Operation Sports is proud to present an interview with P.J. Snavely, Producer of All-Star Baseball 2003.

Operation Sports: Tell us more about the new modes in the game, like franchise mode and expansion mode.

P.J. Snavely: The basics for Franchise mode – 20 consecutive seasons, injuries, CPU offered trades, career stats, career & single season records, disabled lists, a farm team, Hall of Fame inductions, generated minor leaguers, player development, free agent contract signings, franchise value budgets, teams getting new stadiums & the occasional Jr. popping up. With expansion mode, you get all of that, as well as the ability to pick a city, nickname, stadium & league for your created team. We’ve created a special 32-team schedule to allow baseball to expand by another couple of teams.

Operation Sports: Has a new graphics engine been implemented or have you refined last year's engine for improved visuals?

P.J. Snavely: We were really pleased with our engine last year, so this year we’ve refined it a little & put even more work into the textures for the stadiums & players.

Operation Sports: Will there be a manual replay mode to allow the gamer to see a great play over and over again? Last years game had an "action replay" and didn't allow for us to view that "great play" over again.

P.J. Snavely: There’s no manual instant replay this year – we scrapped it in favor of adding a couple of other things we felt were more important. Don’t worry, though, I promise it will make an appearance in an All-Star Baseball game soon!

Operation Sports: Will computer controlled teams offer trades to each other and to human controlled teams during a season or/and franchise mode? If so, will they just be straight up 1 for 1 trades or will there be multiple player trades?

P.J. Snavely: The CPU will trade amongst other teams, as well as offering 1-for-1 trades with the user. Also, as is becoming more the norm in Major League Baseball, a team will acquire a player & then try to turn around & deal them to the user.

Operation Sports: Has the computer AI been fixed, especially the CPU baserunning?

P.J. Snavely: CPU runners were very improved in the 2002 GC version of ASB. We’ve finished the refinements this year, and they will test some arms.

Operation Sports: In the franchise mode will you have the option to bring up players from your farm system and do rookies fill up your roster every year?

P.J. Snavely: It’s your choice – you can let guys develop down on your farm team or bring them up to the majors & get them some experience there. Be careful if you leave them in the minors too long, though, they’ll get sick of waiting for a chance at “The Show”.

Operation Sports: One of the websites recently previewed the games "expansion mode" and they said that you won't be able to use your expansion team in the full-blown Franchise mode. Is this true? If so, why?

P.J. Snavely: Expansion teams are always in Franchise mode – I don’t think anything else makes sense.

Operation Sports: Can you tell us more about the "official in-game Donruss player trading cards" and what type of cheats we can expect to use in the game? Not that we use any ;).

P.J. Snavely: There are 300+ cards to collect – included in those are cards to unlock stadiums, uniforms, teams & various player cheats (big heads, aluminum bats, etc.). Although, you’ll have to collect various combinations of cards to unlock the cheats themselves.

Operation Sports: What will the differences be if any, between the XBOX, PS2 and GC versions? Please be specific as this is a very popular question.

P.J. Snavely: Actually, there’s very little difference between the 3 versions. Graphically, I think the Xbox version looks the nicest, but its definitely not considerable. We feel all 3 titles compete very well graphically with our competition.

Operation Sports: One of the animation bugs with last year's version was in some cases the fielder was facing the wrong way when throwing the baseball. Has this been fixed?

P.J. Snavely: Absolutely.

Operation Sports: In last years version it took about an hour to complete a 9 inning game. This was too long for many people. Has the pitcher-batter interface been reworked to shorten the length of each game?

P.J. Snavely: We’ve kept the batter/pitcher interface the same – its pretty widely regarded as the best out there. What we have done, though, is add an option called “Game Speed” that you can toggle between “Fast” and “Normal”. “Fast” mode cuts through and/or speeds up a lot of the extra presentation kinda stuff. Average game time in “Fast” mode for single-player is about 30 minutes.

Operation Sports: Will I be able to get a called strike on the CPU?

P.J. Snavely: Definitely. The better you mix up your pitches, the more likely the CPU batter will not be expecting what you’re throwing.

Operation Sports: Will I be able to get a realistic amount of doubles and triples?

P.J. Snavely: Definitely. Triples are still a rare event, much like they should be, though.

Operation Sports: Has the fielding control improved?

P.J. Snavely: Yup, definitely. Plus we’ve changed the camera angles some to help make it easier.

Operation Sports: Can you turn the batting cursor on and off?

P.J. Snavely: Yes. Easy batting still turns it into a timing-based affair for those who prefer that.

Operation Sports: Will there be roster updates on the ASB web site?

P.J. Snavely: Unfortunately not.

Operation Sports: Will there be rain outs? If so, will there be doubeheader games?

P.J. Snavely: We tried to get these in, but they create scheduling nightmares. I have a new appreciation for Major League Baseball when it comes to rescheduling games.

Operation Sports: Will there be sliders to let us control game speed/injuries/etc.?

P.J. Snavely: No, and this was a personal feeling, but that’s a little too PC-ish for a console baseball game. I know some people like that flexibility, but our feeling is that if its done right, these aren’t really necessary.

Operation Sports: Can you throw out a guy running to first from right field and will there be singles that bounce off the wall?

P.J. Snavely: No runners thrown out at first from right, but you will have the occasional hard-hit ball off the wall that good, solid defense will hold to a single.

Operation Sports: Will the gamecube version provide less stat tracking?

P.J. Snavely: Nope. All stats we track are tracked on every version.

Operation Sports: Will it take what seemed like 2 minutes for a fly ball to come down this year? That was a problem from last year which made the games take too long.

P.J. Snavely: I won’t take this question TOO personally, considering I wrote the physics system last year. I’ve played a lot of console baseball games in my life & I’ll put our physics system against anybody else’s in terms of reality.

Operation Sports: Is Bob Brenley and the three man crew still going to be there? If so, how varied will the commentary be?

P.J. Snavely: The commentary is extremely varied, although Coach Bobby is relegated to more of a “scouting report” kinda role. His replacement as the color man, Steve Lyons, is extremely talented, a helluva nice guy & extremely well-suited for console baseball.

Operation Sports: Is there a place where you can view the progress of young players, be it in the minors or sitting on your bench?

P.J. Snavely: Absolutely. Every offseason, there’s a player development screen where you can view your player’s progress as seasons go on. There’s even big color-coded arrows for those of us too lazy to look at the before & after ratings.

Operation Sports: Is there still going to be a create-a-player mode, and if there is, how much customization will there be?

P.J. Snavely: The create-a-player functionality is largely the same as last year, which means its still top-notch & still the best.

Operation Sports: Will you be able to use your created player in franchise and expansion modes?

P.J. Snavely: Yup. That’s pretty much how we arrived at 20 seasons for franchise mode – its enough time to create a player, run up his stats & see if he’s got enough to make the Hall of Fame.

Operation Sports: How many players will each team have in the minor leagues? Are they automatically called up if there are injuries during the season?

P.J. Snavely: There’s 15 guys on your minor league team, and when you have an injury, you can choose to either a) Ignore it & make no roster changes b) Manually go in, put your player on the DL & call up a replacement or c) Have the CPU do the roster manipulation for you.

Operation Sports: Is it true that teams can get a new stadium if they play long enough in Franchise mode? If so, how does this work? Is it based on the age of their current stadiums?

P.J. Snavely: It is true that some teams move into new stadiums at various points during the Franchise/Expansion modes. The moves are based on either announced stadium changes or our best guesses as to who’s going to get ‘em.

Operation Sports: Can you kick back and watch games as they are being simmed? After you sim a season, can you view the box scores from the games?

P.J. Snavely: You can definitely watch games be simmed – that’s something I personally like to do. I find it fun to go through 20 seasons of a franchise & only play my playoff elimination games. Box scores are done the same way as last year, where you can view the current day’s boxscores as well as any boxscore that’s deemed “extraordinary” during the course of a season.

Operation Sports: If players get better as they mature, do they also get worse as they get older? Will a 42 year old Jeter stink?

P.J. Snavely: Players definitely decline as they get past their peak. I’m not sure Jeter’s ever going to stink, even at 42.

Operation Sports: How exactly do the Cooperstown players integrate into the game? Can we use them in a season/franchise or are they strictly limited to home run derby exhibition mode? Will there be a lot of them to use?

P.J. Snavely: Our Cooperstown license includes 50 classic players, which we’ve broken across several “Legends” teams. Only the best one is playable right off the bat, you’ve got to get player cards to earn the others.

Operation Sports: Will there be in-game saves?

P.J. Snavely: I personally like in-game saves, but we opted to just find ways to increase the game speed instead.

Operation Sports: Can you control where your expansion team gets placed in the league, or rather, what division?

P.J. Snavely: You get to choose the league. Your division is chosen for you based on the city you select. Austin, for example, puts you in the Central & rearranges the other teams accordingly.

Operation Sports: Are the mascots still in the game? Is there any kind of cheat where you can use them on the field?

P.J. Snavely: Mascots are definitely still in the game, including 15 or so custom mascots for the expansion teams (I think the Belugas’ is my personal favorite).

Operation Sports: Any hopes of making a PC version of ASB in the future? What about GBA?

P.J. Snavely: There’s definitely a GBA version of ASB coming out, and I’m trying to convince my bosses to let us do a PC version.

Operation Sports: Will there be a dynamic player performance feature where player ratings will increase or decrease every game/week depending on how they play?

P.J. Snavely: No, although its an interesting idea. Might be a touch too deep for average users, but an interesting suggestion.

Operation Sports: Is the homerun derby played like a real homerun derby where you only get an out if you don't hit a homer? Most games seem to just have a set limit where you get an out if you don't swing.

P.J. Snavely: ASB has always been like this, actually. It’s the best way.

Operation Sports: How is the farm system laid out? Do you have real rookies like Ryan Anderson, etc. in the game starting out in the farm system?

P.J. Snavely: We’ve included as many real fringe major-leaguers as we could. We’re limited to adding players that only Major League Baseball Players’ Association approves, but we’ve included as many guys like this as possible.

Operation Sports: How current will the rosters be?

P.J. Snavely: Very.

Operation Sports: When signing/free agents last year on the PS2 version, the signing of say Marty Cordova reset all of your modified batting orders to the default setting. Has this been corrected?

P.J. Snavely: It has, although now you’ll have to manually place him where you want in your lineup.

Operation Sports: Last year's version had missing gameplay animation. The ball would just disappear into the players mitt from a few feet away during throws from the OF to IF. Has this been corrected?

P.J. Snavely: It wasn’t really a case of missing animation, it was more of a tweak thing for playability. It was mostly corrected for the ASB 2002 GC version, and has pretty much disappeared from ASB 2003.

Operation Sports: Can I begin career, franchise, or season mode with my already modified rosters? Or will I have to update them in each mode?

P.J. Snavely: Career and Season mode can start with modified rosters – Franchise begins with a draft. That’s the difference between Career and Franchise modes. Career gives you a team that already exists to take through 20 seasons, whereas Franchise is 20 seasons with a drafted team.

Operation Sports: What major things have you done to make the game play better?

P.J. Snavely: Game speed was a major area – games are just flat-out faster. We’ve also tightened up bat/ball collision and made pitcher stamina affect control a lot more. There’s also better fielding camera angles for balls hit down the line.

Operation Sports: Will baseball fanatics be able to recreate any type of game situation/style they want from hit & run, to pitcher duels, etc or will it be a high hit or homerun fest?

P.J. Snavely: This really depends on the guys you’ve got on the mound. Put a couple of 4/5 starters out there & you’re probably going to get hit a little – and good luck to ya if you’ve got a crappy bullpen.

Operation Sports: High Heat baseball doesn't use a cursor system for batting/pitching but still received accolades for it. Do you feel a cursor system is realistic and offers the best way of recreating the batter/pitcher interaction?

P.J. Snavely: I don’t think I would’ve come work on ASB 3 years ago if I didn’t feel cursor-based batting was more realistic. I’ve seen the arguments for High Heat’s interface, but the bottom line is that this is still a game. I’d like the best mix of realism & ability, which I think cursors provide. For those that disagree, though, our Easy Batting still remains in the game.

Operation Sports: Will you be able to create more than 25 players in the XBOX version in all of the various game modes?

P.J. Snavely: All platforms are limited to 25 create-a-players per season. As a franchise progresses, you can add more players to the CAP pool.

Operation Sports: During the fantasy draft are all players available including those from the free agent list?

P.J. Snavely: Yes. After you draft, you’ll see that the free agent list is full of C-, D & D- players.

Operation Sports: How many players per team? 25 man roster + XX minor leaguers? Are the minor leaguers real players or are their licensing issues with MLB?

P.J. Snavely: We got everybody we could.

Operation Sports: Can you edit players using a player editor feature in all game modes? This would be good so you could adjust players based on how they are doing in real life.

P.J. Snavely: For us, that’s why we have the simulation. If you don’t like the way Edgardo Alfonzo is developing, start your franchise again & see if he doesn’t hurt his back this time.

Operation Sports: Can you "tune" the AI like HH? If so, how many different gameplay areas will be able to be customized?

P.J. Snavely: If you can’t tell already, I’m not a big fan of “tuning” and “sliders”. I believe (and this is a personal philosophy) that it just tends to complicate things for development & gamers alike.

Operation Sports: Will there be more than one camera angle in the game? If so, how many and will there be a custom camera angle like that found in many sports games?

P.J. Snavely: We’ve got the 7 standard ballpark cameras, but this year you’ll see ‘em in a whole variety of new ways.

Operation Sports: In the franchise mode, after each year is there a rookie draft, and do these rookies go into a minor league system with single, double, and triple a? Also, is there some sort of financial mode where you can sign players to big dollar contracts like in real baseball?

P.J. Snavely: Every offseason, your minor league system is restocked with prospects based on how many free agents you’ve lost or guys you’ve had retired. Also, like every team in MLB, you’ve got a budget to work with in the offseason & you can’t exceed that while signing free agents.

Operation Sports: How is the free agent system? After each year, do you get to sign the new free agents? Do people ever hold out for a better deal? What affects, if any, a player's decision to stay or explore the free agent market?

P.J. Snavely: Free agents will make contract “demands”, which you can choose to accept if you like. You can also vary the amount of years or points you’re offering to see if they’ll accept. Watch out for prolonged negotiating sessions, though.

Operation Sports: How is the contract negotiation interface? Will players accept any deal you offer them? Will teams compete to sign the same player(s)?

P.J. Snavely: The interface is fairly simple – you make an offer which the free agents either accepts or rejects. We toyed around with various ways for the CPU to compete with free agents, but everything really limited the user. As a result, you can sign as many of the free agents as your budget allows.

Operation Sports: Can you hire/fire coaches and managers?

P.J. Snavely: I don’t think Major League Baseball would like that very much.

Operation Sports: Are there realtime lighting effects? For example, does a 6:00 pm game start in light and end in the dark? Are there stadium shadows on the field that change is size/appearance depending on the time?

P.J. Snavely: Our game times fit into 4 basic slots, just like the majority of the schedule Major League Baseball uses. There’s a 1:05, 4:05, 7:05 & 10:05, with lighting effects specific for each.

Operation Sports: Does the crowd know what is going on in the game? Will they leave early because of bad weather or if their team is being blown out? Do they feel the intensity of an old rivalry like Yankees vs. Red Sox?

P.J. Snavely: We’ve definitely worked on crowd interaction, and I think its pretty noticeable.

Operation Sports: Do players interact with others? Examples would be: high fives, end of game celebrations, talks on the mound, arguments with the umpire, players/coaches ejected...

P.J. Snavely: We’ve got post-HR celebrations between players, as well as guys rushing the mound – which means batter/pitcher ejections. Also, we’ve added user-controlled HR celebrations, so you can make your batter do your favorite celebration 3 or 4 times coming down the 3rd base line.

Operation Sports: Will there be "all time" record tracking in all versions? How about season records? If so, will there be a lot of different categories to try and get records in?

P.J. Snavely: We do track all-time records and single-season records. After viewing these sims a ton, my recommendation is to get Adam Dunn as soon as you can.

Operation Sports: Will the controls be intuitive? I don't want to have to hit 5 buttons to call a hit & run.:)

P.J. Snavely: They’re very intuitive, and pretty much build on what I consider the “classic” control scheme for the buttons.

Operation Sports: Are organ music and/or crowd chants offered? A game needs to SOUND AND FEEL...*LIVE*. If I hear the Tomahawk Chop or a Braves chant going on I'll probably wet myself.:)

P.J. Snavely: Well, you might want to stock up on some Depends – we’ve got team-specific chants for every team that you’ll hear if the games are close in the late innings.

Operation Sports: Can you explain the Off-Season Menu In detail?

P.J. Snavely: Well, I won’t bore you with all the details. Basically, you can do a variety of things like viewing record holders, signing free agents, bringing up or demoting players to the farm teams, offer trades, view the Hall of Fame inductions, take a look at the players who’ve retired or look & see how your players are developing in the offseason.

Operation Sports: If a star pitcher is throwing that night, do the fans hang K's on the railing or on the walls for each strikeout?

P.J. Snavely: Our artists (and they’re a talented bunch) have gone into every stadium and denoted the places where fans hang the “K” signs. My favorite is Busch Stadium, where you can see the neon K’s light up in the left field corner.

Operation Sports: Will there be variable speed pitching or just one pitch speed as in years past?

P.J. Snavely: We’ve gone more for realism the past couple years & tried to denote pitch speed changes more with different pitch types. This hasn’t changed.

Operation Sports: Which players were specfically motion captured?

P.J. Snavely: We’ve got a group of very talented minor leaguers we use for our motion capture.

Operation Sports: Did Mr. Met make the cut this year?

P.J. Snavely: Mr. Met has made the cut every year.

Operation Sports: In expansion mode, when you place your team in a division are you an extra team or would you take over for example Montreal's schedule by replacing them? If you do replace a team, what happens to all the players on the existing team?

P.J. Snavely: You’re definitely becoming another team – there’s a 32-team schedule we’ve created especially for this mode.

Operation Sports: Will the cpu have good "strategic" AI when on the mound? For example will it try to pitch around the big hitter or intentionally walk a player to force a double play?

P.J. Snavely: Yup, you’ll see both of those.

Operation Sports: What is the one feature you think makes 2003 a better game than 2002? Franchise, expansion, etc.

P.J. Snavely: Expansion, to me, is the ultimate challenge. Trying to win a World Series given a bunch of youngsters & also-rans is tough.

Operation Sports: Is there an option to turn off the camera view when someone hits a homer? I would like to see the outfielder run back to the wall and watch the ball go over other than watching it from the side. It's better to not know if its going to be a homer.

P.J. Snavely: We actually like the cinematic home run shots – they show off the great stadiums our artists have put together. If a ball is going to be a catch-able home run, you’ll get the standard fielding camera & the chance to make that 1 in a 100 grab.

Operation Sports: Can you charge the mound? Can you rob homeruns? Franchise mode allows you to play in the future, but can you play in the past? If you play in the future/past do the crowds look different? Can you play as the Astros with the ugly orange striped jerseys in the Astrodome?

P.J. Snavely: Players will charge the mound on their own – based on how many times they’ve been thrown at, where they got hit, what they’ve done in their previous at-bats that day. Robbing home runs is possible, but difficult (as it should be). We’ve got a bunch of classic stadiums & players, but these aren’t available in any mode besides Home Run Derby, Batting Practice & Exhibition.

Operation Sports: Will the camera follow the ball into the stands? Will there be alternate uniforms? Are there hot/cold zones for hitters? What classic parks are included? Will the first base running box before first base be in all the stadiums this year? Will domes open and close? Will the full national anthem be played?

P.J. Snavely: Doggone, that’s a lot of questions in one. Yes on camera movement, yes on alternate uniforms (and even another set of throwbacks), Astrodome, Polo Grounds & Tiger Stadium, to name a few, yes on base running box (for every stadium that does it). We go with open roofs on retractable roof stadiums, and you’ll get the last bit of the national anthem.

Operation Sports: Are there passed balls? Can you pick off runners at a realistic percentage?

P.J. Snavely: Yup, there are passed balls & wild pitchs. Runners can only be picked off if they’ve got the biggest lead possible (4 steps) and then, at a realistic percentage.

Operation Sports: Will players wear their individual team uniforms in the All-Star game?

P.J. Snavely: I wish we could’ve got this in – we’re just extremely limited in the amount of memory we’ve got available.

Operation Sports: I would like to thank you for making time for this interview, is there anything you would like to add?

P.J. Snavely: Actually, there is – looking back on this development cycle, its amazing what a small team of devoted guys can do. I want to send a big thanks for the 20 guys on the development team who have put their lives on hold to help make the best baseball game ever.