Hey everyone, it’s Abe Navarro. Some if you may know me from our past football titles, but what you may not know is that one of my first assignments here at Visual Concepts was as assistant producer on the original NHL 2K series for the Dreamcast. So this has been sort of a homecoming for me.

Let’s start this off with the re-designed controls that we decided to call Pro Stick Evolution. One of the first things that the production team had to do was identify the biggest problem areas that faced new users when trying our game. A major complaint was that everything was too complex for people that only had time for a quick game or two. They had trouble just doing the basics. After a number of play tests, we went through the numerous 2K8 controller configurations and found one for our base. We ended up using the old Pro Stick as the foundation for our new scheme, and with the changes that were then made, adding the term Evolution to the end of it seemed quite fitting.

Two things that we wanted to do and that consumers also really seemed to want were the ability to control all aspects of the player’s stick with the Right Analog stick. They wanted to be able to shoot, stickhandle, and play defense. From a design standpoint, this made a lot of sense. Other than baseball and golf, I don’t know of any other sport that really works as well on the Right Analog stick as hockey does.

2K Sports has it's eyes set on recapturing the crown as the best hockey game on the market.

One of the other new control schemes that we created was a simpler version that will allow you to jump in and play without much of a learning curve. Using our new Classic controls, anyone at any level of experience can pick up the controller and pass and shoot with the best of them. And our third Hybrid scheme is essentially a combination of the two that allows you to use either the Right Analog stick or the face buttons.

And now on to the main event! One of the new and exciting gameplay features in NHL 2K9 is a revamped fighting engine. An early task that we had when starting this project was to sit down and identify what makes a fight in hockey so exciting, and once we understood that, how could we take that and bring it home to the fans?

Looking at games from the past as well as our own 2K series, one of the things we knew we wanted to change was the pacing and controls. In many hockey video games, there is a lot of dancing around, feints, and flinching. Most games look like they were designed by people that wanted to make a fighting game as opposed to a quick hockey brawler. We knew that we wanted to deliver the look and feel of an NHL fight that players like Vandermeer, Parker, and McGratton give you when they step on the ice and go toe-to-toe.

The question was how? How do we capture that action? It hasn’t been done in a hockey game yet. In this day and age of video games, you aren’t doing anything without your animators and motion capture department. The production team put together a design, laid out the controls, and then took some reference video to the other two departments and just said “HOW?” Coming from a football design background, I knew the motion capture shoot wasn’t going to be easy. I had seen what tackle after tackle does to an actor’s body. I kept saying to myself “How are these guys going to be able to take blow after blow to the head?”

A new fighting engine will make fans of that aspect of the sport happy.

Well, with the help of our animation and mocap teams, former NHL tough guy Ken Belanger, stunt men and former hockey players Eric PK, Chris N., and Eddie B. (who really loves getting pounded on), plus a little trial and error, we were able to capture and implement a new fighting engine that really gives you that intense, fist-pounding action without the button-masher feel.

There are two basic mechanics - the first is maintaining your balance using the trigger/shoulder buttons, and the second is throwing punches. A weak punch is the A/X button and a strong punch is the B/CIRCLE button. Throwing strong punches over and over will make it a lot harder to maintain your balance, while lots of weak punches may not be enough to take your opponent down. This creates the challenge of trying keep your fighter upright and not vulnerable to big shots from your opponent, while also getting in plenty of punches of your own to take him down. 

With our new controls, exciting new fighting engine, and everything else we were able to add this year, I think there is a little something for everyone in NHL 2K9. I’m really looking forward to seeing all of the feedback.