Madden NFL 07 Interview

Aug 9, 2006

It's been four years since Josh Looman started work at EA. In that time, he's seen new features like the hit stick and defensive hot routes and Owner mode change the way we think about football games. Looman's passion, though, is Franchise, and it's his goal to eventually incorporate franchise tags and pre-season rosters and every little detail of the Collective Bargaining Agreement into Madden, catering to the hardcore NFL audience.

In this candid conversation, Looman breaks down his vision for the future of the franchise mode. He discusses how the NFL license has helped EA create a better football game. And he remembers Madden like most of us do, playing everyday after school with our friends.

IGN: The release of Madden is almost a holiday for gamers. Back in college my buddies and I would take the day off school, play for hours and talk a whole lot of trash.

Josh Looman: I've always felt the same way too. When I was in college my buddies and I did the same thing. As soon as the game comes out all my friends get together and even though I'm across the country now, we treat it like a holiday.

IGN: Now that the game is pretty much done on your end, what's the atmosphere at Tiburon right now with Madden about to be released?

Looman: We're really excited. This is probably my favorite version of the game. In a lot of different areas we added tons of feature, like in Franchise, Superstar, gameplay, the core running game elements. Everyone is really happy with the final product.

It's really tough when you finish the game because you have to wait for it to come and see what everyone's reaction is. The funny thing about us is that we're already working on next year. We start incorporating feedback after the game ships but we kind of hit the ground running because we're always short on time.

IGN: So is this the last current-gen Madden?

Looman: I don't think that's been resolved yet. If I had a gut feeling I would say probably not but nothing has been announced yet.

IGN: This is something like the eighth version of Madden on this generation. It must be tough to keep innovating on this platform. How do you keep it fresh?

Looman: There's a huge list of things out there that everyone wants to see in sports games and football games. As designers, we all have lists of things we want to somehow get in the game. Even though it's been eight years, there's always stuff we really want to focus on each year and, from time to time, a new gamemode comes along like Superstar, which moves things away from the real hardcore gameplay like Franchise so people have a completely new game experience to look forward to.

IGN: Personally, what's some feature you've always wanted to see in a football game?

Looman: Personally, since I'm a big Franchise guy would be to blow out Franchise presentation and the Draft and free agency. One of things I've always wanted to do in terms of franchise is to get everything that's in the NFL in the game. Go a little deeper and get in those franchise tags and transition tags and expanded rosters in preseason. There's a lot of ideas like that and we're just waiting for good opportunities to get them in our game.

Another thing I've always wanted to do is beef of the Draft. It's such an important part of the offseason in the NFL and it's almost a part of the season. This year when we went in, I tried to think of the thing people were asking for on message boards and in feedback over the last few years. People wanted to see players in the Draft before the Draft actually happened. So we added the college all-star game this year, and it's kind of a small feature, but everyone loves the idea that you can actually play with the rookies before the Draft.

IGN: EA has said before that the exclusive NFL license has helped make Madden more authentic than ever before. How has the exclusive license helped improve your current-gen game?

Looman: It's given us better access to everything. When we need any kind of photos or reference -- in the past we've kind of had to search for it or check with the NFL. Without the exclusive relationship, it was hard to get that stuff immediately.

If we need access to coaches to break down game film and talk about how our game works, if we need to talk to GMs on the phone or agents on the phone about Superstar stuff, any time we need that kind of stuff now it's almost at our beck and call where we put some feelers out and they get back to us immediately.

It's a big advantage, being able to get a hold of those people and ask them candid questions like, for franchise stuff, we ask GMs, "How would you handle contracts in this situation?" or "Would you really sign this guy if he has injury problems?" Just get in their heads and find out how they do things. That's what I've been most impressed with the NFL license.

It's so exciting for us. We have players come by and we can talk to them now. Our new feature this year is defensive playbooks for each team. A lot of that came from sitting down with the actual coaches, so it was really nice to sit down with them and get their perspective on how our game plays.

IGN: A small little thing we liked in NCAA Football this year was the Jump The Snap move. Did you think about getting that into Madden this year?

Looman: There's always the idea, but we want to make sure that the features we put in NCAA is completely different from what we put in Madden. We do want to work on the defensive line in the future though, and make sure that tackles and ends can come up the field and get a start, so we'd like a variation of Jump The Snap, but we want the features to feel different on Madden than NCAA.

IGN: A feature we really like is the addition of the NFL Network, where Sterling Sharpe breaks down plays for you. What was the goal here?

Looman: That basically was the goal. When we sat down with the NFL we wanted to figure out a way to teach people about football. So we would break down a basic Cover 2 or why you would use an I formation with a fullback or single back, we started to realize from a design perspective that a lot of people want to know why their team runs a certain offense. Why do the Rams run the offense they do? Why do the Chiefs run the offense they do with Priest Holmes the last couple of years and Larry Johnson last year? We wanted to go in per team and break down a subset of plays that really defined the offense and the defense that that team ran, and to have a guy like Sterling Sharpe who has the experience to do that, break those plays down for us.

IGN: Influence is an interesting idea to base Superstar on. Why did you choose Influence instead of something like prestige?

Looman: We try to be as realistic as possible when we design franchise features and gameplay. Superstar is a little bit more of what we call a "mass-market feature," something where we draw people in that don't traditionally play our hardcore features.

Think of guy like Ray Louis and how he affects his defense. At times, it seems that he really pumps those guys up and boosts them up. Instead of just giving players a boost, like giving Chris McAllester plus-two to awareness -- maybe you didn't agree with that decision. We wanted you to make the decision since you're the Superstar. As the Superstar, you also can choose if your teammates get the boost or you get an individual boost on a drive-by-drive basis.

IGN: Stepping back a bit, it's got to be exciting making Madden, one of the most successful games ever. What's some of your fond memories of playing and making Madden over the years on a personal level?

Looman: Like a lot of the guys here, we have a lot of memories. The thing I was most excited about is when we jumped from PSX to PS2. I wasn't working with EA at the time, but I remember looking at videos of the game before it came out on sites like IGN. I remember it was Steve McNair handing off to Eddie George, I think. My friends and I would look at the video and be like, "Are you kidding me? That looks like it's on TV."

Seeing the jump from that to Xbox 360 last year is just amazing. I can't even imagine what it will be like in the future.

Some of my memories in the past is being back in high school and playing the older versions back in the sprite days, and taking Emmit Smith and running through the snow and running around people and taking off down the sideline. We used to have some epic battles with my buddies. We would play everyday after football practice. Madden is just one of those games that's resonated throughout my life and it's really exciting to be a part of it.