Rob Jones, Sr. Producer At Visual Concepts Breaks Down NBA 2K15

Last year NBA 2K14 was one of the more ambitious sports offerings introducing new modes like MyGM and a tricked out MyCareer on next gen. While the blueprint was in place not everything went flawlessly as the title was severely hampered by less than stellar online functionality. Now with a full year under their belt 2K Sports is going hard in the paint with their latest offering in NBA 2K15. XXL caught up with Rob Jones, Sr. Producer at Visual Concepts at a recent demo event and he chopped it up about the new things we can expect to see from the roundball title this year.—written by DJRhude (@DJRhude)

XXL: What can we expect to see in MyCareer in NBA 2K15?
Rob: With MyCareer we scrapped everything except the concept of the story. This year we have a brand new story which is more focused on the NBA which means you'll have a mentor on your team teaching you the ropes as your career progresses. You'll start out as an undrafted rookie working on a 10 day contract trying to stick with a team. Coaches will be giving you feedback as far as their expectations and things that you have to do. The story is less linear than it was last year and there will be two different voices you can choose from.  Our goal this year was to teach the user the fundamentals of basketball and made it less about the agent or a particular rival.

XXL: You're also introducing a new mode called MyLeague, can you expand on that some?
Rob: MyLeague is essentially a customizable single season or franchise where the user can control anywhere from one and thirty teams. That includes being able to set up the league anyway you want, whether it's using the old time teams or the Euroleague teams everything will be up to you.

XXL: Is it safe to say MyLeague essentially is a return to the old Association mode? I know many people were disappointed that the Association mode wasn't in NBA 2K14.
Rob: That's right, except MyLeague is taking it to the next level and you can do so much more. You can set how long the season is, set the difficulty and frequency of trades that happen within your league, control the frequency of injuries, set the player progression rate and a lot more.

XXL: Will all these factors be determined by a set of sliders and can we take MyLeague online as well?
Rob: All sliders, fully customizable for the user or a group of users to create their own story. You can run up to 80 seasons and it's offline only.

XXL: How has MyGM been built upon this year?
Rob: When we created MyGM last year we were trying to reinvent how you play manager mode by introducing the RPG elements. As you know the owners have a set of goals you have to try to meet as GM of a particular team. The cool thing about it this year is the owner's traits will change based on how well your team is doing. For example if your team was in rebuilding mode had a bad season one year but the following year you made a few trades that brought in some impact players, the owner's expectations will change expecting you to win now. So the traits are dynamic this year and you'll also see owners sell their teams meaning you could get a new owner at any point during the career.

XXL: How was prospect scouting handled this year in MyGM?
Rob: The cool thing about prospect scouting this year is, while you're playing we're simulating the full college season in the background. This means throughout your entire NBA season you're being fed information about the prospective college players. As the GM of your team this is very important to pay attention to as you will want to be prepared when the draft comes around. The information will be fed through social media so you will see little storylines about players that helps you keep tabs on how well they're doing.

XXL: How will the new injury mechanic work?
Rob: We used to rate players on a single injury level so if you had a player with a 15 injury rating you got hurt more often than a player with a 99 injury rating who almost never got hurt. Now we're rating players on sixteen different body parts. Take a guy like Steph Curry, his ankle durability will be lower than the rest of his body parts so that area will be more prone to injury. When you are simulating, we are now implementing memory of a guy so if he sustains a knee injury his durability in that area decreases. We're making the game much more realistic from a injury standpoint than ever before.

XXL: How effective will promises be in MyGM in NBA 2K15?
Rob: Last year when a player came in to talk to you about something and let's say you promised them more minutes, you really didn't have to follow through on that promise. Now if you don't follow through on it, the negative affect will be much more severe. So you can no longer promise something without actually delivering on it.

NBA 2K15 boasts over 5000 new animations what kind of possibilities will that open up as far as how we'll see players behave on the court?
Rob: We spent the entire cycle working on the animations and how intelligently the player A.I. will respond to situations on the court. You'll also notice how more fluid the player movement is on the court as opposed to the sprint and stop movement that you saw in NBA 2K14. As a result of this you will see better rotations on defense and less stagnation in the offense. Even if you don't call a set play, you'll see players constantly cutting, moving to the basket and setting screens. Each team will have its own unique way of interpreting how to behave on the floor when the user doesn't call a play. When you use a team like the San Antonio Spurs they will always stay in their swing offense.

The additions of Shaq and Ernie Johnson were well received when the trailers dropped. Talk a little bit about what their roles will be in NBA 2K15.
Rob: For the pregame show we captured over 350 scenes with Shaq and Ernie telling stories and breaking down what happens on the court. They will be visible in every game you play including MyGM and MyLeague games.

XXL: If you're playing a franchise game will Ernie and Shaq make references to things going on within your season?
Rob: Yes. The game keeps track of what you've seen and it analyzes the stats and they will make the appropriate commentary as your season goes along.

XXL: It's dope that Kevin Durant was selected as the cover athlete, did he offer any input toward the game?
Rob: Usually these guys are so honed in on their craft that you don't get guys that play a ton of video games, but KD spends a lot of his chill time playing our game specifically. I mean he played through MyCareer and MyGM which is amazing and he has pointed out things, I'll give you an example. About a month ago him and Steph Curry were doing an interview and he told Steph, "I can't use you in the game because you have this hitch in your shot. I can't get it off." Steph then goes on to say he doesn't use himself in the game either because of that same reason. So when we heard about that we went back in and corrected Steph's shot.