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One day, we'll have one game...

Kervern

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Nov 21, 2011
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I'm one of the guys who wait for a really good rugby game for decades now. It allowed me a loooooooooooooooong time to think about the way to reach this ultimate goal, in every aspects that such a project supposes.

I- The marketing aspect
It's for me the most blocking issue at the moment. The video game industry is more than precautious in its investments, because budgets have dramatically increase in the last ten years (no good 3D / well animated / textured / marketed game can be realized with less than 20 or 30 Millions €, which means that you MUST have at least 1.5 million copy sold to be quite profitable). Unfortunately, no rugby game has ever had such financial results. The numbers I give are not very precise but it's to figure a reasonable idea of the problem. EA gave up for this reason, Sidhe gave up after a good try for this reason, and HB used the cheap Unity Engine with reduced developers team for this reason.
The solution could be found in two manners!
1- Take a bet of real good project, from a solid studio, which would sell the game in EARLY ACCESS in order to diminish the potential costs and loss of the development. Star Citizen is the perfect example of the kind of enthusiasm you can raise if you're fair with your fans, good in teasing and serious in your job.
2- Reconsider the marketing target. Rugby video gamers are effectively a "niche" . But no studio / editor has ever consider that a rugby game can perfectly hit LOT MORE THAN this "niche" if the game is produced in a very high standard of visual quality / gameplay / marketing ! Rugby video game could not, and should not be limited to rugby fans! How much of us play to kind of games they wouldn't have imagine just because the game in question is simply good? Personally, I hate rpg and played FF7, hate FPS and finish the Bioshock Trilogy, have never been interested in Basket or US Football and occasionally buy a Madden or a NBA 2k just because, as video game in general, they're really good! Dear developers, don't delimitate your target, CREATE your target!

II- The gameplay aspect
No rugby game as ever done a really accomplished gameplay, which make the player feel the specific greatness of this sport, which is a mix between:
- Micro gestures in the forward play ( Pushing / disturbing a scrum, turning a maul, grabing a ball in a ruck, lifting and protecting a second row in a line out etc…)
- Macro movements in the backward play ( set-in around the half-scrum, crossing runs, kicking upon the defense line …)
To resume, the a good rugby game makes the player a soldier when he's in reduced spaces, a general when the ball starts to move away.
This state of fact should of an impact on the camera, which has never been considered in a rugby game. For me, the soft should allows a quite close ranged camera and specific moves during rucks, mauls and scrums a wider camera, with different moves during passes, kicks and runs.
Many things can be fun to use. For example, I imagine a line out driven by the right stick (after a classic choice X / Y / B for the jumper), then a smashing A game to maintain the maul on his feets, then a circling a right stick to turn it right or left (the opponent / AI trying to circle faster to counter that). I imagine a cross left and right stick to start a cross run between the 12 and the 13 … (Rugby 08 had a good system for set plays, although they were too scripted)
I don't want to more annoying with fantasy, dreamy moves like this, but the idea is to use well the camera and the pad in order to reproduce with fun every fun things we like to see in real rugby TV games.

Maybe a day …

Thanks for reading and scuse for my English (I'm French)
 
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