Q. There is a lot of customization in FIFA Street 2 from players and venues to rules. What's the story there?
Simon Andrews: You're right, FIFA Street 2 features a lot customization. The feedback we received in our focus group testing was that people really liked this aspect of the game and we wanted to give them as much variety as we possibly could. We basically have given users the opportunity to create or customize their players and teams, the venue and the rules. You can even dress the pros in different clothing and styles. If you want to dress David Beckham in an Armani suit you can do that. If you want to outfit your team in surf shirts you can do that too. Fundamentally customizing your players is just a really cool thing to do. It is fun. If you want to create yourself or dress up the pros you can and this makes the game a more personal experience. That's what it is all about - creating some depth and flexibility to let people make the game their own.
Q. What makes customizing a venue cool?
Simon Andrews: People are really passionate about their hometown or neighborhood so Pitch Creator was one of those features where we wanted to have enough assets that you could get pretty close to creating your town or where you play. There are a lot of subtle things in there. If you choose France you'll notice subtle things like a French flag hanging from a balcony in the background. There are over 30,000 combinations to choose from - including the fence type, goalposts, architecture and pitch surface - so you can pretty much create your own venue or get pretty close to it. If you had asked me a year ago how many venues I wanted in the game I would have said 50 just because I think where you play adds such a cool aspect to the game. We were able to create 20 venues in FIFA Street 2 but with Pitch Creator you have the ability to customize your venue to make it feel like anywhere in the world.
Q. Did the idea for My Rules come from NBA Street?
Simon Andrews: Yes, I worked on the NBA Street series and My Rules was something that we originally put into NBA Street and fans loved it. We recognize that FIFA Street 2 is an arcade style product and people like playing the game in different ways. Some people play to win, some for points, some for score or tricks points or showing off. So we recognize this and allow users to select how they want to play the game. It makes it more fun to play and more challenging. It also adds depth and variety to the game.
Q. Tell us about some of the new apparel in the game.
Simon Andrews: There is a ton of new clothing, shoes and balls in the game that will be released to the public by manufacturers as the game ships. One of nice things about a street game is that we get to work with the coolest, hippest apparel manufacturers in both the formal kit side and the casual clothing side. If you look at the young people who play FIFA Street they really care about the brands they wear and being able to wear the latest clothes, or kits or shoes, or t-shirts or balls is really cool. The apparel manufacturers recognize that there is a lot of overlap between the people who play our games and wear their brands. The brand makers realize that a game like FIFA Street 2 is a great place to expose their products so we have a significant number of jerseys, shirts, shoes, shorts and balls from Adidas, Nike, Puma and others that will not be unveiled to the public until our game ships. When you think about it, it is cool that you can create yourself in the game and have him in a pair of shoes that you are hoping to buy next month.
Q. What is your favorite look?
Simon Andrews: I like the more casual surfing clothing that says we are not really taking ourselves too seriously but I'm going to kick your ass all over the place, especially if the opposition is wearing the formal kits.
Q. Is customization a key reward in the single-player experience?
Simon Andrews: Our single-player mode is more challenging because we have dramatically improved the AI so therefore we also made it more rewarding. You will be rewarded with skill bills (our virtual currency in FIFA Street) for all games you win, which in turn can be used to unlock rewards in our new holistic rewards system. This new rewards feature shows you the rewards that are available, gives you tips on how to unlock them as well as giving you the option to purchase them if you have the bills. All of the venues and cool apparel for your created players to wear that I mentioned as well as retired pro "legend" players are available.
Another thing I want to mention regarding the single-player experience is that we have made a major investment in our all new Rule the Street game mode (career mode) for FIFA Street 2 because this is where the single player spends most of his time. So we have created more depth and variety to this feature. Your player will play through different skill based series of events to unlock cool rewards like players, tricks, venues and clothing. Now if you are good enough you can build your own venue and team. But you'll have to become an expert at managing your players because in this mode you'll have to deal with player rivalries and playing time issues to keep your players happy as you play your way to international glory!