Producer Talks ‘UFC Undisputed’
Jason Probst Apr 24, 2009
With a release slated for May 19, THQ’s “UFC Undisputed” is a
product more than two years in the making. For hardcore mixed
martial arts fans bemoaning the lack of a modern video game
version, it will have to meet high expectations when it’s served up
to a decidedly hungry consumer base.
Neven Dravinski, the game’s producer, said a series of in-game touches translate into an effect that will make players fell like they’re at the fight in real life.
Ranging from camera shots, UFC personalities and in-fight
commentary by Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan, the game will convey an
authentic feel to add to an engine that was built from the
ground-up, specifically for the game.
“You don’t see the health bar on the screen, and we did more than 36 hours of voiceovers with Rogan and Goldie in the booth. We would just play the game and pipe it into the booth, and they would call the fight,” Dravinski said. “So even if you’re the biggest MMA fan in the world, you’re gonna hear stuff [from the announcers] that you’ve never known from the experiences Goldie and Joe have had with the fighters.”
“We’re just as big a fan of MMA and the UFC, and the UFC fan is a special animal,” Dravinski added.
Built for both the Xbox and Playstation 3 platforms, the game will run at 60 frames per second. Xbox’s online store currently offers downloads of the demo, and Playstation’s was made available April 23.
Game Play
With 80 fighters on the UFC roster, each will be draw his core skills from one of three striking styles -- boxing, kickboxing and muay Thai -- and a ground game based on wrestling, judo or Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Fighters are also rated on a scale of 1-100 in 16 categories, with weight classes factored in. So, a hard-hitting lightweight will have a rating relative to all fighters.
The ground work in MMA games, thus far, has been the elusive element. Dravinski explained “UFC Undisputed” as a series of risk-reward payoffs, where the player, using “Undisputed Fighting Control” will use his or her control stick in a series of movements to pursue a range of tactics. A quarter-circle on the stick is a “minor transition” move, which could be a pass from full guard to half guard or half guard to side control. A half-circle on the control is a “major transition,” or a riskier gamble with bigger payoff, such as a guard pass to side control. If poorly timed, you pay the price accordingly, just like in a real fight.
Michael Bisping gets KOd
in THQ's UFC "Undisputed."
While on the ground, players will face the same kind of intricate,
nuanced battles faced in an actual fight, based on the staple of
positions in grappling and the opportunities each offers to both
men. In explaining this, Dravinski drew on the Gracie jiu-jitsu
pyramid of positional control and explained how it’s factored in
the game play.
“If you think of the full ground game as a pyramid, with full mount at the top, as you’re passing from half guard to side control, you’re moving incrementally up the pyramid,” he said. “And, conversely, the guy on the bottom will execute these maneuvers to move you back down on that pyramid. You can execute a minor transition and move him back to half guard.”
Dravinski and a fellow designer on the THQ team spent extensive hours play-testing the game. They also paid attention to real-life events in rating the fighters.
“A great example was Frank Mir against [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira [at UFC 92],” he said. “I don’t think anybody expected Frank to outbox Nogueira in that fight. We had to back and adjust Frank’s standing ratings.”
Learning the Skill Sets
The allure of the game, especially to the casual MMA fan, will likely be the striking element, but as online competition develops (online players will be ranked, similar to other games), you’ll need to be well-rounded to compete against the better players.
“You can be one-dimensional and most people will gravitate toward stand-up,” Dravinski said. “I’d strongly recommended players do the tutorial first. But if you want to win and win consistently, you’re going to have to learn the clinch, ground grappling and the transitions. We wanted to create that feeling that it’s easy to pick up and play but difficult to master. As you play, you’ll develop the muscle memory for the upper-echelon [moves and] then be an expert.”
Creating a Fighter, Online Play
The game will have a create-a-fighter mode, where you can opt to start his UFC career with a given set of skill points. You can also create a fighter and take him directly to online play, but you’ll only get 75 percent of available points with which to start. To create a fighter and improve him, you have to fight and collect more points to upgrade his skills.
The career mode is where the richness of the game experience kicks in, Dravinski said, as your upstart collects in-game “Cred” points to improve his skills while fighting his way into the big time. “You get e-mails from Joe Silva and Dana White, you can purchase equipment and you get camp invites to train, like from Team Penn or Sityodtong,” Dravinski said. “So it gives you that incentive to keep playing. Your initial created fighter will suck. You’re slower, and if you’re a level one kickboxer, you can’t do a Superman punch.”
The recent release of the demo on Xbox -- which pits Mauricio “Shogun” Rua against Chuck Liddell -- is already causing buzz and much discussion of the game on chat room boards, as fans hash out what works, what doesn’t and what the game is capable of. It’s also gone viral, with samples of the in-game action posted to online video-sharing sites.
“There’ll be weekly ranking leaderboards, and I really envision that before all the major fights, people will be fighting them in the game online,” Dravinski said.
Styles Make Fights
“We definitely wanted to make the fighters fight like themselves,” Dravinski said. That’s where the flavor of the game comes out, as each fighter has different capabilities. However, it would not be a true MMA game without the ever-present possibility of flash knockouts and stunning shifts in momentum.
“We have a collision system built into the game,” Dravinski said. “If you’re in a situation and get caught with a flying knee, you’re going to be KO’d. The game is setup in a sort of ‘soft rules’ situation, with advantages and percentages factored into each scenario.”
For example, a fighter with an otherwise high stamina rating will still be vulnerable to a flying knee if attempting a takedown or another high-risk move, given the opponent’s counter.
As for the future of the game and downloadable fighters as new stars develop, Dravinski said he’s hopeful the UFC-THQ product will create a long-term gaming franchise, similar to the one that exists between John Madden, the NFL and EA Sports.
“We have a real serious combat design group. One of our guys trains with Eddie Bravo in Hollywood, and we’re all fans of the UFC and MMA,” he said. “If people respond to the game, I’m cautiously optimistic [for future versions]. There’s a lot of internal pressure we put on ourselves to make the best MMA game ever made.”
Neven Dravinski, the game’s producer, said a series of in-game touches translate into an effect that will make players fell like they’re at the fight in real life.
Advertisement
“You don’t see the health bar on the screen, and we did more than 36 hours of voiceovers with Rogan and Goldie in the booth. We would just play the game and pipe it into the booth, and they would call the fight,” Dravinski said. “So even if you’re the biggest MMA fan in the world, you’re gonna hear stuff [from the announcers] that you’ve never known from the experiences Goldie and Joe have had with the fighters.”
The game’s designers were also given audio feeds from every event
since UFC 40, and parts of that commentary have been spliced into
the game, as well.
“We’re just as big a fan of MMA and the UFC, and the UFC fan is a special animal,” Dravinski added.
Built for both the Xbox and Playstation 3 platforms, the game will run at 60 frames per second. Xbox’s online store currently offers downloads of the demo, and Playstation’s was made available April 23.
Game Play
With 80 fighters on the UFC roster, each will be draw his core skills from one of three striking styles -- boxing, kickboxing and muay Thai -- and a ground game based on wrestling, judo or Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Fighters are also rated on a scale of 1-100 in 16 categories, with weight classes factored in. So, a hard-hitting lightweight will have a rating relative to all fighters.
The ground work in MMA games, thus far, has been the elusive element. Dravinski explained “UFC Undisputed” as a series of risk-reward payoffs, where the player, using “Undisputed Fighting Control” will use his or her control stick in a series of movements to pursue a range of tactics. A quarter-circle on the stick is a “minor transition” move, which could be a pass from full guard to half guard or half guard to side control. A half-circle on the control is a “major transition,” or a riskier gamble with bigger payoff, such as a guard pass to side control. If poorly timed, you pay the price accordingly, just like in a real fight.
Photo by
Sherdog.com
in THQ's UFC "Undisputed."
“If you think of the full ground game as a pyramid, with full mount at the top, as you’re passing from half guard to side control, you’re moving incrementally up the pyramid,” he said. “And, conversely, the guy on the bottom will execute these maneuvers to move you back down on that pyramid. You can execute a minor transition and move him back to half guard.”
Dravinski and a fellow designer on the THQ team spent extensive hours play-testing the game. They also paid attention to real-life events in rating the fighters.
“A great example was Frank Mir against [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira [at UFC 92],” he said. “I don’t think anybody expected Frank to outbox Nogueira in that fight. We had to back and adjust Frank’s standing ratings.”
Learning the Skill Sets
The allure of the game, especially to the casual MMA fan, will likely be the striking element, but as online competition develops (online players will be ranked, similar to other games), you’ll need to be well-rounded to compete against the better players.
“You can be one-dimensional and most people will gravitate toward stand-up,” Dravinski said. “I’d strongly recommended players do the tutorial first. But if you want to win and win consistently, you’re going to have to learn the clinch, ground grappling and the transitions. We wanted to create that feeling that it’s easy to pick up and play but difficult to master. As you play, you’ll develop the muscle memory for the upper-echelon [moves and] then be an expert.”
Creating a Fighter, Online Play
The game will have a create-a-fighter mode, where you can opt to start his UFC career with a given set of skill points. You can also create a fighter and take him directly to online play, but you’ll only get 75 percent of available points with which to start. To create a fighter and improve him, you have to fight and collect more points to upgrade his skills.
The career mode is where the richness of the game experience kicks in, Dravinski said, as your upstart collects in-game “Cred” points to improve his skills while fighting his way into the big time. “You get e-mails from Joe Silva and Dana White, you can purchase equipment and you get camp invites to train, like from Team Penn or Sityodtong,” Dravinski said. “So it gives you that incentive to keep playing. Your initial created fighter will suck. You’re slower, and if you’re a level one kickboxer, you can’t do a Superman punch.”
The recent release of the demo on Xbox -- which pits Mauricio “Shogun” Rua against Chuck Liddell -- is already causing buzz and much discussion of the game on chat room boards, as fans hash out what works, what doesn’t and what the game is capable of. It’s also gone viral, with samples of the in-game action posted to online video-sharing sites.
“There’ll be weekly ranking leaderboards, and I really envision that before all the major fights, people will be fighting them in the game online,” Dravinski said.
Styles Make Fights
“We definitely wanted to make the fighters fight like themselves,” Dravinski said. That’s where the flavor of the game comes out, as each fighter has different capabilities. However, it would not be a true MMA game without the ever-present possibility of flash knockouts and stunning shifts in momentum.
“We have a collision system built into the game,” Dravinski said. “If you’re in a situation and get caught with a flying knee, you’re going to be KO’d. The game is setup in a sort of ‘soft rules’ situation, with advantages and percentages factored into each scenario.”
For example, a fighter with an otherwise high stamina rating will still be vulnerable to a flying knee if attempting a takedown or another high-risk move, given the opponent’s counter.
As for the future of the game and downloadable fighters as new stars develop, Dravinski said he’s hopeful the UFC-THQ product will create a long-term gaming franchise, similar to the one that exists between John Madden, the NFL and EA Sports.
“We have a real serious combat design group. One of our guys trains with Eddie Bravo in Hollywood, and we’re all fans of the UFC and MMA,” he said. “If people respond to the game, I’m cautiously optimistic [for future versions]. There’s a lot of internal pressure we put on ourselves to make the best MMA game ever made.”
