New Screens and Q&A for NBA Street Homecourt (gamezone)

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EA has released some brand new screenshots for their upcoming next-gen entry to the NBA Street basketball franchise, NBA Street: Homecourt. Additionally, the development team have released a Q&A with Mike Young, Art Director on the game, that can be read below.

Click here to see all new NBA Street Homecourt screenshots.

Mike Young
Art Director – NBA Street Homecourt

NBA STREET Homecourt is being developed exclusively for next-gen systems – PS3 and Xbox 360. How did this change the way you approached the game?

Working on a next-gen exclusive game allowed us to go farther than we ever have before in terms of art and build on the things we did well in Street V3. Our goals were to set the bar visually for environments, to have the best player likeness in sports and to have the best lighting in sports. Because we have almost a 30 times bigger texture budget we can bring out all the micro details in each court surface. Every object casts and receives shadows. We had 5 times as many polygons to work with for courts and players. Now for the first time ever, we were able to make 360 degree courts. So now, if you are playing at Venice beach you can play on all 4 of the courts there, and you can take the camera to inches from the court with tremendous detail. If you want to read the court rules at Venice Beach – you can actually do that. You can zoom out and look from the vista of a helicopter and it still holds up. That’s really where all the extra details went.

How did you collect that level of detail and fidelity?

We tallied a lot of air miles traveling across the country over a couple of months in search of the right courts to include this year. We visited New York, LA, Baltimore, Washington, Coatesville PA, Chicago, Indiana, Philadelphia, Akron, Victoria BC, Louisville, Lexington…I think that’s about it.

What was the process like at each court you visited?

At each court, we would usually end up with 1000 reference shots, 20 minutes of video, 10 minutes of audio and interviews people and players in the area. We were trying to collect and incorporate every detail we possibly could, be it shots of someone’s painted footprints walking out of the bathroom or player information identifying them with the courts they actually play on. We looked at it from a micro level and included things like paint chips on the pavement, as well as from a macro perspective and making sure that all of the buildings surrounding the court were true to life as well.

The audio was also important to capture as it is so additive to the authenticity of the environment. That means no announcer this year and instead you will hear the real sounds that you would hear at those courts. So if there is a church bell in the court that goes off every 15 minutes – like at the Goat in New York – that’s in there.

What were the highlights of your trip?

When you are walking around these courts with video and audio equipment, people are going to take notice. We talked to a lot of people who want to know what you’re doing and they are instantly excited when they hear that the place that they play is going to be in the game. The conversations we had with the locals unearthed so many amazing stories and gave a lot of texture to the courts. When you start talking about a guy like Rip Hamilton in his hometown of Coatesville PA, people will offer stories like “I knew Rip in high school and I used to play down here with him”. Everyone had a story about what Rip meant to their community. Same thing happened when we went to Carmelo Anthony’s charity tournament in Baltimore, we went around and asked people what it meant to them that Melo comes back home every year to where it all started. These athletes are heroes to those kids and seeing that it is within the realm of possibility to excel like them is priceless. We hope that seeing their homecourt helps to keep them aspiring to their full potential.

Do you have a favorite court?

Wow – that’s actually tough. My favorite in game court is Cloverdale in Baltimore. But my favorite court in real life is Coatesville because the experience there resonated with me the most because the people were just so overwhelmingly positive about it. Even when Rip came to the studio to look at it, he kept saying how much it meant to him to see his hometown in the game. He said it gave him chills and that’s the kind of experience I had when I visited the town.

How did you choose what courts you would feature in the game?

In the past we chose courts like Venice Beach, Rucker Park, Mosswood – places almost anyone who is a basketball fan and beyond would have heard of. This year we wanted to base them around players that everyone knew – why not show where NBA players set their roots before they became stars? We want it to feel inspirational to see a guy like Carmelo Anthony who is a huge star now and see the type of neighborhood that he grew up in. If he can overcome the adversities of his hometown, than others can do it too.

What will the courts be like for the Single Player Journey? Is it modeled after a specific court?

Our hometown courts were inspired by real places from different parts of the country and will look equally impressive and photo real as the bigger more well-known courts. The focus for them was definitely quality over customization for us. We want people to look at the courts and say “That looks like a place I saw in New York, or LA or Pennsylvania.” We felt that this court is a starting point for Anywhere, USA. We want the player to feel like this could have been in my town and feel passionate about putting it on the map.