Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madden

[jpdavis82]

EA Sports released a brief Madden NFL 15 video featuring the new Gauntlet mode yesterday. A couple of sites have posted their previews this morning. If any more show up, this post will be updated.

• Madden NFL 15 Wants You To Be A Student Of The Game (Game Informer)

The Skills Trainer mode features 48 new drills, but beyond teaching you the controls of the game, they go deeper to teach you core football concepts like recognizing defenses. "When we playtested," says designer Danny Doeberling, "we found out that people call cover 2 defense, people call a smash route. They have no idea what that actually is. So, we're actually taking them through how to recognize a cover 2 defense. And once you actually see it on the field, we'll have you attack that. When you're calling different pass plays, what actually makes up a pass play? What's a cross? Outs? We basically teach you the foundation of the coverages, and we also [teach you] the most common pass concepts. We basically teach you football." Accordingly, there are also drills in the mode where you call red zone plays, for instance.

• Madden NFL 15 wants to teach you about football to make you a better Madden player (Polygon)

As Cam and I crafted this vision to take the game toward 'more realistic and more authentic,' what we realized is, if we don't teach people how football works, they're never going to understand this game," Dickson continued. "That's really why the Skills Trainer mode was developed, is because I basically pitched that we need a tutorial system if we're going to keep going in a realistic, authentic direction.

[roadman]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

Key quote right here:

"As Cam and I crafted this vision to take the game toward 'more realistic and more authentic,' what we realized is, if we don't teach people how football works, they're never going to understand this game," Dickson continued. "That's really why the Skills Trainer mode was developed, is because I basically pitched that we need a tutorial system if we're going to keep going in a realistic, authentic direction."

This thread should be interesting, to say the least.

[K_GUN]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/11/588...ainer-gauntlet

cute.......Pat Kirwin, author of Take Your Eyes Off The Ball, has already done that but thanks anyway!

[Hooe]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

I've hammered on this on here.

More than anything else, sports games' biggest failing to this point has been accessibility and teaching its users how to play. This is evident in the fact that no gaming-oriented people around me will even attempt to play Madden, NBA 2K, The Show, or even WWE with me, because I'm a veteran of sports games and a hardcore sports fan in general. I know how to play these games, while they are helplessly behind with few to no in-game mechanisms available with which to catch up.

This is a necessary step for expanding the pool of potential customers for the Madden series, particularly as the NFL's popularity continues to grow. One they probably won't see any credit for on this message board, but - assuming the mode is well-executed - one they deserve credit for nevertheless.

[Hooe]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

cute.......Pat Kirwin, author of Take Your Eyes Off The Ball, has already done that but thanks anyway!

That's the thing - no one is going to read a 200-page book to learn how to play a football video game.

If a game can't engage a new player with the mechanics of the game in a meaningful way within the first ten minutes, the gamer will put the game down and never come back.

[kongemeier]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

But... well, penalties would be a decent place to start then!

[K_GUN]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

That's the thing - no one is going to read a 200-page book to learn how to play a football video game.

If a game can't engage a new player with the mechanics of the game in a meaningful way within the first ten minutes, the gamer will put the game down and never come back.

agreed.....perhaps it should be spun as..."Madden Dev's wanna teach you how to play their game.." ??

dunno...props to them for the effort to educate tho

[48 hours]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

Nice..I am looking forward to the skill trainer.

[Matty Aqua]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

This is a fantastic idea!

[Aggies67]

I think I will benefit from this. I hope they include it in current gen version.

[Hooe]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

agreed.....perhaps it should be spun as..."Madden Dev's wanna teach you how to play their game.." ??

dunno...props to them for the effort to educate tho

I mean, sure, you could say that if you want to split hairs, but Madden's game is nominally football. So yes they are teaching football through a video game. Teaching a person how to use a Levels passing concept or the strengths and weaknesses of a Cover 2 coverage applies in Madden and real life.

We all know Madden has shortcomings in the way some things play out on the field, but that doesn't mean that what it teaches isn't representative of the sport whatsoever.

[coke hogan]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

That's the thing - no one is going to read a 200-page book to learn how to play a football video game.

If a game can't engage a new player with the mechanics of the game in a meaningful way within the first ten minutes, the gamer will put the game down and never come back.

I wasn't engaged in the mechanics of the witcher 2. put it down, then picked it up a week later. one of the best games ever played.


so I don't believe people would put the game down and not play it anymore, especially if they paid money for it.

[Hooe]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

I don't believe people would put the game down and not play it anymore, especially if they paid money for it.

You'd be surprised.

One of the hardest things to do in making a video game is create the first level / the user's first experience with the game because if said level / experience doesn't teach the player how to play and doesn't engage them in the story (if applicable), the user will lose interest, will not invest into the game, and you've likely lost him. That's not to say there aren't exceptions, like your experience with The Witcher 2, but the general rule is that you've gotta grab the player early.

In talking about making good games today with reference to his experience making DOOM, designer John Romero recommended making the first level of a game last so that the designer knows all the tools he has to teach the player for the rest of the game. The infamous E1M1 Hangar board was the last level put into the game and teaches the player pretty much everything he needs to know about how an environment in DOOM works (with the exception of key cards, which are introduced in E1M2). This design lesson applied in 1992, it still applies today.

[mestevo]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

I wasn't engaged in the mechanics of the witcher 2. put it down, then picked it up a week later. one of the best games ever played.


so I don't believe people would put the game down and not play it anymore, especially if they paid money for it.

I've actually stalled multiple times playing The Witcher 2 at the part that it decides you should learn every ability at one time at the end of the tutorial.

[greenegt]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

Gauntlet Mode looks like fun. I'm really looking forward to Madden 15.