Madden NFL 25 Next Gen Presentation Overview
Jean Adams is the art director for Madden NFL 25. He has worked with EA SPORTS for ten years, focusing on animation, character work and environmental graphics.
ON THE VISUAL POSSIBILITIES OF GEN 4
With the horsepower at our disposal, we’re able to add 10x the detail to anything we want, but it’s not so much about the details as it is the behaviors of our material properties. We’re enhancing the complexity of our materials so that they behave like real skin and cloth. Things like paint and reflections on a helmet were difficult to replicate on Gen 3. With the use of the EA SPORTS IGNITE engine and the horsepower of the new consoles, these things are now possible. I’m excited because there’s so much we can do, from a blade of grass all the way to the crowd. There’s so much happening this year.
ON THE EXCITEMENT OF THE NEW ENGINE
Players have historically complained about the sometimes rigid look of our player models. So when we first started seeing the early tests and results from EA SPORTS IGNITE, we were excited. All of these improvements began to accumulate.
ON HOW EA SPORTS IGNITE INCREASES COLLABORATION ACROSS EA SPORTS
The level of communication starts with a unified EA SPORTS IGNITE engine. Our technology foundation on things like crowds are and sidelines are so similar now, and those are things that have been shared across our label. We’ve been in contact with other franchise’s artists and engineers on a weekly basis.
The sharing begins with a shared core rendering and animation system. If we need an asset, the first thing we do is see if another franchise has already built it. If they don’t, we can create it and possibly share that down the line. When you look at things like jackets and t-shirts, it doesn’t make sense to go back and do them again. We’ve built a base library of great content that may be shared with franchises like NBA LIVE and FIFA, so it’s really allowed for some great collaboration.
ON CLOTH PHYSICS IN MADDEN NFL 25
We’re using cloth much differently in Madden NFL 25 than on other teams. Players in NBA LIVE and FIFA have loose uniforms but in the NFL, players intentionally have their jerseys fitted to make it difficult to grab and hold them. We’ll still use EA SPORTS IGNITE for that level of detail, but in a different way.
ON PLAYER DETAIL
Because the uniforms are different in Madden NFL 25 than other games, our EA SPORTS IGNITE technology is more focused on things like hair and player towels. In the first look at the engine, you saw Robert Griffin III’s hair and towel flowing as he took two steps back in the pocket, as well as Marshawn Lynch’s dreadlocks.
ON THE CROWDS
In the past, we could only render 16 crowd characters on cards. Now they’ll be 3D, and we’re going to create crowds that have indiscernible patterns to where it feels like there are tens of thousands of people in the stands.
Madden NFL 25 is available Tuesday, November 12 on PlayStation 4 and Tuesday, November 19 on Xbox One. Preorder today, and learn more about Madden NFL on next gen.
