2K has released the third in the series of dev diaries for its upcoming tennis game, Top Spin 4. Previously they talked about the legends of the game and now they’re looking at unique play styles for each player. They’re posting these on the game’s Facebook page so I have only included part of it here for you and you can go read the rest there.
I’m Rémi Ercolani, Gameplay Designer on Top Spin 4. During the development process, I was in charge of designing and tuning the gameplay. From the player behaviors, shot types and overall balancing, it was my job to impact how the game was actually played. As a huge tennis fan and player myself, it was really something I enjoyed. Today I’m going to explain how each gamer can experience Top Spin 4 differently based upon individual gameplay habits, specifically your play style.
When I say play style, I’m referring here to how you play the game of tennis and what strategy you choose in order to win a match: the shots you select, where you position yourself on the court, how you react to your opponent’s shots, etc. In Top Spin 4, we really wanted to give everyone the chance to truly craft their own unique playing style. So whether you prefer to attack from the baseline, play a more subtle/tactical game, or move to the net and volley, you can find success playing Top Spin 4 your way.
The team started with the feedback we received from fans of Top Spin 3. One common theme the team heard was that the game was too skewed towards power players who were too difficult to challenge no matter how well you played the game strategically. So we set out to improve on this aspect and provide a true variety of playing styles with Top Spin 4.
Balanced Play Styles = Balanced Gameplay
We took some time to think of ways to make all play styles equally competitive and better balanced. This resulted in Top Spin 4’s gameplay being very accessible while at the same time giving gamers a wider variety of shots and movements. The arsenal of shots at your disposal really allows you to play the game in many different ways and offers plenty of tactics to win a tennis match based upon your opponent’s key attributes and playing style. We spent months tuning and balancing the game, and have gotten the game to a place where we believe all play styles are really fun to play and that all of them are equally competitive. Of course, each of us on the team has our preference and believes they’re the Top Spin 4 master, but that’s another story…
After watching and studying thousands of matches and players, the team identified 3 well known play styles we wanted to showcase in the game: baseline offense, baseline defense, and serve-and-volley. These are archetypes of players you can play (and even create, thanks to the brand new player development system which we will explain in a future Dev Diary). Each of these play styles has its unique strengths and weaknesses and is better suited for some specific shots or movements. Let’s get into them.
Read the rest of Top Spin 4 Dev Diary #3
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