Coach's Corner 1: Face Scanning in NBA LIVE
Hey NBA LIVE fans, welcome to the new Coach’s Corner series - where we take you behind the scenes on some of the work we’re doing to help us improve the series going forward.
As some of you may have noticed, we’ve been spending the past several months working hard to get head scans of as many players as possible. This has a number of benefits, but the most important is that it allows us to accurately capture the details and subtleties of each player so that they look more realistic in NBA LIVE. It’s no longer up to artists to interpret how a player’s brow wrinkles or what the contours of his face look like. Now, we’ve now got the actual data right at our fingertips.
This year has been big for us, as we have been able to take a mobile head scanning rig out on the road with us. Previously, players had to come to us for head scans. Now we can easily go to them, which has allowed us to scan more than 220 players and coaches, and that number continues to grow every week.
Another benefit to these sessions with the teams is that we’ve been able to chat with some of the players and coaches about the game of basketball. For instance, gameplay designer and former pro baller Scott O’Gallagher had a chance to sit down with Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel and talk about the team’s offensive and defensive philosophies.
Vogel explained that the Pacers adjust their offense around their opponent’s defense, and that the team’s offensive sets may change several times a game. For example, the team may see a certain pick-and-roll defense and immediately switch to Four Corner Spacing in order to stretch out the defenders and open up lanes. Strategy sessions like these are extremely helpful for our team, as they help us keep up with how NBA teams run their games so we can implement their styles into our game.
We like to get player feedback, and the Pacers’ Paul George and David West both took some time to play NBA LIVE 14. George was a big fan of the signature dribbles, and gave us some valuable details about his own moves. In addition, we got some great insight from George and West on how they play screen-and-rolls, which we can use to tune and improve our own system. The two All-Stars also talked about how they adjust when facing other defenses that load up against them.
We’re planning on making this Coach’s Corner a weekly series, so keep checking back every week for more info and more sneak peeks at what we’re working on. As always, we welcome your feedback on ways to improve the game, and hope you’ll continue on the journey with us as we constantly strive to deliver an authentic, fun basketball experience in NBA LIVE.
NBA LIVE 14 is now available worldwide for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Order today, and be sure to check the NBA LIVE website, Facebook and Twitter for updates.
