Cricket Life : Another Cricket game this year

[Jason Bourne]

The following interview is an exclusive interview which can only be seen after registering at Gamebience:: Developer and Publisher of Interactive Entertainment Software. This gives insights on a cricket game which has a gameplay never seen before in any sportsgame.(For the first time, players gets injured or retire hurt in a cricket game,drinks breaks, sight screen adjustment and yeah match fixing too
)

The following is the first part of the four-part interview with the Project Lead of Cricket Life 1 giving insights on the game, development timeline and more.
"...Depending upon the intensity of the injury, you may now be able to see your player getting carried away in a stretcher, and this is an option left to you, as the player has to decide whether to continue playing or get retired hurt. Taking a wrong decision would even lead you to a major injury. As you can see, now you can even take decisions on the field on what needs to be done and what should not be done, whereas if the game would have been released earlier, then you wouldn't have experienced these features..."
Question: We start off with the most anticipated question, Why is Cricket Life taking so long to develop.

Project Lead:

"Cricket Life is actually multiple games within a game. Although we initially focused our development time and effort on perfecting the game logic for the 'Life' part of the game, we did not have any plans to incorporate a full action 3D gameplay initially. Over the course of time, as we kept receiving several inputs from various ends, we finally planned to add limited functionality for 3D gameplay in Q2 2007. Due to these developments, we had to postpone our [release] plans then. However, our Creative Head felt it wasn't enough to give a limited 3D game0play functionality and then our wishlist grew again to incorporate full action 3D [gameplay] support with motion-captured animations.

Since Cricket Life had to represent and portray a Cricketer's life, the content of the in-match game-play was not deemed sufficient and we were told to add more stuff into it."

Question: Can you give me an example of what was added and how it contributed to the extension of development cycle....

Project Lead:

"Obviously I can't reveal each and every feature as they are meant to be some very important USPs of Cricket Life, but I can surely point out some examples. For instance, you will now be able to see a complete drinks break with players resting on the field, drinking fruit juices and water to recharge themselves, or for a batsman asking to move the sight-screen, or to replace the gloves or change the bat. Several type of injuries had to be portrayed in 3D as well as per the new requirements. Depending upon the intensity of the injury, you may now be able to see your player getting carried away in a stretcher, and this is an option left to you, as the player has to decide whether to continue playing or get retired hurt. Taking a wrong decision would even lead you to a major injury. As you can see, now you can even take decisions on the field on what needs to be done and what should not be done, whereas if the game would have been released earlier, then you wouldn't have experienced these features (as we didn't plan to add it earlier). In the same manner, a lot of extra but essential features had to be added, and hence, had to be motion captured again. This extended our development cycle by a couple of months more. By then, we were already into the 1st Quarter of 2008."

Question: I have heard you have revamped your game's graphics over and over again...

Project Lead:

"I wasn't quite satisfied by the quality of the graphics we had initially. We had undergone a complete overhaul of our graphics team, and changed our Art Director. I then undertook the additional responsibility of Art Direction and personally made sure every part of the game had outstanding design and relevant graphics. I decided to give the game a completely distinct look and I am sure when you will see the game, you will be amazed by its look, feel and quality. "

Question: Of course, we are all waiting to see the game, wouldn't it be great if you could release some screen-shots to the general public?

Project Lead:

"All of us are eager to see the public reaction and I am very confident that the gamers will be very excited and happy to see the game. They will understand why we took so long, just by looking at the quality. We share our work at every stage of the game development with a closed-group and act on the inputs provided. However, its has been the policy of our management and hence we are bound to the commitment. As a matter of policy, we couldn't release any content videos or screenshots to the general public until 4 weeks prior to the game's release. "

Question: But, you have released few screenshots earlier too...

Project Lead:

"Yes we did release a couple of them in the pre-beta stages of the game, but as we pushed the development further and extend the development cycle, our game re-enters the Alpha stage and it again needs to go through the whole development cycle. So whatever you may have seen did not necessarily reflect what the game would have looked in the final version.

End of Part I of II. To be continued....
The following is the second part of the two-part interview with the Project Lead of Cricket Life 1, giving insights on the game, development timeline and more.

Question: What is the current status of the development and what are your future plans?

Project Lead:

"We are currently implementing the previously mentioned features and dozens of other features in the same manner that will improve game-play and extend the life of the game. Right from the beginning, we are always looking for quality, and thus we have undergone many changes over the course of development. "

Question: Would you let us know something about the in-game match process? If you can go through the process like how the player is created, his characteristics, etc

Project Lead: "The match engine is as quite complicated and advanced as it needs to be according to the development specifications. Again, we have undergone certain changes and modifications to keep the game new and fresh. For example, Previously, we had used the same industry standard face generation technology as others, that lets you generate players' faces automatically. However, we have recently undergone certain changes and adopted another face generation technique which would allow unique and fresh faces for the players as we received inputs from various ends that many of the faces we used were looking quite familiar and similar to ones they have experienced in other games. Anyways, we are happy with the new face creation engine in use currently as it has given us some fresh looks. But we know the gamers are eventually going to replace them with their own creations, so we have left the option open for them to create and upload their own creations to the game. The player creation process can be as simple or as complicated as you like. If you want to create a player quickly, you can just enter his name, team and country, and upon answering some quick questions, you can let the AI generate a player for you. However, if you want to setup the player in detail, there are tons of characteristics to define. "

Question: Let us know something about the multiplayer gameplay....

Project Lead: "This is one of the areas we have worked on in the recent months. We didn't have any plans until this February to incorporate multiplayer gameplay. However, once we started undergoing a revamping phase, we wanted to implement this feature (which was on the wishlist for the next version). So, we are building a framework for multiplayer gameplay, so that add-ons can be developed that will extend the gameplay to include full multiplayer support. The first version will incorporate interactive gameplay through the website as the players will be able to challenge each other on Internet. "

Question: Would you give us some insights on the development timeline?

Project Lead: "When we started the game in 2006, it all started as a non-3D tactic based- turn-based strategy game. As said eariler, all our emphasis was on the strategy and management aspect of the game. However, the equation got changed in 2007 seeing the requests of the potential gamers. The overwhelming response from the gaming community made us to think about implementing the 3D aspect of the game. Later, upon roping in Mike to represent the brand, our management wanted to give extra care to every part of the game to produce as great looking game as possible. Year 2008 saw another leap in the quality of the game as we decided to incorporate real-life looking actions through the use of motion-capture technology. Every month and every minute we spend on the game is only to ensure the game has what it needs to have. After all, we need to portray a Cricketer's life, and we are leaving no stones unturned to pack and portray all things possible within our time limits and with the available resources. "

Question: Are you planning to come up with an XBox or PS3 release?

Project Lead: "This is one of the most frequently asked questions by the community. Although I am not authorized to reveal any future plans at the moment, we will let the people know whenever we are ready for it. "
Game is scheduled to release in Q3 this year for PC.:hap2::hap2:

 

[Jason Bourne]

The following is the transcript of a Q&A Session with one of the web's newest cricket gaming communities. The Q&A was conducted in late- May 2009
1. Have you included any non-test playing nations and tournaments? For example : the ability to start off as an Argentinian cricketer and help

your nation qualify for the world cup?If yes, what countries are available?
Answer:

We have included most of the non-test playing nations that we foresee in the near-future as having chances of playing competitive international cricket. The emergence of countries like Afghanistan has already triggered its entry into the game. However, not all countries are Human controllable. Some of those countries are only AI-Controllable, in the best interests of the game.

Moreover, it isn't for us to include countries like Argentina as there isn't enough data available about them in order to mathematically model them. But thanks to the development that was under progress early this year, the good news is, any AI-nation or team can now be converted into a Human-Controllable nation or team, by feeding data in order to populate the data models of those teams. It is also possible for some advanced users to create new teams and nations using the Team Creation mode.
2. As there are many old cricket games which are already popular, what you think is different in Cricket Life as compared to those cricket games.

Answer: Initially Cricket Life was only focussed on the career-aspect of the game, and there's was little focus on the action/3D aspect. However, since then, it has been transformed into a full-fledged product. In fact, you get the best of both worlds in a single game.

While you control an entire team in other games, in Cricket Life, you only control your own player's life - both off and on the field. However, there's a new hidden mode we have added recently that will allow you to control the entire team, but it is up to the gamers to decide whether this can be considered a fair play or not.

3. Will you release this game via digital distribution services like steam?

Answer:

I am sure the publishing team would use all the necessary means to make it reach the intended market.
4. The game is being developed from last few years and every time there is a change in the title without a single game being released. What is the reason for the delay of this breakthrough game?

Answer:

Its always difficult for any new setup to enter the full-efficiency phase immediately. Considering the fact that we have fused two different

aspects/elements - career management and 3D game-play into one game, it must not be surprising if it takes over 2 years to develop. Especially when you consider that other projects of similar magnitude have over 100 people assigned while on the other hand we don't enjoy the same privilege, it is only fair to expect a development time of at least 2 years (which would still be a challenge for a start-from-scratch development). It is very important to prepare the framework as flexible as possible so that future editions can be built over it efficiently and get rolled-out smoothly in a normal development course of up to 8-12 months.

Furthermore, it has been our policy to extend development or incorporate future features into the product whenever we anticipate a significant delay, so that the gamers get features that's proportional to the time spent in the overall project.
5. Are you planning to release this game for next generation consoles like xBox 360 and Playstation 3?

Answer:

Those options are open. That's why we had to re-write the game last year using a multi-platform engine so that we could do amult-platform release in the near future, which, if we had rewritten later on, would have taken a significant amount of time. I believe the engine also supports the Linux platform, but I am not sure of such a release though.
6. Is there going to be any demo version of this game?

Answer: Some form of a demo release is certainly a possibility.
7. Is the game easily editable? Are you planning to provide any stats or info editor?

Answer: One of the prime focus while development of the game is to include the gamer in the development process of the game. The game is very flexible and there is a possibility of either bundling some of those tools with the game, or provide it in an add-on pack.
8. Is the game officially licensed by ICC?

Answer: Some of the distribution partners too want this to happen. They try to compare Cricket Life 1 with other games and get it some kind of licensing. Not too long ago, our Aussie channel partner negotiated with the authorities to get the Aussie & NZ teams licensed initially. But there were a lot of restrictions imposed by them which would have taken away the essence of the game. For instance, there are many endorsement/sponsorship companies featured in the game(some are real-life while some are fictional) to simulate the real-life market dynamics. If we don't get the game licensed, we have the luxury to include all such companies, and also let the users to add/modify more. If we get licensed teams, we are supposed to restrict the endorsement of the players to that of their real-life counter-parts. Moreover, we are obliged not to let the gamers (at least in theory) add or modify the endorsement deals, sponsorships and such. This will definitely take away the freedom to depict the game as real as possible. While this is only just one instance of the potential restrictions that would be imposed on the game, there are some more, which would cumulatively paralyze the game.

That is why, for a game like Cricket Life, it is certainly not a great option to get the teams licensed as it imposes unwanted creative restrictions. I am sure this isn't such a big problem, as the gamers and the gaming community can modify and/or create a replica of the real-world teams within few days of the game release.

 

[Jason Bourne]

The following is the transcript of a Q&A Session with Matt Whitehorn, the administrator of one of the web's largest cricket gaming communities. The Q&A was conducted on June 19, 2009.
1. Every time we ask users on PlanetCricket what they want in cricket games, a Career mode always comes up as a major want for players. To date however, no game has really achieved this, with the exception of the more management based games. Where does this leave Cricket Life? Is it a case of untapped potential or real difficulty in making a cricket game with a good career mode?
Answer:

It is certainly not difficult to bring out a product being only a Management genre or a 3D Sports genre.

If we were to release Cricket Life as only a management game with no 3D playability, or, with scaled-down 3D playability (as was initially

planned), then it would have been released a lot earlier. Likewise, it wouldn't have been a big task to release a 3D Sports genre game as well.

In fact, some members of our publishing team had seriously considered limiting the 3D sports genre part of the game, and to release the game in Q1 2008. However, it wouldn't have made sense to release a scaled-down 3D version of the game, as it would not have given the gamers the best experience and the essence of Cricket Life.
What we are trying to do is not only to keep the career-management part realistic, but also to incorporate a full-fledged 3D playability. In

short, we want to give the user a lot of options to choose from, and the flexibility to modify and adapt the game the way they want it.
2. The new name of Cricket Life 1 leads to the obvious idea that a Cricket Life 2 is planned. What things haven't made the cut for CL1 that you would like to see for the next version, and are updates/bug fixes going to be made for the original game?

Answer:

The delay in releasing the 1st edition of Cricket Life has automatically pushed in a lot of features that were initially planned only for Version 2.The game's not been under significant development (except for Online/Multiplayer feature development) since mid-last year as most team members were transferred to other divisions. This is because we had planned a release for mid or late 2009, as explained above. If there is a considerable delay further, the game would go under development to incorporate some of the features that were planned for Version 2. We expect to make visual changes to the game so that it looks and feels like the game of the next decade.

3. In our previous interview there were talk of every domestic cricket competition, and very high customisation, is this all still available?

Answer:

We have not scaled-back any feature that was planned earlier. Customization is the key to the game. The game also provides a scripting engine, to customize the game further, with ease.
4. The original plans were for Cricket Life to be basically a cricket simulation with a 3D match engine,if the delay was to expand the 3D side of things, just how extensive is this now? Especially in terms of the quality of the graphics, animations and stadiums. Is there any side of the game that isn't covered in the 3D play?

Answer:

I may have answered a part of this question in one of the above answers. The majority of the development time has indeed gone into developing a full-fledged 3D match engine. We have evolved it into a very flexible and a great quality engine. I am aware from the emails we receive that some people think the recommended 1 GB Graphics card implies inefficiency of the engine. However, this isn't the minimum requirement. You can still run the game in your laptop with the integrated graphics card but you will be playing a game that certainly won't look like the game of the next decade.

If you wish to experience the full graphics capability of the game, then you really need at least a good quality 512MB dedicated graphics card. The more knowledgeable person will know that there's a vast difference in performance between one graphics card model and the other. You can't just say you need a 512 MB or a 1 GB graphics card. There are other factors to consider, such as the transistors or the bandwidth, the clock-speed and so on. The average user may not know these figures and hence we can only sayyou need a 256 or 512 or 1 GB Graphics card. Of course, if your 512 MB graphics card is one of the latest ones, it may be more than enough to run the game with full graphics quality.

If some people consider adding more 3D stuff (like 3D Hairs instead of 2D), more mo-cap animations and high resolution textures as inefficient, then it is certainly inefficient. As for the question on stadia, it is certainly not of inferior quality and has been improved a lot.
5. Has Gamebience® looked at the feedback on both management games and the simulation games in order to guide the path for making a successful combination of the two? What steps have been taken to keep one side of the game from dominating the other?

Answer:

It is upto the user to decide whether he wants to focus on managing the career of the player or to focus on actually playing the entire match or both.

Some users prefer to 'skip' the matches by releasing the control to the computer to auto-complete the match, while others may like to only play their own player's part - such as while his player is batting or bowling his overs and letting the computer to auto-complete the rest of the overs.

If the user himself is a captain, then he certainly may not want to spoil his reputation (if any!) by losing matches if the computer auto-completes the match on his behalf.
6. What commentators (if any) are being utilised? Also, what role does game icon Mike Hussey have in-game?

Answer:

Initially we had planned for having multiple commentators in the game, but due to lack of time we had to scale it down to only 2. I am not sure if more commentators will be added, but only in case of a significant delay

in release.

Mike is the brand ambassador the game, the face of the game.

By questioning the in-game role of Mike, you may actually want to ask, do you have licensed players in-game?

Some of our channel partners too want us to get licensed in-game players.

They try to compare Cricket Life 1 with other games and get it some kind of licensing. Not too long ago, our Aussie channel partner negotiated with the concerned authorities to get the Aussie & NZ teams licensed. But a lot of restrictions were imposed by the authorities which would have taken away the essence of the game. For instance, there are many endorsement/sponsorship companies featured in the game(some are real-life while others are fictional) to simulate the real-life market dynamics. If we don't get the game licensed, we have the luxury to include all such companies, and also let the users to add/modify more. If we get licensed teams, we are supposed to restrict the endorsement of the players to that of their real-life counter-parts.

For example, if Mike Hussey's real-life bat sponsor is Kookaburra, then in-game we can't give the user, who may choose to play as Mike, the

ability to choose another bat sponsor after the contract with Kookaburra ends, for example, in year 2015 of in-game time. This indeed is a big restriction and does not make any sense to the game.

Moreover, we are obliged not to let the gamers (at least in theory) add or modify the endorsement deals, sponsorships and anything that's tied up with real life. This will definitely take away the freedom to depict the game as real as possible. While this is just one instance of the potential restrictions that would be imposed on the game, there are more, which would paralyze the game-play.

That is why, for a game like Cricket Life, it is certainly not a great option to get the licensed teams as it imposes unwanted creative restrictions. I am sure this isn't such a big problem, as the gamers and the gaming community can modify and/or create a replica of the real-world teams soon after its release.
7. What platforms is Cricket Life 1 planned for? And how do you intend to distribute the PC version, will it be in stores or an online purchase?

Answer:

Initially we planned a PC-only release, but we are getting very frequent emails telling us to release the game in XBox-360, PS3, and as well as in Wii.

Our current engine is fully flexible and cross-platform but this is all I am allowed to say.

Although its too early to talk about these things, the game will be sold through retail channels - both in-stores and online.
8. Has the delay meant a scaling back of the initial plans for the game, or an expansion of the feature set?
Answer:

Its always difficult for any new setup to enter the full-efficiency phase immediately. Considering the fact that we have fused two different

aspects/elements - career management and 3D game-play into one game, it must not be surprising if it takes over 2 years to develop. Especially when you consider that other projects of similar magnitude have over 100 people assigned while on the other hand we don't enjoy the same privilege, it is only fair to expect a development time of at least 2 years (which would still be a challenge for a start-from-scratch development). Due to limited resources, from time to time, many members developing the game had to be transferred to other divisions of our parent company for completing other development works. There have been certain instances when we had to revamp our creative team as the publishing team was not satisfied with them.
It is very important to prepare the framework as flexible as possible so that future editions can be built over it efficiently and get rolled-out

smoothly in a normal development course of about 8-12 months.

Furthermore, it has been our policy to extend development or incorporate future features into the product whenever we anticipate a significant delay, so that the gamers get features that's proportional to the time spent in the overall project.
Although the actual development time was just under 2 years, we have delayed it over 8 months since last August for reasons other than

development issues. We also need to analyze the market, predict the entry of other market players and then strategically time our release. We had a target release of a summer or a pre-X-mas release this year, but I wouldn't say that the release is around the corner yet due to the other market releases this year.

The good news for the gamers is this would push in more features into the game, possibly including a full-fledged Online/Multi-player mode (if you see the) official feature list of Cricket Life 1, only a partial online playing mode was included) among other features.
It is certainly a financial burden for the company whenever it delays a product, and I assure the gamers that we are here to get it released. We have spent a lot of resources in the development of the game. We also signed-up Mike Hussey as the brand ambassador of the game, and all these were done with the intention to get the product out.

The Cricket Life that would have released on earlier would have been mostly a career-management oriented-game whereas the Cricket Life that would relase now would also incorporate full-fledged 3D playability. The development since then has been focussed on 3D playability. The previous framework was only PC-based and very restricted, whereas the new framework we have adopted is cross-platform and flexible. In short, the game has evolved since from being merely a career management-focussed game to being a HD quality 3D sports game with career management.

 

[nitinveer]

Wow this is the great news.. Already waiting for ashes 09 and now this is another one.. COOL!!

 

[moshel]

Well this is all great news, but i suppose the "working" has been going on for quite some time....until it really comes out, I am not going to get my hopes up high.