Evo-Web Interviews FC26 Developers Andreas & Bogdan

Chris Davies

Chris Davies

Chief PESsimist
Staff
Joined
14 May 2003
Location
UK
Team
Tranmere Rovers
A new series of The Evo-Web Interviews has just launched - and episode one is a biggie... (For all previous interviews, click here!)

I hope you enjoy this exclusive interview with FC26 developers Andreas Wilsdorf and Bogdan Banasiewicz.

We discuss their favourite football games, the pursuit of realism in the new Authentic Mode, and community feedback, including the recent R1 dribbling changes.

Please leave any thoughts or questions in this thread and I'll try and get some more answers in future!

Listen or watch on Spotify here!

YouTube version:
 
Mathgamer said:
I just saw it. I even received it from Andreas; he sent me the link and asked me to share it.
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I thought he answered well and gave us good insight into who they are. PES heads from the start, I think we're in good hands if their impact can be felt all the way around.
 
stoo said:
Nice work, Chris. What was your thoughts after the answers you were given?
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They are clearly football fans, and I was a bit sad that we didn't have longer to talk because there's a lot more I'd have liked to have learnt about their personal thoughts on what they'd particularly like to evolve over the coming years.

That said, they have to be very careful not to reveal what's being worked on for the next game too specifically, and I feel quite lucky to have got the answers I got, honestly.

The fact that they use lower-rated teams when testing gameplay with each other, for example, and that they are constantly saying to each other "I saw this in a match earlier, we should integrate this into the gameplay", says a lot to me about their dedication to football.

The biggest positive for me is that they do actively browse websites like this and take feedback on board, especially if it's well-documented and well-proven (e.g. concise, which I struggle with, and with several video examples).

They care about those looking for a more realistic gameplay experience now, and EA simply didn't before. It feels like a (potential) return to the Rutter days.

I think the only negative I had really was when I asked about their approach to condensing a 90 minute match into less than 15 minutes, because I was really interested in hearing where they would prefer the shortcuts to be, and I don't think I really conveyed to Bogdan what I meant.

For example, play a PES5 match and you have a tiny number of shots per game by default, which is unrealistic (sometimes just 1-2 in a half). But the feeling of satisfaction when you score is immense.

I wanted to know, is that their preference, or is it a realistic number of shots per half (and defences being much more lax), but with shots being much harder to get on target - or is it something else. But it became more about the default match length.

Also, the answer to "will Authentic Mode always just be a tweaked version of the main game" was a bit wishy-washy if I'm being honest (i.e. "yes and no"), but again, it's hard to expect a deeper answer right now, as they may not even know it themselves!
 
Good interview. Very professional. These guys seem to care about a game that plays a more realistic representation of football. They seem a bit guarded but they only have so much control and so much they can say, especially with what I think are significant gameplay and graphical changes coming next year with the game leaving the old systems behind.
 
Hello to all friends,

What an interview. what exciting and surprising news! I can’t believe that after all these years, it finally seems like our voices are being heard by the EA FC development team. Chris Davies, I truly appreciate your efforts and dedication.

I hope that together, we can continue sending valuable feedback to the developers. I see a faint light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m hopeful for a truly realistic football simulation game in the coming years.This is our only hope.perhaps the last one.​
 
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Thanks you so much @Chris Davies for this deep interview.
Like others, it's smell like Rutter period, the best FIFA in history.

We are all footy lovers and in the last decade, playing footy games feels paintful. The passion was out micro transaction were everywhere.

Gameplay was not the focus.
I hope it's a real comeback to the basic : enjoy the game, with more simulation, less arcade feeling.
 
Hi @Chris Davies , thanks for the interview with the FC26 devs.
I find it both curious and a bit concerning that the foundation of the football simulation is based on 6-minute matches. Condensing 90 minutes into 18, 20, or even 30 minutes is one thing — but 6 minutes is something else entirely.
Maybe this is a factor we should always keep in mind when we notice certain issues, like in-game fouls.
That said, there’s clearly passion and expertise behind FC26, and it’s shaping up to be a solid product. But honestly, it would take very little to make it a much better football simulation.
 
Great interview, Chris, a very nice hour that passed really fast.. as I already said on the channel, if anything they both look receptive and good willed.

If I had to name a bit I kind of disagreed with, is when they talked about players mistake in general.. don't know if I misunderstood, but when Bogdan talked about the defensive errors he costantly saw in real life football, it sounded like he wanted to take those to justify the general dullness and inconsistency of defensive, and general formation position, while in my opinion errors should (of course) be there, but built upon a costant solid foundation of players position and movement.

That said, the fact they at least are giving importance to "us", and that they made a lot of good points during the interview, makes me regain a tiny bit of hope, now tho if they are serious about it I'd expect a way heavier step in the right direction on 27. I know that even being optimistic it will take them years and I don't pretend they go from this what we have today to the game we want, but I need to see either 1 vs 1 mechanic disappearing from authentic and teams behaving as teams, or the first touch not being the magnetic joke it is now, or inertia heavily reworked.. at least one of this things, or (to me) it would be hard to even start being hopeful.
 
Just been having a listen to it this morning, about halfway through at the moment. Kudos to you for getting these guys in an interview in the first place...now on the bit where you're discussing the long term vision of authentic mode

"A criticism I've read of the gameplay in general from career mode players, and by the way a lot of that is me, is that the physics the fundamentals are streamlined for want of a better word with the ball having no momentum, doesn't seem to run free, magnetised towards players very often, instantly controlled....we have those sliders there but it's still very often just instantly controlled by players who then move off. Do you have the freedom and resources to implement features in authentic mode that are the opposite of what would ever be present in competitive mode?"

'kinell lad, don't hold back!!! :LMAO:
 
Badger Mushroom said:
Just been having a listen to it this morning, about halfway through at the moment. Kudos to you for getting these guys in an interview in the first place...now on the bit where you're discussing the long term vision of authentic mode

"A criticism I've read of the gameplay in general from career mode players, and by the way a lot of that is me, is that the physics the fundamentals are streamlined for want of a better word with the ball having no momentum, doesn't seem to run free, magnetised towards players very often, instantly controlled....we have those sliders there but it's still very often just instantly controlled by players who then move off. Do you have the freedom and resources to implement features in authentic mode that are the opposite of what would ever be present in competitive mode?"

'kinell lad, don't hold back!!! :LMAO:
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:LOL: I knew going in just how open these guys are. I'm not sure I'd have been allowed to ask questions like that before today - Evo-Web stopped doing PES reviews quite a long time ago, and no FIFA / FC reviews either... There's a reason for that.

You'll notice they weren't really shocked by the question either and were happy to discuss everything. It feels like a new era - fingers crossed Authentic Mode goes from strength to strength.
 
Just hope these types of guys have enough sway, and don't get overruled or ignored...good to see hear their footy gaming background though. SWOS, ISS94, might have to check out Actua Soccer as I remember loving that back in the day!
 
Excellent interview. So glad you set this up and so thankful for them to share their time.

One helpful bit of context that I think we as a community overlook when we’re angry, is that it is a team. Many times you heard Andres say he’s asking Bogdan for a feature, right? In the same way that we as a community want certain changes, it is a large complex team, and the decision-making and execution process can be difficult to implement.

One reason for positivity is, they were making a clear differentiation between competitive and authentic. While Bogdan was quite cagey about whether authentic would be a separate game or not in general, it seems that the divergence between the two will continue to grow, likely to our great benefit.

Well, as a community, won’t agree on everything, there are probably several things which we do agree upon, and I wonder if we could collectively speak with one voice to suggest implemented features.

One thought I had was additional authentic only sliders or toggles. For example, a toggle, which would remove one v one defending that’s only available if authentic feature is selected. Another idea is a slider which increases risk tolerance for offense and defense. For example, in attack, how willing is your player to go out of position and bomb a run to join the attack. On the defensive side, how willing is the defender to double team, force an overload, or try to jump a passing lane to intercept the ball?

Bogdan also made an interesting reference to “composure.” Competitive players would abhor the idea, but for authentic, the accuracy of a pass or shot, regardless of controls assistance should be affected by player composure which is based on the player’s balance, pressure from defenders, and similar situational criteria which is influenced by the player’s composure stat. Lower division players will be more easily flustered.
 
Chris, one of the questions you asked, made me wonder about difficulty settings. We all generally understand what it means easier difficulty means: you will score easily and your opponent will not be very good. On higher difficulty, you’ll face a better opponent who is more difficult to score against him more likely to score on you. But what exactly does it mean in terms of gameplay? From a fundamental mechanics perspective? Does the team have more accurate shooting? Does the team make more accurate passes?

What if authentic mode did not have difficulty settings? Now I know this sounds crazy because difficulty settings are so ingrained into video games in general, but inherently changing a difficulty setting breaks the realism. If I’m on beginner, defenders will never pressure the ball and keepers never make a save. On Legendary or Ultimate, defenders are angry hornets with magnet feet, their strikers shoot rockets and their goalkeepers are Spider-Man. Neither of those is realistic. There should be one mode where the players act like real players.

Now what if this is too hard? Surely some players will not enjoy that when they dribble straight at the defense, the ball is easily taken away. Tweak the sliders. Maybe there’s a preset within authentic mode called “Casual.” Defensive pressure is very low. Shooting accuracy is high. Goalkeeper ability is low. Too easy? Then tweak to the “Hardcore” slider preset where those abilities are preset to higher values.

Instead of the difficulty setting changing player behavior (sorry @Chris Davies, no royal “u”) behind some veil, make it more transparent and tweakable within the vein of an actual football simulation.
 
sleevel said:
What if authentic mode did not have difficulty settings? Now I know this sounds crazy because difficulty settings are so ingrained into video games in general, but inherently changing a difficulty setting breaks the realism. If I’m on beginner, defenders will never pressure the ball and keepers never make a save. On Legendary or Ultimate, defenders are angry hornets with magnet feet, their strikers shoot rockets and their goalkeepers are Spider-Man. Neither of those is realistic. There should be one mode where the players act like real players.
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This is not crazy at all, I think it's genius. It's so immersion breaking when I'm playing on Legendary and a shitty team plays like a top tier european team! Doesn't mean I should beat the shitty team every single time, but they should actually make way more mistakes than a top tier team. The gap between teams should be huge, just like in real life. But, also like in real life, the underdog can stand a chance sometimes
 
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