Latest OS podcast included an interview with Ian Cummings, who use to be one of the tech leads on Madden.
Asked how long it would take to build an alternative football game on consoles, he said it would take a couple of weeks to get a game running. They could use multi platform engines like Unreal or Unity and license the physics engine from the Backbreaker guys. Then there are all kinds of free (open source?) tools so that they wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel for things like depth of field.
He seemed to be implying that for all the experience and legacy of the Madden codebase, which goes back decades, the technical barrier is low or virtually non-existent.
But where it would be difficult or impossible for a new team would be trying to match or at least put out a competitive product in terms do the art assets, the scans of thousands of players, the detailed stadium models,etc.
He thinks it would take a team of 20 about 3 years to get up around parity with Madden. In some ways a team of 20 might be way more productive than the hundreds on the Madden team.
It would take an investment of say $60 million before licensing costs and investors probably wouldn't fund such a project unless they could generate sales on an "unfinished" product during those 3 years.
But before even contemplating such a project, they'd need the licenses, which is still granted exclusively by the NFL to EA.
Asked how long it would take to build an alternative football game on consoles, he said it would take a couple of weeks to get a game running. They could use multi platform engines like Unreal or Unity and license the physics engine from the Backbreaker guys. Then there are all kinds of free (open source?) tools so that they wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel for things like depth of field.
He seemed to be implying that for all the experience and legacy of the Madden codebase, which goes back decades, the technical barrier is low or virtually non-existent.
But where it would be difficult or impossible for a new team would be trying to match or at least put out a competitive product in terms do the art assets, the scans of thousands of players, the detailed stadium models,etc.
He thinks it would take a team of 20 about 3 years to get up around parity with Madden. In some ways a team of 20 might be way more productive than the hundreds on the Madden team.
It would take an investment of say $60 million before licensing costs and investors probably wouldn't fund such a project unless they could generate sales on an "unfinished" product during those 3 years.
But before even contemplating such a project, they'd need the licenses, which is still granted exclusively by the NFL to EA.
