Gameplay Producer: Connor Dougan

EA SPORTS Gameplay Engine: How we made NCAA Basketball 09 Better and different

PART 2

Changes based on the community day feedback

On September 9th and 10th we had the opportunity to meet with various community leaders up at EA Canada to get some constructive feedback on the feature set and the direction of the game while we were still in a position to address any issues that were brought up. The majority of the feedback was focused on Gameplay and we had the community play our game for 10 hours straight. Their feedback was invaluable, and not only helped improve our Gameplay experience – but it also helped us with our long term product direction. It was an eye opening experience for me personally and I was really happy to part of the event. I wanted to touch on some of the Gameplay changes that were made coming out of the event.

Interceptions and game flow

We had a problem in our game where players would intercept the ball and the user would be stuck playing out an interception animation resulting in the defense catching up and killing the fast break. We fixed that problem by cutting the interceptions shorter and blending to moving dribble animations resulting in a better game flow and a much improved transition game.

Quick Strike

We replaced the entire set of “jog” speed crossovers with much quicker ones that provide the user with a greater sense of control and responsiveness. The new animations will preserve the momentum of the ball carrier instead of taking him off to a 45 degree angle.

We also made go moves/first steps from Quick strike much more responsive. So if you’re crossing over back and forth from a stand and then try to go left/right with your left stick – the player will react instantaneously instead of waiting for the crossover to finish. The same change was also applied to the Turbo modified big hesitation crossovers.

This change really helped improve overall game responsiveness.

Shot blocking in the post

Shot blocking is now easier in the post. The community felt it was a little tough to react to the shooter at times.

Analog passing

Analog passing was tuned so that the ball goes to the intended receiver more often. Essentially we removed the weights that were conflicting with the users analog stick direction. We eliminated cases where we tried to guess where the user wanted to go and instead relied more heavily on the left analog stick direction.

Icon passing

We’ve added “quick tap” functionality to the icon passing. If the user taps the icon passing shoulder button the icons will appear over the players’ heads for a fraction of a second, in which time they can press any of the face buttons to pass the ball. Users can still hold the shoulder button to keep the icons up if desired.

Players react faster to loose balls

We’ve tuned the reaction time and player selection for loose balls.

Pick and roll receptions

We’ve addressed an issue where players rolling to the basket would catch the ball and his momentum would take him too far under the basket.

Default camera zoom

We’ve increased the default camera zoom to further enhance the size differences in players.

Transition defense

We’ve improved transition defense for teams who play Halfcourt zone defense. We found there were cases where players wouldn’t guard the basket in transition and instead get confused an go to their assigned spot in the Halfcourt zone defense.

Double teams

Increased the amount of double team scenarios when the user brings over another defender to double team the post.

We increased the frequency of traps occurring when the user presses the double team button.

Not enough fouls on collisions

Slightly increased the amount of fouls called during in air collisions

Shot percentage during in air collision

Slightly dropped the shot percentages for in-air collisions.

Shot percentages for post jumpers

Decreased the shot percentages for post jumpers.

The above list isn’t everything we touched since early September but I wanted to mention that many of these game tweaks specified by the community leaders - both large and small - have greatly improved product quality. I can’t thank the community leaders enough for attending, keeping an open mind and providing us with constructive feedback. I’m confident that the changes outlined above will be noticed by the community leaders once the demo comes out for Xbox 360 and the PS3. I encourage anyone to give it a download and post their impressions online. It can only help our product quality moving forward.

Look for more posts over the next few weeks as members of the development team discuss new features in NCAA Basketball 09.

Thanks
Connor Dougan
NCAA Basketball 09