Now that summer is officially in full swing I thought it would be fun to talk about a video game based on America's past time. MLB The Show 24. It has been 10 years since I played my first MLB the show game. I have been playing them on and off about every other year. I thought it would be interesting to talk about some things I have noticed about 24 compared to 14. Now my memory might be shaky so if I am wrong in any of my comparison statements between 14 and 24 let me know in the comments down below.
The first thing I noticed is the significant leap in different ways that you can hit within the game. In 14 to my recollection you pretty much aimed in the direction you wanted to hit and pressed a button on the controller for the swing type and that was it. In 24 now there are multiple different ways in which you can hit. The more classic route which I just mentioned, which I still prefer, but also you can use the joystick to achieve a more precise hit on the baseball itself.
The same thing occurs with pitching too. A more classic route where you wind up and throw but now you can also perform certain motions with the joystick to achieve more motion, accuracy, precision, etc, with the pitches.
Both of these improvements over 14 really help to sell the simulated baseball experience that millions of baseball fans such as myself crave around the world.
When it comes to the production of these games because they are put out on a regular cadence it would be my interpretation of adopting a Waterfall approach when it comes to the project, while still incorporating other Agile techniques within the development of the game. One could say that the production of a waterfalled game is more difficult than an average games development. You have to account for the same amount of technical problems, cross discipline collaboration, QA testing, localization procedures, etc. All within an extremely short time frame.
Considering these circumstances it's important for teams and games of this nature to have streamlined processes to make sure the teams can be as efficient as possible and ensure clear communication between all members to keep the game on track for the individual milestones that it needs to hit. Though because of the fact you're operating on a shorter time frame it's important to also block out time after sprints during development to let the teams decompress. Because if the teams you're producing are not taken care of at a personal level, collectively the team won't achieve the same professional goals for the project.
I absolutely love the work Sony San Diego has done to MLB the Show franchise over the last ten years and the production of the games have been done extremely well. If any designers, artists, or producers from SSD are reading, I would love to talk about the games production process, and of course Major League Baseball.
Thanks for reading and take care of yourselves,
-Kadin
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