The BIGS Q&A: From Rookie to World Series Legend
We chat with Blue Castle Games' Jason Leigh about the upcoming release of the studio's arcade baseball game.
Check out this sweet trailer for the upcoming arcade baseball game from 2K Sports.
When 2K Sports acquired exclusive third-party rights to publish MLB games a few years back, game fans wondered just how long it would be before we saw an arcade hardball game to complement the publisher's already existing MLB 2K series. So while the announcement of The BIGS in October of last year wasn't much of a surprise, it's interesting to note that 2K and the development house behind the game, Blue Castle Games, have been working on the project for two full years. Just ahead of the game's release next month, we had a chance to talk with one of the cofounders of Blue Castle Games and lead game designer on The BIGS, Jason Leigh, to get an updated report on the game's progress and learn about Blue Castle's approach to redefining arcade baseball games.
GameSpot: How has development been going on The BIGS, and how far along is the game at this point?
Jason Leigh: Development has been going extremely well! It's amazing how quickly the almost two years of creating this game have gone by. We're right at the end now and are throwing everything we have left in our tanks at the game to make sure that it is as good as it can possibly be. Despite the crazy hours, one of the more enjoyable parts of finishing a game is getting to play the heck out of it as you're tuning. Over time, you get a sense of whether or not you've made a good game. Several of us here at Blue Castle had that sense when we were working on the MVP Baseball series, and we definitely have that feeling right now on The BIGS. Over the last couple of weeks I've personally played some of the most fun video game baseball of my life, so that's a great sign.
We really did set out to make a top-shelf arcade baseball game, and we couldn't be happier with where we are at right now.
GS: Baseball is a game rich with tradition, though some folks say it can be a tad dry. How do you go about creating an over-the-top arcade baseball experience while still being true to the sport?
JL: There are so many ways to approach the problem, but our mantra from the outset was: "Don't break baseball!" We didn't want to artificially make it exciting by bending the rules, or worse, turn it into a different sport. Baseball is already an exciting game, so our focus was how to make the coolest stuff happen all the time. The BIGS is very much a solid representation of baseball, but taken to an entirely new level.
The first thing that you'll notice with The BIGS is that it has a really cool arcade pace. There is minimal downtime, and everything feels faster and snappier. We put a lot of effort into our animation system to make sure that there is a lot of style and athleticism with the catches and throws. The players really do feel more heroic, even when pulling off routine plays. When they start to pull off the big moves--diving catches, double plays, wall catches, etc.--we really made sure to pay that off with bigger animations, audio, and presentation.
Beyond that, it's really the metagame that makes this a full-fledged arcade game. We have a very cool turbo and power-up system that we are really excited about.
GS: What has surprised you about the game and, more specifically, the development process, since you initially announced it last year?
JL: Well, I'd have to say that it is pleasantly surprising that many of our original bets have paid off. Setting out to build a company, a team, and a game all at the same time was quite a challenge. To accomplish that, we had to be as smart as possible up front when deciding what to focus on. Nailing the game's pace was a huge key, and I'm superhappy with the way that we have done that. The overall balance that we have managed to strike between arcade and "sim" feels great. Multiplayer has also been a great surprise. We're having some absolutely amazing two-on-two games in the office, both online and off. Other seemingly obvious factors, like spending early effort on having a solid baseball engine, have paid dividends, as we're able to focus on tuning and polish at the end rather than wrestling with the basics. I can't stress enough how important that has been for us.
From a visual standpoint, our art team has blown us away. You can probably tell from some of the initial screenshots that the game looks good, but in motion it's incredible. We're really proud of how we have represented the MLB license. The players are phenomenal, and I would personally put our stadiums up against the environments in any next-gen game on the shelves. A lot has been made already about the bottle and glove in San Francisco, but it really does give the game a personality all its own that helps it stand out from the other baseball games. With any luck people will be able to see the game's trailer around the same time that they read this interview so that they can get a better sense of what The BIGS is all about.
A final surprise? Given that we are releasing our game midseason, we are able to put a certain pitcher into the game and give him a certain signature pitch, which is something that we did not anticipate a few months back.
GS: When we last spoke about the game, [Blue Castle Games' general manager] Dan Brady said that one of the lessons learned in developing previous games is to keep the game to a manageable scope. How do you feel you've kept to that goal during The BIGS' development? Did a "manageable scope" mean features left on the cutting room floor?
JL: We certainly did focus on creating a tight experience, but "manageable scope" definitely doesn't mean that we've created a game that feels feature-light. If anything, we've been adding stuff at the end to augment what's already there and working. Gameplay feels very rich, and I think people will appreciate how much we're going to throw at them. Combine that with a nice set of modes, and we're pretty pleased with what we're giving baseball fans.
GS: What new details can you give us on the league challenge mode in The BIGS?
JL: First of all, the mode has been renamed "rookie challenge." It's a classic zero-to-hero journey where you create a rookie player and take him from spring training to World Series MVP. Being an arcade game, you don't do this over several seasons of simming a dynasty mode either. Our anchor single-player experience is not a sim-style franchise mode at all--it's the arcade story of a Cinderella season for "the Rook."
You start in spring training, build your player's skills in a series of cool training minigames like obstacle courses and stints in the batting cage, and then take your team through a variety of challenges in the regular season. There are scenarios, stat challenges, best-of series, player steal games, and even boss challenges, where you pit your rookie against the masters of their discipline. Taking on Ichiro to become the king of running is pretty cool. We have the all-star break where your rookie participates in our version of home run derby and the midsummer classic itself. Once you've climbed through your league and earned your playoff spot, your rookie is really going to have to step up to lead his team to the World Series.
Along the way, you unlock some nice rewards for your player to make him more unique and give him some real attitude. We have sunglasses, batter ditties, tattoos, wicked bat graphics (the American flag bat is my personal favorite--watch for it in the trailer), and you can even choose a nickname for the commentator to latch onto. It's a pretty neat experience watching your little rookie start his "career" in spring training as a stock player and slowly become this outrageous hero who is leading the team to victory.
While you have to play well with your whole team to win, the mode is very much about the rookie, and we support that with audio and even some special cinematics. We've put a lot of work into it and are really happy that we're giving something juicy for gamers to sink their teeth into. Oh yeah, and you can play it co-op with a buddy too.
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