The next installment of Sega Sports' World Series Baseball is being produced by Visual Concepts, and developed by Blue Shift Inc. This upcoming version is also the first to be Xbox-exclusive. In the first installment in our series of designer diaries, Blue Shift's executive producer on the project, Troy Skinner, briefs us on various aspects of the game, most specifically its customization options, and the graphical techniques employed by the studio.

Entry #1 - 04/22/02

　　By Troy Skinner

　　Executive Producer, Blue Shift

　　WSB 2K3's self-shadowed athletes are among the best looking we've ever seen. Doing a sequel to a good game is great opportunity for a developer. It's an industry axiom that no one ever finishes a game to the degree they would like; there just comes a time when you have to ship it. The time pressures on sports titles are all the more extreme because each game is associated with a definitive season that you have to ship during.

　　There were several items we personally knew we wanted to address this year--many directly driven by customer reviews of last year's game, World Series Baseball 2K2. No one is shy about ripping your game and calling you out for the mistakes you make, which can be a painful experience if you never get the opportunity to address the problems. But that brings us back to how great it is to do a sequel!

　　Despite our shortcomings, we felt that we had a lot going for us as we prepared to make World Series Baseball: a gameplay mechanic that is fun to play and is also a detailed baseball simulation; a great-looking game with the best character models--replete with a weighted skeleton and self-shadowing--ever seen in a baseball game; a great animation system that was built in such a way that it was easy to add even more animations into the game; and exhaustively detailed stadiums that accurately reflect the shrines of our national pastime.

　　There are a few issues that customers universally called us out on. People wanted a deeper franchise mode, faster pitch speeds, more spectacular animations, and improved AI. When opinions are that universal, it is relatively easy to address the problems. In this year's version of the game, we have an incredibly deep and detailed franchise mode, faster pitch speeds, more spectacular animations, and a massively improved AI.

　　Despite the universal agreement on those subjects, in other areas we saw amazingly diverse and sometimes conflicting user critiques. That being the case, it was a major priority of ours to make our game more customizable than any other baseball game on the market. If you can't make one game that will please everyone, then make it so that almost everyone can tune the game until they find exactly the game they are looking for. In World Series Baseball 2K3, you'll be able to choose between three different batting cursor sizes, play with the strike zone to make it visible or invisible, play with or without a pitching cursor, play with three different pitch speeds, and so on.

　　The player models boast fully weighted skeletons, which makes them animate much more realistically than before. It is worth noting, as I wrap up this installment of the WSB diary, what a pleasure it is working on the Xbox. There has been a lot of attention given to how great games look on the Xbox, but the thing that really stands out to a developer is how easy it is to develop for that system. Instead of spending a lot of time wrestling with the Xbox, you quickly get down to the nuts and bolts of making games. Every system has its merits and flaws, but from my point of view, the Xbox really shines when it comes to accessibility, which leaves more time for implementing features and tuning gameplay--both things that will be addressed in the next diary.