New AFL Video Game - Wii - Q&A Thread

[Ant_]

As per our Q&A Thread for Big Ant's AFL Video Game, this thread will be your chance to ask a question of the Wicked Witch teams work on their upcoming AFL video game for the Nintendo Wii.

The guys at Wicked Witch will create an account on BigFooty shortly. As per our other thread, Wicked Witch are bound by what their publisher will allow them to release. If your question doesn't get an answer please don't be offended.

Edit : With the Public Holiday you may not see them online until Thursday.

 

[mollyfud]

Cool! Didn't know about this.
I guess the obvious question is ETA?

Also, any thoughts of Mii involvement?
Online play?

 

[Kerrby]

Uh, I don't know... pics or something? Who's publishing?

 

[Ant_]

From the other thread.

Firstly, Wicked Witch are a great studio! Daniel and the guys there are fantastic to deal with and I know they have really crunched long nights and weekends to get their game over the line. They have created a Wii game worth buying!!

We helped each other with some things, mostly by playing each others games. Their game is entirely different to ours, I would say ours is much more simulation and perhaps a little "serious" whereas WW's is targeted to the Wii and it's core casual audience (not sure if Daniel from WW would agree, but I think he would). You should buy both!

 

[Kerrby]

From the other thread.

What's that referring to?

 

[Ant_]

What's that referring to?

Question was asked what's difference between the two games to Ross.

 

[LionMen]

I like the feature list for this game but the gameplay will need to be decent for me to buy this as well as Big Ants.

 

[HBK619]

The one question I would love to ask and have answered.

What did you think of AFL Challenge and how does it rate in comparison to the Wii title?

 

[Glenno23]

Cool! Didn't know about this.
I guess the obvious question is ETA?

Also, any thoughts of Mii involvement?
Online play?

We have a release date of March 31st in the system at work.

Didn't check it today, so it might not be 100%. But being a Thursday, its a good possibilty

Maybe we need someone to post the pic of the advertisement from the EB Xmas catalogue

It has a list of features on there

 

[hird+lloyd=legends]

How does the motion control work? Like waggle the WiiMote to tackle, flick up to kick ect..

And can you use a classic controller?

 

[ballanFYNE]

^^^

How is it controlled?

 

[Kerrby]

Yeah how is it controlled.

 

[LionMen]

Will it have any online capabilities?

 

[strauchanie59]

How will the goal kicking be like? Will you have to point at the goals or shake the remote like FIFA?

And are all the stadiums from the AFL 2011 Premiership Season in the game?

 

[melbournemartin]

What features (that we know about) of the 360/PS3/PC game are not going to be in the Wii game? Conversely, what features are in the Wii game (that you can tell us about) that are not in the 360/PS3/PC game?

 

[Dangas]

Uh, I don't know... pics or something? Who's publishing?

 

[melbournemartin]

From memory, the Wii game is being made by the same guys who made the awful PSP AFL game. Can someone correct or verify me?

 

[HBK619]

From memory, the Wii game is being made by the same guys who made the awful PSP AFL game. Can someone correct or verify me?

Correct, thus my question:

The one question I would love to ask and have answered.

What did you think of AFL Challenge and how does it rate in comparison to the Wii title?

 

[grrofunger]

wii-cked wii-tch

yeah nah

will there be any mini games like all the other shovelware on wii

its not a wii game without mini games

 

[Kerrby]

So uh... where is Wicked Witch?

-1 sale for me.

 

[BigAntStudios]

There are many things that can hinder a game, technology, budget, timelines, etc.. the Wii game has sufferred from none of those.

I will leave it to WW to answer above, but can say that I've personally played the Wii version and it is way better than the previous PSP game.

Hey Daniel, the guys here don't bite (much) and are pretty much friendly most of the time

 

[Ant_]

So uh... where is Wicked Witch?

-1 sale for me.

Had an email last night, they've registered an account so should be online.

Edit : Account is awaiting activation, have asked site Admin to speed it up.

 

[Wicked Witches]

Hi Everyone,

Wow it's great to see so much interest on this forum within days of the thread being created. My name is Ray from Wicked Witch Software and I will endeavour to answer as many questions as I can towards the new AFL Wii title.

I have decided to give a quick overview for everyone below. I would firstly like to mention what we aimed to achieve with this title, and that is a game that delivers more than any AFL title in the past, is fun and feels like the sport we all love, and that also utilises the capabilities of the Wii.

As a result of this objective we will be delivering 16 stadiums, 5 different leagues and over 70 different teams to play with. There were several features we had hoped to include in the game, such as to have GWS Giants fully implemented in the career element of the game for 2012 and onwards and deliver an under 18's and state league for every state and territory around Australia. However circumstances outside our control prevented us from doing so. Nevertheless this title will give players far more teams and career progression than any AFL game ever before. You will be able to play in the TAC Cup as an under 18's player and depending on how well you develop, progress into the VFL and AFL (or if you prefer just to start in the AFL you can do that as well). You will also be able to play the NAB U18 National Championships and even play in the International Cup!

There are too many features to list even in this lengthy post, some of the main ones are:

• A quick match mode (of course) but instead of the usual 16 AFL teams, you can play with teams from the 5 different leagues as well as bonus teams such as All Australian Teams.
• A competition mode where you can begin with a fantasy draft and draft a full squad to play through an entire campaign.
• A Career mode where, as mentioned, before you can begin in the TAC Cup and work your way up to premiership glory. Key aspects of this mode are:

o The ability to complete straight trades or complex three way trades with multiple players and even trade draft picks.
o Contract negotiation
o Email inbox.
o Face the tribunal.
o Choose medical treatment for player injuries.
o Juggle finances such as staff wages, ticketing and merchandise.
o 29 player attributes to train to improve your teams ability.
o Win the Brownlow, club best and fairest, Coleman medal, NAB rising star and the Norm Smith medal.​

• 5 fun minigames to play such as a game similar to Lou's Handball and another like a basketball style 3-point shootout kicking at goal from outside the 50 metre line. Others include a Horse goal kicking game, a marking game, and a free for all game.
• A custom character creator
• A team editor (change team lineups as you see fit).
• Achievements.
• Supports 8 players at once and allows friends to drop in and out of a players career so that you can continue a career with friends whenever you desire.
• Range of camera, weather and gameplay options to customise your experience.

The game will be published by TruBlu entertainment and I believe it will be released around the same time as the PS3 and XBOX 360 titles; however we are not able to confirm any dates as yet.

I am glad that the question about AFL Challenge has been asked and how the two games compare. The title AFL Challenge was a promotional project to be bundled with the Sony PSP. As developers we often have little control over how the finished product is sold, marketed and distributed. AFL Challenge was given only a few months development time and a mini game budget. In fact originally it was even going to be a 2d game, similar to our mobile AFL java games that have been available on Telstra for the last few years. All things considered, the project was a success; however we were not involved, or necessarily comfortable with the way expectations were managed and can certainly understand how consumers, that may have expected a full featured game of FIFA standard, may have been disappointed. AFL Wii is not related to AFL Challenge in any way; the only similarity between the two titles is that they are both AFL titles!

We would have loved to have supported some online elements especially updates to include new player statistics and current team lists however the Wii does not really have capacity for downloadable content such as patches and updates. However, as mentioned, we have included a team editor so that users can edit team lineups as they please so that the game stays current for as long as possible.

Mii's would have been great to have however this is not a feature that Nintendo allows for third party developers so we were unable to implement this. We do have a cool unlockable features in the absence of using Mii’s.

AFL Wii supports 3 controller types. You can play the game with just the Wiimote for basic controls or include the nunchuck for more advanced gaming. For those that prefer more a more traditional controller the game also supports the game cube controller, but not the classic controller.

There are many Wii style features, such as "mini contests" within the main game play which really add to the excitement during difficult marking contests (speckies) and for close tackles which is similar to 2k Sports 'The BIG's 2'. However if you are not a fan of mini contests within gameplay these can easily be turned off.

With this being the first AFL title on the Wii we felt it was a great opportunity to redefine some of the more classic thoughts on control setups. We had a huge list of options we wanted to give a player and ensure we improve on past AFL games so the controls are reasonably intuitive however can take some players a little time to become familiar with. It is worthwhile finetuning your skills in our minigames unless you really can't wait to jump into the action and I wouldn't blame you! When kicking for goal the wind has always played a factor in AFL titles but with the Wii we were able to implement some curve on the ball similar to Wii bowling so that you can bend the ball around extreme angles and kick around goal posts. This makes for some great replay moments and plenty of ribbing of your mates in multiplayer. There is Wiimote shaking used to break tackles and win the break tackle "mini contest" and pointing is used for marking "mini contests" as well as our Lou's Handball minigame. Kicking requires the user to power up their kick and then release with an upward stroke or downwards if you want to try and bend a bouncing grubber around towards goals or not have your kick smothered. There are sooo many new features in this game for an AFL title I am sure you will have a blast exploring all the little nuances we have put in the game like even allowing you to veteran list players on your club list so that you remain under the salary cap.

While AFL Wii certainly has more arcade elements than the PS3/360/PC version, it does not go as far as "on fire" mode.....even though some of us would have liked that! We have tried to maintain a fair amount of simulation in this title with the arcade and Wii style elements optional, and this complements our career manager mode nicely. I have not seen the PS3/360/PC game for a little while; however it has been looking pretty awesome with great HD graphics! Generally speaking, you could draw a comparison between the two titles something like the PS3/360/PC is like 'MLB 2K10' in that it's a straight simulator title, where as the Wii could be compared to 'The Bigs 2' in that there are some over the top moments but still allows the player to progress through a career. Both of those titles are published by 2K Sports but have a different developer which is the same in our case. Both are genuinely compelling games to play and offer something different and I would suggest you will find the same between the AFL Wii version and the AFL PS3/360/PC titles.

I hope this answers many of your questions and I am definitely happy to answer any more questions you have. So keep the questions coming! You can also contact us via the website www.wicked-witch.com.au and info@wicked-witch.com.au. Happy gaming!

 

[strauchanie59]

HOLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



WOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Ant_]

Good to hear the full story on the PSP AFL Challenge game.