Madden NFL 13

LEAD GAME DESIGNER - Wii-U

Madden 13 on the Wii-U was my first full opportunity as a Lead Designer and I didn't let it go to waste. Having access to the Wii U's tablet controller opened us up to a number of interesting ideas that we prototyped, tested and iterated on.

I was proud of the work we did and the unique set of features we ended up with, especially due to the time constraints we were under at the time.

"The most notable addition is the ability to playcall from the GamePad screen itself. Instead of having to quickly browse through the circles and squiggles in tiny boxes on the TV screen, it’s all right there on the controller" - Hardcore Gamer

"Speaking of the Gamepad, Madden uses it better than most other games at launch...I love this feature." - ZTGD

"...the feeling you get when you connect on a hand-drawn play is immensely satisfactory." - Games Radar

Design Challenges

DESIGN CHALLENGES

Lead Designer Role

As my first full opportunity as Lead Designer, the role was both exciting and challenging. Our design team was a small but effective group comprised of myself, our lead UI designer and a junior designer who I was mentoring. However, our project was constrained to an extremely tight schedule, so when defining our creative pillars, I decided to prioritize concepts that would highight the unique features of the Wii-U while porting over the most important parts of the current Madden game.

Touchpad UX

Making use of the Wii-U touchpad to improve the Madden experience, was one of our highest priorities. Although the touchpad itself provided a fantastic canvas on which to create new features, there were a few challenges that we needed to overcome. First and foremost was making sure that the user's attention was always where the most important information was being delivered. The TV was our primary display and the touchpad was strictly used as a supplemental interface during lulls in the action. Second, due to its non-capacitive touch screen, we tried to make sure that any interactions with the touchpad provided the user with clear feedback to know whether or not they'd successfully accomplished what they intented to do.

Adapting Core Gameplay

In order to utilize the touchpad to its fullest, we needed to tie it into some of our core gameplay features while making sure that it didn't distract the user during actual gameplay. To this end we adapted both our play calling and pre-play adjustment systems to be touch based. The play calling experience was arguably improved by the touchpad insofar as that it allows users to see much more of the playbook all at once as well as navigate it much more quickly. Pre-play benefitted through the simplification of complex systems. The touchpad allows the user to quickly and intuitively draw new routes for receivers or drag defensive players into new assignments.

Media and PR

Although I was no stranger to doing PR at this point in my career, it's still fun to get in front of a bunch of people and gush about what your team has been working on. During the Wii-U PR tour, I had the privilage of presenting during the EA Summer Showcase in front of a live studio and internet audience, which was amazing. Of course, interviews always have their curveballs and thanks to some of the hard decisions we had to make with regard to supporting new or existing Madden features, I would often have to routinely field questions asking about their omission in ways that would allow me to redirect the discussion back towards the positive aspects of our game.