Activision's upcoming basketball game Street Hoops aims to marry the style of street basketball with the playability and options fans have come to expect from traditional basketball games. We talked with Street Hoops' project director, Black Ops Entertainment's Jose Villeta, to learn what to expect from the game's various console versions.

Stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey!

GameSpot: How long has the game been in development?

Jose Villeta: Street Hoops has been in product development since January 2001. Black Ops wrote and tuned a full basketball video game from scratch for Street Hoops in less than 18 months. The game will be coming out for all major game consoles--PS2, Xbox, and GameCube.

GS: How big is the team?

JV: The Black Ops Street Hoops team at its peak was around 30 team members, which included programmers, artists, animators, production personnel, and player/athlete relations. We also had a couple dozen contractors helping us out during casting calls, motion-capture shoots, photo shoots, and cyberscanning sessions, in addition to the talent used in the game.

GS: What have they worked on before?

JV: The core of the Black Ops Street Hoops team came from developing the EA Sports March Madness 2000 and March Madness 2001 PlayStation games. In addition, our Black Ops producer and lead designer, Tracy Johnson, came from the Sega NBA 2K franchise before joining us on the March Madness games.

GS: How did the team approach developing a street hoops game?

JV: Activision senior producer Adam Goldberg approached us to do Street Hoops in late 2000. As soon as we finished March Madness 2001, EA Sports decided to take the franchise internal for the PS2 game development, so we had the team and the opportunity to explore other venues. For Black Ops, Street Hoops was a perfect match, because we believe foremost in making basketball games that are fun, fast, and fresh. Not dealing with NCAA or NBA rules is also very pleasing, because we can try to be true to street and playground basketball. Our goal from day one was to try to go back to the roots of basketball, which is on the playgrounds where legends are born.

GS: Did any of the real-life players featured in the game have input in its development?

JV: Early on in the game design process, we had several players approach us with ideas for Street Hoops. Syrus Yarbrough, our Black Ops player relations consultant, helped me contact all the LA local talent to get a street flavor early on for the prototype. After the prototype was done, Activision contracted some of the most renowned playground legends in the country, including Half Man Half Amazing, Hot Sauce, Headache, Main Event, Speedy Williams, The Future, AO, and Booger Smith. They provided their basketball talent--signature moves and input--and likenesses for the game during motion-capture sessions. In addition, we used other street ballers for motion capture from the Harlem Globetrotters and Nike "Freestyle" commercials. All together, we had more than 1,500 unique basketball moves captured. Our player roster exceeds 100 different players from all over the United States.

GS: Are there going to be any differences in the content of the console versions?

JV: Street Hoops will be similar for all three consoles as far as the key game features, core gameplay mechanics, and AI. However, each console will have its unique features based on the console strengths. On the PS2, we will have DTS real-time audio support, six audio multistream channels with 3D audio, Multitap support for up to eight players, and high-res 512x448 frame buffer at 60Hz. On the Xbox, we will have HDTV support up to 720p at 60Hz, Dolby Digital with 3D Sound, user-customized soundtracks utilizing the Xbox soundtrack feature, fast hard-drive loading, and high-res true-color textures. On the GameCube, we will have Dolby Pro Logic audio support and high-res true-color textures at 640x480 frame buffer at 60Hz. Both the PS2 and Xbox versions will have the DVD fully loaded with goodies like secret movies, players, and teams. The GameCube version will have all the great gameplay of the other two versions, but it will have fewer goodies due to the limited size of a GameCube disc when compared with a DVD.