Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: Rolling Stone: Inside The Making of 'Madden NFL 06'

  • Share
    • Facebook
  • Thread Tools
  • Display
  1. #1
    Administrator cdj's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Lincoln
    Posts
    13,122

    Rolling Stone: Inside The Making of 'Madden NFL 06'

    With competition from NFL 2K killed off thanks to an exclusivity deal with the NFL, EA Sports’ Madden series was ready to enter a new HD era on a new next-gen console - the Xbox 360. Longtime Madden development studio Tiburon began work on Madden NFL 06 with plenty of big ideas meant to push the series forward on the new console. Instead, the studio produced one of the lowest rated entries in franchise history.

    “I don't know if the vision was anything other than this is going to be the biggest Madden ever,” says Associate Producer Ian Cummings.

    “You had this tremendous graphical power that you never had before. People got excited about it,” says Jeremy Strauser, part of the senior production team.

    But, according to Producer Rod Moye, “When we released the game, I was like welp, we did the best we could given the circumstances we were under at that time.”

    ***

    To handle all of this change and workload, the typical Madden team size grew. Those interviewed disagreed on the usual team size prior to Madden 06, putting the number between 30 and 60 people. Madden 06 jumped to over 100. “The old Madden would have been a million lines of code. The new one, I don't know for sure, but it would have to be multiple millions lines of code. To try and rewrite all that you have no choice but to involve a 100-ish people,” says Gourlay.


    Tiburon was ill-prepared for that influx of talent according to Cummings: “Tiburon, in my opinion, has struggled to recover still. We were a company of 70 people when I started, maybe up to 100. ... Superman comes on and the gen 3 transition and we grew to 650 people. Every single week there were 20-30 people new people joining. The culture got buried immediately.”

    “You can imagine what culture change happens when you have 600 people. You don't know how to manage people,” begins Moye. “We were just small and scrappy and everybody was a badass and you could rely on everybody to do the greatest work. When you have 500 people there, it changes. You don't know what person 400 is doing.”

    ***

    Madden 06 Xbox 360 made its debut to the public at E3 2005, in mid-May. Although scheduled for release in November, the first glimpse came in the form of a pre-rendered video starring cover athlete Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb. Helmet reflections, facial animation, and other special effects added glitz. Fans questioned the authenticity of the trailer and whether Madden on Xbox 360 would look as presented. In reality, that trailer wasn’t meant for the public.

    “That sizzle video was meant to show all of us artists and programmers and artists what we were trying to shoot for. Then some genius decided to release that to the public,” says Gourlay.

    ***

    “You see this final product as a gamer and it's a turd. But we slaved. That was the hardest I had ever worked in my whole life. To have to come up with that result was what was so crushing about it,” says Ian Cummings.


    Check out the full, lengthy article at Rolling Stone.

  2. #2
    Resident Lawyer of TGT CLW's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Oklahoma City
    Posts
    12,499
    After reading and remembering Ian's collapse at EA for some reason made me think WTF happened to Ben Haumiller "the face" of NCAA - looks like he is apparently still at EA with Madden.

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •