Interviews// Virtua Tennis 3 - Producer Interview

Following on from the earlier news that Virtua Tennis 3 is set to hit PlayStation 3 in 'full' 1080p high definition glory, here is our recent interview with Mie Kumagai the game's producer, over at AM3.

Kumagai-san was the first female president of any Japanese game development studio and has worked with Sega since 1993.

SPOnG: The Virtua Tennis series is renowned for its simplicity and pure tennis action, unhinged by unnecessary gimmicks. Is VT3 set to continue this trend for hardcore strawberry eaters?

Mie Kumagi (MK): This title surely takes over one of the concepts in the VT series; "Super Play with Simple Control", but at the same time we have substantially improved "VT Game Engine" in VT3. In addition to topspins (offensive shots) and slices (defensive shots), we upgraded lobs and drop shots, and added new elements like running shots. As a result, the game play increased its realism even more and tactics became more varied. The game engine of VT3 received a very good reputation in the user test held during the development.

SPOnG: How much have the realistic animations been improved over the last Virtua Tennis game?

MK: We think that when the user plays VT3, they will feel as if they are tracing the motions of Federer or Nadal and so on. When we recorded animations for the game, we secured a large studio and shot them in a similar situation to those of actual matches. As a result of also emphasizing characteristic forms of the licensed tennis players, their animations doubled compared with the previous titles', and I believe we've successfully achieved a realism that is close to live television broadcasting.

SPOnG: What techniques did you use to map the player's characteristics and movements in such high detail?

MK: The animations of the professional tennis player were shot with state-of-the-art motion capture technologies and are output as highly precise movies with the tools specially developed in-house, and Motion Builder. By further optimising them with the graphics tools, we achieve realistic animations as in-game images while maintaining their vividness.

SPOnG: Who will we be able to choose to play as in Virtua Tennis 3, we assume Henman is a dead cert.

MK: The world's current top ranked players get together in VT3! 20 professional players who are at the top of the world participated, such as Tim Henman, who came to represent the series, Roger Federer (SUI), Andy Roddick (USA), Maria Sharapova (RUS), Venus Williams (USA), plus many more.

SPOnG: Will there be a more balanced set of players this time around? Virtua Tennis 2 somewhat lost the spark the original had in SPOnG's opinion.

MK: As mentioned above, many of the players expected by the users appear!!

SPOnG: Aside from the Arcade tournaments mode, what other features can we expect to find in Virtua Tennis 3?

MK: We offer wide-ranging contents that the new players of the VT series can enjoy, but that also satisfy the VT fans as they advance through the game. For example the party games you can play together with your friends or family, and new "World Tour" mode.