EA Staff (Retired)
EA Staff (Retired)NBA LIVE 19: LEARN MORE ABOUT NEW GAMEPLAY INNOVATIONS
In this article, we’re going to focus on the gameplay innovations in NBA LIVE 19. Gameplay is where some of the biggest improvements have happened, giving the NBA LIVE franchise the most realistic version of the game that we’ve seen. To get the info on the gameplay changes, I interviewed NBA LIVE Creative Director Connor Dougan about some of the enhancements he’s spent months ideating, including Real Player Motion, One-On-One, Interactive Environment, and Dynamic Gameplay.
RL: In regard to Real Player Motion, what do you hope to achieve by putting it into NBA LIVE 19? How can gamers see a difference between LIVE 18 and LIVE 19?
Connor Dougan (CD): Real Player Motion is going to give our players a much smoother and more responsive experience. Where it really shines is ball carrier movement in terms of being able to change direction, attack the basket, and how smooth and fluid everything looks – it's taken a big jump in quality.
The other advantage of Real Player Motion is that we have a lot of signature player movement. Guys like LeBron, Harden, Kyrie, and Curry will move like they do in real life. Faster acceleration, different nuances of how they dribble and how they move, and this is all controlled with the left stick.
Our off-ball player movement has also been upgraded to Real Player Motion. Our player movement is much more responsive and smoother when controlling players in the halfcourt or in transition.
RL: Does Real Player Motion change the controls at all?
CD: We have a right-stick dribbling system, which allows players to pull of a variety of combo moves to attack the basket. Right-stick dribbling has been taken to the next level (we’ll get to that later) but, with the advantages of real player motion, you can do a lot of different moves on just the left stick alone, which is cool. You don't need to be a master on the right stick, but there's a lot more players can do and it's a lot smoother and easier to pick up and play and it's a lot more responsive and authentic with signature player movement.
We've also overhauled our triple-threat control. All-new jabs steps, as well our pump fake system, all of that has been converted to Real Player Motion technology. In addition, we have brand-new player skeletons, player model improvements, and thousands of new animations. We've improved a lot of our animation pipelines to get rid of any sort of legacy “stiffness” that you may have seen in the past from NBA LIVE.
RL: I’ve heard a lot about improved one-on-one play, walk me through the changes.
CD: Last year, we introduced a game within a game, which allowed players to actually play on-ball defense and we also introduced, offensively, a series of counter moves and right-stick dribbling. This year, we’ve added a new series of all-new counter and combo moves for both in The League and The Streets.
If you're playing in The Streets, you can go around the defender's backs, pull off Shammgods between players legs, between your own legs, double-crosses and all-new combos, and players will see all that as we gear towards launch. The ball handler will have a lot more freedom and control than last year. At the same time, we still want these moves to be skill-based and give the defender the opportunity to stop them.
RL: Players could get away with sleeping on defense if they were off-the-ball, what changes were made to affect that in the one-on-one play?
CD: Last year, in The One mode, if you weren’t guarding the ball handler, there wasn't a lot for you to do. So, we've expanded our one-on-one system to off-ball. Defensively, you can hold your left trigger to body players up away from the ball. Offensively, there's a series of counter moves like V-cuts, L-cuts, and different right stick moves to get you open. There's a whole new game within the game with off-ball play.
It's all skill-based timing windows so, if the offensive player pulls off a right stick move, you have a certain amount of time to react to that move. If you try to V-cut and the defense doesn’t react in time, you’re going to get an open look. There's a whole new game within the game that we're introducing. Really, our goal is to have skill-based one-on-one battles everywhere on the court.
RL: Players really seem to get the opportunity to feel as if they’re on the court with some of these changes. What can you reveal about the game’s new Interactive Environment
CD: Our interactive environment feature breaks the wall between the players on the court and everything off of it. You’ll see players save the ball into the bench and the crowd. You’ll see players fall into the cameramen or crash into the stanchion.
You’ll also see players jawing with the opposing team’s bench or crowd members in Pro-Am. We're also introducing court-storming in our Pro-Am and Street games so, in big games, if you hit a big shot, don’t be surprised if the crowd looks to celebrate with you!
It's not just collisions in the crowd but you'll see players talking trash to the crowd or the bench. We're trying to bring in the secondary characters and tie it all together and make it a living environment.
RL: Is there anything that makes specific players come to life more than they have in past versions?
CD: Absolutely – we’ve built an all-new Dynamic Gameplay A.I. system with the goal of making every game feel different. We wanted to introduce new AI behaviors that are true to life. So, when you play against star players who start to get hot and begin taking over a game, whether on offense or defense, you're going to start to feel that. They'll get the ball fed to them more and they’ll be much more aggressive and depending on their personality types, they'll start talking trash. We've also introduced the concept of post whistle interactive emotes where you can taunt the opposition or celebrate with your teammates. Players will start to do that to you depending on what personality type they have.
You might see a guy like Draymond Green talking a lot more and even hard-fouling in certain cases. There is a lot of stuff with dynamic gameplay A.I. that really bring our players to life. This is done not only through how they play and how they attack you but also how they react emotionally.
If you go against someone like Draymond and you set him off, you're going to start to see him really come at you. He'll foul you, he'll get really physical whether it's on the ball, attacking the rim, or even off-ball just like we’ve seen in this year’s playoffs. There's also new behaviors for guys who are a little flashier, whether that's Harden at The Drew League, or a guy like Jamal Crawford who's more of a one-on-one type player. There’s a lot for our players to look forward to from an AI perspective, and there is more to come on this new system as we head towards launch.
-Rahul Lal (Follow Rahul on Twitter @rlal95)
EA Staff (Retired)
EA Staff (Retired)NBA LIVE 19: THE EVOLUTION OF THE LEAGUE AND THE STREETS
Last year, NBA LIVE 18 presented a lot of opportunities for fans to take their game to The Streets while still dominating The League. The League took a modern and unique take on a basketball career by offering seamless and unified progression. In a mission to turn into THE ONE, players would travel the Pro-Am circuit, hitting some of the most famous street courts in hoops culture history. This article goes through the amazing changes to the journey you’ll take in The League and The Street in NBA LIVE 19.
Making Hoop Dreams Global
As any basketball fan will recognize, basketball is so much more than sold-out arenas, sponsors, and jerseys. I remember falling in love with the sport as a kid and running to my local park to show off the newest move I learned, then bragging to my friends. That love of basketball grows at the most basic level of hoops – and when people play in The Streets, they instantly return to those grassroots, the perfect place to show their passion. In NBA LIVE 19, Creative Director, Ryan Santos looked to re-create that passion where people fall in love with the sport all over again.
“Last year, we had a legit Pro-Am tour where you’d go through the top Pro-Am leagues like The Goodman, Dyckman League, and Drew League, where you’d compete through just like real pros and amateurs do during the summer,” said Santos. “This year, we’re excited about really expanding on that and making it global. We’re taking that Pro-Am tour and turning it into The Streets World Tour, featuring courts around the globe in places like Paris, Rio De Janeiro, and more over the course of the year."
Ring Hunting
Since NBA LIVE is all about making your own decisions, make your way back to The League whenever you want. When you do, you’ll get every chance to grow your own player and take your team deep into the playoffs. The interesting part about The League, though, is that the decisions you make can influence the trajectory of your professional career and even your own personal life. This stems from everything, like choosing where you want to play, getting messages from other NBA stars, and even building your own profile in the news to ensure that everyone knows your name.
“We’re adding so many more hairstyles, different tattoos, just all those different things that make you unique when you’re out there on the court,” he started. “We’re also going to be building on our narrative system. Within The League last year, you had these conversations that led to different choices and some of these choices led to different rewards that you would get, like when you pick what sponsor you want to go with, so you get some rewards there. This year, we’re building on that system to allow you to get these rewards within The League. It’s going to be a lot more rewarding in terms of the types of decisions you can make there, and the impact it has. We’re going to have these decisions also lead into the game, so that when you play against certain players and have a certain performance, we have a brand-new system that’s going to pay that off with these various social media personalities.”
Becoming a Global Icon
The NBA is the only league where players might be role players on their own teams but all-stars on social media – with this year’s NBA LIVE, you’ll have the chance to become a star both on and off the court. Capturing this global cultural and social influence aspect of the NBA is a major hurdle that the team looked to make happen for fans in ’19.
“That’s a whole new way to present the user’s story in a dynamic way,” Santos said. “When you go into a league game and have an awesome performance, you’re going to have these awesome highlights being played back to you with a famous influencer or brand or broadcaster talking about this amazing performance you just had. So, that’s where you really get to see your player put on this stage and be celebrated with all the different customization options, their animations, what they did in game, this thing that’s dynamic and really all about you.”
-Rahul Lal (Follow Rahul on Twitter @rlal95)
EA Staff (Retired)NBA LIVE 19: LEARN MORE ABOUT BUILD YOUR SQUAD
In this article, we’re focusing on the brand-new concept of being able to Build Your Squad. This gives you the ability to completely create your own squad, recruit NBA players and legends, and take on your friends and other competitors along the way to fight for global dominance. I caught up with Game Developer Ryan Santos to talk about the inspiration behind some of the developments in the game’s newest mode.
Your Squad Against the World
“What we're doing in 19 is, allowing you to build your squad,” said Santos. “Not only can you compete in The League and The Streets, but whether or not you’re in the streets, you'll also be able to go around the world now as we extend the courts out to different global courts where you’ll be able to recruit players that you play against and compete with, then form your squad as you go from game-to-game, court-to-court, and country-to-country.”
A lot of what the team has tried to mimic is the style that many role-playing games have set forth in terms of creating an online party-style mode. This is a mode where, not only can you play against friends, but you can actively try to one-up and compete for bragging rights. While the majority of global courts are yet to be released, this seems to give a nostalgic feel similar to the classic EA Sports’ NBA Street franchise.
“I worked on NBA Street back in the day, and I played all those games growing up so there’s definitely an aspect of streetball that is just core to any basketball fan,” Santos began. “It’s where you grow up playing – in a driveway, on a streetball court, on a playground – and so, we started a few years ago, introducing these authentic venues and these authentic streetball courts or Pro-Am leagues into the game because we wanted to bring that core love for the game and experience for the game into NBA LIVE.”
Do the Shammgod!
The amazing part – aside from being able to do streetball moves like the Shammgod dribble – is that you can do all this while competing for rank and prizes. A number of NBA LIVE 19’s Live Events will be centered around this concept of building your squad, and you’ll get to do so in the most interactive way possible, where you really may only have one or two chances to pick up a certain player and add him to your team.
“Last year, we could just reward you player gear, cosmetics for your player,” responded Santos. “What we’re doing this year is really upping that rewards system to include other items that could be a player that you recruit if you play against them in this special challenge.”
While Build Your Squad is the newest feature to hit NBA LIVE 19, it seems like it’ll become an instant hit with a number of LIVE players. The staple that is pick-up basketball is something that runs so deep in the culture of hoops, at any level, that it’s so important to have that reflected in a video game. Whether you squad up with your friends, or you look to take them on with a group of your hand-picked starting five, NBA LIVE 19 gives you the freedom to create your own legacy.
-Rahul Lal (Follow Rahul on Twitter @rlal95)
