Article
Under the influence
Any game designer should be influenced by absolutely everything and anything. It’s as simple as that. Films, books, television, plays, even other games, you name it, there’s something that can inspire you in almost anything.
So here, for a bit of fun, is a list of some of my influences and how they relate to Football Superstars.
Games:
Like most people, I can’t escape the fact that I’m getting older (except for my cousin Jimmy, who gets younger every year. I’m sure there’s a horribly disfigured painting of him in an attic somewhere that needs stabbing).
Anyway, the upshot of this is that I’ve been playing videogames longer than some of our development team have been alive. As a consequence, the, quite literally, thousands of games I’ve played in my lifetime have been a huge influence on my life. I like to think that this wealth of experience helps me make better design decisions – as my boss sometimes says to me ‘I trust your design instincts’. My parents might add ‘Thank God playing all those games wasn’t just a waste of ***ing time!’
When looking at football games in particular, I’ve played pretty much all of them. From Match Day on the ZX Spectrum, Sensible Soccer, Kick Off, Virtua Striker, Neo-Geo Cup et al through to the latest FIFA or PES installment, I’ve always been a big fan. Our game is very different to anything else I’ve played in the genre, bar Namco’s Libero Grande perhaps, but you can’t help be influenced by what has come before.
When I first started work on Football Superstars I was a huge advocate of the side-on viewpoint. It was familiar to me. I was used to it. I wanted it in the game.
However, despite this, I was soon won over by the third person view we now employ in Football Superstars. It just suits the ‘play as a single footballer’ ethos so much better than a side-on view did (and believe me, we tried that!).
The fast and responsive movement controls are retained from many classic football games though, so we’re really happy with the system that’s been implemented. It’s something new and exciting for sure!
I’ve certainly been influenced by other MMOs I’ve enjoyed playing. As a huge Star Wars fan, Star Wars Galaxies was one of my favourite games at one time. I ended up with a famous dancing Jedi character and played the game for years. There’s certainly some Star Wars Galaxies in our game. Though the setting is obviously hugely different, some of the better design decisions from that game have influenced my take on MMO design.
World of Warcraft is another game that you have to admire. It’s just incredibly well designed and made. I played the game for a short while just to see what all the fuss was about, and I know our creative director, Steve Marshall, is a huge fan. Though the setting doesn’t appeal to me personally, you’d be mad not to appreciate the design features of the most successful MMO thus far (note to Blizzard: Please make Worlds of StarCraft next. Thanks!).
Stuff:
Part of what I do involves interface design. The basic functionality of something like the player’s PDA, Inventory, or character sheet has to be designed in great detail so that the code guys can implement things accurately. After that, the art boys get to grips with things and make everything look beautiful.
When designing how a feature will function, I’m often influenced by Apple products. Personally I love Apple Computing’s design ethos. Their products are just awesome (I’m typing this on a MacBook!) and their interface design is usually simple, intuitive, functional and in some cases beautiful. Just take a look at the iPhone and iPod Touch. Simple, elegant systems that let you do what you want to do quickly and easily. You’ll hopefully be able to see this influence a lot in our game. We want things to be simple and intuitive to use.
Film and TV:
I often joke that everything is influenced by the film ‘Aliens’. More than 20 years after it was made, you can still see its slimy claws in other films, television shows and even games.
There are no aliens (at time of writing) in Football Superstars, but other influences from film and TV abound.
Some of the emotes we’ve put into the game reference films and television, mainly of the sci-fi or comedy variety. Because I wrote most of the emotes, I was able to slip in a few that hopefully my colleagues won’t have noticed! It’s a nice diversion perhaps, and only a few may get some of the references. But if you do ‘get’ them, you’ll no doubt feel part of a special club!
The replay system we have is, for realism’s sake, obviously influenced in part by TV replays, and how football is shown on television. In addition, we also have a bullet-time feature for replays that looks awesome. Seriously. It’s hypnotic. Like a lava lamp…
People:
A game is not designed in isolation. We have several designers working on the game, and we all have opinions. Throw in the coders and artists, and there’s a wealth of knowledge, experience and influences there to draw on just by engaging in conversation with people, or working closely on a problem with them.
Outside the company there’s obviously friends and family, and beyond that there’s you lot, the Football Superstars community. All of these influences are taken into account. Though we like to think we’ve thought of everything, it’s amazing how someone not connected to the game in any way can have a fresh perspective on how something should work or an idea you just didn’t think of.
