Bone-idle Interview : Dave Rutter Producer on Fifa 12 Part 1
David Rutter Producer on the Fifa football series takes time out to talk to Bone-idle
Bone-Idle: We just had a chance to get in two quick games there it’s looking pretty good.
DR: Thanks and we are months away from finishing, this is the first formal hands on event we have done, as in previous year we have been hidden away until around July before we let people have a look at the game, but ultimately there was a point this year.. and this year we talk about revolution not evolution ..there was a point when the team were playing the game and thought this is quite special for where we are ..and we are not out until “the Autumn” and you can probably guess when.
The idea for us to be able to come out in May and say revolution is quite bold but we think we have something pretty special this year.
Bone-Idle: With Fifa 11 the model was very much just to take a small step on from 10 but this time the improvements are much more obvious in terms of the player collision and precision dribbling.
DR: You may have seen other little bits we added too like quick throw ins and drop balls, stuff we aren’t even talking about yet there is a ton more stuff to come but today we are focussing on the three main aspects with the Precision dribbling, the collision engine and the tactical defending.
Bone-Idle: It’s different enough to not be considered just another yearly update?
DR: Yea and it’s not easy to do that, the team has been working really hard.
Bone-Idle: You have been working on this engine for 2 years now?
DR: Yea the player impact engine has been in development for close to 2 years and the reason we took the step is because we felt we had taken the interaction with the players as far as we could. As every game developer will tell you to get realistic interactions you need real time physics otherwise it’s just too expensive and just doesn’t always work. So getting the real time physics in the player impact engine is really important and a big step forward.
And we talk about a waterfall effect of other things that come off it, you talk about the precision dribbling mechanic and we also got the tactical defending which has removed everything that was bad about defending in FIFA. You now have to think about what you are doing.
Bone-Idle: That’s a deliberate thing to remove the pressing option as it might be seen as too simplistic.
DR: It’s totally simplistic, its mindless all you have to do was hold one button and the player would act as a homing missile and it created huge problems within the game, which some users found off putting. Where new users would find that they were under too much pressure and would just put the controller down saying that’s horrible, to the skilled players being able to pass around the defence and use the space, through to the conga where two players would follow each other like a train around the pitch after the ball. All these terrible things that happened in the game that people kind of liked as all you did was hold a button and you won the all back which isn’t how football works. We are about creating a simulation of football not just through the players and kits but also in the way it plays and defending is part of football, one which it wasn’t really a part of FIFA. The rebalance the game with the precision dribbling with the tactical defending and to have the two of them come together you have this beautiful seamless sense of flow and smoothness without any jarring moments.
Please Join us on your Social Platform of choice
