FIFA 08 Wii producer speaks on game development

Some FIFA purists might be turned off by the cartoony graphics that FIFA 08 for the Wii will be sporting. However if players can look past that, it appears as if there are solid and fun game mechanics that were put into it. If you don’t believe us, then listen to FIFA 08‘s producer, Tim Tschirner.

A part of the development of the game that really caught our attention, were the control schemes they experimented on for the game. Initial plans include attaching the Wiimote to your foot and use it as a controller. However, it turns out that the idea only sounds good on paper; in practice, it can be quite taxing. Tschirner explained this in an interview with Gamespot:

At the beginning of development, we discussed the idea of attaching the Wii Remote to your foot to execute passes and shots that way. We constructed a prototype by taking a sock and sewing a pocket to the side that housed the Wii Remote.

While it worked technically (it detected passes and shots accurately), it felt really awkward to stand up and take kicks into the air. In addition, your knees and ankles would start hurting after a while, so in the end, we abandoned the idea.

Another thing fans of the game should be aware of, is the fact that the development team of Madden NFL 07 for the Wii was consulted in developing the game. This was a great move on their part and it really helped them in cutting down the title’s development time. Tschirner said that the Madden developers were also able to give them valuable insight on what worked well and what didn’t work so well, including some ideas that just weren’t feasible. On the technical side, they were able to get some low-level code and libraries.

With that, we can be relatively confident that this game will be pretty good when it comes out. Be sure to keep checking back here for more updates on FIFA 2008 for the Wii.

Some FIFA purists might be turned off by the cartoony graphics that FIFA 08 for the Wii will be sporting. However if players can look past that, it appears as if there are solid and fun game mechanics that were put into it. If you don’t believe us, then listen to FIFA 08‘s producer, Tim Tschirner.

A part of the development of the game that really caught our attention, were the control schemes they experimented on for the game. Initial plans include attaching the Wiimote to your foot and use it as a controller. However, it turns out that the idea only sounds good on paper; in practice, it can be quite taxing. Tschirner explained this in an interview with Gamespot:

At the beginning of development, we discussed the idea of attaching the Wii Remote to your foot to execute passes and shots that way. We constructed a prototype by taking a sock and sewing a pocket to the side that housed the Wii Remote.

While it worked technically (it detected passes and shots accurately), it felt really awkward to stand up and take kicks into the air. In addition, your knees and ankles would start hurting after a while, so in the end, we abandoned the idea.

Another thing fans of the game should be aware of, is the fact that the development team of Madden NFL 07 for the Wii was consulted in developing the game. This was a great move on their part and it really helped them in cutting down the title’s development time. Tschirner said that the Madden developers were also able to give them valuable insight on what worked well and what didn’t work so well, including some ideas that just weren’t feasible. On the technical side, they were able to get some low-level code and libraries.

With that, we can be relatively confident that this game will be pretty good when it comes out. Be sure to keep checking back here for more updates on FIFA 2008 for the Wii.