International Cricket Captain

History - How The Project Began

International Cricket Captain was conceived four years ago during Chris Child's university tenure. For his dissertation on computer science, Chris created a run-scoring engine that could be used in a computer cricket game.

Upon leaving university Chris joined hi-tech company Logica where he honed his programming skills. During this time Chris developed an interest in computer games particularly Championship Manager 2, the popular football management game. Why, he thought, was there not a similar game on the subject of cricket?

Chris then set about contacting computer game publishers in an effort to persuade them to correct this oversight. Chris' 260 page dissertation eventually landed on the desk of Brian Walker, producer of Championship Manager 2. He was duly impressed but unable to convince the powers-that-be of the commercial viability of such a project. As fate would have it, Brian left the company shortly afterwards to join Empire Interactive.

This time Brian was able to persuade the company that a cricket game could sell. As a result Chris joined Empire in the spring of 1996 and has been working on the game ever since. Considering there are South African, Australian and World Cup editions planned, there is some doubt that he'll ever work on anything else! Artist Michel Bowes joined the team from Electronic Arts later that year and programmer Andy Yau moved from the north of England to sign on up a few months later. With a full team on board, cricket enthusiasts all, Empire were convinced that they could produce a game to do justice to this fine sport.

There are quite a number of cricket arcade games on the market, but none that reflected the cerebral nature of the sport. The design brief behind International Cricket Captain was to put this wrong to right, or as Brian puts it:

"We wanted a game where the player would feel that his decisions were going to have a strong bearing on the matches, just like a real captain. We used real statistics as a basis for results but we also added some features to balance the game, so that if you captain Durham, for example, the expectations are much lower than if you were to choose Surrey. We added some 'gamey' elements like the auctions for overseas players and signing out-of-contract players. These are not entirely unrealistic and they give players an opportunity to strengthen their team".

No sports game these days is complete without a well-known commentator, and who better than the BBC's Jonathan Agnew? Up until the time he joined our team, Jonathan was more noted for his radio commentaries. But now he's fronting the BBC's flagship cricket programme Test Match Special. Jonathan came down to London studio and recorded the commentary in three sessions. Drawing a veil over the fact that he couldn't speak for the next three weeks, the important fact is that he did a fantastic job. Even while he was in the West Indies for the recent series Jonathan kept in touch with the team by e-mail, ever eager to find out the progress of the game.

In February 1998 Wisden, the ultimate authority on cricketing matters agreed to give the game their blessing. It should be noted that Wisden had been approached several times by games companies seeking their approval, but this was not forthcoming until, that is, Christopher Lane, managing director of Wisden, received a letter from Brian inviting him to come and take a look at the game.

To put in mildly, Chris was astonished when he saw it. Instead of the usual joystick-controlled cartoon figures running around, he saw off-drives that looked like off-drives and teams containing real player names, and pictures of all these players, and grounds, and more. What he saw was a game that sat well with the Wisden image of statistical accuracy conveyed in a stylish and authoritative manner.

But you needn't take Wisden's word for it, or ours, that International Cricket Captain is a great game, because in May of this year you'll be able to judge for yourself.

Orders for International Cricket Captain can be made now at the Empire Online Shop

Source:

empire.co.uk (Feb. 1999)