Quarterback Shoot Out

With Madden and Quarterback Club both ready to hit store shelves in November, there's been lots of speculation about which will be the better game. Both games are strong contenders in the 64-bit arena this year, and Acclaim has put together a game that will not only challenge EA's Madden on the N64, but will challenge its strength in gameplay.

We spoke with Russell Byrd, producer of Quarterback Club '98, on Friday to get his impressions of Quarterback Club and EA's competing product and to talk a little bit about the future.

How long has Quarterback Club '98 been in development?

We've been working on it a little over a year now, approaching 13 months.

How much has the N64 version improved - compared to previous versions of the game?

Leaps and bounds - last year's one (as everybody noted) wasn't as up to par as we would have liked it to have been, so we started out with the idea of making the gameplay really incredible and making everything else secondary. We rewrote the engine to get it faster - and on the N64 you'll notice we utilized the Turok engine and their technology and basically modified it to be a football 3-D engine. It's very, very fast, and that allowed us to spend a lot of time on play balance and making the gameplay better.

How have you improved the game's AI?

We spent a whole lot of time rewriting the AI. We did a lot of tracking as far as adaptive AI is concerned. The computer constantly checks to see what every player on the field is doing and how they're doing and if they're getting their march correct, followings, and play calling aspects. They constantly adjust based on team tendencies as well as player tendencies to prevent money plays and to make sure that the game continues to stay hard and works well.

How do the graphics in Quarterback Club '98 compare to those of, say, Game Day '98 on the PlayStation (which has some great animation)?

I would rate our animation as better to the same; it's really close. I agree with you that their animation is very nice. We used motion capture and polygons, and soft-skinned polygons on top of that. Our animation is really smooth. The 30 fps that we're getting out of the engine allows the motion to look really smooth and nice, and the motion capture technology makes it look really kick-ass. The high resolution model on the player also helps a lot in keeping the guy really crisp, and the animation tied to that looks really, really good.

Has working in hi-res slowed down the N64 hardware at all?

No. Like I was saying, the Turok technology is what's driving this engine, and it is really, really optimized. We're able to handle 30 fps minimum, which is as fast as any other game on the market right now. Even in hi-res, it doesn't slow down.

What has been Brett Favre's role in the development of the game?

He helped us develop our play books. He took some of his older Green Bay play books and went through them and pulled out a huge number of plays that he likes to run and sent them to us to include in our play book. After we put our play book together, we sent it to him and he looked over it and modified it and got rid of some plays he didn't like and added some more that he did. We've also talked to him a lot about what he doesn't like to play against, and that helped us to determine what some of the tougher defensive plays and formations are in the NFL. That let us put some really good defensive plays in the play book -stuff that he really doesn't like to face in real life.

It looks like the N64 version of Madden might beat Quarterback Club to the market. What would you say to gamers who are in the market for a football game? To go with QBC over Madden?

Two or three things. First of all, I'm not 100 percent certain that it'll actually be out first. Secondly, we have spent a whole lot of time on this product and we've managed to focus mainly on gameplay. So I think our gameplay is going to be extraordinary this year. We've made sure that we have all the features that anybody would ever want as far as roster management and injuries are concerned; we've got more features than one would expect from a Madden-type game. We have loads of stats, and we use the analog stick a lot and very well. This game is going to be extraordinarily fun to play, very accurate, very fast, and just a great game all around. If people at that point continue to want to buy Madden, I'd suggest that they go rent them both and pick the one that they really think is the better game. Don't buy on the name alone or on the history, but give our game a shot and take a look at it. I think people will be pleasantly surprised, because it's a better game.

What are your thoughts on you guys being the only N64 football game with the NFL license?

To me, that's a necessity in a football game. We didn't go out with the intention of trying to screw over the competition. At the time we obtained the license there were no other football games coming out and so the NFL said, 'Hey, no other games are coming out. No one's approached us at all - so if you want the exclusive we'll sign with you, because we've asked everybody.' As a gamer, having the real NFL teams and the logos, putting them in the proper cities, connected to the proper stadiums, calling them the rightful names, being able to play an actual Super Bowl and being able to play the real season schedules (which is part of that license), is very important. I just think it adds a whole new dimension to the game that other games are going to lack this year because of it.

What do you think about the N64 controller and how it adapts to a football game?

It has good sides and bad sides. The analog stick allows a level of control that no one's ever seen before. When you feel the way we use the analog stick, you're really happy that we used that controller. The feel of the controller is very nice as well. The fundamental problem with it is the cluster buttons, the C buttons on it - they're a little bit small and in a football game it's pertinent to use all buttons for evasive maneuvers, running with the ball, tackling, etc. They're very important buttons to use. We've basically laid out the controller in a manner that all the most important primary buttons are the buttons that are easy to find, the A, B, and Z trigger buttons, the ones that are easy to find and easy to hold on to. That's where we put all our primary moves. If you become good and you want advanced gameplay, you learn the C cluster buttons. That way you can pick it up and play it right away and it's still very comfortable and fun to play, but if you want advanced gameplay you have to go looking for those smaller buttons.

Has developing the game on a cartridge limited you in the number of features/amount of gameplay you could put in?

There are always things you want to put in the game that you get limited on cartridge space. If we could have done even more stadiums than we did...we have all 30 NFL stadiums, but we had great ideas for 20-30 other cheat stadiums that you could play in from the past and futuristic stadiums, and eventually we just had to cut that off because cartridge space became really tight. We've also managed through good compression methods to get an amazing amount of stuff on the cartridge and we're really proud and I think people will be shocked at what they see. We have over 900 player photos in the game, all the stadiums, all the teams, different weather effects and field conditions, and then of course all the roster management and front-end screens are huge as well. I think people will be really pleased with what they're getting out of the cartridge.

How about next year? Will there be more improvements on the engine and gameplay?

Yeah. Next year we're looking more towards gameplay innovations. We're getting a really solid game out now, but we would like to go back and try to reinvent gameplay a little. All the football games that have come out for the past eight years have had a very similar style with what you do with the buttons, and how it all works, and we'd like to focus on some new inventions, something that's totally different that no one has ever done before that plays better than ever. Combine that with new graphical effects and touches and extra things that make games really cool. Small details that make it more fun to play, and better compression so maybe we'll be able to fit more into the cartridge next year than this.

Do you think that next year you'll be looking at a 64DD release of the game?

It's a possibility. We've definitely looked at it and are considering it, but we need to know more about the machine first.

What other sports games is Acclaim working on?

We're currently working on All-Star Baseball '98 (PC accelerated, PlayStation, and maybe N64), NHL Breakaway should be out in September (on PlayStation and N64 by Sculptured Software). Sculptured is also working on NBA Jam '98, which is going to be both a five-on-five sim and a two-on-two jam game.