI with our adaptive AI feature. We have a new player creation feature with our dynamic player DNA system. We have Association 2.0, which got a huge revamp. We have five-on-five team-up gameplay online. We have 2K Share. I could keep going on and on. It's a very big year for us. We're very proud of what we accomplished and look forward to getting the game in the hands of the fans."

"After playing as many games as I have," adds Rob Jones, Gameplay Director, "one of the things that has always struck me as being right is the realistic flow, the up and down flow, of the game. When I play our competitor's games, one thing I find is, they may have tight controls, they may have a lot of the same things we're trying to provide to the user. But when they put it all together it doesn't feel as smooth as what I expect. The game should feel realistic to the guys who play the real game of basketball. We do a better job of capturing that on-the-court feel, both the highs and the lows. If you look at a [move] and how it occurs, it just feels like it came within the flow of the game."

Proud To Be New

Boenisch said that he is proud of all the new content in NBA 2K9. However, there was one feature in particular he wanted to highlight. "One that isn't getting a lot of press, and I think it's very, very cool, and that's the concept of player DNA," he says. "With player DNA, if you create a player, you can take this guy and instantly upload him to the 2K Share service, where other users can search the player by name or any other description you give him, and they can download him and instantly place him into their rosters without having to download an entire roster or any other complication that might have been there in the past. This year it's done with literally two button clicks."

It's Alive. It's Alive!!!

Erick Boenisch: "We all know the concept of the Living Roster feature is to have constantly updating rosters based on what you're seeing in the NBA, not just the players but also the player ratings and things like that. What's special about this feature, our feature is completely free, where I know our competition is charging $20 to access something they've been advertising is free all along. This is something every user will have access to in our game whether you buy it new, used, from a friend, whatever.

"I think a certain element to ours that makes it unique is that we have the human touch in our game. We have NBA 2K insiders. We're looking at players on a daily basis and how they're playing and how they're performing and making changes. It's the human touch. When you have a computer doing it for you, you're seeing things like... If a player gets hurt and another player steps in, the CPU might not be able to differentiate between if that player is getting his points based on opportunity or if it's true player skill.

"Another thing we're doing, during the course of a season, depending on how the player is playing, we're going to be adding animation packages over the course of the season. Ultimately what this means is that, as your living roster updates and as you play the game, you're going to see new animations in the game, which delivers a fresh experience every time you play the game. I think that is very unique and will ultimately change the way content is delivered to games post-release."

"You can now finally pass out of any layup. You can change your shot in the middle of a layup if you think someone has a chance of blocking your shot."—Rob Jones

Unexpectedly Real?

Rob Jones: "NBA 2K9 is aimed at a wide audience and yet there's going to be a learning curve as I would expect in any game. The main reason for that to me is simple. If you understand basketball, you can win at the game of basketball without doing any special moves. I have a lot of other games that I play where I know I'm playing against guys who are more skilled than I am. And yet, just because I strategize better and understand that particular sport, I am able to compete with them.

"That's the experience I want NBA fans to have. I want them to understand that there are two layers to this game, and it's only when you combine the two that you become a master of it. I can tell you for a fact that I play against guys online who do things with my control scheme that I didn't know were possible. I am surprised by that every single time. I come back and sit there and am like, 'I played this guy last night and he knew my controls better than I did.' To me, that's a testament to the game itself."

Five-on-Five Online Play: NBA 2K9 Vs. NHL 2K9

Erick Boenisch: "Conceptually it's the same. It's the concept of getting five players on each team and playing simultaneously. The way substitutions are handled, you can choose depending on how many players are in the game. If you're playing a full five-on-five and not locked to a position, you can substitute out that player for another player, pretty much any player you want."

Improve Yourself

Erick Boenisch: "One of the things we're doing this year is tracking how well you play as part of a team. The idea here is to encourage the player to do more while you're playing. It also allows you to choose not to play with somebody if he doesn't have a high score because you don't want that guy on your team. If [he] doesn't have a high score and doesn't [get to play with you], he is [more likely to want to] become a better player."

Glitch Cleanup

Regarding the glitches and/or annoyances of last year's game, Jones promises that most of them have been addressed. "I don't think we ever set out to ship any glitches," he assures us, noting the reality of the situation. "Unfortunately, things do slip through. That said, our fans are very vocal. They've always brought these things out and they've made it quite easy for us to really pinpoint those [issues and quash them]. They're annoyances that we don't want to see in this game. We take every complaint we've heard very seriously. I think we've [eliminated] probably 90% of the things that were listed last year as annoyances."

Will Basketball Go Big?

When I asked if 2K Sports considered making a basketball game in style of The BIGS, Jones commented, "You know, we do think about things like that. [But the] NBA only has two licenses available and they're in alternate years. You're getting one in Street and the other one in Ballers. There isn't any space for us to go into that right now. Until that medium changes completely, I think interest will start waning. I think sales of [NBA] Ballers will tell you that and sales of [NBA Street] Volume 3 will tell you that as well."

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