Explain the science of changing player attributes on the fly.

Changing player attributes is just another way to make the experience as realistic as possible. Attributes are now directly tied to the stats that a player puts up. So if for example LeBron turns out to be the greatest player in the league, or a total bust, his attributes will reflect his changes. Also, if McDyess EVER plays again, his attributes will correctly reflect what level he is at.

What are LeBron James’ attributes out of the box?

Out of the box, LeBron is an 82 in our game. Not a bad rating, but more than any other rookie in our game.

“Enhanced shooter momentum adds depth and realism. Shooters will now drift in the direction that they are moving when they run into a jump shot. The amount of drift and the impact it has on their shots depend entirely upon the speed and jumping ability of the shooter.”

Umm…explain that.

Our goal is always to give the most realistic basketball sim on the market. Shooter drift is just another example of the improvements added to get us there. Just like in real life, if a player is running and immediately jumps to shoot, his momentum will keep carrying him in his initial direction. How far he drifts is based on the jumping ability and the speed of the player. So, someone like Iverson will be able to drift farther than someone like Greg Ostertag.

Explain the attribute-based speeds a little better.

One thing that we realized in all the hours that we spent watching the NBA is that players, when moving up and down the floor non-aggressively, move at basically the same speed. Where the quicker players show their speed is when they make an aggressive move. We use our speed attribute to establish this difference.

Explain how you improved the CPU AI off the ball. At what frequency will they be cutting to the basket, backscreening, or helping out on defense? What programming wise, did you do?

We added so any special case scenarios to account for the different possibilities that we could begin to count them. We didn’t want to base our cuts, screens and help defense solely on a percentage frequency, we instead trigger them based on appropriate scenarios. So if you are a user that knows how to use a screen or juke to get away from his primary defender, you will see more help defenders than someone that just ties to shoot over his primary defender.

What are your game’s strengths and weaknesses?

Our strength is in what is a balanced and fun playing game. That, plus our extensive features and our top rated online play, makes NBA ShootOut 2004 a game that people will love to play. The main thing that stands out to me as our weakness is a lot of the bells and whistles in presentation that the competition has that we do not. Ultimately the way the game plays will decide how much a game is liked, but we will always strive to give the user the complete package.

What have you done to expand on a relatively strong gameplay engine? Some called it the most realistic ever? Is Shootout moving to be the purest sim on the market?

NBA ShootOut 2004 is the most balanced sim on the market. It allows for players to have success inside, outside, and defensively, without sacrificing the big play excitement that people want to see in their video games.

What have you done to improve the graphics, which were not up to par last year?

We have totally reworked the player models, the heads, the lighting, the arenas, etc… We know how important the look of the game is and we are devoting ourselves to making these upgrades.

Not Answered:

Where do you think Shootout stands against Live and NBA 2k3? 

What have you learned from them? Good or bad?

(November 26, 2003)