Interview: Steve Screech
We had the chance to have a word with Steve Screech, lead developer at Cybersports working on company's football title Football Superstars. We disccussed the present and future of Football Superstars as well as Steve's thoughts on past and present football games and gamers.
Steve Screech is mostly known for the famous Amiga football game Kick OFF. In 90's, Anco's KICK OFF was a huge success on AMIGA. After Dino Dini's departure from ANCO GAMES, Steve Screech had continued to develop KICK OFF for years. He even made a renewed version KICK OFF 2002.
In 2010, Cybersports parted its ways with Football Superstars developer Monumental Games and they created their own development team that has been led by Steve Screech. Screech and his team has already upgraded the game to its final 2.3 version and they have more upgrade plans to come in 2011.
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Amiga owners know you from Kick OFF days. We also know the updated versions of Kick OFF in early 2000's. Can you compare (gameplay wise) the football games from Amiga days to updated versions of KICK OFF and finally today's football games and Football Superstars. Gamers are also very different. What do you think is the biggest difference between Amiga gamers and today's gamers. |
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Ok, well the difference between the Kick Off games from the late 80's and early 90's and say Kick Off 2002 are not really so many. Obviously graphically and machine powerwise they are vastly different but the key gameplay element, that you can play it in the style that you want is still retained.
Every Novemeber since 2001 there has been a Kick Off World Cup held at a location in europe. 50+ contenders turn up and it is always amazing that even after all this time, each contender has his own style of play. With more recent games i don't think this is the case as a lot of the ball control aspects are automatic, whereas in Kick Off you are absolute control of the ball, it is not stuck to your boot and you can curl and bend the ball with great precision. Todays gamer is spoilt for choice, yesterdays gamer had to make do with far less variety but they used to get more out of there games as a consequence. |
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We all know hundreds of thousands of players have been playing your football games. What about you? Did you play (regularly) KICK OFF back then and do you play Football Superstars now? |
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Yes I used to play Kick Off, I used to play Kick Off a lot, too much probably. I used to think I was pretty good at it but once it came to the first World Cup Final in 2001 I found out that I was actually not that good at all. That was a painful experience, losing by 10 goals when you think you should be winning. Today I do play Football Superstars, I try to get 3-4 games in a day but it's not always possible but I do enjoy the game a lot and I can see a lot of areas that I want to improve and take on to the next level. |
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We know you and your team have taken over the development of FS from Monumental Games last summer. We know you have already released some patches and made changes to the game. Is there any aspect of the game you would like to take from KICK OFF and put in Football Superstars today? How long do you think it will take you and your team to make Football Superstars the game you like it to be? |
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Yes, it was the top down view I wanted and I did that at the first opportunity I had. Next on my hit list for must have game play is the ability to curl the ball and that is a tricky thing to get right in this engine but it is something we certainly want to do. As for how long it will take for us to get Football Superstars into the game we want it to be, Well that depends on the amount of time we are allocated to work on game-play opposed to the amount of time we must work on advertising or sponsorship work. Both are vital for different reasons. With out the gameplay it would be no fun and what is a game without fun, but without the sponsorship and advertising we cannot afford to make the game so it is a balancing act. |
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If you were given the chance to produce a football MMO today from scratch, what would be the biggest difference with your game from Football Superstars? |
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The whole friends system and player interaction which is very key to an MMO is just either not there or not as we want it to be so that would be a big change. Also the ability to add to your character graphically ie hairstyles and celebrations would seem to be very important in making your player an individual |
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Do you think when hundreds of thousands of players are involved, it is more likely that more players will abuse the flaws of the game (exploits)? |
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That is inevitable so all you can do is try to cover the holes or exploits as quickly as you can whenever you find them. |
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What do you think of exploiting in Football Superstars? Are you ambitious to remove as many exploits as you can from the game? |
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Yes of course and as we go we will try and cut down on as many of these as we can. |
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Why is the goalkeeper AI in Football Superstars so hard to fix? We know players have been waiting for it for a long time. Is it because of the way they were coded in the beginning or?
I believe goalkeepers make impossible saves and allow goals on soft
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Yes of course and as we go we will try and cut down on as many of these as we can. |
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There has not been many appealing leagues and tournaments in Football Superstars other than World Cups and one season of Superstar League. Do you have plans for a better structured league system? |
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Yes, the tournaments system is something that we are looking at closely at the moment. It is not a simple thing to design so we have to make sure we have it right before we can start any work upon it. |
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If I am not wrong, you had worked on sound effects back in KICK OFF days (If I am wrong please disregard this question.) Isn't it hard to imagine Goal! had better sound effects and atmosphere than Football Superstars? Any plans to make it better? |
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Yes I did work on sound effects as well as many other things on the Kick Off series and yes soundwise Football Superstars needs some love but there are so many other areas that need love also. Given time we will bring them up to scratch. |
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How do you see the future of football games online (MMO's)? Do you think this genre can be as popular as the others? |
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It's hard to tell the future of Football MMO's. Sure they do not look as good or as polished as FIFA or PES do but the interaction with your team mates, your human team mates is what makes the game special. Scoring a last minute winner and being told 'good goal' etc is far more rewarding than a thousand unrewarded late FIFA goals. |
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There are not any good alternatives to Football Superstars today, why do you think the giant publishers ignore this genre? |
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Probably because of the FIFA & PES aspect, they are so established and everyone seems to measure any football product to those. |
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Do you have any idol in game development industry? If you had one, do you think you have become better than him/her in time? |
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I've not really had any Game Development idols as such. maybe when I was first starting out there was Jon Ritman who did the MatchDay games for the spectrum. Back then I really wanted to do a football game and his were the best. I started in the industry back in 1987 and within a year I was working on Kick Off and 23 years later I am still working on football games. Jon Ritman was a better programmer than me i'm sure, in fact I don't regard myself as a very strong technical coder at all and these days I don't code that much, however I can always achieve the target that I visualize I want to get to. |
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Other than game development, what is your second best hobby/interest? |
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I play and watch football and I also do a lot of aviation photography |
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Big thanks to Steve Screech for taking the time to interview with us. We wish him the best with Football Superstars.
Interview by www.devilsmmo.com
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