Blog

It's clear that we have some of the most passionate sports and sports gaming fans in the country.  And for many of us, NCAA Football isn't just another video game.  It sustains us through the off season, it's the center of our gaming universe, the one we always come back to, the experience around which all other games must orbit.  And just like the real sport of College Football, it's a tradition many of us have grown up with.  I know some of you out there have been with us since the very beginning; since the first EA SPORTS Bill Walsh College Football came out in 1993!

I joined the NCAA Football team last summer once "10" was out the door.   As the Executive Producer for the game, I'm completely dedicated to the NCAA Football franchise.  And it's been a great experience working with a very talented Tiburon Studio team putting together this year's product.  Before officially taking the helm I had a number of weeks to prepare and transition from my old gig.  The previous NCAA Football 10 team was still wrapping things up so it gave me time to do a lot of research.  I spoke to everyone on the team, reviewed our metrics, read the game reviews, forums posts, blogs, the love letters, the hate mail, and even watched a few poignant YouTube videos created by our most passionate fans.  And while it's clear we did get a lot of things right, we also recognize we have some work to do to take this game from good to great.

So I'm using my first blog opportunity to set the stage for what you're going to be hearing about over the coming weeks and months as we roll towards launch this July.  No major announcements here, but I did want to outline our approach to NCAA Football 11.  It comes down to three key elements:

• Core Experience
• Authenticity
• Innovation

Core Experience

At the end of the day we all know what ultimately matters in a football video game is what happens on the field.  Controller in hand, heart pounding, clock running down, season on the line.  That's where it all counts.  Running, blocking, passing, it all has to perform and perform well.   It's the foundation upon which all other major game modes are built; dynasty, career, etc.   As a long time fan of NCAA Football, it's clear that great core gameplay is fundamental to a great game experience.

For NCAA Football 11, we've gone back to the very heart of our football engine and made some major upgrades.  Lots more to come on this topic; I promise the core improvements will be worth the wait.

Authenticity

Fans of college football know it's so much more than just the game of football itself.  It's what surrounds and supports the experience.  It's the pageantry, passion, and tradition that make college football one of the greatest experiences in sports today.  We've taken some deserved criticism in this area over the past few years, but we think you'll be impressed by what you'll see in NCAA Football 11.  And to set the record straight for my friends out there on Pasta Padre, NCAA Strategies, and Operation Sports, the screen shot we released was not 'shopped.  It's 100% pure, right out of the game.  (Replays aren't looking too shabby either...)

As a Michigan Wolverine fan, I want an NCAA Football that resembles the Saturday afternoon experience at the Big House.  The sights, the sounds, and the traditions.  (And of course, the return of a winning season. ;-)  But it's not just about visual presentation.  It's also making sure that my team - and all 120 FBS teams that we include in the game - look, feel, and play like my team.  There are style variations across teams in the NFL but if you want to see true variety, it's all about College.  We recognize that NCAA Football needs to more closely model and reflect those differences as part of gameplay.

Innovation

We've always had a history of innovation on the franchise.  It was the first EA SPORTS game on Xbox Live back in 2004.  In 2009 it was Online Dynasty, giving you the ability to compete with your friends across the country.  Or last year's web-based team creator, TeamBuilder, where (amazingly) you guys have already created more than half-a-million custom teams!  By the way, these teams will all work in NCAA Football 11 as well...

Before I came onboard the NCAA franchise, I worked on a number of online games and technologies across EA SPORTS and also led the team that helped bring EA SPORTS games to Xbox Live and Sony PSN.   Without giving too much away, you can probably guess that online will be a big component of some of the new areas we're exploring this year.

Looking Ahead

NCAA Football designers Ben Haumiller and Russ Kiniry have already covered a few of the minor updates in their recent blog.  Things, frankly, we should have gotten to a while back...  So please keep the faith, the "real" stuff we need to talk about for NCAA Football 11 is still up ahead!

Thanks and Stay Tuned!

===

PS -- Part of my research included a NCAA Football 10 web survey that some of you may have filled out.  I'd like to open it up wider, so if you're interested in participating, please follow the link below:

NCAA Football 10 Web Survey

You can also email me at NCAAFootballFeedback@ea.com. Given the amount of email I get daily, I don't always have time to reply, but I do promise I'll read everything you send.  Just keep it civil and spam free ;-)

Video blog I

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Part 3 of 3

It’s been a long handful of months as we’ve been building the game while listening and reading everyone’s feedback from anywhere we could find. I’ve been waiting to start diving into all the improvements and new stuff we’ve been working on here at Tiburon.

Well let’s dive right in, even though we are releasing these details a little later then we would have liked:

New Equipment

Part of keeping things authentic on the field is what equipment each player is wearing. And frankly part of the fun for me is making sure my players I create or recruit all have the look to match the player, for example I love having Visors on my number one running back.

Well this year we added some new equipment to help keep your players looking how you feel they should:

· New Revolution Speed Helmet

· A few new facemasks for the different helmet styles in the game

· Some injury gear

o Knee Brace

o Ankle Brace

o Elbow Brace

o Elbow Guard

· New sleeve lengths

o 3 Quarters Sleeve

o Half Sleeve

· Towels

· Hand Warmers

Also we added the ability to set Left and Right Sleeve separate, so if you want one sleeve to be team color and full length and the other to be half length and black you can do that.

Single Week Bowl Season

This is a very nice improvement for all you Online Dynasty fans. As you know in last year’s game we had 4 different “weeks” for the bowl season; what this meant was is you could have up to 4 week advances so everyone could play their bowl games. This caused everyone in the Dynasty to wait for those people to play their games… not fun!

Well in NCAA Football 11 we have combined all the Bowl Games into one “Week” Advance, so everyone can now play their bowl games at the same time. This speeds up the process of finishing the Season in Online Dynasty by a lot, and should help keep things moving along.

Dynamic Conference Logos

Another upgrade for Dynasty players is about when a team switches Conferences either through last year’s new feature Custom Conferences, or though just playing Dynasty and getting a conference invite. This year when you change Conferences the conference logo on your team’s playing field will now update.

The best part is not only does the logo update, but they end up getting colored as if the team had really made the conference change. So for example if you move Alabama to the Big East you’ll see the logo look crimson and white.

Helmet Numbers During Game-Play

Speaking of Alabama, we’ve finally got the numbers on the side of the helmets to show up during game-play. It really is one of those things in the game that once you noticed you could never ignore again, and I’m glad to say it’s been addressed. Not only will they work for Alabama, but any team you create using TeamBuilder with numbers on the helmets will work as well.

Well that is just the start of what is to come about NCAA Football 11 there are way more (and BIGGER) things to talk about. It’s going to be a fun few months as we make the push to launch day and the release of everything we’ve worked on.

-Russ

Designer NCAA Football

Hey Everyone,

I can't believe it's already time to start talking about NCAA Football 11, but it's my privilege to kick things off with our first blog of the New Year. In the coming weeks we will be revealing new additions that will be a part of making NCAA Football 11 the greatest college football experience we have ever delivered.

It's early March, and If you are reading this post it's a safe bet that you are pretty hardcore about NCAA Football, so let's start things off with a few of the improvements we are adding that you the fans have been asking for. This is just the first taste of a long list of additions for this year's game, so before anyone gets up in arms about something not being in this year's game just remember, it's a long way until July.

Without further ado, let's get on with the show:

Refs on the field

It would be pretty difficult to talk about any of our new gameplay improvements without first calling out the refs on the field. In NCAA11 the refs will be on the field for all of the action, and while the old saying goes that a ref is doing their job when you don't notice they are there, the mere presence of the guys in stripes give every play a more authentic look and feel.

South Carolina fans can breath easy, unlike real life these refs come equipped with avoidance logic which means that when your quarterback takes off he won't have to worry about getting dropped by a "12th defender".

N man Gang Tackles

In years past a gang tackle in NCAA meant that two defenders combined to make the tackle. This year we are leveraging the tackling engine that debuted in Madden last year to allow for true gang tackles in NCAA. As you may recall, this will mean that up to 9 players can be involved in a tackle, and depending on the combination this could lead to defenders stopping a bruising runner dead in his tracks or a pair of offensive linemen coming in to help surge forward for that first down.

The greatness of this technology is the dynamic element it brings to the game. Instead of having pre-canned tackle animations for each combination of offensive/defensive players the additional players will actually add on to the tackle in progress. This gives the tackles more of a natural and authentic feel as players add on to the tackle as it's happening to help determine the final outcome.

Auto Save

Fans of Online Dynasty can agree, never having to manually save your progress is pretty sweet. I've become so used to not worrying about saving after a game that when I play offline dynasty it almost seems archaic to even use something as simple as quick save. With that in mind we have implemented auto save throughout the entire game, so whether you are in Road to Glory, offline Dynasty, or just editing your settings you will never have to worry about making sure your updates have been saved. And if you are old school about your saving, feel free to turn auto save off, just don't yell at me when you lost your Emerald Bowl trophy because you forgot to save your profile when you saved your dynasty.

Auto Load Rosters

This next one, while not exactly jaw dropping, is something I'm very happy made it into the game this year. In NCAA 11 we will reload the last used roster file when exiting a game mode. Previously the default rosters were reloaded, and if you decided to quit your Dynasty and start a Road to Glory career, you might have gone all the way though high school before realizing you started the mode with the wrong file. While that was reason enough to do the auto upload, the part I think you guys will like the most is that now, when you have downloaded a roster file, it will automatically be loaded as the current roster file. You just downloaded the file, why wouldn't you want to immediately check it out?

Formation Subs

Yes, it's true. Formation Subs are back. I'll give everyone a second to catch their breath.

A quick recap for those that might not know what Formation Subs are, basically it's a feature that allows you to make substitutions on a per formation basis. Think of them like permanent packages. So if you want a specific set of wide receivers when you run Ace - Bunch and a completely different set when running Shotgun - Trips Right you can set your team up exactly how you want through formation subs. Now you will have complete control of which players are on your "hands" team when your opponent is attempting an onside kick, which player is coming off the edge when you are attempting to block a field goal, or if you are like me, want to rotate some of the younger guys into the game in specific formations, you can do that through formation subs.

Rather than take the on-field approach to substitutions, you will be able to make your subs from the pause menu when in-game, or when in a dynasty, you can set your formation subs in the front end so that your team is ready to go as soon as the coin toss is done.

Well that will wrap it up for now, we will be coming out with more and more information in the coming weeks and months as we get ready for our July releas. Be sure to check out the video to see these new additions in action as well as hear Russ Kiniry and I talk a little more about what to expect out of these enhancements to the game.