Top Spin 3 Interview

Some say tennis games always look like crap. PAM Development’s Francois Giuntini, creative director on Top Spin 3, the latest in the acclaimed tennis series, says that’s all about to change. VideoGamer.com caught up with him at the posh Queen’s Club in London to talk about the “60fps guaranteed” PS3 version and why Top Spin 4 is already in the works. It’s all in the wrist, as they say…

VideoGamer.com: Tell us about your role in the development of the game.

Francois Giuntini: I’m creative director at PAM Development. I’m supervising every aspect of the game design. I’m leading the designers and defining the major elements of the game modes, the gameplay and all the content of the game. I’m also supervising all the asset creation. I’m not necessarily art director but kind of that as well – defining the roads to follow in terms of visuals, visual quality, visual features that have to be implemented in the game.

VideoGamer.com: So, many of the changes will have been implemented by yourself?

FG: Some are my ideas. Some are others’. It’s team work. I’m mostly supervising things and making sure that those things happen. There are several of us making the decisions, defining the routes we’re going to follow. I’m just making sure that concerning design and asset creation and content we follow those routes properly.

VideoGamer.com: What percent complete is the version we have seen?

FG: It’s very hard to say, because, to be honest, it’s very hard in terms of sports games to define that. With a platform game sometimes you can say I have one level complete, all my controls are here and I shall do 20 levels, so, it’s easy to say it’s five per cent done. But in a sports game like this one you are done only when everything is available. So you can have a match going, you have most of the environments done, a lot of the players are done. If I was to try and guess I would say we are 80-ish.

VideoGamer.com: How long has it been in development for?

FG: Roughly 16 -18 months. In between Top Spin 2 and this one we were already starting while finishing the previous one so it’s a bit more.

VideoGamer.com: So you are starting Top Spin 4 while you’re finishing this?

FG: We are already starting to think about Top Spin 4.

VideoGamer.com: How does that work?

FG: There are things that you know that you want that you won’t be able to get.

VideoGamer.com: Like what?

FG: Like I’m not going to tell you right now! You’re going to have to wait for the next one. We always want more for our project. Always. However pleased we are when it goes out, when we launch it, there’s always somewhere a bit of frustration because you know there’s more to it, there’s more coming and it’s not there yet. So that’s going to happen this time again, and I know that.

VideoGamer.com: When will Top Spin 3 be coming out?

FG: Early 2008 on four consoles. PS3, 360, Wii and DS.

VideoGamer.com: Simultaneous release?

FG: Yes.

VideoGamer.com: What version of the game is performing the best?

FG: To be honest we are more comfortable working on the 360 because we’ve always worked on the 360 since the beginning as we were a launch title. So we’ve got huge experience with this machine. But what we’re doing for the PS3 is we’re not doing a port. We’re actually developing both projects simultaneously in parallel because we didn’t want to jeopardise anything and we wanted to make sure.

We’ve had a little deception with some titles that have been released recently, especially sports titles that wouldn’t run at 60fps on the PS3, and that is a nightmare. That’s something that we really don’t want for our game. As of right now we don’t plan on compromising anything, but if it ever comes to that point and we have to compromise something we’ll do it to make sure that we’re going to run at 60fps on every platform.

I’m not saying we’re going to compromise because so far so good. But if it comes to that the one thing I can guarantee is that it’s going to run at 60fps on every platform.

VideoGamer.com: Is it difficult as a developer to do multi platform?

FG: It is extremely difficult. First because you have to split your energy among different media and that’s tricky. For 360 and PS3 there’s a lot that can be shared because their capacity is roughly the same. Just roughly. But if you go to the Wii you have to redesign things entirely. For the DS as well. That’s dedicated teams and obviously the more you have the more difficult it is to manage.

VideoGamer.com: More money as well.

FG: It costs more money but we expect we’re going to sell more! But it’s tricky. It’s difficult.

VideoGamer.com: Is the game pushing the 360 or PS3 hardware?

FG: Yes it is. It’s difficult to say in proper terms. We can’t say we’re reaching the limit of the hardware. That would be untrue. I don’t believe anybody is going to reach the limit of any console at any time. It’s just impossible. There’s always different ways to approach things, to optimise, to make things smoother. There’s always ways. And we find new ways every day actually, but it’s getting difficult. It’s getting tough. We now have to be really clever and use tricks to make everything work together. So that’s a good sign that we’re reaching the point where it’s getting tricky.

VideoGamer.com: Do you think there’s still a lot of potential for the PS3?

FG: Definitely. It’s quite new and we’ve already achieved good results with it. But it’s so new and it’s so different, my guys, the developers and developers we talk with, they’re all excited about this new architecture because it opens up new routes to new things. But at the same time it comes with some limitations that we don’t have on other platforms that are difficult. Now you have to change your mind because you’re used to doing things this way. These things were easy to do and now these things are hard. Especially physics, AI, etc, it’s becoming easier to have more of it. So, somewhere in your mind you have to shift the way you think and the way you implement things but, yeah, I strongly believe the PS3 is a really, really powerful machine.

VideoGamer.com: Thanks for your time.