Ashes Cricket 2013 General Discussion

[MattW]

That's why domestic cricket is a must for an Ashes game - and I don't believe for a moment that's not part of the Cricket Australia/ECB licences that they have - it creates that pool of players that the potential out there choices would come from, as well as solving the game's depth problem.

 

[whiteninness]

That's why domestic cricket is a must for an Ashes game - and I don't believe for a moment that's not part of the Cricket Australia/ECB licences that they have - it creates that pool of players that the potential out there choices would come from, as well as solving the game's depth problem.

I'd tweaking love to play the Sheffield Shield and English County Cricket!

 

[whiteninness]

Not sure if this has been mentioned here, but we can 100% rule out domestic play in Ashes Cricket 2013:

Mike Fegan: Just to confirm again there are 24 unlicensed national teams and three domestic teams. I guess you can say the domestic teams are licensed as they are real teams with real player line ups. .

So, we get to play as some random University vs Afghanistan...fantastic!

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Oh not to worry because we can create domestic teams with the team editor just like in big ants game....there is a team editor right?

 

[whiteninness]

Oh not worry because we can create domestic teams with the team editor just like in big ants game....there is a team editor right?

 

[Mike Fegan]

what about a play session? or handing a member here a preview copy? that doesnt need any special attention or time to do... when you have your game ready invite members here for a play session or send 1 member a preview copy.. that does not take up any extra time...

the only reason i see for not doing so is that u r not confident of your product... if thats so then y boast about the gameplay?

Speaking in general terms, the handing out of preview copies is always a publishers call and generally if this is to occur preview code is shown to a specialty game journalist/s to write a preview of the game. Also closer to the game's release and taking into account printing deadlines review code is also provided to a broader audience of specialty journalist to write reviews on the game. In my experience of nearly 30 years in the business game code be it preview or review game code is ever given out to the public. Our publisher, 505 Games will make these calls when they are ready meanwhile we stay totally focused on the game's production.

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Does that mean you've included career mode?

Gameplay aside, that's the biggest feature in either game and if only one has it then you can hardly call the features similar.

Also within the gameplay, I think that different body sizes and fielding are significant features that seem to be lacking from Ashes...

As previously stated on several occasions we do not have career mode in the AC2013 game. All AC2013 game features will be revealed next month.

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Think about it:

Mike says no: PC and Facebook is all over it, quoting it, providing further bad press for Ashes 2013.

Mike says yes: People question how they've added a career mode in just two months...

Just to be clear as previously stated there is NO career mode in the AC2013 game.

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You can't blame them for wanting to hold back a bit. They had a public thing at Lords and the Broad-tweeted photo was blasted uniformly.

There was also a shambolic presentation in Australia at some industry night.

Can I just clarify your statement about "a shambolic presentation in Australia". Here is the real story, I was asked to present the AC2013 game to a local MP who thankfully heavily supports the local game development industry. I normally keep a low profile and just like to get on with making games as I have executive produced over 23 PC & console games and numerous iOS & Android in the last 10 years.I did this event with the permission of 505 Games and as a favour to a good friend as I have always being passionate about helping the local industry especially young start-ups. The government people in question naturally relate to the sport of cricket very well coming from Australia so it was a good opportunity to thank them for their valued financial support of the local industry in the past and hopefully the future. As soon as this presentation to the Minister was over with the official speeches out of the way we immediately left the venue to get back to the studio (just down the street) as we had a very important deadline to meet at that time. From all accounts the Minister was pleased with the fact that not one but two quality cricket games are currently being produced in Melbourne, Australia. Which will hopefully lift the profile for all local game developers and secure greater financial support for the local struggling industry from various State & Federal Government bodies.

 

[Dutch]

Thanks for the points above. Mike now that you are here are you able to say something about how you will go about revealing the features of the game....until now we have seen very very little visual representation of the game. Will you be showing the features of the game or only describing them?

Can you say something about the management of the official forum? The question has been asked many times but no answer is forthcoming. How do you view the state of the forum and what can be done, if anything to make it worthy of a game worthy of the Ashes name? Not trying to be funny, a genuine question.

 

[Mike Fegan]

Mike; I was just wondering whether you're planning to add Kerrigan to the England squad in the game? The player list you tweeted out a few weeks ago doesn't have him featuring (unsurprisingly; no one was expecting him to get picked!), and it would be nice to have the game feature all the players that played during the summer series.

The good news is that we are adding Simon Kerrigan to the England Ashes squad now taking it to 36 players. Hopefully we won't get anymore last minute surprises on either squad prior to the Ashes tour of Australia starting in November.

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I said earlier how big a problem this is.

Kerrigan (and earlier Agar) aren't specifically problems, since they have time to patch them into the game, but I think of the longevity of the game.

So, picture now early January when both Ashes series have finished, what happens then? I don't know the next teams Australia and England are playing but what happens when another kid pops up like Agar and Kerrigan?

You cannot edit the Australian and English squads at all, so the game will already be out of date.

Microsoft And Sony now allow free game updates on their platforms so if you have an internet connection you will be able to choice to download additional content if you wish.

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They have shown screenshots of the licensed Australian and English one-day guernseys. One magazine showed one of Steve Finn (looking stupidly short) running in in the red guernsey.

They have squads of a bit over 30 so they'll be able to cover a fair few one day players but not all. Australia almost has three different teams across all formats.

I can guarantee that at least one player will play for Australia in some format this summer who is not in the squad this game ships with.

Don't worry, you can edit the squads and there is a player creator so this will be easy to fix...oh...

Just to clarify here, you can indeed edit the licensed Australian & England squads but you can't edit the player's themselves or add your own players to these squads. Also aside from the Ashes Tours the licenses with the ECB & CA also covers full ODI and t20 games hence the reason we have some many players in each squad to cater to all three game modes.

 

[Dutch]

Just to clarify here, you can indeed edit the licensed Australian & England squads but you can't edit the player's themselves or add your own players to these squads. Also aside from the Ashes Tours the licenses with the ECB & CA also covers full ODI and t20 games hence the reason we have some many players in each squad to cater to all three game modes.

Doesn't that then go against your statement that this game will feature all the content of DB except career mode? If I cannot edit or add players to a squad at will how does that match the player editor in DB? I realise there are licensing issues here but it sounds as if this editor is the same as the IC2010 one, which is about as close to the DB editor as I am to the top job in the White House.....

 

[las_faiz]

Just to clarify here, you can indeed edit the licensed Australian & England squads but you can't edit the player's themselves or add your own players to these squads. Also aside from the Ashes Tours the licenses with the ECB & CA also covers full ODI and t20 games hence the reason we have some many players in each squad to cater to all three game modes.

So, basically what that means is we can pick a line up of 11 from the squad. That doesnt sounds to me like editing

 

[Mike Fegan]

Thanks for the points above. Mike now that you are here are you able to say something about how you will go about revealing the features of the game....until now we have seen very very little visual representation of the game. Will you be showing the features of the game or only describing them?

Can you say something about the management of the official forum? The question has been asked many times but no answer is forthcoming. How do you view the state of the forum and what can be done, if anything to make it worthy of a game worthy of the Ashes name? Not trying to be funny, a genuine question.

As previously stated the TG team need the month of August to totally focus on getting the AC2013 game ready for submissions. We want no distractions or additional external pressures from anywhere. We have a revised production plan and we are sticking to it as we cannot afford to miss the November release window for obviously reasons. We will start to produce marketing assets for our publisher 505 Games in due course and at that time they will also confirm all details of the AC2013 game.

In relation to the management of the official forum this is not my area as my primary objective for coming on the forum and AC2013 FB page is to simply answer questions where I can and try to dispel the misinformation and negativity that has been aimed at the TG team due to the delay of the AC2013 game which I take full responsibility for and make no excuses. I will pass on your comments to the appropriate people in this matter.

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Doesn't that then go against your statement that this game will feature all the content of DB except career mode? If I cannot edit or add players to a squad at will how does that match the player editor in DB? I realise there are licensing issues here but it sounds as if this editor is the same as the IC2010 one, which is about as close to the DB editor as I am to the top job in the White House.....

Once again, we will reveal all next month so please be patient.

 

[Dutch]

As previously stated the TG team need the month of August to totally focus on getting the AC2013 game ready for submissions. We want no distractions or additional external pressures from anywhere. We have a revised production plan and we are sticking to it as we cannot afford to miss the November release window for obviously reasons. We will start to produce marketing assets for our publisher 505 Games in due course and at that time they will also confirm all details of the AC2013 game.

In relation to the management of the official forum this is not my area as my primary objective for coming on the forum and AC2013 FB page is to simply answer questions where I can and try to dispel the misinformation and negativity that has been aimed at the TG team due to the delay of the AC2013 game which I take full responsibility for and make no excuses. I will pass on your comments to the appropriate people in this matter.

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Once again, we will reveal all next month so please be patient.

Thanks for replying........but by golly if I have to keep on hearing that I have to be patient..........what else have we all been doing the last year? We have been so patient Mike, so patient. I know you get a lot of personal abuse which I utterly abhor and find shameful and absolutely disgusting but we are not all just 14 year old hyperactive kids not getting their way.......we have been really really really patient Mike!

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In relation to the management of the official forum this is not my area .......... I will pass on your comments to the appropriate people in this matter

Without wanting to sound cocky or ungrateful it surprises me that nothing has been done about it yet. Surely I am not the first person to have pointed this out?

I have sent emails to various people.....the so called forum moderator, 505 games, complaining about the abusive posts, utter spamming, and free for all that is the Official Ashes Forum of the Official Ashes Game....surely someone somewhere must be going.....this doesnt look good for us as a company......I can hardly believe that the ECB or CA are happy to have their name asscociated with such a quagmire however important they may feel having access to new kitchens is.

 

[isrararrafi]

Microsoft And Sony now allow free game updates on their platforms so if you have an internet connection you will be able to choice to download additional content if you wish.

Care to explain a bit more about that? Do you mean patches and dlcs will be free to publish for you on psn and live? I could not find any article regarding this. If this is indeed what you meant, that is great news for you guys, as i believe publishing patches and dlcs were quite expensive before.

 

[Pat]

Care to explain a bit more about that? Do you mean patches and dlcs will be free to publish for you on psn and live? I could not find any article regarding this. If this is indeed what you meant, that is great news for you guys, as i believe publishing patches and dlcs were quite expensive before.

I think I posted this in DBC14 forum a while back. You can read about it here: Microsoft no longer charges developers to patch their Xbox 360 games • News • Xbox 360 • Eurogamer.net

Edit: If you ask me, there is no excuse now for developers/publishers to NOT patch a game post-release even if there are only minor bugs. Can only be a good thing for us gamers

 

[Mike Fegan]

Care to explain a bit more about that? Do you mean patches and dlcs will be free to publish for you on psn and live? I could not find any article regarding this. If this is indeed what you meant, that is great news for you guys, as i believe publishing patches and dlcs were quite expensive before.

The point I was making was that we now have a more open and smoother process to do game updates as both Sony & Microsoft are now very much indie game developer friendly than ever before especially with the new PS4 & XboxOne consoles being launched in November.