Multiplat AFL Evolution 2

[dwwaino]

Well there appears to be plenty of QA positions available at WW.

Or none?

 

[T2B_]

Has anyone done the draft yet after a season and can comment on the new player names? Are there any George Naitanuis/ Bob Pendleburys??

I liked Jack Jack in EVO 1 personally.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Is QA still the human punching bag it used to be? When I lived in Brisbane before moving back south I had a couple of weekend drinking buddies that worked at Krome (Ty the Tiger was one of theirs). One was the lead level designer and the other was a QA. One loved his job and it has allowed him to take exciting jobs all over the world. The other absolutely detested it and eventually opted for unemployment instead. No second guess for which one was which.

Every now and then I see local QA jobs, from start ups to small studios, come up I admit it looks like a tempting way to get a foot in the door. Have to admit that when I saw one earlier this year I did sit down with the wife to calculate savings, my 12 years of long service owing and stuff to see if a massive pay cut from putting down the tools to an entry level or junior job (even a junior web career has been on the table) would be feasible haha. Then the 'rona hit to snuff that out. Might look at it again next year.

I wouldn't say it's a human punching bag, but they often get the rough end of it - considering they're constantly telling people their stuff is not good enough or is broken... but it's a great way to get in and understand games, once you're in a company it is so much easier to pick a career path and follow it from the inside.

 

[JordanWCE]

Ashes Cricket 2009...back when I was a junior dev.

A QA guy and an animator are still close friends of mine. We always discussed 'what we would do' if we were to design an AFL game.
We still play AFL Evo 2 online together and discuss bits and pieces that we'd add/change/remove.

I mistook Ashes 2009 for 2013 for a moment there.

I'd like to see these guys handle an AFL game just for the hilarity

 

[Sixpence]

It can be hard to like QAs sometimes when their whole existence is to break my s**t!

At the end of the day, you're trying to push changes through, but they need to be right.

 

[Quivorir]

I wouldn't say it's a human punching bag, but they often get the rough end of it - considering they're constantly telling people their stuff is not good enough or is broken... but it's a great way to get in and understand games, once you're in a company it is so much easier to pick a career path and follow it from the inside.

I do that with our Product every day. Maybe I should look at QA as a foot in the door thing too if thats a good chunk of the role.

 

[Van_Dyke]

Ashes Cricket 2009...back when I was a junior dev.

fun game that one, as far as cricket games go think that and the 2010 follow up were underappreciated

I mistook Ashes 2009 for 2013 for a moment there.

I'd like to see these guys handle an AFL game just for the hilarity

that game was gold. If that was the state of the game when it was eventually released for two days in november, really wished we could see what it was at the original release date

 

[HBK619]

Is QA still the human punching bag it used to be? When I lived in Brisbane before moving back south I had a couple of weekend drinking buddies that worked at Krome (Ty the Tiger was one of theirs). One was the lead level designer and the other was a QA. One loved his job and it has allowed him to take exciting jobs all over the world. The other absolutely detested it and eventually opted for unemployment instead. No second guess for which one was which.

Every now and then I see local QA jobs, from start ups to small studios, come up I admit it looks like a tempting way to get a foot in the door. Have to admit that when I saw one earlier this year I did sit down with the wife to calculate savings, my 12 years of long service owing and stuff to see if a massive pay cut from putting down the tools to an entry level or junior job (even a junior web career has been on the table) would be feasible haha. Then the 'rona hit to snuff that out. Might look at it again next year.

I did it for almost 7 years and I only have mild mental and physical damage!

It's a very interesting role, and definitely has it's moments. I think in a few goodbye messages from former staff we've been the source of "frustration" but also "entertainment". You really have to balance the role as much as possible. You're going to cop flak, but as long as you can explain it's for the greater good it's always at least understandable.

There's so much impact you can have towards a game from literally every level. Big Ant is especially open with QA having impact in design, balance and a lot of other things that can help take the load off of programmers. As I said previously if you can be that strong voice of knowledge, it can be so damn helpful for eventually coming up with the outcomes you want.

(FWIW after "le Rone" we will be opening the QA role advertisement back up - keep in mind it's a junior QA role though). But feel free to apply, if you want.

I certainly wouldn't give it up for the world, the amount of people I've been able to meet and places I've had the privilege of going to because of my job at Big Ant is literally the thing of dreams. How many people could say they've been able to play PS4 literally using the big screen at the 'G? (shh Ross, don't answer!)

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

This is the most interesting this thread has been in ages.

It's disconcerting. Who wants to get into a shitfight over player ratings with me?

 

[footyfan1978]

This is the most interesting this thread has been in ages.

It's disconcerting. Who wants to get into a shitfight over player ratings with me?

Nic Nat should be 80 at best. He past it.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

This is the most interesting this thread has been in ages.

It's disconcerting. Who wants to get into a shitfight over player ratings with me?

Some campaigner from Gold Coast who hasnt played a game is a 64. Come @ me.

 

[LukeH10]

WHY DOES IT COUNT AS A LOSS IF YOU’RE OPPONENT QUITS THE MATCH!!!

 

[jackess]

Playing be a pro mode as a CHF. Up against Collingwood didn’t have an inside 50 until late in the second term. When the AI decides to play crap they really play crap.

against Geelong trying to chase down a 3 goal difference couldn’t win a clearance despite Stewart rucking and couldn’t get it out of my back 50 for most of the quarter due to kicking it out on the full or playing on and getting smothered. Eventually snapped out of it and kicked 4 in about 2 minutes to win by a point despite missing one from inside the goal square dead in front.

Since when is kicking for goal from dead in front 30m out after a mark under severe pressure.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

I have noticed that when I set Hurn to do kick-ins, because he can kick further than Barrass (the default choice), the lock-on feature selects players further away than Barrass does, and because the lock-on isn't as snappy as it should be, I find it harder to lock on to players closer to me.

Which the free player in the pocket tends to be.

It's great that the game acknowledges that Hurn can boot the ball a mile (though not as far as he could in his younger days), but it's annoying that it makes it harder to kick it to the shorter option.

It will be largely resolved if they improve the lock-on feature, so it doesn't take a year to cycle through the same crappy options to get to the free man (by which time he's manned up anyway ).

 

[Quivorir]

Is there anyway to just keep running whilst taking a mark? Too often I have a guy streaming into forward 50 so I kick it to him but he does a stupid marking animation for no reason (the worse one is the falling down to the ground) which stops me continuing to run into an open goal because the opposition has now caught up to me. It's gotten to the point I just kick a dribble kick as hard as I can forward and hope that it gets to my player.

 

[SugarShane]

Perhaps the belief is that you're not with something like AFL though. AFL fans will just buy it regardless of track record or quality, so why bother with the effort? It's the brand that sells, not the quality of the game.

It's pretty clear that's the case. Sales of an AFL game are probably hardly affected at all by quality. The same diehards are always going to buy it regardless, and the casuals aren't going to be doing a lot of research before grabbing it. And once the game is sold, why throw money after it (from their box mover point of view)?

Put out a cheap game, sell truckloads, put out a couple of token patches that fix a few issues, wait 2 years (plus delays), repeat.

 

[dwwaino]

I did it for almost 7 years and I only have mild mental and physical damage!

It's a very interesting role, and definitely has it's moments. I think in a few goodbye messages from former staff we've been the source of "frustration" but also "entertainment". You really have to balance the role as much as possible. You're going to cop flak, but as long as you can explain it's for the greater good it's always at least understandable.

There's so much impact you can have towards a game from literally every level. Big Ant is especially open with QA having impact in design, balance and a lot of other things that can help take the load off of programmers. As I said previously if you can be that strong voice of knowledge, it can be so damn helpful for eventually coming up with the outcomes you want.

(FWIW after "le Rone" we will be opening the QA role advertisement back up - keep in mind it's a junior QA role though). But feel free to apply, if you want.

I certainly wouldn't give it up for the world, the amount of people I've been able to meet and places I've had the privilege of going to because of my job at Big Ant is literally the thing of dreams. How many people could say they've been able to play PS4 literally using the big screen at the 'G? (shh Ross, don't answer!)

I was actually reading an article on Kotaku around New Years that was from interviews with former QAs and it was definitely a mixed bag lol. The timing might be a bit off this year but who knows with anything right now. This thread has gone off topic enough so here's probably not the place, but I think most people found the general insights into game development interesting enough that we can let that discussion go on organically.

 

[juss]

The game is growing on me despite flaws.

Are online settings the same from everyone? Sometimes it seems like I can't chase down my opposition but they can tackle me from several metres away. Not sure if it's due to lag and delay and I'm missing frames.

 

[BigAntStudios]

I was actually reading an article on Kotaku around New Years that was from interviews with former QAs and it was definitely a mixed bag lol. The timing might be a bit off this year but who knows with anything right now. This thread has gone off topic enough so here's probably not the place, but I think most people found the general insights into game development interesting enough that we can let that discussion go on organically.

I don't think it's too far off topic, and it's stuff that has brought Sebastian Giompaolo to make an account and visit, and perhaps given some insight into dev, patches, finance and what it takes.

Real off-topic would be this - much to HBK619 's disgust

https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/586855/big-ant-becomes-platinum-partner

 

[T2B_]

Just me or is advantage never called after a free kick?

Hell one time the opposition would have kicked a goal as I had one of my guys infringe on the kicker as the ball sailed through the sticks.

They recalled the ball and the guy then missed the subsequent set shot

 

[Strahany]

I haven't been back on this thread in a while, now. I came back to post my long list of frustrations, but have seen that most of them have already been mentioned, so I won't bore people by repeating information.

I was one of the bigger defenders of this game, but I've grown to dislike it more as time goes on. Ongoing time with a game should result in you gaining a deeper understanding of the mechanics, and with this should come greater satisfaction. Whether that is by the game cleverly grading difficulty (single player titles) or because you can pull off more "realistic" things in sport sims like this. However, with AFL Evo 2, more time only exposes more are more bugs.

With Wicked Witch now having developed three "main line" titles (AFL Live 2, Evo 1, Evo 2), they have had ample opportunity to create a solid title. In the span of these three years, there has been little new development, since the big selling point of AFL Live 2 was that it had everything AFL Live 1 didn't; it had a multi-year career mode, more teams......but also non-functioning gameplay.
The excuse, for Wicked Witch, then, was that they focused on adding features, and will then go back and polish it up with subsequent titles, +/- further additional features.

So, where is that polish? No significant features have been added since AFL Live 2; sure, "pro" mode is there, but it's borderline non-functional (this was the motivating factor to post). It has been 6.5 years since AFL Live 2, and this is still playing like a title made by a developer who have had the project dumped on them at the last minute.

Is it better than AFL Live 2 and Evo 1? Yes, but marginally. It's nowhere near better enough to justify the time elapsed, though, which begs the question of why this is the case. It appears that Wicked Witch don't have the ability, budget, or knowledge of the game to properly pull this off. I loved Big Ant's approach of getting the fundamentals down-pat, and building from there. Wicked Witch has now had 2 opportunities to do the same, and have failed at both.

Sadly, I think we're going to have to have a break from AFL games, not unlike the break post "AFL Live 200X" era on PS2/XBOX. We need to wait until the publishing rights are given to someone else, or for TruBlu to stop giving Wicked Witch further wasted chances, and have another dev do a "reset version", not unlike the original AFL Live; however, this time, without shafting the developer for whoever can punch out the cheapest, fastest version.

I originally wanted to support this title by encouraging everyone buys it, but it will only justify the terrible decisions made by both the publisher and developer (and I am not ruling out the possibility that the developer's are just doing what is best, within the publisher's constraints, but that would not explain how BigAnt did such a better job with 1 title within the same constraints).
If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing right. AFL games have a horrible reputation, and Tru Blu ruined their opportunity for redemption by switching to Wicked Witch when they did, IMO. This will only further tarnish the perception of AFL games, making it harder to justify budgeting on the publisher's end, and the purchase on the consumer's end.

I'm sure Wicked Witch can make some good games, but AFL games are clearly not for them.

 

[Citroin]

Ffs Citroin

Hello JT_the_Man, i love you.

 

[D1Matman]

On the topic of AFLW - I don't own a copy ~yet, but I take it that Evo 2 still doesn't support a separate mo-capped animation set for the female players? I remember hearing few years back Evo 1 didn't bother. Obviously a fair investment to integrate, but slipping the AFLW in there feels a bit empty if the on-field stuff is not an authentic representation of the womens game, beyond body type and head models.

 

[SugarShane]

Just me or is advantage never called after a free kick?

Hell one time the opposition would have kicked a goal as I had one of my guys infringe on the kicker as the ball sailed through the sticks.

They recalled the ball and the guy then missed the subsequent set shot

I had it called once. Couldn't remember the button but just stopped all inputs anyway. Ball rolled over the behind line and then they paid advantage.

 

[BigAntStudios]

On the topic of AFLW - I don't own a copy ~yet, but I take it that Evo 2 still doesn't support a separate mo-capped animation set for the female players? I remember hearing few years back Evo 1 didn't bother. Obviously a fair investment to integrate, but slipping the AFLW in there feels a bit empty if the on-field stuff is not an authenticate representation of the womens game, beyond body type and head models.

Not having a crack, just making an observation, but the majority of the animation is the same PS3 animation as the original AFL Live, I say that as I know the animation intimately - Sebastian Giompaolo may be able to confirm this but I don't believe there has been any additional motion capture since our game?