Big Ant Studios post first look at Cricket game

[SpiderSlatts]

Thanks for all your feedback Ross, it's great to have a developer so involved with the forums... Even if it gets a bit heated at times!

Just a question regarding the 'realistic' game, what can we expect in terms of big ants philosophy? Are you aiming to make a game with realistic run rates where the bulk of scoring is done in singles and twos?

 

[BigAntStudios]

Thanks for all your feedback Ross, it's great to have a developer so involved with the forums... Even if it gets a bit heated at times!

Just a question regarding the 'realistic' game, what can we expect in terms of big ants philosophy? Are you aiming to make a game with realistic run rates where the bulk of scoring is done in singles and twos?

It depends on which mode you are playing, obviously enough, but we have a saying here for the Test side of things "if you feast every day then you never feast" - basically boundaries will be at an appropriate rate so that you feel like you've acheived something.

That said, if there are less overs in a game then the proportion of boundaries might be higher per ball as we simulate bowler fatigue at a higher rate.

 

[barmyarmy]

The nature of passionate fans is that you're going to get scepticism as well as fan-boys. The site's been around 11 years and the community has had its fair share of let-downs on games. That said we're delighted to see developers engaging after years of EA engaging for two weeks before release and not again after.
As far as I'm concerned the more competition the better as it forces both 505 and Big Ant to raise their games.
I've been saying for years that you may have to filter out some of the crazy but you can't beat somewhere like Planetcricket in terms of market research. The members here really know what makes a good cricket game and listening to (most of) the suggestions can only make the final product better.
Best of luck and looking forward to playing the game.

 

[BigAntStudios]

The nature of passionate fans is that you're going to get scepticism as well as fan-boys. The site's been around 11 years and the community has had its fair share of let-downs on games. That said we're delighted to see developers engaging after years of EA engaging for two weeks before release and not again after.
As far as I'm concerned the more competition the better as it forces both 505 and Big Ant to raise their games.
I've been saying for years that you may have to filter out some of the crazy but you can't beat somewhere like Planetcricket in terms of market research. The members here really know what makes a good cricket game and listening to (most of) the suggestions can only make the final product better.
Best of luck and looking forward to playing the game.

I can understand the EA philosophy, not showing a product until it's 100%, it makes sense for a company of their size, they can't chase niche games.

Couldn't agree more on competition. there is no doubt that competition will raise the level of the games, as it does tend to do with sport itself, and I believe there is room for at least two games.

 

[barmyarmy]

Possibly even more with Trine and Gambience...

 

[SibiNaayagam]

Hey Ross, great to see you responding to lot of our posts
About the game, are we going to have real time generated player/ball physics or canned animation during the play?

 

[BigAntStudios]

Hey Ross, great to see you responding to lot of our posts
About the game, are we going to have real time generated player/ball physics or canned animation during the play?

There is motion capture used and then it is blended in real time to match the physics of the situation.

Everything is in real-time and calculated accordingly. We are playing with slowing down time at certain points on lower difficulties but this may or may not make it into the final release. There are no quick time mini-games to be found in the game, a core development mantra is to minimise the HUD during gameplay.

It's a little bit easier maths wise than the oval shaped air-filled balls we've had to deal with in our with our recent games, they are kicked by foot and passed by hand and are very oddly shaped and we did all of those in real time

 

[Biggs]

There is a little bit of me that says if you can dish it then you should be able to take it, and I think I only gave back as well as I got.

...except this isn't the schoolyard and those that have an opinion on something shouldn't get beaten up by some random dude who visits their house telling them how to do things. Also, you're a company. Nobody is attacking you personally, you on the other hand...

That being said, I'll take the veiled apology. I am the customer after all, heh.

Cricket is definitely hard to get right, we've decided to do it differently to the games of the past, indeed a key difference in all of our games is that we don't like stoppages or camera cuts while the ball is in play. We are at the stage that the game is playable.

That stems from most cricket games chasing a "live tv" feel, rather than from a "in the field" feel. It's an interesting direction to steer away from that, because most people experience cricket for the first time on television, it can be a shock to folks who haven't seen cricket live before realize they 'bowl from both ends' for example. That kinda stuff would be incredibly hard to get across in a computer game. Power to you for trying something different though.

In terms of what is ready and what isn't - I can tell you that we actually have two cricket games in the works. One is a more "kiddy" arcade version that is called "Tabletop Cricket" a PC/PS3/XBox360 version of cricket that simulates the old felt tabletop/ball bearing form of cricket. More details on this will follow very soon. I will share some screenshots with you later this week.

Why two games? Is there a market there for a "kiddy cricket" game?

On the gloves front - I can't say which gloves these were modelled off, all I can say is that I will find out and will show the photo reference, that's for sure, but I can assure you that I will put up my hand if and say if we've got it wrong (it happens ) The guy on our team that modelled them currently plays cricket in Melbourne and has done all his life so I'll be disapointed if they are not "real".

It's become a bit of an in-joke now more than anything, it's not as terrible as I make it out to be, more on the "have they seen a pair of gloves before" type thing. Actually a cumulative effect of everything in that screen looking a bit "off". The shirts are another example of that too, y'know? I've played cricket all my life and watch it religiously, no cricket shirt today looks like that... That's more my beef.

However, as someone pointed out. The gameplay could be amazing, but it's those little visual cues that tell you it's cricket, for me. When you have a proven record of getting what cricket looks and plays like, it's a little easier to have trust that the end product matches that belief. You gotta earn that, not attack people for not believing it.

Awesome.

 

[SibiNaayagam]

There is motion capture used and then it is blended in real time to match the physics of the situation.

Everything is in real-time and calculated accordingly. We are playing with slowing down time at certain points on lower difficulties but this may or may not make it into the final release. There are no quick time mini-games to be found in the game, a core development mantra is to minimise the HUD during gameplay.

It's a little bit easier maths wise than the oval shaped air-filled balls we've had to deal with in our with our recent games, they are kicked by foot and passed by hand and are very oddly shaped and we did all of those in real time

Haha...im more focused on knowing how the swing on the ball was implemented. I wish its somewhat similar(maths wise lol) to how they describe it here...Swing Bowling.

Slowing down time? So i guess thats the alternative for a bowling marker?
And yeah minimising the hud should be great, but is it optional?

 

[BigAntStudios]

With AFL and NRL we were able to get the "no camera cuts" and minimal hud in gameplay accross pretty well. I think we can get that for Cricket as well.

The smaller TableTop Cricket game is for a different audience, I played the old felt top game witht he ball bearing and I thought it would be cool to bring that to PC/Xbox/PS3. There will be some crossover but I think it's a different audience. It's a lot cheaper too.

In terms of track record, we've proved that we can deliver sports games and indeed are the only ones in Australia to do so recently. The last one was more a patch on the Transmission release than a new game.

As posted earlier, the uniforms are from different periods of time and I am glad that we will be giving people a great deal of choice of equiment etc.. The screenshots are from players created in the Player creator. While the gloves may be an in joke I hope to find the photographic source that they were modelled from.

 

[Biggs]

...and indeed are the only ones in Australia to do so recently. The last one was more a patch on the Transmission release than a new game.

I think Sidhe might disagree with you on the "only sports game" front, but maybe NZ doesn't count? Heh. Rugby Challenge is a pretty amazing game, imo.

As posted earlier, the uniforms are from different periods of time and I am glad that we will be giving people a great deal of choice of equiment etc.. The screenshots are from players created in the Player creator. While the gloves may be an in joke I hope to find the photographic source that they were modelled from.

Be great to see it, uniforms from different periods of time? There's an insinuation that means you'll have playable 'events' from past cricket games or something? The 'Inside the Animus' Ubisoft approach to cricket? Heh. Also, companies release "patches" or "extensive" patches as full game all the time, and get A LOT of success from it. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed Revelations come to mind, whereby, it's the same game engine, mechanics, animations etc... just in a shiny new packet. ...and they're amazing games. IC10 was released long before 'downloadable content' was the norm, especially for sports games. I imagine anyone releasing a sports game today thinks about things like releasing 'new kits' for a price, as a DL content. That sort of thing.

 

[SpiderSlatts]

I don't think there is a huge problem with the gloves. In the screenshot, the thumb on both hands is hidden due to the camera's perspective. This means you can't see any webbing between the pointer and thumb.

Regardless, since these are presumably in development screenshots I would respectfully suggest that members (and mods) who are jumping down Ross' throat may be slightly over-reacting.

 

[SibiNaayagam]

Ross, we all know there would be a group of people who like and dislike any particular post...that said i 'believe' the majority would be hoping to see new screenshots even though they are still in development. But make sure you put the 'not the final build' caption so we could avoid any misunderstanding. I think EA/Maxis are doing a great job by doing just that for their Simcity 2013 videos and pics

 

[BigAntStudios]

I think Sidhe might disagree with you on the "only sports game" front, but maybe NZ doesn't count? Heh. Rugby Challenge is a pretty amazing game, imo.



Be great to see it, uniforms from different periods of time? There's an insinuation that means you'll have playable 'events' from past cricket games or something? The 'Inside the Animus' Ubisoft approach to cricket? Heh. Also, companies release "patches" or "extensive" patches as full game all the time, and get A LOT of success from it. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed Revelations come to mind, whereby, it's the same game engine, mechanics, animations etc... just in a shiny new packet. ...and they're amazing games. IC10 was released long before 'downloadable content' was the norm, especially for sports games. I imagine anyone releasing a sports game today thinks about things like releasing 'new kits' for a price, as a DL content. That sort of thing.

I particularily said Australia in context for as far as I know there are no Cricket games coming out of NZ - maybe there is? I'm sure there is room for more

Having said that, I did make an error in not mentioning my friends at Creative Assembly who did the London Olympics game.

I think the player creator/player sharing side of things will take care of a lot of the DLC and Mod needs and give the game a long life but we are certianly looking at what we can provide after the release.

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Haha...im more focused on knowing how the swing on the ball was implemented. I wish its somewhat similar(maths wise lol) to how they describe it here...Swing Bowling.

Slowing down time? So i guess thats the alternative for a bowling marker?
And yeah minimising the hud should be great, but is it optional?

I'll look that up that link now, thanks

Yeah, you're going to get a very different game, for example the bowling is timed on when you release the ball, it works well, requires a great degree of skill and is a lot of fun.

At this point we've made the hud minimal accross the board as a design, it isn't something that you can turn off and on.

 

[SpiderSlatts]

for example the bowling is timed on when you release the ball, it works well, requires a great degree of skill and is a lot of fun.

That is such a good idea! Putting a bowling marker down is a silly concept, and really has nothing to do with how you bowl a ball IRL. As a fast bowler myself I know that the height at which I release the ball is the critical determinant of where it will land.

I understand how this may work for length, but what about line... thoughts Ross?