"It always helps to have a love of football programs when you are writing them, especially the programmers but it is not essential. For the artists and animators, they just have to ensure the players and backdrops look as realistic as possible," Silicon Dreams.
"As a flagship to our soccer game, the Playstation is perhaps the most impressive of the lot with its speed and graphical quality along with Gourad shading but saying that the PC running at 640 x 480 in Hi Res. is very impressive," Silicon Dreams.
"Olympic Soccer is fun to play for you know that the moves you make will be realistically conveyed. As soon as you execute them they move and animate true to real life. You do not have to worry about not being in control , something that happens in most other games," Silicon Dream.
"Our 3D engine is the most authentic one around at present. It allows great fluidity of movement which enhances gameplay," Silicon Dreams.
"Olympic Soccer is impressive in that it has a great learning curve, you can just pick up the game and play but there is also a dazzling variety of moves and options so you can string together some really neat passing," Silicon Dreams.
"A soccer game lives or dies on its gameplay. You can have the best graphics around, great sound but if the game plays badly then forget it. Olympic Soccer has everything," Silicon Dreams.
Q: The first comparison people are going to make with any Soccer game is to place it up against games likes FIFA and Actua Soccer. How much research did you do into ensuring your ideas are new and you are giving the public something new? Did you spend time talking to the public, etc. taking note of what they like best from individual games and then starting from that point?
A: We did not need to physically sit down and play and see all the games for we had done this over the years and had already formulated our thoughts on the games. We have a large testing department, where games are played and we spent a good deal of time talking to them in regard to the things they liked. We eventually came up with a concise list that everyone agreed on of what exactly should go into our own soccer game and even what aspects should be left out.
What we have is an Olympic product, does have to be realistic and it is. Although looking at other games is subjective we believe that Actua has too many ideas that are unrealistic, it is not playable.
The same applies to FIFA. On the higher spec machines, it is basically the Megadrive version that has been enhanced continually, particularly the graphics. It still plays very much like the original version.
Q: Please describe the game as you see it.
A: Every area of the game is vastly improved over the competition be it the graphics, sound, 3D engine, etc. The control system really adds to the game giving more excitement. Once you acclimatise yourself, you can activate any numbers of moves, be it slick passing, one-twos, an extensive number of ways the player can head the ball, powerful crossing, being able to bounce the ball on your chest, overhead kick, the list is endless. Being able to manipulate such a wealth of moves adds to making the game more realistic and exciting. As you become au fait with the controls and moves you will become totally immersed within the game.
A learning curve to any game is essential and Olympic Soccer has that. This learning aspect is certainly lacking in other games. At the start being able to chest the ball and tap it on requires a certain amount of skill. This will come as you acclimatise yourself to the game.
The AI in the program will generate instances that you do not normally see elsewhere. For example, occasionally a player will go to head a ball and miss it, this adds that margin of error that is realistic and true to life. Witnessing a computer v computer game is like watching the movements of a real match. The computers/consoles do not go straight for goal but back peddle, pass all across the pitch and execute moves that are realistic.
Q: Will speech be available also on most of the formats. Will there be multi lingual versions?
A: Yes, there will be speech on all the formats although it may be slightly reduced on some machines.
The sound on all the versions, quality wise, is very much the same.
We have been talking to some of the main European territories regarding foreign versions and this will eventually happen. The speech, by the way, can also be turned off if required.
Q: Why did you choose Alan Green as the commentator? Why not a more recognisable TV personality? A: We chose Alan Green because commentators on Television are fine but for 90 minutes you do not see them, you just hear their voice, so why use a TV presenter? Alan has a cult status plus there is also the fact he is going to Atlanta to commentate on the soccer, we believed he was ideal. The way speech is implemented is very important. There are certain cases where speech on a program can be misleading. You have to have feeling in your voice - John Motson on FIFA is devoid of passion, for example. When you have someone like Alan, who is totally committed, you are then assured it will be implemented and coordinated perfectly. It is then you have an added dimension to a game. He has put many ideas forward and added his own lines which we had not thought off, so it has been an added bonus on top of an already well formulated idea. We believe that, because of this, the commentary has originality which is like a breath of fresh air.
Commentary on games can sound very samey but on Olympic Soccer that certainly isn't the case. His style is very different from anyone. A radio commentator's job is a lot harder than one on TV for they have to describe everything going on in a very concise way, with TV you can actually see the events as they take place.
Q: Did Alan Green influence or help you during development?
A: Very much so. We only had a very preliminary list of phrases for him to say, around 400, but at the end we estimate there are around 1700 phrases in the game. With this base of phrases you can then have an endless list interchangeable phrases. You have various connotations of the same word, phrases that could be strung onto another and so on
Q: One of the problems of Championship Manager 2 from Domark, who use BBC's Clive Tyldesley, is that the speech, despite featuring "4 hours" of speech, becomes repetitive. After half a dozen matches you tend to turn it off and play the game without this feature which results in a major chunk of the CD you just paid for lying dormant. How have you tackled things so there isn't constant repetition?
A: It is rather spurious how companies total up the exact amount of time given to a commentary. Having spent time listening to soccer games commentary, we certainly have more free comments and ones that are more applicable to the action. On certain games, when a player shoots, the commentator will say, "shot" every single time and that gets very boring this certainly does not happen on Olympic Soccer. The engine written will produce a healthy list of parameters to ensure you do not get the same comment.
We understood that many people are put off by repetition of comments that really appear to be there just so you can say you have a live commentary was a good basis to start with. Some programs can come over as having a very robotic feel to them. We cannot use real names but that adds to the game as opposed to using real name players. If you are have real players then speech must be limited to them, people understand that certain named players react in certain ways. We are not limited in that context, so any number of phrases can be applied to any of the players actions as it happens. It is only by utilising sound
