October 8, 2007

Hitting the Court with NBA 2K8’s Developers
By Louis Bedigian

“We wrote all the individual perceptions to make sure that when a particular player gets the ball, he feels and understands what is happening on the court in the way that he would in real life.”

For the past several years, NBA 2K has ruled the basketball market. Its realistic mechanics and unrivaled gameplay have made the series a multi-console champ.

This year the competition is fiercer than ever. But while some developers may run away in fear, 2K Sports’ Gameplay Project Manager, Rob Jones, says that they decided to step up their game. “We thought that we had done a really good job [with the] gameplay,” he said. “But we also, looking at our competition, we really had to start [upgrading] our graphics and try to regain the lead there and try to beef up our features in such a way that answered the call of people that had been asking for our new Slam Dunk contest and improved Association mode and Franchise features. It was pretty much trying to get back to the focus of making the game our customers were already clamoring for better by adding in the areas that we felt we were lacking.”

Erick Boenisch, Lead Features Designer, is very excited by the level of quality that has been applied to both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions: “Last year we had some fair amount of differences mostly because the PS3 didn’t come out until November. So we had a little time after we finished the 360 version to tighten things up [on PS3]. And you know, with the architecture of the PS3 we weren’t able to get all the features in. This year we’re proud to say that [the PS3 and 360 versions] are 99 – 100% identical, with the main difference being the support of the SIXAXIS controller functionality, which we pretty much did in a lot of the same ways as last year.”

There’s no question that the hardcore crowd will be intrigued, but 2K Sports also hopes to draw new players. “The addition of the Slam Dunk contest was one of the big ones,” Rob told us, referring to the features he believes will attract casual players. “It’s a casual feature, almost like a party game feature in terms of how it draws people in who might not otherwise be interested in playing. We’re really strong on simulation basketball. But that [the Slam Dunk contest] was one of the main features we wanted to add draw more of the casual gamers in.

“We also spent some time trying to streamline our gameplay so that it was a little more accessible. Last year we had things where, to access moves you had to hold down a couple of triggers. And it’s great if you’re an advanced [player], you can do all those moves. But for somebody that wants to just pick up and play, not being able to do the cool stuff kind of turns you off. We went back and tried to address that and make it easier for a first-time [player].”

Erick concurs, noting the importance of gamer feedback. “I think listening to our fan base – you know, over the past few years they’ve really been clamoring for a dunk contest. It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a few years now, we just didn’t have the right medium and the right platform. We didn’t want to go the route of our competition and stick it in an All-Star Weekend-type setting. We wanted it to be something outdoors, something casual, something fun. Something you can pick up and play. Something really laid back, and that’s what we accomplished with the dunk contest. And I really think that gets the casual gamer who purchases our game this year.”

Balancing Realism

The goal in balancing NBA 2K8’s realism and fun factor, says Rob, “comes down to mechanics, moves, and the way that those allow the user to create highlights that are sometime a little bit more, at least the frequency of them, than what you would see in real life.” He pointed out that we don’t typically see that kind of excitement in a real game, especially if you’re a causal player. “I always talk about pacing – you can’t have all dunks. But you also can’t have all layups. What we try to do is, as best we can, create the excitement of all those and kind of spike it at a good enough rhythm to keep the interest tied at all times through a gameplay session.”

Adding Injury to Injury

Erick Boenisch tells GameZone how NBA 2K8 improves on the injury system: “With injuries in years past, when a player is injured, their name goes red and they’re pretty much out of the action. This year we have a more in-depth implantation of injuries where the player physically cannot play and playable injuries. We have a system where players will upgrade, so if a player gets a torn ACL, it’ll eventually become a strained ACL, and once it heals you’ll start to see your player’s rating gradually increase, and at some time become playable. You have a decision there to play as this guy and get 80% of him on the risk of aggravating an injury, if it’s an injury he received previously.”

“We’re big gamers over here. Most of us you’ll probably find playing online at night when we get off work.”— Rob Jones, Gameplay Project Manager

Beating the Competition

“Every time we step up to the drawing board,” Erick says, “we believe that the competition is going to step up and be right where we are. And they’re right where we were when we shipped the last game.”

He continues: “One of the big things we do here is, obviously, we look at what they’re doing, because if they do things we feel are positive for the sport, you know, we have to react to it and sometimes mimic the things that they’re doing. But what we find is that our experience and the things we want in our basketball games, is already two steps ahead of where they are in terms of what they’re trying to achieve with their basketball games. I think that really comes from a strong base of guys here that not only has played at a high level and then listened to people at a high level and reacted to what they’re saying and what they wish they could do in the game. And I think that’s where we shine the most in the past few years.”

Favorite Features

Lead Gameplay Designer Mike Wang wanted to share his favorite feature in NBA 2K8: “I think if you ask Rob, Erick or me we’ll each say something different. One thing about our games is, the way we go about our design philosophy is to look at the real-life basketball game. We watch games all the time to see what we can add to our game. Little things come up every year that really add up to make the experience what it is.”

“But personally,” he adds, “I think my favorite thing this year is the AI. I think we made some strides in AI to make it feel like you’re really playing against not just a mindless robot. You feel like you’re playing against real teams. You feel like you [can take] advantage of their weaknesses and exploit their strengths. They know how to break down your defenses and play defensively. It’s all these little things that make this AI feel like it’s alive this year.”

Question Time

NHL 2K8 was designed to run equally fast (60fps) on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. I assume NBA 2K8 is being developed the same way – to make the gameplay experiences equal?

Mike Wang: We really want to make the experiences the same for our 360 fan base and the PS3 fan base. They’re pretty much the same experience in terms of 60fps. There was some slowdown in NBA 2K7 that we were able to iron out. I am happy to say that we have a really improved frame rate, both online and offline play.

On the control end, what kind of work is being done on NBA 2K8 to make it feel more realistic – and perhaps to differentiate between players just by the way they control – than past basketball games?

MW: I think that’s something we really excel at as a company. NBA 2K7 was the introduction of the signature style, and it was the first year, the baby, and only primarily touched on jump shots. This year it’s been expanded to post moves, dunks, free throws – just more stuff. More content. I think it makes players stand out from each other.

In terms of overall movement, the thing we really wanted to work on was OP, organically perfect. That’s something we try to strive for, to make the guys look and move like they’re human and not a video game.

Rob Jones: The funny thing is every year it feels like we get the same questions. A lot of the times we try to pinpoint certain things that weren’t done well in terms of a team performing like the real-life team or a particular player not really doing what you would expect him to do. The NBA is, you know, the league is so small, there are 30 teams. You’ve seen them multiple times with as many games that are out there.

One of the things we wanted to focus on this year was getting those guys to really do their own real-life tendencies than ever before. We did a couple of things. We wrote our play system together to make teams run ‘em through better than before. And we wrote all the individual perceptions to make sure that when a particular player gets the ball, he feels and understands what is happening on the court in the way that he would in real life. The end experience is absolutely amazing.

Some of the things I’ve seen – I’ve played LeBron, and he gets 30 – 40 points against me in a regular game. And it doesn’t feel like he forced it – it feels like you’re playing against Cleveland if you watch Cleveland play all the time. You play against teams like the Spurs, they’re going to feed that ball into Duncan and then, I know that some people complained that sometimes the AI wouldn’t recognize mismatches and go down to ‘em, this year you get punished. Anytime that you think that you can cheat as a human player, the AI looks for that and punishes you. And I really appreciate that in the game.

Thanks for your time guys, it’s been great speaking to you.