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FirstCuts: ‘Prizefighter’ Lets You Fight Classics

Jun 9, 2008, 7:20 PM UTC

â†µBonus! We’ve got a surprise fourth installment in our developer blog series from the folks at Venom Games in anticipation of Don King Presents: Prizefighter, which comes out June 10. Visit the FirstCuts archive to see the previous three instalments from the Prizefighter developers. Also, be sure to check back tomorrow for a special TSB guest.â†µ

â†µâ†µToday we will talk a little about the Classic Fights feature in Prizefighter.â†µ

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â†µâ†µThe player takes part in a selection of Classic Fights during the career mode, intended to increase his depth of knowledge and respect for the history of the sport. â†µ

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â†µWe chose a selection of fights from over the past 70 years that are not only exciting to take part in, but also present a different set of challenges to the player. These challenges may involve surviving the round, outscoring your opponent or putting the other guy down, and are based on the real-life events of the fight in question. This gives the player a chance to relive, or rewrite history -- as we don’t always put the player in the real life winner’s shoes! The challenges really are a step up in difficulty and put the player in some pretty tough situations, as we wanted to really put their skills to the test and see if they have what it takes to take down some of the biggest names in the business.â†µ

â†µâ†µA few examples of the classic fights featured:â†µ

â†µâ†µBraddock vs. Baer, 1935 -- The epic 15 round classic.â†µ

â†µâ†µMoore vs. Marciano, 1955 -- Knockouts aplenty in this brutal fightâ†µ

â†µâ†µEubank vs. Benn, 1993 -- One of the most intense and bloody battles in boxing history.â†µ

â†µâ†µEach classic fight takes place in an arena that is themed to the decade in which the classic fight took place. The fights staged in the 1930s use an antique sepia tone filter which, when combined with the use of a deliberately uneven exposure, really recreates the feel of early film stock from the time. The 1950s era is captured in black and white, like a period TV. For the 1970s, we really wanted to capture the feel of watching these historic matches on an early color television, so color separation, blue enhancement and some contrast tweaking were used to achieve this.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe photo reference makes all the difference when modelling a boxer likeness. Ideally we want it to be as large and detailed as possible so we can use the photos as a base for the skin textures and taken from as many angles as possible in order to get the correct shape of the head. With current boxers we could send a photographer to meet them and capture dozens of photos in the lighting style we need, but for the classic fighters we often just had to scour the internet to source as many reference photographs and videos as we could.â†µ

â†µâ†µMost of these were far too small to be useful, although seeing a batch of 50-or-so pictures, no matter what size, helps the artists to get a feel for the classic boxer’s features. As long as we could find a good photo taken from the front, and a photo taken from the side, we could usually manage to create a decent likeness with accurate proportions. As nearly all the photos before the 1970s were black and white, we couldn’t use these pictures to create the skin textures, and we even had to guess their skin tone and hair colour where there was no reliable source of information.â†µOur “generic” boxer model was used as a base, and then the artists would sculpt a likeness of the head on top of that, essentially modelling the face in digital clay. The model of the boxer was then taken into a custom version of the game’s “Fighter Factory” feature, and various alterations made to improve the likeness further. For example, eyes could be repositioned and the color could be changed, mouth shape altered, and so on. We would also fine tune the boxer’s height, weight and muscle tone at this point, before adding his fighting apparel. â†µ

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â†µâ†µMax Baerâ†µ

â†µâ†µFrame 1 shows the basic default boxer which is the starting model before further sculpting. Frame 2 shows the 3D sculpt and custom texture applied. Frame 3 shows Baer after further fine tuning in the custom Fighter Factory application.â†µ

â†µâ†µEach classic fight that the player takes part in becomes available to play on the extras menu so you can take on any challenge you’d like. Success in the classic fights will unlock the featured venue and boxers for use in multiplayer game modes. If you want to see how one of the greats stacks up against his modern counterpart, you can! â†µ

â†µâ†µPrizefighter also features real life footage of some of these classic fights as well as interviews with some of the biggest names in boxing. We won’t give away all the surprises, but to give you a taste of what to expect, players can see a classic Benn vs. Eubank fight and exclusive interviews with Joe Calzaghe.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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