| Virtua Tennis 2009 Exclusive Q&A with Kenton Fletcher & Toby Allen of Sumo |
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Can you tell us more about the roster - how many pro players can we expect to see?
Virtua Tennis 2009 includes 23 of the world’s top professionals. Some familiar favourites such as Federer, Nadal, Williams and Sharapova return for another outing alongside exciting new faces including Andy Murray and Ana Ivanović and legends such as Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg!
Will the game feature a character customization option and will this be any different to the one seen in VT 3?
We’ve entirely rebuilt the character creation mode, and we think people will be more than happy with the results! Our aim was to allow the player to create the widest possible range of characters without drowning them in a sea of options. We’ve tried to ensure that the whole process is simple, clear and easy to use throughout. We have also provided a large quantity of clothing and accessories which should allow you to dress up in a stupendous amount of different apparel.
Will you be supporting the game with downloadable content?
This is one of the areas we are keen to explore, however you won’t see any DLC for VT this time round.
Have you made any changes to the core gameplay?
We listened very closely to the feedback from fans after Virtua Tennis 3, and set out to make some carefully considered fixes and tweaks to the game play. Our changes were designed to improve the game experience as much as possible without breaking the magic that makes Virtua Tennis so special in the first place. It’s a rare privilege to begin a project with such a hugely popular gameplay system already in place, and we knew the fans would never forgive us if we broke.
Another aspect of the gameplay we tweaked this time round has been the camera – We now offer a third up-close and personal camera. This brings you closer to the player; you see more of the crowd and get a better sensation of the game through this view. We also worked closely with AM3 to tweak and update the player stats for this year’s updated roster.
What modes of play can we expect?
One of the biggest new modes we’ve added to Virtua Tennis 2009 is the expanded World Tour consisting of Amateur and Pro Tours, 500 custom created characters and licensed Davis and Fed Cup tournaments. We’ve really gone to town with this mode, with a host of new features including the new shop with over 1500 player items to buy, the new sponsorship matches, partner system and even a Charity Cup event that happens once per season and which all participants must wear fancy dress to be able to enter!
Following on from its popularity in Virtua Tennis 3, we’ve also built heavily on the online side of the game. Virtua Tennis 2009 offers a friendly online mode where players can take part in matches and mini-games using any of the licensed professional players or their own custom characters, and a ranked online mode where players compete with their own characters to try and become world number one. We also have a new weekly mode called Online Tour that we hope people will enjoy.
If you're an owner of VT 3, what reason other than an updated roster can you give for purchasing this latest game?
Virtua Tennis 2009 is a whole lot more than just an updated roster! The new World Tour mode alone is a huge addition to the game, offering the player the chance to choose from over 200 countries and build a career that takes the player from the humble amateur ranks to the highs of the Davis Cup and maybe all the way to world number one! We also have the all new sponsorship matches and Charity Cup events and a Partners system that allows you to befriend AI players and choose to play with them in doubles events. Just to finish off, you will also be able to play the minigames online this year round.
Sports games have to adhere to a strict set of rules so they are identified with the sport they are trying to recreate. Do you feel that this is a limitation, or are you able to expand certain ideas that fit in well with what is expected?
I don’t think it’s a limitation at all really, it just gives you the challenge to create the most fun, enjoyable experience you can within those rules. There is often a temptation to try and push the rules to the limit to fit in interesting new ideas, but some of the most successful ideas tend to be those that fit comfortably within the rule structure and just approach things in a slightly different way. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel in order to make a great vehicle.
Have you worked with any of the pro players such as for motion capture and generating likenesses?
SEGA’s AM3 department worked closely with the players and their agents to ensure that the likenesses in game were as close as possible to reality, and to create their signature moves as animations. I can’t go into too many details, but we’ve been delighted with the results.
What's the hardest part of developing a tennis game?
Tennis is of course quite a technical game, so the main challenge is probably making sure that the game is open and accessible to everybody. You don’t want to set in place a bar whereby the only people who can enjoy your game are people who know the difference between a top spin and a slice. You also don’t want to limit the potential audience by putting in place a complex control system that only a handful of people can understand.
We think the reason Virtua Tennis has the level of popularity it does is that it allows anyone who can hold a pad to play an enjoyable game of tennis. It has one of the most gentle learning curves of any sporting game yet still provides the depth to keep the player interested long term.
The audience in tennis matches are a lot less conservative than they used to be. How have you approached getting the atmosphere perfected for the game?
Crowd input was one of the first areas of the game that we looked at, and we were determined to get a much more realistic, involved feel this time around. In Virtua Tennis 2009 we’ve gone for a fully 3D crowd which gets bigger the larger the event. The crowd also gets more excitable during more high pressure sections of each match, which really hypes you up and gets you focused!
One of the things I really like about the crowd is the fact that as you serve, it’s all quiet, calm and sedate and then as the game builds up and the rally continues, you’ll gradually hear the crowd getting animated and noisy. If you pull a drop shot in the middle of the rally, you will get a general gasp, but then even more excitement if the opponent is able to get it back, and maybe put you in a difficult position. It’s all very reminiscent of the Federer vs Nadal final last year which was fantastic to watch – That’s been a key match to get the crowd right in Virtua Tennis 2009.
There's always been something dark/amusing about women tennis players grunting excessively during furious and tense bouts, is this something that you've made a point of capturing in VT 2009?
Whilst we’ve tried for realism in many areas of the game, there might be a few places where we’ve toned things down slightly...
Can you explain a little more about how the ball physics work, is this something that is changeable over time or the same as previous games, can it ever be improved for example?
Ball physics are one of those areas that you can tweak endlessly, but which don’t really require a radical overhaul. We’re pretty happy with the core ball physics that AM3 created for Virtua Tennis 3, so most of our improvements in this area have been on things like how the ball reacts to different surface types.
What do you feel makes a perfect tennis game, bar strawberries, cream and sunny weather?
A vibrant energetic crowd, 2 players pushing themselves to their very limits and the kind of shots being played that leave you going ‘How on earth did he/she do that?!’. If we’ve managed to capture a little piece of that, then I think we’ve done our job.
How have you balanced the AI, tennis games are renowned for AI being able to perform super moves, have you looked at criticisms and adjusted the AI to be more realistic?
We looked and listened and have made tweaks throughout the game to try and improve any areas we thought could use it. Personally I think the AI now feels much more alive than in previous iterations of the series,
How many courts will the game feature?
We have over 40 court environments for players to enjoy.
How many International tournaments can we expect to take part in?
International matches are covered through the licensed Davis and Fed Cup events within World Tour. Basically you pick a home nation when you create your character from any one of over 200 different nations, and as your career progresses you will receive an invite to join the national team. Ever wanted to try and win the Davis Cup as Burkina Faso? Well now you can. You’ll also see the real world professionals playing for their respective teams. Oh and if you fail to turn up for matches, you can expect your national team to start getting mad with you.
Can you tell us more about the historic matches - will these be set features or will players be able to create them?
We’ve included several legends in the game, so if people would like to recreate some of the classic Becker/Edberg clashes, this will be easy to do.
Will the game feature any commentary, and if so who is providing this?
The only voice over during games comes from the umpire. We want the player to feel like they are the one out there on court, not sat watching the match from their living room.
Would you describe VT 2009 as a simulation or arcade experience?
We’re proud of the games arcade roots, but we’ve also provided a deep career mode that allows the player to become more immersed in the game longer term. We didn’t set out to make a simulation and to be honest it’s not really what we want to do. Virtua Tennis is about feeling like every game you play is a centre court final. We don’t have any aspirations to make the player feel the slog of endless hours of hard training on the way to that final.
What online options will be available?
In Virtua Tennis 2009 we’ve included both friendly and ranked online modes, along with the all new Online Tour, which is a weekly contest with a set number of events. For the first time in the VT series you can also play mini-games online, which we hope people will love.
If you had to sum up VT 2009 in a sentence, what would you say?
A new and updated version of SEGA’s classic Virtua Tennis - Simple to play, difficult to master and a lot of fun for everyone!
We'd like to thank Kenton and Toby for answering our questions.
Posted By: Robert Cram
Date: 2009-06-08
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