Developer interview: Cricket Revolution

[KnackChap]

Developer interview: Cricket Revolution

 

With all the recent buzz around Ashes Cricket 2009 and The Ashes itself, not many may have noticed another promising cricket title quietly building up to its release. Cricket Revolution is a PC-only cricket game with a strong community and multi-player focus. It’s developed by Mindstorm, a Lahore-based independent studio, who will release the game on Steam sometime this year.

 

The amount of information on offer and details into the gameplay mechanics available at the game’s website will tell you that these guys know their cricket. The game has been in development since the studio was set up in 2006, and Mindstorm even have their own motion capture studio, which as you can see from the gameplay trailer, has been put to good use in Cricket Revolution.

 

We were quite intrigued by this game and felt more people needed to know about it. So we got in touch with Hasan Muneeb at Mindstorm and he was kind enough to shed more light on the game and its various features.

 

 

 

Tell us a bit about the batting mechanic in Cricket Revolution. How much control does the batsman have over shot selection, power and placement?

We’ve modelled the mechanics of the game such that the players have full control over their shots and shot selection. CR offers up to 34 shots for the batsman to choose from. Which one he plays is up to his judgement and depending on where the ball is pitched, what the field setting is, and which type of bowler he’s facing. Shot power depends on the kind of shot being played. For instance, slog shots travel faster and cover greater distances than ground strokes. Additionally, more talented, aggressive batsmen will hit the ball with greater power than their lesser talented counterparts. Regarding placement, the root direction of the shot is defined by the shot itself. However, batsmen can further fine tune their placement by varying degrees in both directions around the root direction, making threading the ball through in the infield truly pleasurable.

 

What’s the ‘Bowling Gadget’ and how do mind games work?

 

The Bowling Gadget is used to set the seam/swing/spin on the ball along with its speed. The key difference in CR’s bowling mechanism compared to other games is that these variables are set before the bowler starts his run up. Naturally, this allows a lot more room for mind games, since players can focus on what they want to bowl rather than how they’re going to do so. The bowling marker, however, isn’t visible to the batsman till the very last moment. Additionally, the bowling gadget allows the bowler to fool the batsman by concealing the seam, for example, making the battle between ball and bat all the more exciting.

 

 

In past games, fielding mechanics haven’t been very deep and there’s always been more focus on batting and bowling. How does fielding work in Cricket Revolution?

 

Fielding in CR is highly dynamic and plays a crucial role in the outcome of every delivery. There is no point in bowling outside the line of off-stump and seaming the ball to the off with a fast bowler when you have no slips in place. Players can place their fielders freely anywhere on the map (except for within the 15-yard circle where there are pre-defined spots), which can result in very interesting field setups. Couple that with the variation in a fielder’s skill, which is dependent on his talent points, and fielding becomes an equally important part of the game, where you must strategise in order to bowl according to your field and outwit the batsman.

 

You’ve probably played Ashes Cricket 2009. How would you compare Cricket Revolution to it in terms of gameplay, and what are the areas where you think your game excels?

 

Although both games revolve around the sport of cricket, the core concepts behind them vary greatly. Cricket Revolution is a new cricket engine written from the ground up and thus offers a completely different experience in every aspect. In fact, CR will sport the first totally new multiplayer cricket engine to hit the cricket games market for years. Our game’s feel is unique and is hardly akin to Ashes, especially with the introduction of several features completely new to cricket games. This is a very subjective matter though, so you’ll have to be your own judge here.

 

 

There seems to be a lot of community integration in the game. Can you elaborate a bit on some of the community features? Also tell us about the multiplayer features?

 

Our in-game online portal ‘Revolution Online’, coupled with the game’s website, is going to be the primary spot for the community to evolve and strengthen. Not only will it allow users to play with others from all over the world, but it will also store stats from all ranked games in every user’s profile. This data is integrated with our Leaderboards, which contains a ranking system for top players, countries, batsmen, bowlers and clubs. This will drive the competitive side of the game, where every game you play will mean something since it will have an effect on your ranking, batting/bowling averages etc. We have a complete community guide that details all our features, leaderboards, rankings, and award systems on our site for fans to check out.

 

With community such an important aspect, is there also scope for user-generated content and mods to circumvent the license limitations?

 

Our aim is to support the community as much as possible. Therefore, we do plan on releasing certain tools that you can use to mod/patch the game sometime in the future.

 

Can you tell us about the teams in the game? How many national teams are present and are there any domestic/County/IPL teams?

 

In addition to the ten full-time members of the ICC, you can choose to play from any of the 90+ other nations available. However, we currently do not have domestic teams implemented in the game.

 

 

Will there be online as well as offline multiplayer options? How many players does the game support?

 

The game will allow LAN support for offline multiplayer. Currently, the game features one-on-one matches.

 

Will the game support controllers besides keyboard and mouse?

 

At the moment, the game only supports keyboard and mouse inputs.

 

Is there a way to edit teams, create teams and edit player appearance and stats? How detailed are the game’s editing options?

 

CR allows you to edit teams completely. It’s possible to change player names, appearance and attributes. What’s best is that you can save as many teams as you want, and load whichever one you want before a match. So when playing against a friend who is strong at scoring runs, for instance, you can load a profile where you have a lot of talented fielders in order to stop him from putting up a large total.

 

What are the game modes available and are all forms of cricket represented?

 

Currently, there is the option to play 10, 20 and 50 over matches. We haven’t included Test matches as yet.

 

 

Will gameplay differ from one game type to another?

 

It most certainly will. Ten over games are quicker paced than the other two formats, where you can afford to try your luck by slogging it out. The 20 over format is probably the most balanced and fits well with our game design. You must take care of your wickets, and at the same time make sure that you put up a decent total as well.

 

The trailer showed some pretty innovative stadium designs. How many stadiums will be there in the final game?

 

The game at the moment has six completely unique stadiums, with many more just around the corner with the first few patches.

 

Will the surface and behaviour of the pitch differ from place to place?

 

The behaviour depends on the type of pitch you select in game settings when hosting a match. There are three types - grassy, normal and dry. Grassy pitches favour fast bowlers, who can seam the ball more than they normally would be able to, whereas dry pitches favour spinners. The swing isn’t affected by the pitch type. Instead, it depends on the weather.

 

Will there be commentary in the game, and if so, are there any well-known commentators lending their voices?

 

The first release of CR does not have traditional commentary like in other cricket games. This is due to the fact that regardless of official commentators lending their voices, the commentary eventually drags and becomes repetitive, which takes heavily away from the core experience of the game. However, we’re working on some innovative commentary prototypes, so stay tuned.

 

 

With the low penetration of Steam, and digital distribution in general, in countries like India, do you plan a retail release for Cricket Revolution in India. Have you signed up with a distributor here for the game?

 

Steam does have little penetration in the sub-continent and it is for that reason that we are currently working on options for local partners in India. Stay tuned to our news section for updates and announcements.

 

What will be the price of Cricket Revolution on Steam and what’s the release date?

 

The price is yet to be finalised, but rest assured that it will be affordable. Fans can get latest release information and updates directly from our site as they become available.

[Right]

I posted few questions on Planet Cricket forum, slightly more focused on gameplay. Their Community manager has replied to them here:

http://www.planetcricket.net/forums/cricke...os-56930-3.html

 

I am slightly disappointed with no controller support , but still looking forward to the game.

 

1. By looking at the screenies, it seems there is a lot of Anti-aliasing, but it seemed forced to me through Hardware, can you confirm if the game will have in-built anti-aliasing feature?

There is going to be no in-game option to set anti-aliasing. You will have to configure it using your video card settings.

 

2. Are you having any feature for weather condition that the matches could be curtailed due to the rains/light and the revised targets would be set?

2) While weather does have an effect on gameplay, there are going to be no rain delays with revised targets being set or anything as such.

 

We coded in the duckworth lewis method initially, but decided to take it out due to negative feedback from a majority of the testers. Multiplayer games, would feel incomplete if we were to factor in duckworth lewis.

 

3. Will you have anything like Hawk-eye in the game?

3) We have a feature very similar to Hawk-eye for LBWs. It's just not termed as 'Hawk-eye'.

4. What and all different camera angles would be available? Will the player able to switch the camera freely in replays/normal play?

4) At the moment we just have a tower-chase cam mode. We're working on implementing other modes but they won't be included in the first release. Also, cameras are not player controllable.

 

5. Will it be possible to tweak the gamespeed at all? Ashes09 matches are quite irritating with games taking almost life-like time :-/

5) While you cannot change game speed, you can skip through all the cut scenes (third-umpire decisions; umpire signaling for a four, six or an out; replay of the ball's trajectory for an LBW appeal etc.). In multi-player games, however, you will have to bear with those scenes if you opponent does not wish to skip through them. Fortunately though, that just means the timer on his match clock will keep on ticking.

 

6. How much precise the collision is, in the game? Is it standard box-like collision or we have some good physics in the engine like havoc?

6) This is one area we've worked on a lot. There are different levels of collisions i would say. Bat to ball collisions use a proprietary optimization and collision detection sync system. The system ensures centimeter precise bat to ball collisions for any shot and any ball. So for example, when the batsman hits an edge, you can see the ball coming exactly off the edge of the bat.

 

Ball to batsman and ball to fielder use a standard hit-box, whereas stadium collisions have been done with bounding boxes.

[Aftrunner]

It sounds good. Hopefully the deal they are trying to make for a boxed release comes through. I would rather take that than get the Steam version.

 

Also having seen the game in motion I am fairly impressed. It looks a lot better in motion than Ashes, players movement is a lot more realistic.

[dullu]

From the way and what they are talking about, it seems they are going to release an online steam-only version and simply keep updating/patching in basic updates like commentary and game modes...since the grafix are worked upon, they might not be patched in!!

 

Excellent approach if followed and this is where PC trumps over consoles

 

 

Have a few of these developers been active modders for previous cricket games? I have seen a lot of Pak based guys doing hex-editing/mods....

 

Well done chaps

[zibalingz]

Looks like Cricket 97 but another cricket game is always welcome

 

Hate ashes 2009 :|

[Gta_mad]

With community such an important aspect, is there also scope for user-generated content and mods to circumvent the license limitations?

 

Our aim is to support the community as much as possible. Therefore, we do plan on releasing certain tools that you can use to mod/patch the game sometime in the future.

hmm sounds interesting

but i am still worried about offline gameplay,all cricket games are so arcadey

[L33TWiZaRd]

Do all the players in this game have the same physical attributes.....and a weird looking faces like in Ashes.

Also any ideas as to when this will drop ?

[Params7]

Looks good..if this somehow manages to be better than Ashes 09 its just awesome for cricket gaming in general which has been sitting dry since 10 years (and what is wrong with life-like games in Ashes 09? isn't that we all want? Go play the EA cricket games if you want arcade crap )

[AtOmX]

hey guys,

I just went to steam's website and now it says that cricket revolution will be available in October!!!!!!

This is not fair.