http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/news/fm2010-interview-part-1.html

We sit down with Studio Director Miles Jacobson to talk about how this year's Football Manager is shaping up
Written by Andy Griffiths, 30 September 2009

As reliable as Peter Crouch complaining about a lack of first team football, another Football Manager will soon be upon us. To prepare for this momentous occasion Gamerzines sat down with Sports Interactive's Studio Director, Miles Jacobson, to talk about what makes this year's Football Manager the best yet.

Part one of three, this interview will include all the details you want to know about the best management simulator on the market. Today we tackle new features and what we can expect from the newly enhanced 3D match engine and Football Manager's gigantic scouting network:

Gamerzines: In your eyes, what's the biggest new feature for this year?

Miles Jacobson: What we find with our games is that everyone has a different favourite new feature and, as always, we've got quite a few new features in the game this year, even though we have concentrated most of our time on polishing the game.

For me, the new GUI is probably the biggest change, as it makes the whole game so much easier to use and navigate, despite the extra depth in the game.

The backroom advice is also a pretty massive new feature, with your staff now giving you feedback on every area of your team, helping you get even more immersed in your world, but without having to do too much.The tactic creator makes it a lot easier to make tactics in the game, and we've had great feedback on it so far from those that have seen it. Using a lot more football terminology has made it a lot more understandable, and in conjunction with the touchline shouts, there's a lot more flexibility for the manager.Oh, and then there's the new data editor, which allows people to add extra leagues to the game, and add extra competitions to existing leagues. These additions will be able to be shared by the people who created them.

GZ: What was the response to the 3D match engine from last year's and what improvements have you made for this year?

MJ: The response to the 3d match view was very good - the graphical detail and animations weren't up to the level of Fifa or Pro Evo, but they've got a few years head start on us from that side of things, and we're very proud of what we achieved and the reaction it got, particularly as our engine is a simulation of a full game of football, so we have a lot to display. This year we've improved the match engine AI again to make it more realistic than ever, working once again with Ray Houghton and using the same tools that many top managers use to analyse real matches.

From the 3d view side of things, there are over 100 new animations, with all existing animations too, massive improvements to the stadiums, crowds for the first time, much better pitch textures and degradation and much more besides.

GZ: Could you tell us a bit more about your real life scouting network which enables you to collect player data on the smallest and biggest teams worldwide?

MJ: By having this network working to strict guidelines, we not only have the largest scouting network in football, but one that's cohesive with the data that's given back to us, which allows us to provide 50 countries leagues playable in the game, stats of 400,000 players and staff from around the world and, with the new data editor, the possibility of adding lots more leagues and competitions to the game.

Football Manager coverage available in PCGZine Issue 34 - click here to download it for free!

Football Manager Interview (Part 2)

http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/previews/fm2010-interview-part-2.html

Studio Director Miles Jacobson talks to use about Football Manager Live and the evolution of the 3D match engine
Written by Andy Griffiths, 01 October 2009

Continuing our interview with Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive, today we talk about the continued evolution of the 3D match engine and what Miles thinks of Championship Manager.

Football Manager 2010
The lovely Miles JacobsonGamerzines: What was the response to the 3D match engine from last year's and what improvements have you made for this year?

Football Manager 2010
The new GUI in action.

Football Manager 2010
The result says it all.Miles Jacobson: The response to the 3d match view was very good - the graphical detail and animations weren't up to the level of Fifa or Pro Evo, but they've got a few years head start on us from that side of things, and we're very proud of what we achieved and the reaction it got, particularly as our engine is a simulation of a full game of football, so we have a lot to display. This year we've improved the match engine AI again to make it more realistic than ever, working once again with Ray Houghton and using the same tools that many top managers use to analyse real matches. From the 3d view side of things, there are over 100 new animations, with all existing animations too, massive improvements to the stadiums, crowds for the first time, much better pitch textures and degradation and much more besides.

GZ: How has the ongoing development of Football Manager Live affected this year's development of FM2010?

Download PCGZine Issue 34PCGZine Issue 34 GamerZines Magazine For our latest Football Manager coverage, click here to download PCGZine Issue 34 for free.MJ: The two coding teams are pretty seperate, with the exception of the match engine being used by both games, and we are able to use the beta worlds in FML to test out changes with the match engine. The tactics creator also made it's debut in FML, which helped us see what people thought of it before introducing it to FM10.

GZ: Does it still feel strange to be competing directly with your old brand of Championship Manager?

MJ: Not really - they're been 4 games released using our old brand before, so we're very used to it. There are lots of other management games out there too, so there have always been a few releases in the genre each year. We tend to concentrate on what we're doing, rather than what others are.

GZ: With all the high profile takeovers in English football lately, how do you incorporate that realistically in FM2010? Any chance of a million pound takeover of Hereford United?

MJ: Hereford could be taken over in FM, as could any team. We have a variety of different types of takeovers in the game, so it is possible for the team to be bought by a foreign consortium, or a local businessman, or a plethora of other possibilities. There are all kinds of things that come into account when it comes to the possibility of a takeover, but we've also got to be careful to ensure that the economy in the game doesn't get too out of control, so they don't happen every week.

Football Manager Interview (Part 3)

http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/previews/fm2010-interview-part-3.html

The final part of our exclusive chat with Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson. We talk about touchline shouts and the future
Written by Andy Griffiths, 02 October 2009

All good things must come to an end, we are very sad to say. So here's the final part of our exclusive interview with the entertaining Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive.

FM2010 Day Three
Exeter are a hard team to beat, trust me.Gamerzines: Stadium expansion always seems to be a contentious issue with fans, has the system changed at all in FM2010?

FM2010 Day Three
Reminds us of a skinnier version of Kick Off.Miles Jacobson: There have been lots of improvement to the module, and, as always, we are sticking with realism. Expansions are expensive in real life, and not always possible due to council restrictions, and we go as far in the game as to try to model that.

FM2010 Day Three
Match analysis in action.GZ: Can you tell us more about the news centre and how the in-game subscription will work?

Download PCGZine Issue 34PCGZine Issue 34 GamerZines Magazine For our latest Football Manager coverage, click here to download PCGZine Issue 34 for free.MJ: What's always interesting for us is talking to people that play the game, on our forums, in pubs, at football and through usability studies, and one area where people seem really split is with the amount of news that people see in the game. Some people only care about their own club, and don't want to know what's going on in the world around them, wheras others want the full experience, and want to know everything that's going on. The solution for that is the news subscriptions that we now have in the game, through which you can subscribe to getting news on any player, any club, any nation, any member of staff andany competition in the world whilst you are playing, or just information of your own club. Any of the "objects" you go to in the game has the possibility to subscribe with one button click to news on that "object", and this then appears in your own news page which you can go to at any time in the game.

Football Manager 2010
The lovely Miles JacobsonGZ: How do Touchline Shouts work and how will they alter play?

MJ: Touchline shouts gives you the possibility to change your tactics easily without needing to go to the tactics screen. Along with quick substitutions and the ability to change to any other saved tactic from the match screen, there are also over 20 "shouts" that you can perform to automatically change your tactics to adjust to the in match situation. so if you see a gap in the wings, one touchline shout will tell your players to play wider. Or if you're in a real panic, you can ask the team to hoof the ball up the pitch, and your strikers to shoot on sight.

GZ: Sports Interactive are known for your open design meetings where everyone has an input into each year's edition. Can you tell us some of the features that haven't been included in FM2010, or those that were thrown out because they were too ridiculous?

MJ: It's nice that we're known for that, but we're also known for secrecy! We've got around 700 feature ideas still in our features db that we'll be going through again to decide what should go into FM2011, although already have some features decided. As for theridiculous ones, that would be unfair on those who put them forward, me included!

[ 本帖最后由 fatfat325 于 2009-10-5 11:25 PM 编辑 ]

Football Manager Interview (Part 1-3)