Madden NFL 10

DESIGNER - Wii

Madden Wii was an interesting project in that we were given free reign to re-conceptualize Madden for the Wii user. Toward that goal, I was involved in a number of features that involved using the Wii motion controller in ways that made sense for football. After a lot of prototyping and iteration, I feel like we managed to achieve a good balance of features that catered to a wide spectrum of Madden player types.

"The Wii pointer has also become a huge part of the Madden Wii experience now, as the added cursor passing control option – which I personally dig – and cursor player select is added this year. It's a nice addition to be sure." - IGN

"Madden Showdown is hands-down the best offering of the bunch, pitting up to four players together in a party mode where players go one-on-one in smaller arcade-like games of Madden." - IGN

"One really cool addition to the game is the Huddle Up cooperative mode...This is a small feature, but there is a wealth of fun to be had..." - Nintendo World Report

Design Challenges

DESIGN CHALLENGES

Motion Controller Passing

One of the first things I was tasked with doing at the beginning of the project, was to come up with a new motion controller passing mechanic for the Wiimote. Working alongside one of our engineers, we quickly developed 5-6 different prototypes within the game. Once we were satisfied with the quality of the prototypes, I organized a team-wide playtest where we set up multiple stations in a room so people could move from one to the next trying out each prototype and then voting for their favorite at the end, which resulted in our "Point and Pass" mechanic.

Madden Showdown

The goal behind Madden Showdown was to see if we could create a 1-4 player competitive couch-play party/tournament mode. The toughest challenge was coming up with a way to keep all four users entertained while only two actually competed against each other. To that end, I took a page out of sports wagering and introduced a prop based "prediction" system where everyone could risk some of their points by choosing which of the two active users would win in various statistical categories. In order to keep things fresh, we also provided a variety of gameplay settings (like Fumblitis) that could be customized to create unique tournaments.

Casual-Friendly Features

For better or for worse, the Nintendo Wii was regarded as being a console for kids, which consequently led to a lot of titles creating kid or family friendly content. Madden was no different and I was asked to design a feature that met this criteria. After some brainstorming with my fellow designers, I settled on a simple cooperative mechanic that incorporated the IR pointer of the Wiimote. "Huddle-Up" mode allowed someone unfamiliar with the game to have fun by picking up a controller, pointing at the screen and helping a more experienced user by "blocking" opposing players using the Wiimote pointer.

Community Relations

I had the opportunity to reach out to our forum community during this project in an effort to give them a voice, let them know someone was listening and make sure their questions and concerns were addressed. In large part, the community was appreciative and it was not only fun helping people out but also working with them to make the game better by identifying existing issues that we could then fix.