[2K ] NBA Developer Insights 08/25
http://community.2ksports.com/community/insights/
My Player
By: SimBaller | Tuesday August 25 2009
Hey NBA 2K fans, this is Erick Boenisch, and I'm back for another exclusive
developer Insight. Today I'm going to talk about our all-new My Player career
mode. Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the mode, let me take a few
sentences to show you the design process we went through as a development
team in creating this new mode.
Early in the production cycle, we identified three key concepts that we
wanted to mold My Player around:
1) Authenticity. We don't believe that starting you off at the end of the
bench on an NBA team is a realistic, fun, OR rewarding experience. Where is
the sense of progression if your career starts off in the NBA? You deserve
more than that.
2) NBA is a Team Sport. Piggybacking off of the Authenticity point, we felt
that emphasizing team play over 『me first' play was very important in our
design. Players who try to overly-dominate the ball and/or otherwise play in
a fashion that is detrimental to the overall success of their team will not
reap the rewards this mode has to offer. On the other hand, those who respect
their teammates, set picks on offense, box out for rebounds, double team when
called for, will earn a much larger amount of Skill Points in addition to
better grabbing the attention of the NBA scouts who are looking to fill their
teams.
3) Pace/Dynamism. With all of the depth that we have added to this mode, we
didn't want you languishing in any one aspect of it for an unnecessarily long
period of time. A key element to this is targeting what you want to do when
you play the mode, and making sure that's what you're doing. From the time
you create your player, every single game you play means something; every
game can make or break where your career takes you next. When you talk to
your friends about their career, it likely will have taken a completely
different path from yours. We love that!
Starting My Player
Many of you who plan on purchasing NBA 2K10: Draft Combine have been asking
what happens when you have created your character and finished running him
through the Combine. Well, when you boot up NBA 2K10, the very first thing
you're going to notice is your created player bumping Kobe Bryant off the
screen as the Cover Athlete for NBA 2K10. Sorry Kobe. It's a small thing, but
there is something pretty satisfying about seeing yourself on the title page
for NBA 2K10!
When you select 『My Player' from the menu, you will instantly notice that
your created player is already there waiting for you. Selecting to 『
Continue' your career will instantly jump you to Madison Square Garden for
the 2009 NBA Draft. David Stern is on hand to welcome you to the NBA -- if
you get drafted that is. It's here where we find out if you have what it
takes to slip into the first round. Let's be honest, you're no Blake Griffin
(yet), so going #1 overall might be a bit of a stretch.
Once the draft concludes, it's time to head out to the Summer Circuit…every
rookie's first stop on their journey towards becoming an NBA player. If you
didn't purchase NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, this is where your experience
begins. As you didn't participate in the NBA Draft Combine, you aren't even
on the radar of the NBA teams. Fortunately for you, the NBA 2K Insider has
connections, and he's gotten you an invite to play on an NBA team's Summer
Circuit squad as an undrafted free agent. Your road is going to be much
tougher, and will almost certainly result in a stint in the NBA D-League
(yes, of course we have it!)
Summer Circuit
Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here; first you're going to have to
face the challenges of the Summer Circuit. During the Summer Circuit, your
teammates are going to consist of young players from the NBA team, other
drafted players, and a number of other players who are trying to make the
team. The Summer Circuit consists of a 6-game schedule. Unlike the Draft
Combine, you're going to have to share the court with your teammates here.
This means you'll find yourself riding the pine a fair amount of the time.
What is life like on the pine? Well, when your player is on the bench, you'll
be able to watch the game play out in real-time with our new 『bench-cam'.
This is a great way to keep up with the flow of the game and strategize on
what you are going to do when you get back on the court. If sitting around
watching your teammates play isn't your cup of tea, no problem. With a single
press of the button, you can jump right into our 『Courtside Sim', which will
show you the action from a 『Gamecast' point of view. Possessions happen
quickly in the 『Courtside Sim', which makes this the ideal way to quickly
simulate to the next time you are substituted into the game.
Your coaches aren't interested in you wasting their time. If you stumble out
of the gate and never recover, you have to expect that they are going to cut
you before the Summer Circuit is even over. In the event that this happens,
the NBA 2K Insider will be working the phones trying to get you a spot with
an NBA D-League team. Nothing is for certain in this business. Hopefully you
played well enough for one of those teams to give you a chance. On the other
hand, if you did perform well enough in the Summer Circuit, your team (or
other teams in the league) will be interested in extending you an invite to
their Training Camp.
Training Camp
This is where things start to get, well, a little rough! You are no longer
playing against the likes of Adam Morrison, you're now playing against guys
like Kobe, Pau, and Ron-Ron. Training Camp is no joke.
Every team invites 20 players to their custom Training Camp facility with the
intention of taking a 15-man roster into the NBA season. Training Camp
consists of 5 games, with a player getting cut at the end of every single
game. By the end of the 5th game, the team will be down to 15 players, and
those are the players the team is going to move forward with. Obviously, this
doesn't leave you a lot of room for error. It's not easy for a young,
struggling 48-rated rookie to hold his own against a superstar like Kobe
Bryant, but, welcome to the league. Nothing comes for free in the NBA.
There are three possible career outcomes for you in the Training Camp chapter
of your career. 1) You can get cut at any point during the team's Training
Camp. 2) You can survive the final day of Training Camp, but immediately be
sent down to the team's NBA D-League affiliate. 3) You can survive the final
day of Training Camp and make the NBA squad. We've made sure that the coaches
are very picky about who they choose for their teams; don't expect this to be
a walk in the park.
NBA D-League
As you can see by now, a lot of roads lead to a good amount of your early
career being spent in the NBA D-League. When you first arrive with your NBA
D-League team (unless of course you were lucky enough to bypass the NBA
D-League entirely), you're going to be receiving minimal time off the bench.
Your goal at this point in your career is to play to the best of your
ability, get good teammate grades, accomplish your objectives (which are
scaled for your reduced minute allocation), and ultimately, impress your
coaches. If you can do these things, the coaching staff will start to give
you more minutes and a bigger role on the team.
Once you arrive at the NBA D-League, you will have 10 drills available at
your disposal. Every 10 or so days during the season, a new drill will be
added to your allocation. It's important to use these drills at your earliest
convenience in order to have a greater chance at getting that NBA call-up.
If you arrived in the NBA D-League by being cut in either the Summer Circuit
or Training Camp, you will need to bide your time by doing everything that is
asked of you. This doesn't mean dominate the ball and score all of your
team's points. When NBA teams are scouring the D-League, they are looking for
players who can fill a role on their team, not someone who will come in and
disrupt their team chemistry. That's something to think about as you play
through your NBA D-League games.
In the event that a team in the NBA is suffering through injuries or decides
to waive a player that isn't working out for them, there is a chance they may
start looking your way. If they decide they are interested in you, a 10-day
contract will be extended your way. Now, you only have 10 days to prove to
the team that you belong with them. At the end of the 10 days, the team will
either release you (which sends you back to the NBA D-League) or they may
offer you a second 10-day contract to evaluate you further. At the end of
this second 10-day contract, they must either send you back to the NBA
D-League or sign you for the rest of the season.
Don't let the NBA D-League define your career. Keep in mind, it is a means to
an end.
NBA
So, you've made it to the NBA! Now what? Just because you've made it to the
NBA doesn't mean you are here to stay. If you don't play well enough to hold
down your spot on the team and/or aren't getting enough minutes, your team
will either send you down to their NBA D-League affiliate or they will cut
you outright. As always, you can avoid this by being the ultimate team player
and doing everything that your coach asks of you.
Similar to when you first arrived in the NBA D-League, your minute allocation
will be very small from the outset. You'll need to perform well to earn the
trust of your coach. The NBA is a different beast than what you've see thus
far. Everyone's faster, bigger, and better than you in almost every way.
Fortunately, you are given 10 drills upon arriving in the NBA, so use those
wisely to increase your player's attributes as soon as they are available.
My Player features a 『Milestones' menu that contains a number of goals for
you to accomplish over the course of your career. The majority of the goals
are NBA-based, so now that you've made it to the NBA, it's time to start
taking aim at these. They range from very simple (「Play in an NBA game」),
to difficult (「Win the MVP」), to legendary (「Score 38388 points in your
career」). Completing these Milestones will result in you earning a large
number of Skill Points, which you can immediately use to improve your
player's overall rating.
Once you've played through a full 82-game season (which doesn't take nearly
as long as it sounds as you can use 『Courtside Sim' to get through periods
of time when you're on the bench), you will get to choose what you want to do
with your career next. Depending on how you played, your team may want to
re-sign you. Other teams may be interested in your services as well. The
better you play, the better the teams are that are interested in signing you.
At this point, the question becomes, are you interested in showing loyalty to
the team that gave you a chance, or are you ready to jump ship to the best
team offering you a contract?
What you do with your career is completely up to you. That's the beauty of My
Player.
Pick-Up Games
Let's shift gears here and talk about another exciting way to progress your
player in My Player mode. It was important to us to allow our users to be
able to play online games within this experience. Pick-Up Games afforded us
this opportunity. Allow me to explain. Pick-Up Games are online 『Team-Up'
style 5-on-5 games where you are playing with your user created player. When
I say 『Team-Up' style 5-on-5, I'm of course referencing 10 human controlled
players playing 5-on-5 in a single game simultaneously.
Players are rewarded at the end of these games strictly based off of their
teammate grades rather than their individual stats. Scoring 50 points doesn't
mean anything if you got all of those points off of bad shots. Setting picks,
making smart passes, calling for the ball only when you're open, boxing out
on rebounds, these are the types of things that will earn you a good Teammate
Grade, and thus, a good number of Skill Points. This is all about team play
folks.
Pick-Up Games are available for you to play at any point during your career
regardless of whether you're in the Summer Circuit, Training Camp, the NBA
D-League, or the NBA. I urge you to spend some time developing your player in
this fashion; it's been a ton of fun for us doing so. Plus, you get to see
all of the cool and creative created players that people have made. There are
more details here, but I don't want to steal the thunder from the upcoming
Insight regarding what we have done in the online department this year!
Final Notes
Now that you know that online play is a piece of the puzzle, I want to be
clear on a few questions that you may be asking yourself. This won't be a
mode with a bunch of 99-rated players running around. It will take players
most of their career to get this plateau, if they can at all. We've designed
this game in such a way that you need to strategize on how you will develop
your player. Being a complete jack of all trades will result in your player
simply being average in each skill (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).
Also, everyone will be playing on a level playing field. For those of you who
have thoughts of increasing all of the shot sliders and lowering the CPU
sliders to your benefit, sorry, that's a no go. We're very serious about
delivering a fun and balanced experience to our fans with this experience. We
think this is a big feature, with a lot of potential moving forward.
Well, that about wraps it up for me with My Player. As you can see, there is
a lot going on here. It will definitely be exciting to see all the players
you guys and gals come up with. I'll be back in a couple weeks with another
Insight to talk to you about what we've done with the Association this year.
Here's a hint about what's going on there; my philosophy with Association
this year has been, 「The Year of the Fan」. We'll see what that means soon…
As for your My Player career, I have just one question for you. How will you
take over?
Erick Boenisch
aka SimBaller
--
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