When a game isn?t exactly the way we want it to be, we often accuse everyone and everything for weakening our gaming experience. We usually do not stop and think about what it actually takes to work on a video game year round, especially one that is expected to be a fan favorite every year and relied on to be the bread-winner for a huge corporation. The Madden series is as anticipated as Halo every year; imagine having that pressure on your back as you?re making the newest installment of your favorite game.

Matt Frederick is an Assistant Producer at Tiburon, and his story is one of humble beginnings in doing exactly what he wants to do for a living. These guys, the producers, are who we envy and criticize the most because we don?t have their jobs. We feel it is okay to be hard on these guys, because in our minds we could do better. That is simply not the case. Matt and his associates are doing what they love and take pride in what they do, but make no mistake: they know their stuff. The Madden team wouldn?t be working if they didn?t know what they were talking about.

The inspiring and surprising thing about all the employees who work at Tiburon is that they are so humble about the great things that they do year-in and year-out. They speak to you one on one and talk to you, not at you. During my stay in Orlando, the company that could easily sit back and rack up dollars and cents with its flagship franchise was in a full state of blue-collar work. Seriously, picture it; Madden is a GTA every single year. How?s that for pressure? Here is the third installment in the ?Day in the Life? series.

M: What did you do before Tiburon?
MF: I did several things?before, I was shining shoes at a golf course and one of the guys that worked there set up an interview for a tester job. So I came down the next day and dropped off my application and got a job with Madden ?03. Worked my way up and moved to commentary for Madden and NCAA ?04 and went to like assistant gameplay Madden ?05 and Madden ?06.

M: Ok, so that?s what you?re doing now--describe what it is that you do.
MF: Depends on what time of the year it is. A lot of the time is actually spent on the game. Depends if we are working on the new game. We just finished ?06?it?s a lot of in-game sitting with the programmer, telling how the new features should work, how the new ?Truck Stick? should work, fine-tuning it. Just playtests and then trying it out; first it?s impossible, then it?s too easy. So I sit with the programmers a lot, tune and a lot of computer stuff -- not really programming, well, just a little bit. I have no computer background at all; they teach you all that stuff here.

M: What type of tools do you use here?
MF: For my job it?s Excel, for spreadsheets to help determine what plays or what animations happen post-play. If T.O. scores a touchdown against the Ravens, I have that he does the Ray Lewis Dance. Or Moss has a specific animation that nobody else does. And it?s in the spreadsheet, so a lot of Excel and Word. A lot of designs, so that?s what we?re working on right now for ?07 -- so tell them to start on those wishlists; we are already working on ?07.

M: So how does that work? You?ve seen the websites like MaddenWishlist.com, so where do you get your ideas from? Is it a mixture of all responses?
MF: We try to get as many different perspectives as possible. We talk to our guys, ask what they like and what they don?t. We ask the college guys and message boards what they play, and what they want. It all comes together to try and please as many people as possible. You can?t really please everybody with everything, so you have to try and please as many as possible ? you use all these ideas and perspectives. We also watch a lot of football and sometimes see a play and say, ?we don?t have that animation,? so we try and put that in.

M: So let?s say you have a thousand ideas -- how do you narrow it down? How does that process work? Is it like a group, or does it come down to the executive producer and he has final say?
MF: A lot of it at the beginning, we start with what we actually want to put in the game. We cut a lot of stuff because we just don?t have enough time. We?ve thought of so many different things. We are putting stuff in now that we probably thought of in ?04. So we try to narrow it down and get into a room with five or six of us as decision makers. Then we get it to the marketing guys to see if they like it. If they don?t like it, we go back to the drawing board. Also, artists, engineers, everyone just brainstorms together. One day on franchise, one day on new features, stuff like that. Then the executive producer takes a very early version of the game and takes it out to the CEOs in California and they sign off on it.

M: How do you balance out the marketing side of it? You hear a lot of people say, ?ah, it?s too arcade-y, or hey, we don?t want it to be too hard.? The hardcore guys are the most vocal, versus the mainstream that want an easier game, who are the 90% who actually buy it. How do you work that out?
MF: It?s a very difficult thing to do. The first thing we do is we definitely make sure the skill levels are appropriate. So when you turn on pro we need to make sure you have success on pro. The hardcore guys we don?t worry about, because we know they?ll change the default setting. But then we need to make sure that All-Madden is not too easy or hard, yet fun and realistic. It should be realistic, but we want it to be a fun game as well. So we always have a base that we go off of, because everyone is used to how Madden is. So we need to have a balance.

M: Well, the new Vision and Precision changes the game pretty drastically. How did you guys come up with that? Is that part of your brainstorm process or something that you wanted to do in a previous version?
MF: The Vision and Precision was actually brand new this year. Marketers were looking for that big threat and got all the best gameplay guys, and that?s what we came up with. We just wanted the best quarterbacks to have the advantage. Like earlier, Manning had 99 awareness, but it never really did anything for me. So now he has 99 awareness, and he?s the best quarterback in the game. The Truck Stick wasn?t difficult to come up with after the Hit Stick. It?s a lot of fun -- that?s probably my favorite behind Vision. It?s a lot of fun to do with Bettis or Jamal Lewis. We?re constantly trying to come up with something for everyone to use. Next, we may have something for the smaller guys.

M: What advice would you give people who are interested at working at Tiburon?
MF: I?d say it depends on where you live. If you?re willing to sacrifice, or if you?re really hardcore and if that?s what you really want to do -- I mean, I really didn?t do a whole lot but shine shoes and play Madden and now I do nothing but play Madden, so if you really want to do it, you could come here [Tiburon]. We hire testers every year and start from there. If you want to be a producer, starting as a tester is great because it lets you see what the producers deal with. What bugs you can and can?t fix, and which are risky. It?s a good route to go through. If you wanted to write programming or be an artist, I would definitely go to school though.

M: You say it?s a lot of fun to work around here, obviously because you?re around your favorite game. But what else do you guys do for fun? What?s it like working at Tiburon?
MF: It?s fun everyday -- you want to get up and go to work. Everyday we do things with our in-house multi-user franchise. Also, the fact that I get a lot of access to talk to NFL players like Vick in ?04 and others -- that we even have the ability to talk to these guys is just so much fun. I went down to the QB Challenge and I got to sit with all these guys for like 10-15 minutes and ask them all football questions. Like ?what are you looking at pre-snap,? or ?who are you checking off to?? Joe Horn, Joey Harrington, Chad Johnson, Matt Hasselbeck, Leftwich, Roethlisberger, Delhomme and Torry Holt. And just last week I was in New York for the Madden preview.

M: How does it make you feel when players try to get in your brain to see what you?re doing to make your favorite game?
MF: It?s pretty flattering trying to find stuff out from me. They want to know some glitches and I?m like ?well, hopefully there?s no glitches this year? (Laughs).

M: Last question--what?s your favorite version of Madden?
MF: (Laughs) This one!

If you want to send Marcus some feedback on this article or have a community question, email him at footballcommunity@ea.com.

M: Audrey, how did you first get into the industry?

A: [Laughs] I fell into it actually, I didn?t study it, but went to college for communication and went into television and film production and was writing for a TV show. After 9/11, a lot of the funding went away for small production companies I was working for in Orlando at the time. And so I was kinda bouncing around, freelancing and looking for full-time production, and I moved out here and have been here for seven years. And I just gave them my resume because a lot of their recruiting is through people that work here. So I said, ?I don?t know what?s going to happen, I?m a writer, I know football but I don?t know anything about coding or video games, who knows?? Just kind of wanted any job at the time but just found a place here.

M: So you?re an assistant or associate producer now?

A: Assistant.

M: So what do you do on a daily basis? Do you work on Madden?

A: Yeah, they hired me mainly to do work on Madden, although I do write some commentary for NCAA too. It?s two different things when you?re writing for John and Al and you?re writing for Nessler and those guys because it?s a different style [of announcing], as you know. So I did write some stuff for NCAA 2005 and about half of Madden 2005 and the radio show that was put in for franchise is basically my writing. It?s basically anything you hear, dialogue-wise in the game. The P.A. guy, Tony Bruno and of course John and Al and I continued with Madden 06. A lot of Madden 06 is my writing. So you just design new concepts on what you want to hear, what?s maybe missing dialogue feature-wise, maybe listen to some games. Kind of what John and Al maybe like to talk about, so you study their games. And then just write and write for months and months [laughs]. And record.

M: When you record, do you transcribe out what they say or?

A: Yeah they change some things, skip some sections. Like John, he?s a little more difficult to write for. Kind of have to get into his vernacular and if you don?t, he?ll either skip it or maybe he doesn?t like a section -- like he doesn?t like to talk about going for it on fourth down or onside kicks. Less conservative-type plays, he basically says ?Well, I?m not going to read that.? So there is some time we spend going through what they record and some sections that are skipped? but especially for new features that the Madden team wants to implement, like this year it was the Vision and Precision. So we had phone calls with John before we started writing anything; namely, before we started designing, because we wanted his feedback on which quarterbacks had the best vision, and what kind of skills you need to be a leader as a quarterback. So we design and write based on that. You get some feedback on the phone calls, so you record and then Al wants to change things, so he just does it in his own vernacular.

M: Do they ever come up with their own scripts and say ?Hey we want to put this in the game??

A: [Smiles] No.

M: When you?re doing the scripts, how do you formulate what you want in there? Do you have creative control?

A: Pretty much, you really have to know football. It?s just all about studying game film too. Some of it is easy stuff that we just never had in the game before, and of course it takes just more than us to put it in -- we have code. Maybe this feature was in the game, but code doesn?t have time to do it, so it gets cut. We?ll come up with like 30 different features, but half get cut. It?s all based on how many hours they have. Commentary features tend to get scaled back a little more than the gameplay features because that is what people focus on the most; when I read message boards, they pinpoint specific lines that they hear all the time. But you can?t possibly generate fresh commentary every year because there?s thousands and thousands of lines every year in the game. So some kind of have to stay when there are generic situations like a three-yard run you?re going to get all the time. But maybe we?ve come up with something new for like 50-yard touchdown passes to keep it fresh and give them something new.

M: So you talked about the coders and stuff. Do you work as a team or individually?

A: We have to work as a team; on our end, we write and record and get it into the game and put a placeholder in so the testers have something to test with because Al and John don?t get in to record till after the season ends. They don?t get in till February, right after the Pro Bowl. And John might record till May. So we need something in there to test. Like my voice will be in the game at first for the new features, and we?ll tell the testers what?s new in the game. So we work with the testing department closely and then the programmers with the commentary.

M: You talked a lot about how you started. What kind of advice would you give, especially to a woman trying to get into production? How would they start, and what would they do to get into the industry?

A: I don?t know that too many people don?t have a degree because we get these e-mails all the time that says ?new hires? and it says they are bringing in ten to twelve people. And a lot are just coming from computer engineering or design schools. I think you kind of have to have a degree to get into that. As far as the production side, I?m the only female actually in production here. And I guess it?s because we work on sports games.

M: Do you use any special tools for your job or is it mostly Word or Excel?

A: Yeah, we actually write all our scripts in Excel. And we have a template that we incorporate to the Macintosh.

M: What?s on the Macintosh that you need?

A: It?s a program called ?S.E.D,? Speech Event Designer, that allows us to take recording files and make sentences [laughs]. Kind of complicated.

M: What do you do to have fun here?

A: There?s a lot of stuff to do here in Orlando, so I like to do outdoor stuff and play racquetball. We all play basketball or racquetball. I love going to the movies.

M: So are you a big football fan?

A: I actually am and I miss it.

M: What?s your favorite team?

A: The Miami Dolphins -- I?m a big Dan Marino fan. I?m actually going to see him get inducted into the Hall of Fame in August.

M: Are you from this area originally?

A: Um, around Clearwater.

M: Favorite version of Madden?

A: What I worked on first, 2005. I have to admit, I don?t play videogames a lot but sports videogames are what I like. I play Madden all the time!

M: You say you read the message boards -- is there anything you?d like to say to the community?

A: It?s tough to say because they try to dissect everything. I think that the more you write, the more complicated the code gets. It?s great because when I?m playing someone, they hear a new line and are all excited but we hear a lot of people say ?oh, it?s the same lines.? Well, there are 30,000 lines in the game -- the same ones just stick out in your mind because of those generic situations that happen all the time.

Be sure to listen for the new commentary Audrey added in Madden NFL 2006!

I also wanted to say thanks for the kind e-mails you sent after the first entry into the new community blog. Here are some of the e-mails I?ve chosen to answer. As usual, I can?t get to every one, but please keep sending them!

The first is from Camille A, who writes,

?Hello, Congratulations for your job ! First I would like to say that I am French and to me US football is THE football sport, soccer isn't, it's...soccer. I love that sport, I used to practice and I even was in the national French team! But I had to stop practice because of an arm injury (I was quarterback). But the passion and the love of football is still there however, and will always be. Playing Madden is a good way to express and share my passion of football, and I have a question about Madden NFL 06, and the Madden series in general. I own a PS2 and an Xbox, and I would like to know on which platform should I get the game: in other words on which platform, between the PS2 and the Xbox, is the best Madden NFL Football game? Thank you for reading this mail and keep up the good job!

Football rules, worldwide

Camille, a French fan?

Thanks so much, Camille, I?m glad that you have such a devoted passion for American football. As for your question about which console to get the game for, you really can?t go wrong with either version but in my opinion, I?m going with the Xbox version this year. For one, the Madden Challenge is on the Xbox and we all need to start practicing. Secondly, the load times are much faster on the Xbox version. When simulating a franchise, the Xbox version is faster as well. Honestly though, whichever console you?re used to playing Madden on is the one I would pick. Why try to learn a new control scheme if you don?t have to?

The next e-mail is from Jorge A, who writes:

?Dear Marcus,
I consider myself an above average player, but the one that let me down last year when playing online was that "nano blitz" or the many that were out there. I didn?t like that blitz at all, the players I encountered that managed to defeat me, all used these blitzing schemes. Will there be any nano blitzing in the 06 game? Thanks.?

Jorge,

Great question, and I know it has been a problem in the past. But fortunately there is a new feature in Madden NFL 2006 that takes away this frustrating tactic. Offensive line slide protection is now in the game. For example, if your opponent is putting together some crazy blitz up the middle, simply slide protect your offensive line in so they can clog up the middle for you. Hope this helps, and make sure to watch the tutorial in the game when you open up your copy!

Again, thanks to all who sent e-mails. I will read new ones each week! Look for the third segment in the ?Day in the Life? piece real soon.

I was recently given the opportunity to visit Tiburon studios in Orlando, Florida, where the Madden NFL series is created annually; while there, I formed an idea of what it?s like to be a Tiburon employee, responsible for making the game we all love so much. Skeptics say that these guys aren?t "real" football fans, or that they need to improve what they do. After the visit, I can proudly say that those skeptics are very wrong. Everything in the studio just reeks of the sport. There are helmets representing every single franchise lacing across the hallways, and cubicles are doused in memorabilia of favorite teams; to question their football integrity is absurd.

What makes a great football player? Not a good player, but a great one; great players can produce time and time again over a long period. An Emmitt Smith or Jerry Rice, guys whose time in the game never seems to grow thin. Is it the dedication? The sheer commitment these athletes show on a daily basis to their sport? How about the training -- to go above and beyond what is generally asked of a player when he enters the NFL? Or is it simply their heart, something inside that makes them rise above the other superstars to cement themselves in football folklore? One could make a case for all of these attributes.

The same could be said for the Madden NFL development and production teams. How could video game guys compare to NFL athletes? Well, we covered dedication. Would being up 12-15 hours a day, working to make sure that every rating for every player's attributes are tweaked so precisely that it becomes a science, be considered dedication? Don?t forget about the 10-plus hours a day testers played Madden NFL 2003 to provide a solid foundation for the millions that play online today. Wouldn?t that fall under training? And then there?s the heart factor, which is so hard to measure. In the Madden developer?s case, it is so clear that these guys love what they are doing. And the fact that Madden improves every year while also never failing to one-up the competition proves it.

Starting with today?s entry, and spanning over the next couple of weeks, you will meet the faces behind the muscle of the Madden machine. I sat down to interview men and women at Tiburon that, when grouped together, cover every yard and finger tape of the Madden game. First up: the most popular guys -- whose names you don?t know -- in the business. Meet Donny Moore and Cedric Carty aka, "The Roster Guys." Player ratings, depth charts, player equipment and uniforms are all in their territory, as these men eat breathe and live football?s details. After reading the interview, you?ll know why there is another rating to worry about other than speed in Madden NFL 2006.

M: How did you start in the industry? And how did you get started at Tiburon?

D: I competed in a UCF (University of Central Florida) NCAA Football 2000 tournament at the school while going to lunch and I ended up winning it. And while I there were little breaks in between games, I went up to some of the producers and asked "Hey why don?t you do this?" Then they said, "Hey, you?d be a great tester," so they gave me a testing summer job.

M: So you started as a tester? Where did you go from there?

D: I started as a tester, then they offered me a full-time job as a lead tester for NCAA 2001, then I went to Madden production for Madden 2002. Then I went into rosters and ratings.

M: How about you, Cedric?

C: I actually started out in the California headquarters in tech support. I started taking phone calls on the PC products trying to solve their problems. From that, I went into the testing department because we sort of swapped personnel. So I did testing for a couple versions of Madden. Back then we had Madden production out in California but they decided to move everything down here. I got a job and then got into Madden production.

M: What year was that?

C: Um, I think 1999.

M: So you came out to production here and immediately went into rosters and ratings?

C: No I first worked on Madden for the PS2, Madden 2001, and they started to notice how I had a lot of knowledge of the players. Basically at the time, we had done roster externally and they weren?t really happy with what they were getting so they decided to move rosters internal.

M: So, for people who don?t know what?s involved in making rosters, can you describe your job?

D: Pretty much to keep up with what?s going on. Each day, probably three times a day we go to the websites we use to track everything that?s happening in the NFL. All the college football movement--if a player transfers schools or if a NFL player gets traded, just so much of soaking up information, because that?s how we come up with all of our numbers. We combine all the information, from expert sources to scouting and coach sources and even to player sources.

M: Does it change every year, especially with the new Vision and Precision? Do you change the way you track ratings each year?

C: It changes slightly. We tune the ratings based on the angle the new game is taking.

M: Do you guys ever meet an NFL player that complains about his ratings to you?

C: We?ve met them, we?ve had phone calls, e-mails from them. Usually they complain about their speed. But we did have Mark Clayton from the Ravens come in and complain about his tackling rating, which took us by surprise.

M: This year with the new "Truck Stick" and the "Vision Passing," did you guys kind of concentrate more on those ratings?

D: The awareness was a big one because it is the single determining factor for the size of the cone, which is great because the awareness rating before really didn?t mean much because you, the user, were controlling the quarterback. Now it?s going to have a huge effect. It was just difficult because the awareness rating encompasses so many things. The way the quarterback can look off DBs, or knowing the situations surrounding him. There?s just so much stuff that?s involved in that one awareness rating, so we kept going back and forth with the production team.

M: What do you do for a guy like Alex Smith, the number one draft pick? How do you rate that guy since he has no NFL experience?

D: What we do with rookies is we try to keep their numbers comparable to the last two or three years of rookies. The top quarterback will come in at about this rank, between a 78 and 82 and then based on the feedback from scouts we put those numbers in.

M: Cedric, do you guys work as a team or individually?

C: No, we definitely work as a team. We gather all of this information together and work with the database. And what we do towards the end of the cycle is have meetings with the production team. And basically get their feedback.

M: Do you guys do a lot of iterations throughout the year? Do you just sit and work on ratings all year?

C&D: Yeah!
D: We could be adjusting right now.
C: We were adjusting just yesterday.

M: As far as gameplay is concerned, what is the most important rating in Madden or NCAA?

D: As far as gameplay? I would have to say speed.

M: We?ll do a little shift here. What kind of games do you guys play?

C: I play first-person shooters like Half Life 2.
D: I?m not quit as big of a gamer. I stick within the sports. I play Tiger Woods, NBA Live.

M: What do you guys do for fun here at Tiburon?

D: We actually have these multi-user dynasties and franchises here in the office, where we will simulate the computer games and pass the memory card around. It?s real fun when we have everyone in one room doing the draft. We do, like, 7 seasons of this.

M: Do you guys play any fantasy football?

D: (Laughs) I?m actually really addicted to fantasy football. It actually helps us when compiling our information.

M: What tools do you guys use on your computer for your job?

C: It?s mostly Microsoft Excel. We have a database and transfer to that.

M: Well, what?s one thing that you guys would like to say to the community?

C: (Sighs) It?s a lot of work, it?s not as easy as some people think it is.
D: Guys within the community have jobs with us and when they first come in, they see the work that goes in and they take a deep breath. I?m trying to replicate the NFL. If you?re playing a game, I want to see the Patriots be dominant. We are not trying to make our teams better?I?m a Bucs fan, but I could care less how good they are in the game.

M: What advice would you give guys who want to get into EA or the game industry?

D: I?d say, know your NFL, know your sport like an expert. Know other games as well. Being able to criticize is easy but taking away good things is the key.

M: Alright guys, thanks a lot for your time, but let me end up with one last question. What is your favorite version of Madden?

C&D: (Laughs) This one!

Keep an eye on this section as we add more blog authors and throw in a contest or two!

Nathan
EA SPORTS Football Community Manager

Hello all,

I wanted to take the time to introduce myself because you will be seeing a lot more of me over the next year. My name is Marcus Stephenson and I was recently brought on board by EA SPORTS to give all of you Madden and NCAA junkies the inside scoop on what is going down in the EA SPORTS football community. This includes information on the latest tournaments, online contests, game news, fan sites and just football in general.

I come from the masses who hail from the various fan sites on the net. MaddenMania.com is my home, but I have closely worked with some of the other dedicated fan sites that give all fans their Madden and NCAA fix every day. I also work for VG Sports, the virtual coaches that teach everyone the ins and outs of the gaming gridiron. Basically, my resume includes the words ?Madden? and ?NCAA Football? in every other sentence.

One topic you can expect from me in the near future is ?A Day in the Life at Tiburon,? an in-depth look at what it?s like to work at the Orlando studio that created and still makes the #1 football games in the world. This is an effort to share the back-stories of the individuals who work at the sports gaming giant. I?ll also do interviews with other EA employees who are responsible for making your football experience the best in the business. I will take the stance of the community. I won?t necessarily agree, but I will address the argument at hand and provide reasons for my opinion on the matter. I?ll tell you the truth and address what you, the community, want to talk about.

The Madden and NCAA Football communities are growing at an astronomical rate. EA SPORTS has acknowledged this and will let its thousands of voices be heard. There is a lot already going on, including some things which you don?t even know about. That?s what I?m here for. Consider this your everyday hub for Madden and NCAA information. ?Where can I find the best sliders for my Madden game?? I?ll point you in the right direction. ?Are there any league openings for NCAA football?? I?ll show you where to go. ?How do I beat a Cover 2 defense in the red zone?? Again, you will know where to go in the community after reading this blog. So thank you for letting me into your web space, and get ready to play some football!

Marcus

Shutting down?

If you want to send Marcus some feedback on this article or have a community question, email him at footballcommunity@ea.com.