Questions and Answers About PDC World Championship Darts 2008
WorthPlaying.com has issued a Q & A (don’t get excited Dartoid, it’s not like T and A!) column about the lastest release of the popular darts game. Simon Callaghan, from Johnny Atom Productions provides the answers…
Here are a few excerpts from the article:
Q: Has there been more input and involvement from the real-life professionals over last year?s version, and what has been their main contribution to the game?
SC: We had a great amount of access to the pros at events this time round. The success of the last game and the glowing accolades it received, meant that the players were happier to find windows in their very busy schedules to ensure we received all the photo and video reference we needed. All the players are fully behind the game and personally want to make sure they look as good as possible in game, so it their involvement has been greatly appreciated. The addition of mocap animation to PDC 2008 also allowed us to achieve a level of realism far beyond what we had achieved before in showing the players real life movements and actions.
Q: An accurate physics model of the darts while they are in flight was something that wasn?t present in ?PDC World Championship Darts? but has been introduced for PDC World Championship Darts 2008. Can you briefly explain the process of how this was implemented and the effect this has on the game?
SC: We were put in touch with a guy who makes rockets for a living, who also happens to be an avid darts fan. He really helped our tech guys get an understanding of the forces in play on a dart in flight and allowed us to create the most realistic system created so far. The darts physics deals with the darts path through the air and also as a resting body, meaning that each darts position can influence others allowing for advanced techniques such as under and overstack, and typical reactions like flights being knocked off and collision with the wire on the board. All this makes for a much more realistic simulation of darts, while careful balancing has ensured that we don?t loose sight of the ?game? element.
Q: A large part of the fun of ?PDC World Championship Darts? was darts commentator Sid Waddell?s hilarious and off-the-wall witticisms. Has Sid returned for commentating duties on this year?s game and if so can you briefly explain the procedure from script to recording to editing to implementation. Does Sid ad lib at all or is everything scripted for him?
SC: Sid did indeed return to provide the commentary on the 2008 game. He came back with a full range of feedback base don comments from fans of his and the previous game. What was required were more ?Siddisms? such as ?there?s only one word for that ? magic darts? etc, the bits only sid can write. The previous game had four pages of script as we needed the responses to be as general as possible.
The success of the first game meant we could up this to over 100 pages of commentary to cater for almost every unique situation, from simple interesting facts about the players, to specific such as missing the last dart of a nine dart checkout, or failing to get a required double. Sid wrote all the script himself, and even managed to improvise a huge selection of fantastic lines around the framework required. Sid is a professional with many years in the business, so was able to rewrite any of the cue?s which didn?t work and also deal with the issues surrounding having both a male and a female player. The voice over from Sid really does lift the game to a whole new level and creates a fantastic atmosphere.
The result is a much more interesting, realistic and altogether more humorous game.
For all of the questions and answers, please visit WorthPlaying.com.
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