Didn't they also do Sega Sports' NHL All-Star Hockey 98 for Saturn as well? Was that beneficial in any way in terms of establishing a working relationship with Sega as a publisher?

Yes. Sega was familiar with our programmers/artist's track records and experience. This gave them the comfort they needed that we could get the job done, even as a new company.

Other companies like 989 Sports like to brag about the high-profile talent they bring in for motion capture, but you guys were able to achieve better results without the big-name athletes. Could you elaborate on how you handled the motion capture process and what it means for a sports game today to excel in that department?

For our motion capture, we used professional motion capture athletes. These guys are not afraid of getting rough and taking some hits. In fact, our goalie suffered a concussion from our session (oops!). Famous NHL players like to save this kind of rough stuff for the ice, and you won't get as good motion capture if your actors don't give it their all.

Since you guys are stationed in Vancouver, was anyone within the Canucks organization willing to lend a helping hand during development, or were they too busy with the ongoing NHL season?

We had some support from Orca Bay. We were very pleased to be able to do some sound recording in GM Place and are thankful for that.

NHL2K is the first hockey game (for consoles at least) in which the players actually look like their real-life counterparts. This must have been a priority going into development. How much of a difference does it make it your mind when you're playing a sports game and all the players don't look the same?

Unlike other genres of video games, which are based on fantasy settings, sports titles are based on real-life events. Thus, authenticity is extremely important. Games are coming closer and closer to the real thing, and having visually accurate representations of the players is part of that evolution.

Unlike most hockey simulations, the fighting in NHL2K is really well done. What approach did you take to make the fights fun and true to the sport? Was it a focus from the very beginning?

Right from the design, we knew we didn't want to have a fighting system that was a straight "button mashing" contest. We wanted something with some strategy that was close to real hockey fights. We got our resident goon (Jason Carr) to help with the design. It turned out well, but we really didn't get to polish it as much as we would have liked (see the next question).