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Hey Madden fans, it's that time again...time for another weekly blog update! Last week, I shared some of the details around the successes and challenges we've had in trying to create simulation gameplay for Madden NFL 10. To be clear, 'simulation' gameplay isn't new - IMO it's what put EA SPORTS (and Madden) on the map in the early 90's after all.
Well this week we wanted to touch on one of the biggest aspects in creating an NFL sim, and as you might expect, this is also usually most difficult to get to an area where it still 'feels right'. That aspect is Player Momentum. Creating momentum in a football game is typically handled in many different ways, so today I'm going to just touch on one key area (and leave other topics for future weeks).
Turn Rates
Simply put, you can consider the "turn rate" of a player the amount of width it takes him to run in a complete circle (at varying speeds). By a 'circle', I don't mean a spin move, I mean running in a full circle. Obviously a player running at top speed will 'carve' a very wide circle, while a player walking or jogging can complete that circle in a very tiny radius. Inevitably, if you try to run at top speed but still make the circle tighter, you will have to slow down (think about the speed a baseball player loses as he has to come around 3rd base). This turn rate also varies quite a bit on the athletic ability of the player. A player like Darren Sproles can maintain a much higher top speed while turning than say Brandon Jacobs.
With that description out of the way, how does that apply to Madden NFL 10? Well, as most should know by now we are really pushing for an authentic and realistic experience, so we have obviously been pushing to create more realistic turn rates for all of our players. Before we even started changing things for this year though, we did a bit of a case study on some of our previous games. We tested how many yards it took an agile player (Tomlinson for example) running at full speed to curve / turn and face 90 degrees towards the sideline. Check out the result video below:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrWuVtTDvd0&eurl=[/media]
Here are the results:
- Madden NFL 2006 (PS2): ~5 yards
- Madden NFL 08 (X360): ~1 yard
- Madden NFL 09 (X360): ~1 yard
We looked closely at NFL game film to try and find real numbers, but even without watching any film it was pretty obvious that even the most agile of players cannot curve (or plant) to turn 90 degrees within 1 yard when at top speed, so we tuned the entire system down a bit. Here is a video showing some of the new Madden NFL 10 'turn rates' in action for the ballcarrier in the ANT tool:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuQyg_RfqgY&eurl[/media]
It's not the best video since you don't have yard markers, but his average distance to turn 90 degrees is anywhere from ~4 to 9 yards. As you might expect, we hooked the agility rating directly into this turn rate to scale up and down within that range. Hopefully you can see right away that the player feels like he has a lot more 'weight'...which is definitely what we are going for this year.
These values are also shared with defenders. We really wanted to get rid of that feeling of 'twitch' movement for players on defense, and make their movements much more deliberate. Check out this video of a defender's turn rate compared between Madden NFL 09 and Madden NFL 10:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjI4lYBx3xE&eurl=[/media]
Not only should you notice the differences in turn rates, you should also see a lot more 'momentum' in the Madden NFL 10 version, including acceleration, deceleration, and even planting. We'll talk about that more later in the year though, mainly because we are still heavily tuning it so I don't exactly know what to tell everyone yet.
Though these changes to make the game more realistic may seem small on the surface to some, we are really excited about making them because they truly have a serious effect on how you play the game. More than ever, you will see many differences between players on the field, and you'll feel those differences in your hand while controlling them. It adds a whole new layer of strategy and realism to the game knowing that if the QB throws a perfect pass and you are out of position, you can't stop on a dime and go make a play. The same goes for offense - you have to be much more patient and deliberate to succeed. You need to read your blockers, wait for holes to open up, and stop holding the sprint button the entire time if you want to successfully run the ball. These changes, along with the game speed changes, have made major strides in giving Madden that extra layer of a 'thinking man's game'. For the future vision of Madden, we want a football coach that's never played Madden before to be able to take down a Madden Challenge competitor...and these are some of the steps to get us to that goal.
It's been a busy week for us this week having deliverables, milestones, reviews, and the like, but we hope you enjoy what we've got cooking so far. As always, sound off with what you'd like to see when it comes to momentum, turn rates, locomotion, or anything else related to player control...looking forward to your feedback!
- Ian Cummings
Lead Designer, Madden NFL 10
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