XBS Talks Tennis with the Producer of Top Spin 2

Top Spinâ„¢ returns for another victory on Xbox 360â„¢. Everything you loved is back and better than ever! Top Spinâ„¢ 2 serves up 24 top-ranked athletes like Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova, all four Grand Slams, a multi-season career, and a set of new risk and advanced shots, making this game an unbeatable ace! – from xbox.com.

Top Spin 2 will be available for the Xbox 360 on 4/3/06 (USA) and 4/7/06 (U.K.). Xbox Solution recently had a chance to speak with the Top Spin 2 Producer, Jean-François CAPIZZI from Pam Development in Paris France. The following is the text of the interview between Xbox Solution’s James Woodcock and Jean-François CAPIZZI.

XBS – Top Spin is without a doubt one of my favourite Xbox games. Which is the one new main feature in Top Spin 2’s arsenal that impressed you the most?

Jean-Fran̤ois РThe new main feature which makes a difference between Top Spin and Top Spin 2 is definitely the gameplay itself. Our goal was to keep the easiness to pick up and play for beginners while offering more variety and depth to advanced users. Playing with pro players, users will now have to count on their strengths, and be sure their opponent will not benefit from their weaknesses. Playing with their own created player, users will be able to give it specific abilities to stick with the way they like to play. In addition to that, we enriched the panel of shots available to the user by adding risk shots and advanced shots. Our final goal really was to allow every user to play the way they want, giving them the shot and tactical abilities to express themselves on the court.

The original Top Spin set an incredibly high benchmark for tennis games – how do you see the sequel taking that even further?

Tennis games rely on a very basic concept. It is all about hitting a ball and sending it back on the other side of the court. What makes a tennis game a good one, is the realism you bring to that concept. Obviously, realism is mainly conveyed by visuals which now benefit from the power of the console, but it is also quality of the animations, ball reactions, movement, array of shots you provide, responsiveness and audio. And on all of these things, we went further than in the first opus. As a matter of fact, animations are now smoother and more human, ball physics are more credible, we gave to the user a better control on his player’s moves, and finally, the user now has a better control on the ball. All these elements will definitely put Top Spin 2 in position to become the new benchmark in tennis video games.

There is obviously far more potential with the Xbox 360 but how have you used the extra horse power to add new graphical features and what is your opinion on high definition gaming?

Thanks to the Xbox 360 horse power, we‘ve seen a step up in photorealism. Players and venues are now much more detailed and realistic than in previous console generations. Using advanced shaders, we can obtain very realistic interactions between organic or inorganic materials and lighting. More than just recreating concrete or metal, you now can see differences between these two materials and the way light reacts on them. And it is just the same for player’s skin.
But high definition gaming is more than that. It is getting the user completely immersed into the game and makes him feel he is in it. Thanks to performances of the Xbox 360, we can now have extremely realistic visuals, enhanced audio features, more living elements around the court, and that is definitely a high definition gaming experience.

How has the career mode changed in Top Spin 2?  Do you still have the same mini games and career star system?

Actually, we paid very close attention to users’ feedback after the release of Top Spin. The outcome was that lot of people thought having a calendar driving the season was an important thing. And this is what we did.
Top Spin 2 now proposes to the user to play a career through 5 seasons. During his progression, the user will always have to make choices between training through a lot of different mini-games, play tournament, or participate to special events like charity exhibits. Each time the user trains, he will be rewarded by stars. The star system, still present, will now offer much more ways to build different and credible player profiles through 60 stars to collect in various training sessions and tournaments. So be ready to train hard and be tough.

What new Xbox Live features have you been able to use to add extra attraction to the game?  For example can you team up with your friend to play doubles over Xbox Live without the need to share an Xbox?

The online play is obviously one of Top Spin strengths. This is what allowed this game to remain a players’ favourite several years after its release. Our goal for Top Spin 2 is to come with an as appealing package as Top Spin.
We rely for that on Microsoft matchmaking services which are exhibition matches and ranked matches.
To ensure a strong online game experience, we made the choice to stay focus on the one vs one game mode which remains the core element of the online gaming, and be classic on game modes we would propose to the user. As a matter of fact, user will be able to compete against Top Spin 2 online players all over the world and make double online matches with a friend.

How have the venues changed, and will we still have the playground courts?

Yes of course! Playground courts will still be available and we offer the user the choice  to play in such different locations as the Chicago tennis club, Greece resort station, Mexican vacation center, and others. Generally speaking, venues constitute a key element in our quest for realism. They are now much more detailed on and off court, and users will experience a living environment.
In addition to playgrounds users will be able to play Grand Slams at Wimbledon, Melbourne or US Open, and major or minor tournaments at a lot of different locations. So get ready to travel a lot and visit lot of different places.

How has the risk shots changed in Top Spin 2? 

Risk shots have changed a lot from the first Top Spin. We now have four different risk shots. Of course, we kept the power risk shot and the drop shot we had in Top Spin. But we also added a diagonal shot and a risk lob shot. Thanks to this panel of shots, users will have a better control on the ball.
But this is not just about having more risk shots in the game. They are also different in another way. They are no longer the kind of shots which guarantee a fast and sure victory. They now constitute a good way to overwhelm the opponent while letting him a chance to come back in the rally.
The result is a bigger variety in rallies, and an increased realism of tennis game situations.

The choice of shot selection within Top Spin added great control, are there any new shot choices at all and how does the game feel compared to the original?

Yes we enriched the game of other kinds of shots: these are the advanced shots. We have four of them: the counter shot, the passing shot, the side slice shot and the dump shot, all of them opening new tactical schemes and ways to play the game. These shots will have to be learned throughout the career, and will be available in-game according to your momentum level. The more you take the ascendancy, the more you will be able to deploy these shots.
All these gameplay elements combine together, bringing to the game the same easiness and ‘pick up and play’ ability during first hours, but then will make users feel they have a lot to discover before to master the game. In 1P vs 2P, users will have very different weapons to setup strategies and adapt to their opponent’s playing style. In a few words: just more fun and freedom.

How long has Top Spin 2 been in development and which has been the most challenging aspect?

Top Spin 2 has been in development for about 24 months. Two challenging aspects stick out. Obviously, there was first the technical challenge to work on a brand new platform. It required first to smartly define what we were going to offer to people, and then to adapt to development constraints in order to make it happen.
The other important challenge was to work on the sequel of a tennis game considered for a lot of people as the best tennis game ever made. We know people would have high expectations, and we paid a lot of attention to fulfilling these expectations and to making Top Spin 2 the new reference in tennis video games.

If you could describe the game in no more then 15 words, what would you say?

Astonishing visuals, true tennis game sensations, competitive online gaming, engaging career mode…A lot of fun.

Thank you for taking part. . . I look forward to the game’s release with great expectation.

 

Filed under: Interviews

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