All That Hard Work into a Wii Madden NFL ’07

It’s no surprise that the Wiimote changes how gamers and developers alike approach a game. It’s no different for EA Canada, who’ve been assigned to Wii-ify Madden NFL ’07 by the head office. GamePro.com spoke with associate producer Jason Samuel Armenies on the adventure that is creating a Wii football title.

EA Canada’s making the controls as simple as possible for the casual gamer, Jason reveals. They’ve already gone through a lot of focus group testing of different control schemes, and they’ve killed a lot of different control schemes for the Wiimote. One concern was “Wiimote fatigue,” and the developers addressed this by programming small wrist flicks to do most of the hard work. Players can still go all-out with their Wiimote arm if they want to, but at some point, they may want to give the biceps a rest, kick back, and let their wrists do the talking.

Players can expect from the Wii version all the depth of game they’ve come to expect from other versions of Madden ’07, Jason claims. At the same time, EA Canada plans on including Wii-specific features that won’t show up in the other versions, like letting you taunt the defensive line or quiet down the roaring crowd, all with a gesture of the Wiimote.

Not everything will make it into the ’07 launch, though. Like, for example, sidearming. “Maybe next year,” says Jason, while the development team gathers more experience on creating Wii games. It helps that EA’s assigned Wii development to EA Canada, so that’ll be a lot of experience for the next installment of a Wii Madden.

It’s no surprise that the Wiimote changes how gamers and developers alike approach a game. It’s no different for EA Canada, who’ve been assigned to Wii-ify Madden NFL ’07 by the head office. GamePro.com spoke with associate producer Jason Samuel Armenies on the adventure that is creating a Wii football title.

EA Canada’s making the controls as simple as possible for the casual gamer, Jason reveals. They’ve already gone through a lot of focus group testing of different control schemes, and they’ve killed a lot of different control schemes for the Wiimote. One concern was “Wiimote fatigue,” and the developers addressed this by programming small wrist flicks to do most of the hard work. Players can still go all-out with their Wiimote arm if they want to, but at some point, they may want to give the biceps a rest, kick back, and let their wrists do the talking.

Players can expect from the Wii version all the depth of game they’ve come to expect from other versions of Madden ’07, Jason claims. At the same time, EA Canada plans on including Wii-specific features that won’t show up in the other versions, like letting you taunt the defensive line or quiet down the roaring crowd, all with a gesture of the Wiimote.

Not everything will make it into the ’07 launch, though. Like, for example, sidearming. “Maybe next year,” says Jason, while the development team gathers more experience on creating Wii games. It helps that EA’s assigned Wii development to EA Canada, so that’ll be a lot of experience for the next installment of a Wii Madden.