Operation Sports had the opportunity to discuss NBA 2K3 with Derrick Aynaga and Anthony Chau of Visual Concepts. This interview was conducted at the E3 Expo back in May and has been updated since then.

Operation Sports: Would you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Aynaga: I am the Project manager on NBA 2K3. Prior to that, I was the Lead Game Designer on NBA 2k2. I’ve actually been working on the series since it’s inception.

Operation Sports: What’s new for NBA 2K3 in terms of graphics and gameplay?

Aynaga: Graphics wise there is a huge difference. One of the things that we wanted to do this year was try to take advantage of every platform’s individual strengths. One thing that you’ll notice straight away on all versions of NBA 2K3 is the real time specular highlighting. You’ll notice that the highlights on the players aren’t actually on the textures but are generated real time. If you were to go into replay and spin the camera around, you will see the gloss change depending on where the light is coming from. The cool thing is that we are trying to use it to model player’s sweat. We’re actually planning on having a player show sweat in terms of shininess. As a player particular game longer his sweat level and shininess increase. Other technological advancements include cloth animation. If you look at a replay at the ball versus net animations you will notice that the shape of the net isn’t an animation at all rather a direct result of where the ball has hit it.

Operation Sports: Are there new ball/rim interactions?

Aynaga: Yes the rim physics have totally been re-written. The new program itself is pretty crazy as we took a lot more things into account such as ball weight and air pressure. I think the difference really shows and people should be amazed with the results. You will see a lot of cases where a ball will hit multiple times, rolls around, and falls off of the rim. You’ll notice differences between missed lay-ups and missed three pointers. Lay-ups will fall closer to the rim most times as most three pointers will ricochet farther away.

Operation Sports: How are the arenas looking this year?

Aynaga: We are definitely pushing the hardware polygon wise. There are a ton of new elements in each arena. The first row will be completely polygonal in every arena. If you look at the scorer’s table in replay mode you will see fully detailed papers, pens, water bottles, and even team logos on computer screens. There will also be a fully animated 3D crowd. We’re also working on specific crowd reactions. We feel that the new 3d crowd acts accordingly. For example, we’re toying around with the idea of adding “bored” behavior. If your team is losing badly you might see someone in the crowd talking on a cell phone and not paying attention to what’s going on in the game. Or maybe just having people leave the stadium during blowouts. Bench wise we’ve upped the number of polygons in our coaches and they look very good. We’ve added more players on the bench including some that will be sitting on the floor now. In addition, we’ve added some of the more colorful team mascots like Benny the Bull. 

We also possess the ability to utilize numerous cut scenes throughout the game. However unlike other games that have loading cut scenes, ours will be seamless and will use the actual game engine. With this type of a seamless technology, you will see the cut scenes interact with what’s happening on the court. For example you might see a bench react to a game winning shot right as it happens without a load time. Our cut scenes will be very intricate involving multiple people; I can honestly say we have five player simultaneous motion captured animations in the game.

Operation Sports: Is Allen Iverson still the featured player on the cover and did you use any other players for your motion capture sessions?

Aynaga: Yes, Allen Iverson is still our cover guy and yes, this year we tried to get people who were are very demonstrative. Previous years we’ve had players such as Rasheed Wallace, Tony Delk, and Bo Outlaw. Bo Outlaw was great. He actually stayed with us after his motion capture session until four in the morning and missed his flight. We had to drive him back to his hotel because he wanted to stay and play the game (laughs). But I think the biggest and most exciting motion capture session was with the 2001 All-Star Dunk Champion, Jason Richardson of the Golden State Warriors. This guy was AMAZING! We usually shoot a motion capture session with professional athletes for a couple of hours, but J-Rich was having so much fun and we were getting such great stuff, we ended up capturing a bunch of animations (of course, mostly dunks) for about five hours. At the end of the session, he was really tired, but we’re really happy he went through so much effort because it really shows in NBA 2K3. And every time he went up for a dunk, we were a little scared because he dunked so hard, we though he was going to break out equipment!

Operation Sports: Are there any new moves or animations?

Aynaga: It definitely was important for us to tighten up the gameplay as much as possible while adding new moves. However we didn’t want to alienate the people who have played prior versions. So one of the goals was to expand upon the current gameplay set, while retaining the same type of look and feel. So if you’re a little more experienced with the gameplay than your opponent, you might have a slight advantage. One of the new moves is the double drop step. We discovered the move while watching old footage of Olajuwan and then also noticed the same type of move executed by Sharif Abdul-Rahim. He will dribble turn right shoulder; left shoulder and then either fade away or drive to the rim. During pivots some players will now jab step, jab the opponent, turn their back, while maintaining the ability to explode out of their pivot. If they see a defender has the propensity to try and come in and steal the ball they might crossover. Conversely if that same player lays back they will fade away and hit a jump shot. 

A big area of improvement in terms of new techniques is the one-on-one pivot game. We really wanted to emphasize the impact one player can make on the team and the new techniques in the pivot game truly enhance that one-on-one feeling. Say for example if you’re in your triple threat, by holding down the pivot button, you can jab step and even taunt your opponent (i.e. palming the ball). It looks really cool, but once again, it’s all game-oriented; when you’re jab stepping or taunting the defender, the ball is slightly more vulnerable to a steal. Now depending on the A.I. opponent, he’ll react in several ways. If he’s a good defender, he might try to poke out the ball while you’re jab stepping and if that’s the case, the proper technique to use would to crossover the defender as he’s trying to steal thereby blasting by him for an easy score. If the A.I. defender is only so-so at playing D, he might back up to give you space when you’re jab stepping, anticipating the penetrating crossover move. If that’s the case, you’re now open to take a nearly uncontested shot. All these new animations look awesome and there are certainly a number of them, but unlike several games out there, all the jab stepping, fake passing, and taunting is for more than just show; there’s a deeper level of technique in using these moves in NBA 2K3 and I think it’ll truly enhance the game.

Operation Sports: Is passing any different in this year’s game?

Aynaga: One thing that we’re doing with passing is making it a little more intelligent. Most games seem to only account for the space between the player and the pass target. We’re also accounting for the space that surrounds the player in every feasible direction. What’s really cool this year is on offense the passer and receiver react independently. Both players will move and react depending on how they are being defended. If the receiver is being strongly defended on the right he may step out to the left. If his passer is being smothered by his defender he may step away in any direction, which may free him up to execute that pass.

Operation Sports: What kind of picks or non-possession animations can we expect this year?

Aynaga: We are the first developer to display multiplayer pick animations. When you see players make contact, you will see different interactions depending on their individual ratings. Players will now try to post up their defenders without the ball by putting their arm up and/or hooking the other player to fight for position. Another addition to NBA 2K3 is fronting; if you’re guarding Shaq in the post and you know you won’t be able to prevent him from getting deep position, you can now move yourself to defend in front of him. Timed correctly, you can intercept an incoming pass, but you have to be careful since missing the steal means a layup or dunk attempt.

Operation Sports: Any new shot animations?

Aynaga: I’m pretty excited about our all, new mid-air game; I’ll only talk briefly about it right now, but you now have the ability to alter your layup or dunk in mid-air. So, if you’re driving up for a lay-up and you see Big Ben Wallace coming over to swipe your lay-up from the weak side, you can change your lay-up forcing Wallace to miss. We’ve made the system very simple to use, but it’s up to the user to realize when is the best time and scenario to use it.

Operation Sports: Will there be out of bounds retrievals?

Aynaga: Yes. We will have diving saves at all different height levels and we are even experimenting with Shaq’s old footage of him sliding on the hardwood head first for a retrieval. Not only do we want the diving saves, but we also want to include collisions with things like the scorer’s table and the outside area of the court itself.

Operation Sports: Wow we look forward to see that this year.

Aynaga: It was actually very easy for us to incorporate that feature. One thing that helped us achieve retrievals was steals. One thing that we’re changing this year is the Inverse Kinematics. The overall IK code has been rewritten this year where the players arms will be more in tune where the ball is going and will be able to react accordingly. The result you will witness is more natural looking player ball interaction, which is attributed to us pushing this kind of technology by utilizing these newer consoles. We’re also utilizing IK technology with rim hangs. Players that hang on the rim will also cause the rim to actually bend and move now. We had asked Rasheed Wallace what he did to avoid a technical when rim hanging. He told us that you’re free and clear to hang as long as the ball is below your feet. So in NBA 2k3 you will see more rim hanging as long as the ball is below the player’s feet. It all adds up to fancier dunks and rim animations due to this improved technology.

Operation Sports: How has Street Mode been revamped?

Aynaga: It’s really been improved and I recommend you check out the cage! I actually freaked out when I saw it the first time. The court textures are all brand new and it looks beat up and distressed, just like in real life. We took many photos from various angles of the Cage in New York. The level of detail this year is just sick! You will see the subway station with trains in motion, cars parked in front, and even the side practice court that is next to the main court. Another court that shows off some amazing detail is Mosswood Park. It’s actually close to where I live. We actually have the same garbage cans that Oakland Park and Recreation uses. Additionally, because of the power of the next generation consoles, you’ll be able to play in different types of weather as well as change from night or day games. It might seem a bit weird to play in the rain, but it looks really cool; we’ve even added the Metal Gear Solid 2-like splash effects as you run down a wet court. It may seem trivial, but the way we see it, if you plunk down $200 of your hard-earned money for one of these powerful next generation consoles, you want to see some next generation special effects.

Operation Sports: Will you have online roster updates?

Aynaga: We’re definitely planning to have online roster updates incorporated in the game. However, we want future NBA 2K3 owners out there to know that if you don’t have online access, you’ll still be able to get roster updates in several ways. In the format that we’re planning it doesn’t matter where you get the rosters, as long as you have a memory card or medium from to transfer the data.

Operation Sports: Is season length adjustable in Franchise Mode?

Aynaga: Yes. Franchise has been totally rewritten. We rewrote the simulator and the front end. Our Game Designer Jeremy Tiner, really spent a lot of time on the Franchise mode. He took the basic philosophy of owners and players and expanded greatly upon that. Not only will there be the hiring and firing of coaches, but also there will be a greatly increased depth of scouting and drafting players.

Coaches will also have specialty attributes that reflect their coaching strengths as well. It’s not just a matter of wanting Pat Riley per se. You will have to determine what weaknesses your team needs help with. For example if you are Dallas and you notice that your run and gun style is scoring you points but you’re getting burn defensively, you might consider a more defense minded coach. Or if you are using a team like the Clippers it might be in your best interest to acquire a coach that is a good teacher for young players.

Our biggest push has been trying to make the user run the team financially from a focal standpoint. It’s not just a matter of signing player A for so many years any more. It’s much more involved. Our second area of vast improvement is our game simulator. It’s always been a strategy for users to change their coaching attributes when playing another opponent. This year we want the user to be able to adopt the same strategy within a season. You may want your players to run faster or crash the boards against a specific CPU team.

Operation Sports: Kind of like using a scouting report?

Aynaga: Something like that. Say you’re playing Golden State and you know that they are a low scoring team but a very good on the boards. So obviously you’re going to set up your squad to be more aggressive on that boards that particular night. It’s minor tweaks like these on a game-to-game basis that may make or break a user’s Franchise season.

Operation Sports: Wow! Well we thank you for the interview Derek and look forward to seeing the game. When is it being released?

Aynaga: NBA 2k3 is being released this fall. We definitely check out Operation Sports all of the time. After hours everyone spends time combing through all of the sports sites and especially Operation Sports. I can’t tell you how many times Greg (Thomas) our boss has come to my office with a printout from the forums. So we definitely do listen and a lot of the stuff that we have implemented into the game has come from people’s requests.

VC PR, Anthony Chau: And it definitely starts from the hardcore sports gamers. We really do take criticism and praise to heart. Many times things have been changed in games during a development cycle based on user feedback on forums just like Operation Sports.

Aynaga: As a game player, I know the frustrations of games not having a particular feature or lacking changes year after year. From management, programmers, artists, to game designers we all try to get as much feedback as possible. So the basic message to everyone is keep the impressions and opinions coming!!