"This one's for the fans"
Cameron Davis uncovers the story behind the making of Rugby League 2004.
NRL FANS MAY have been left out in the cold when AFL Live hit the Xbox recently, but not for much longer. Rugby league is being developed by New Zealand game development house Sidhe Interactive, and here's a behindthescenes development diary by the game's producer, Mario Wynands
In the Beginning.
We thought we knew what we were getting into when the Rugby League project started last August. Only after receiving several hundred emails of support, suggestions, and the occasional threat, did we truly understand the gravity of the task ahead of us.
NRL fans have been starved of a videogame based on the sport for years, so starved that they cling nostalgically to the ancient ARL 96, or even change the team and player names in Madden 2003 in a desperate attempt to replicate the NRL. Now we were answering their prayers.
It didn't help starting in the middle of a marketing nightmare. Somehow, the public was told the game was due out in November 2002, while we had only just negotiated a development timeframe that would see the game released in October 2003. Clearly, wires got crossed.
Fans were outraged  they had waited so many years, and now they had to wait another.
Our publisher, Home Entertainment Suppliers (HES), proposed a solution. If we could produce a PC demo in four months, then garners could get a taste for the title and they'd hopefully be kept occupied until the full release.
So there we were with a bunch of already unhappy fans, an impossibly short demo deadline, and a tight overall schedule. It's a good thing Sidhe thrives on challenge.
Kickoff
We were no strangers to short development time frames. Our previous 3 titles had been developed on time and budget in 8 months or less. The most recent, adidas Football Fever for PC, spanned 5 months from start to finish most titles require 18 to 24 months.
Rapid prototyping, efficient code, and a general "do it right the first time" mantra became the heart of our production pipeline. We also decided to use Criterion's Renderware  graphics 'middleware' to help make cross platform (and hence Xbox) development easier. From a production standpoint, we had the right building blocks.
Another key ingredient was Tyrone McAuley, our Technical Director. Tyrone is the company's biggest sports fan, so his appointment as the project's tead Designer was obvious. He also took on the role of managing the programming team. Tight coupling between design and programming tearn allowed little room for communication errors and consequentially facilitated a rapid implementation of the design.
With this foundation, the team put in a massive effort in the months following. After many long hours, we released a playable PC demo of Rugby League in early December 2002. Thousands of copies were downloaded in the first 24 hours and tens of thousands more in the following months. Overall the feedback was positive and we knew we were on the right track. Now all we had to do was make the rest of the game for multiple consoles.
Halftime Commentary
While most game development projects have flexibility in design throughout, we had left our design modular to accommodate the short development cycle. Basically, if we can't achieve some of our targets in time, we can drop parts of the design.
To get feedback, we had lurked in online league and gaming forums. Fans were divided as to what the game's heart should be. Some wanted arcade gameplay while others wanted something heavier on the management side. Wanting to keep the game accessible, we focused on immediate action. That said, though, we also took the simulation fan's comments on board and provided some management aspects.
We had all started out on the project wanting to make a great videogame. Somewhere along the way we became passionate as the fans themselves, and our renewed vision was to produce a great rugby league game.
Rugby League 2004 is due for release this October
