Cricket Life Q&A with Gamebience

[PlanetCricket]

Over the past fortnight we’ve been gathering your questions for Gamebience for the upcoming Cricket Life game. Following are the questions we sent and the responses given by Rob White, the Marketing Manager
for the Cricket Life franchise. PlanetCricket thanks Rob for the quick responses to your questions.

Rob: First of all, please be informed that the names of three editions, CL Express, CL Regular, CL Ultimate may be renamed for certain markets. Secondly, we are expecting to release first screenshots of one of the CL
editions next month. Thirdly, we are looking for a release this summer of one of the CL editions, followed by the other in November 2011 or in Q1 2012, if November is deemed by our channel partners as too early. Console
release is also planned but only for one of the editions.



Question from Highlander999: Considering you have promised so much before and failed to deliver, why should we believe you guys this time? What has changed so that we will actually have a good game in our hands to back up your claims, which whilst sound good, doesn’t result in an end product?

Rob: We have a time-line that we will follow. We are a completely new team; there are no tall claims to make. Moreover, we have sensibly divided the CL title into two separate editions – CL Regular and CL Express (and a third one, Ultimate – will combine both editions into one ‘ultimate’ game), and this will make sure that the products reach the appropriate target markets and produce the desired results.

​

Question from CG123: Do we have to buy both editions separately, or can we just upgrade/patch the first one in order to get the second one? And what will be the price range?

Rob: Both editions (viz. CL Express & CL Regular) are distinctly separate. There’s no way to port or create a patch. Prices depend upon the platform and country of release. CL Ultimate will be the costliest of the three editions. CL Express & Regular editions will cost roughly the same.

​

Question from Aussie Team: What actually is Cricket Life? Is it a game?

Rob: It would be easier to understand what the game is all about in a few months time. A demo will be released in the summer (Northern Hemisphere).

​

Question from Friend863: Since the game is in development for 5 years, has there been any major development during this period and will we see new rules in this game?

Rob: We are using a latest commercial engine. Some specific features were planned earlier this year to be incorporated in order to reflect a Cricketer’s life as per 2011. Power-play is built-in already. UDRS may be added to the Express edition if there’s sufficient time to do so.

​

Question from sami ullah khan: Any word of minimum system requirement?

Rob: Graphics will be one of the strong points of the game. While the game will run on most systems (even with an integrated graphics card) with high-end features turned off, a powerful system will give you better gameplay experience. Specs will be released closer to release and varies depending upon the edition.

​

Question from 1iram1: Will it be available in stores in North America?

Rob: We are trying but even if we do strike a deal with the distribution channels, it will only be available in certain cities in Canada and USA.

​

Question from srk121: Can you please clarify the three edition of the cricket life games as people seems to be confused regarding what features are available?

Rob: The three editions are catered to different market segments. Someone looking to buy a 3D arcade style cricket game would be buying Express (or by whatever name it will be called in certain markets) edition. Want to experience a Cricketer’s Life off the field (as well as limited on-the-field interaction) with all the peaks and troughs? Buy CL Regular. The third edition, CL Ultimate, combines CL Express and CL Regular features into one mega game with complete control over a cricketer’s life on and off the field.

​

One major difference between Express and Ultimate editions – You can control the entire team in Express edition (like other 3D cricket games), unlike the ultimate edition, in which, you only control your chosen individual career player.

​

Question from srk121: Other developers have shown lack of interest in the support of their game after release, what sort of support will be available from Gamebience after the release of CL1?

Rob: It depends on what kind of support you are looking for. We will support the game by fixing bugs and other helping users manoeuvre through technical glitches. Add-on packs are not really required with three editions scheduled for release in 2011 & 2012 combined.

​

Question from Will Browne: Is the “Life” part of the title just a gimmick or do we get a realistic career mode of a professional cricketer?

Rob: CL Regular edition and CL Ultimate edition will give you real control of a cricketer’s life. There are two game play modes: Existing player or New Player. Existing player – Choose an existing player from the game, and take control of that player’s life from that point of time. In New Player mode, you create a new player, fight for your place in domestic circuit and struggle all the way up trying to find a place in the national squad. Once in the national squad, your goals may be one or many – to play for your country in a world cup, become a captain, become the richest cricketer, become the most endorsed cricketer, apart from dozens of other goals.

As you may see, this management aspect of the game itself is quite huge, and qualifies as a separate game. Thus, the idea was to split the game into two editions.

​

General questions asked on features:
Will it include UDRS, Snicko, hotspot and other latest technologies?

Rob: UDRS – may be. (answered in one of the questions above). Other technologies – may be in next versions, but certainly not in the first version.

​

Will it show us the distance of the six hit?

Rob: It goes into the wish list.

​

Will it give us a 3D view of Spider?

Rob: Yes, as all graphs are 3D. In fact, the entire UI is in 3D – including, dialog boxes, buttons, progress bars and what not.

​

Apart from mentioned features which are obviously missing from the CL1, could you please also tell us what other features have been moved to CL2 which were originally been said to be included in CL1?

Rob: Rather than omitting features, we have in fact inflated the game by adding more features over time, in order to keep it relevant and current. We have only divided the features into two editions (no major features were
lost or postponed to future versions). We may call those editions by whatever name we may think as appropriate and/or restricted due to licensing deals. Moreover, we are working on making the contents of CL Express licensed.

​

Online play has been the biggest flaw of cricket games, what action are being taken to make sure this flaw is minimised?

Rob: Online gameplay is certainly not being overlooked. We will incorporate online gameplay in all three editions and improve it over time. However, a bigger piece of cake will be CL Social. Stay tuned for more news on a new game, CL Social. Unlike what most people think, CL Social is not an old wine in new package. The concept and game-play is completely different from CL Regular, Express & Ultimate editions. However, here’s a word of caution: development is at conceptual stage. Certainly, it won’t be releasing any sooner than the two main editions – Express & Regular.

​

Are award ceremonies still included in the games?

Rob: Award ceremonies – some features are common to all three editions (Thus CL Express is not just a regular 3D arcade style cricket game, but with some tinge of CL franchise). Award ceremonies, for instance, is included in all editions. Fight for your award in the annual awards ceremony!

​

Could you please tell us how many commentators are included in the game? repetition is another issue, has any action been taken for that?

Rob: There are 2 commentators in CL Express edition. While we may love to add more, we’ve moved this ‘wish’ to the next version.

​

Those are all the questions for now, however Rob has mentioned he’s happy to answer more. Discussion of these answers, and any questions you still have can be discussed in the Cricket Life forum in this thread. I’d like to again thank Rob for taking the time to answer all the questions.





Article by Matt Whitehorn - Read More...