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Exclusive Championship Manager 5 Interview Feature
Derek dela Fuente
03/03/2004
Beautiful Game Studios answers our questions on the return of Championship Manager...
Check out the other side of the story here...
To many outsiders, the Collyer brothers (Sports Interactive) were the inspiration and driving force behind the successful Championship Manager brand from Eidos and many may even remember it from the early Domark days. After what appears from the outside an acrimonious split, they went their own way to develop a new football management game for Sega, it seems a strange move but to all footy fans the good news could be interpreted in the fact we will have two class management games as opposed to one in development.
With Beautiful Game Studios, based in North London, now in control of the brand, with their own ideas and vision, we spoke with David Rutter, Senior Producer on Championship Manager 5, to find out about what we can look forward to whilst clearing up some of the histrionics of the parting.
TVG: David, Paul and Ov Collyer, to many gaming football fans, are the main inspiration for the Championship Manager series. How will Eidos ensure the full continuity of the game and what intellectual properties, pertaining to the game do the brothers and Eidos own? (Who owns the tools, database and even design on the game?)
Eidos own the name Championship Manager as well as the âlook and feelâ of the game. CM5 will look and play like previous versions in the series, but with a few key improvements. As a result CM5 will maintain the continuity that the fans have come to expect. SI owns the player data and the code base to previous versions of the game. As we have begun the development and research process from scratch â“ we can produce a âcleanerâ and faster version of Championship Manager.
TVG: In previous Championship Manager titles how did the interaction between the dev team and Eidos work? How did you formalise new ideas, etc. for the latest creation? Was it very much a joint and sharing experience or were Sports Interactive autonomous in the way they worked?
I canât comment on previous versions, but for this version it was very much a co-operative effort between Eidos and Beautiful Game Studios. Eidos has invested considerably in focus testing to identify the key areas for improvement. We are confident of hitting the sweet spot for maximum fan enjoyment with this release.
TVG: Please tell us about the new internal development team â“ Beautiful Game Studios. How big is the team in term of numbers, will it be a full time team working solely on Champ Manager and what expertise in terms of both football and game dev do the team members have and who will head the team?
Beautiful Game Studios was set up with the sole purpose to develop Championship Manager. Currently there are 30 people at BGS. The team has over 100 years of cumulative development experience between them and has worked on over 90 published titles, 60 of which were football-related games.
All the team are HUGE Championship Manager fans as well. Weâve also got all the resources of Eidos at our disposal, as well as our external resources dealing with the bulk of team and player research.
TVG: Has the premise/vision of the new, updated, version changed much from the previous ones? Will there be the same continuation from previous titles or are there new aspirations pertaining to what Champ Manager 5 will offer? To add, you are using an agency to present stats, etc. to the team, does this mean you are starting from scratch in certain areas and when did work start on CM5?
The whole game is essentially from scratch, including graphics, menus, AI and player database. However, this has the advantage of doing away with âlegacy problemsâ, and allowing us to engineer the game in the way that is best for current fans of the game. Weâre still maintaining the scale and scope of the game, but weâre producing a polished engine underneath which will have big performance benefits for fans with low and high spec PCâs. The game will continue to offer the most realistic simulation of football management but with improvements in key areas.
TVG: How much further can you push and move Champ Manager seeing that most fans thought it was nearing perfection? If you had to select the main innovation for Champ 5 what is it?
Weâre evolving the game, looking to improve training, scouting and media sections, and increase the realism of the match engine. The biggest improvements, however, will be in the speed of the game. Processing times have been optimised from the very beginning of development to ensure that fans of the game arenât left twiddling their thumbs during match days for teams theyâre not playing. Weâre not cheating or shortcutting to get this result though. The coding team is being very ingenious.
TVG: With each new version Champ Manager appeared to become more interactive and more visual with lots of in game action active segments. Is this an area you are also working on and how do you entice new gamers, who feel that this is a very specialised game that they would find too hard to get into?
CM5 will be the equivalent of the current version of CM in this respect. Weâre also less concerned with enticing new gamers, and more keen to reassure and reinforce what Championship Manager is about. As a team weâre very aware of what we want as fans, and consequently weâre taking a very cautious approach to anything too revolutionary. CM5 promises to be very much âMore of the same, but betterâ â“ and weâll be involving everyone who visits www.championshipmanager.co.uk in the design of CM6 and beyond.
TVG: The Championship Manager franchise has to be one of the most fervently supported gaming series within the industry; do you really think the name will grab fans interest instead of waiting for the latest offering from Sports Interactive?
I think the game will speak for itself. Basically there are people who want to play the most realistic football management simulations and we intend to be the best in this genre. Consequently we believe theyâll want to play our game. Obviously there is some historical significance in the name, and we hope that the fans who arenât aware of the split from the previous developers wonât even notice the difference, and will continue to be addicted to the series. The Championship Manager brand is one of the industryâs biggest, and you certainly cannot underestimate how big a part this will play.
TVG: Championship Manager was widely supported by a legion of fans who meticulously researched club and player data for the game; by using an agency are you effectively ending this association between fan and Championship Manager?
Most definitely not. The people who work for the company doing our research are already fans. Also we are already recruiting people who want to be involved in research â“ when registering at
www.championshipmanager.co.uk people are asked if theyâd like to be researchers. Weâre also listening very closely to what people liked and disliked about previous CMs and this process will continue forever. The fans will have a very big influence on how Championship Manager evolves.
TVG: Will the 2D match engine make it into Championship Manager 5, or is this one feature that Sports Interactive have held on to?
The 2D match engine will be present in Championship Manager 5 â“ and we promise to include all the usual tactical options.
TVG: Do you honestly believe Championship Manager can continue its success without Sports Interactive?
Absolutely. Weâre giving it 110% - and proud to be developing it.
We shall be back in a few months time to see how Championship Manager 5, due in late 2004, is coming along!
Check out the other side of the story here...
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Date Added:Mon 28th May 2007 10:12
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Date Added:Mon 28th May 2007 10:11
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Date Added:Wed 1st Nov 2006 19:54