With the help of our readers and EA Sports, we had an opportunity to interview the Producer of NCAA March Madness 08, Sean O’Brien. 

Operation Sports:  Does the screen shake or are there any visual disadvantages/effects for the away team, if the home team's Intensity Meter is high?

Sean O’Brien: “We didn’t do anything this year with any sort of camera shake. There are visual indications when a player’s composure is high or low. He’ll be more likely to celebrate, or you’ll see some dejection, or some hanging head type of animations. Obviously the crowd is a big indicator – both audibly and visually – with momentum. We tried to use a more true-to-life, authentic, broadcast feel with the presentation of the feature, as opposed to going over the top and having the screen shake to indicate the place is hopping. We chose to go with a more realistic sim approach this year as opposed to what we’ve done in the past.”

Operation Sports:  How many arenas are present in the game (not just the courts)?

Sean O’Brien: “We do a really good job with this. We have over 50 nuts and bolts authentic arenas. The rest of the arenas are what we call ‘semi-authentic:’ They have a texture package with the right colors (so a school that’s primary color is red will have that seen in the banners, etc.) You’ll see other conference logos throughout the arena, along with the court being completely authentic. It’s also the style of the arena itself. If the school plays in a Fieldhouse, it may not be an exact replication of that Fieldhouse, but it will be a Fieldhouse and will be a representative of the basic architecture. And with the texture pack you’ll see the school’s logo, the colors, the crowd will look like that team’s fans, plus the court. So the ‘average person,’ unless you’ve actually been in that place, wouldn’t know the difference whatsoever.”

Operation Sports:  Could you give us the top 5 at each position?

Sean O’Brien: Top 5 Freshmen:

1. Kansas State, #30, Power Forward, Overall Ranking – 83

2. USC, #32, Shooting Guard, Overall Ranking – 83

3. Indiana, #23, Small Forward, Overall Ranking – 82

4. Kentucky, # 54, Power Forward, Overall Ranking – 82

5. UCLA, #42, Center, Overall Ranking – 82

Top 5 Point Guards:

1. Michigan State, #11, Overall Ranking – 83        

2. Mississippi State, #44, Overall Ranking – 83      

3. Kansas, #15, Overall Ranking – 82        

4. Kentucky, #3, Overall Ranking – 81       

5. Texas, #14, Overall Ranking – 81

Top 5 Shooting Guards:

1. USC, #32, Overall Ranking – 83

2. Washington State, #2, Overall Ranking – 83

3. Davidson, #30, Overall Ranking – 82

4. Georgetown, #21, Overall Ranking – 82

5. Memphis, #5, Overall Ranking – 82

Top 5 Small Forwards:

1. Memphis, #14, Overall Ranking – 84

2. Arizona, #34, Overall Ranking – 83

3. Kansas, #25, Overall Ranking – 83

4. Indiana, #23, Overall Ranking – 82

5. Louisville, #1, Overall Ranking – 81

Top 5 Posts:

1. North Carolina, #50, Center, Overall Ranking – 83

2. Kansas State, #30, Power Forward, Overall Ranking – 83

3. Georgetown, #55, Center, Overall Ranking – 82

4. Texas A&M, #30, Center, Overall Ranking – 82

5. UCLA, #30, Center, Overall Ranking – 82

Top 5 Overall:

1. Memphis, #14, Small Forward, Overall Ranking – 84

2. Arizona, #34, Small Forward, Overall Ranking – 83

3. Kansas, #25, Small Forward, Overall Ranking – 83

4. Kansas State, #30, Power Forward, Overall Ranking – 83

5. Michigan State, #11, Point Guard, Overall Ranking – 83

Operation Sports:  How is the low post game? 

Sean O’Brien: “Your post players will run the floor and establish low post position. If you have a good match up, you’ll see an indicator under your post player.  When that happens you’ll want to get the ball inside to him and take advantage of it. Once you have the ball on the low block you’ll have a number of moves available to you. Every player will have all of these moves available to them, but success depends on how skilled the player is, as well as the other factors such as intensity and the crowd.

There are a variety of new shots.  Press the B button to execute a jumper or press the B button and hold the Left Thumbstick away from the hoop to shoot a fadeaway.  To perform a hook shot press the X button.  The jump hook is a great shot to use if you have good post position or if you have a height advantage in the post.

You can also tap either of the shoot buttons to do a quick pump fake.  You have a few different options from the up fake.  You can fake a shot and drive left or right by tapping B and holding left or right on the Left Thumbstick.  You can also double tap the shot button to try an up and under to take advantage of a defender falling for the shot fake.

Power moves. Press the Y button and point your Left thumb stick in the direction you want to pull off your move.  You can drop stop middle or to the baseline.  Read your defender and take advantage of how he’s playing you.

If you want to beat your player with quickness press the Right Thumbstick left or right to spin on your defender.  You can also use the Right Thumbstick to face up on your defender and attempt to beat him off the dribble or shoot a quick jumper if you’re in range.

While defending someone in the post before the catch, there are a number of things that you can do if you have a tough match up.  You’re going to want to make it difficult for the offensive player to catch the entry pass.  With a flick of the right stick you can choose to play behind your man, deny him the pass or front him in an attempt to force a tough pass.  You can also take a chance and gamble by pressing the X button or the Right Trigger to go for the steal while the pass is in the air.  Just make sure that if you do attempt to steal that pass, you get a hand on the ball.  If you don’t, you’ll be out of position and watching your man score the ball.

You can attempt to steal the ball from behind with the X button or the Right Trigger, but I wouldn’t recommend it – most of the time you’re going to be caught out of position and you’re going to give up the easy 2 points – make the other guy work for it.

Moving your feet on defense is just as important in the post as it is on the perimeter.  If you want to cut someone off performing a spin move, power move or drive to the basket use your Left Thumbstick to cut off the player.  So if he’s spinning to the middle of the court just hold the Left Thumbstick towards the middle of the court to cut him off.  Here’s a tip for you – some of these guys are pretty quick so you might not have time to react to the move – you may want to pick a direction on your Left Thumbstick before the offensive player even makes his move to ensure that you keep him in front of you.

You can also try to take a charge by pulling the Left Trigger while cutting off a player or when he’s backing you down.

If you want to block shots – look for the offensive player to start his jumper and then press the Y button.  But be careful if you bite on a pump fake – you’re vulnerable to the up and under.

Operation Sports:  How are the double teams handled? 

Sean O’Brien: “Double teams are handled through user input - a user can call a double team anytime he’s on defense by pressing a button on his d-pad. And he’ll bring someone from the weak side to double the ball. And it’s also handled contextually. Depending on what skill level you’re playing on, double teams will occur at different times in the game. So if a guy is killing you in the post, and you’re playing on a lower level, you’ll see a double team come over and recognize that you need that double to prevent that guy from scoring. And on higher skill levels it requires you to do that, and there is a button you can press to trigger that.”

Operation Sports:  How has the atmosphere changed? Has the crowd animations been changed? Are there more fight songs, mascots, and team cheers?

Sean O’Brien: “We continued to improve upon what we built for 07. First of all, the crowds visually look a lot stronger than they did in 07. I think we’ve got the best looking, best animating next-gen sports crowd out of any game based on what they do and the logic behind it. A lot of the things that you really notice when you’re the fan of a particular school is that we’ve got student sections performing routines and rituals that are unique to that particular school. We’ve got over 400 crowd chants, and we’ve got fight songs for each school as well. When you include the cheerleaders, the mascot, the crowd, the student section, the band (full of 3D instruments) our atmosphere really screams college basketball.

And on the realism side, each school’s attendance is as it would happen in real life. So if you’ve got a school that averages 500 fans a game in an arena that holds 4,500, then you’ll see that there are only 500 fans there. In the School Pride feature in Dynasty mode you can actually build that up. So you can take a school that doesn’t really care much about their basketball program – for whatever reason – and you can actually make them care. You can start winning, and you can start generating some hype around the program, and people will start coming to the games.

And one thing we did last year, which I don’t think we got a lot of credit for, is having the motion of the crowd animations synched with the audio. So if you hear a clap, you see a clap. So it’s kind of a subtle, but cool feature.”

Operation Sports:  Are there any new shot animations? How many animations have been added to the game?

Sean O’Brien: “We’ve got a number of different shot animations. We did remove the timing aspect of a release. So every jump shot does not have an early or late release associated with it based on your button press. The button press still matters as far as the likelihood of the ball going in the basket (along with ratings, along with how he’s being guarded, if he’s in motion or not, etc.). We’ve got some really cool looking jump shots, turn-around jump shots, shots from a move that take into consideration momentum and speed, so I would say there are 10-15 brand new jump shot animations in this year’s game.

In terms of animations in the post-alone, we’ve added dozens and dozens of new animations. We’ve introduced a variety with dribble animations, so when you’re coming up the court you see guys calling plays and different types of dribbles. You can see the new jump shot. There are new crowd animations. There are new defensive slides and animations in the post as well. So it’s hard to put a number on it, but a lot of animations have been completely reworked from 07 to 08.”

Operation Sports:  We keep hearing about the deep Dynasty mode. Can you describe some of the new additions to this mode?

Sean O’Brien: “The two cool things that come to mind are the ESPN.com feature, which is similar to what you saw in NCAA football. It gives you a homepage with the new dynasty mode, where you can see what’s going on around the country, within your conference, within your team, who is performing, who’s not, etc. It’s just like a homepage that you would see on ESPN.com, but customized for you and your school. So it gives you insight into what’s happening around the country, without you having to go four or five screens deep to find it.

The other thing that I love is the ESPN GameCasts feature. We’ve received stats that show that 60% of people playing our dynasty mode are simming games. So the majority of people are actually not playing every single game in dynasty mode. They’re actually simulating it and relying on the CPU to figure out who wins and loses. So we decided to throw in the GameCasts feature, which is the same as you’d see on ESPN.com, and we re-wrote our simulation engine so it’s possession by possession. So you can see a basketball court that shows your makes and misses, it spits out every single possession, and also shows you individual player stats, and team stats. So as you see all this being spit out, possession by possession, you can actually go in and call a play just through the interface on the front end. You can make a coaching decision, a sub, or you can change your offense or defense. And if you see that you’re down by ten points with two minutes left, you can actually intervene at any single time in the game. So you can actually finish the game out, to try and avoid a loss, or whatever you want to do.”

Operation Sports:  Which new feature stands out the most this year? 

Sean O’Brien: “I would definitely have to say the post-play. It’s really changed the game. So it’s that particular feature, but then it’s also the things that we’ve had to do to the game to make that feature a part of the game, and a must-play part of the game. We’ve slowed the game-pace down so it’s not as chaotic and erratic as it has been in years past. We’ve also bumped up interceptions – half court and transition – so that you can’t just get the ball, get a rebound, pass, pass, and get to the rim. That bothers me personally with a lot of basketball games. They’re just mindless passing, and getting to the rim. That’s not basketball.

Another feature that stands out is giving you the ability to play the game with your back to the basket, in the post, having dozens of different moves, using player strengths and weaknesses to your advantage or disadvantage, and then also being able to guard. I think the game is much more strategic, and it forces you to make good decisions.”

Operation Sports:  How different is the gameplay, when comparing this game to NBA Live 08. Is it a night and day difference or is it subtle? 

Sean O’Brien: “I think it is quite different. It goes back to that system of pass-pass-dunk. The way the NBA game is played in real life is more one-on-one, two-on-two, as opposed to the five-on-five, team game of college basketball. I think for the first year we’ve really nailed that, where we’ve forced you to play a team game, forced you to call some plays, to look in the post and make plays. I think the immediate difference that you’ll see is that the atmosphere is quite different, the control you have on defense with the lockdown stick, the play calling system, the intensity control which means the crowd actually has an impact on the guys on the floor, and then the post game with its complexity and depth of the controls.”

Operation Sports:  Could you give us some examples of how the AI has progressed this year? Specifically how the AI handles double teams, clock management and set plays.

Sean O’Brien: “We spent a lot of time addressing some issues with offensive and defensive awareness.  Players in the right positions on the floor to make plays.  Also, going back to what we did with slowing the game speed down, making CPU defenders more aware of what a good or bad pass is, and when they should intercept a pass. Those are probably the main things outside of the post game. I think 08 is a slower more strategic basketball game – it’s a different way of playing a basketball game, and is the way a basketball game should be played.”

Operation Sports:  Are there actual neutral sites for the NCAA tournament and conference tournaments, or are they the same generic courts?

Sean O’Brien: “There are some neutral sites in the game, the floor is neutral, you get different courts based on if you’re playing a tournament game, and what round it is, and also the atmosphere is a neutral crowd. So there will be support for both schools. So the tournament games do feel a lot different than a regular season conference game.”

Operation Sports:  Does the 60 FPS hold in every camera angle?

Sean O’Brien: “It does. We tested every single camera, even when zoomed out all the way. It holds 60.”

Operation Sports:  How are the game load times?

Sean O’Brien: “They are good. They’re the same as last year, they’re very consistent. There is the competitive mini-game that you can play while it loads, so its an interactive load rather than just having you sit around.”

Operation Sports:  Will we see 15 man rosters? D-1 can offer up to 13 slots, and if you have only 12, then you are always going to short us one key player, if not for the current dynasty season, for the next one. 

Sean O’Brien: “12 man rosters. The biggest challenge that we have with roster size is the memory requirements for it. We just chose to prioritize our memory differently. If you think about it as a massive database with all these players, and every team has 12 slots, if you add three more slots for 325 schools, that’s a larger database, which means that your footprint for the database in the game gets so much larger, and it takes up more memory so you can’t have something else.”

Operation Sports:  Is there a Create-A-Tourney feature?

Sean O’Brien: “There isn’t a Create-A-Tourney feature, but every tournament we have is customizable. So if you go into the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational, and by default you’ll get the 8 schools that are participating in it that year, but you can go in and change any one of those schools. So it’s basically the same thing as a Create-A-Tournament, because you have the option of customizing it to playing whoever you want.”

Operation Sports:  You can mention the NIT Season Tip-Off, EA Sports Maui Invitational, and the Post Season NIT all you want, but there are loads of pre-season tourneys which teams use to play out of conference games or gain experience. Ones like the Great Alaska Shoot-out, and the Puerto Rico Shootout. Are they in there, even in generic form, or can you create them?

Sean O’Brien: “No, we have to individually license every single one of those tournaments and we haven’t done so this year. We felt by giving you the opportunity to customize the ones that are in there, should provide you with enough variety.”

Operation Sports:  Will we see Conference Challenges, like the Pac-10/Big 12 Challenge, Big East/SEC Invitational the ACC-SEC Challenge, or even ESPN's(which you have rights too) Bracket Busters? These are Conference Challenges that are big events for name teams to hook-up out of conference, while the Bracketbuster gives loads of Mid-Major Teams the chance to boost their resumes before Conference Tourneys. It occurs in early February.

Sean O’Brien: “You’ll see more of it going forward, it’s just a gradual process.”

Operation Sports:  Are there any more additional sliders this year?

Sean O’Brien: “No we haven’t added anything. We feel that we’ve covered off all of the important game play sliders that allow you to customize your own unique game, and play the game how you want to play it.”

Operation Sports:  Do we have the ability to fully customize all players? Ex. YEAR, POSITITION, SKIN COLOR, ETC?

Sean O’Brien: “Yes, you can edit every single player that’s in the game, whether its just adding their name, putting on a headband, changing their head, changing their skin colour, whatever you want to do. You aren’t limited.” 

Operation Sports:  Will multi-team dynasties be available?

Sean O’Brien: “No.”

Operation Sports:  Is there a create a team feature? If so, could you give us some details?

Sean O’Brien: “No there is not.”

Operation Sports:  How are the ball and rim physics this year?

Sean O’Brien: “They’re good. We feel that they are an accurate representation of what happens when the ball hits the rim – based on if it’s a 3-point shot or something closer. We spent a lot of time making sure rebounding is tight, that the ball comes off the rim in a natural realistic manner to allow you to be in a good position to play the ball, and be in a good position.”

Operation Sports:  We would like to thank you for your time with this interview, is there anything else you would like to add?

Sean O’Brien: “I think just to sum it up, the game play has changed dramatically. The post play should change the way that you play this game, it’s by far the deepest post experience in any basketball game to date.

Our crowd and environment is the best it has ever been. And I would argue that it’s probably the best atmosphere in any basketball game, and arguably any sports game. I think our dynasty mode is so deep, and with ESPN.com is great as well. Plus bringing in Erin Andrews as our sideline reporter in game also really adds that broadcast feel.

And the visuals: Our characters look strong and stunning -- from the crowd to the cheerleaders to the players themselves.

60 FPS makes a big difference. And overall, the game plays a lot differently, and a lot better. The post game is a lot of fun to play, and it’s a really good head-to-head game, as well as a really good single player game. So it’s just a lot of fun to play.”