During our visit to THQ’s, uh, HQ, we had the chance to not only play UFC 2009 Undisputed, but to chat about its development, direction, and future with the game’s producer, Neven Dravinski. A jovial dude with a serious knowledge of the UFC, Dravinski slipped us some details about the technical side of designing a UFC videogame, how to attract an unfamiliar audience, and faithfully representing the sport.

So… where are the Wii, PSP and DS versions?

We definitely wanted to create the best mixed martial arts game ever made. The engine was designed from the ground up to be on the next-gen, [and] we want to be here for years to come. We want to start this as a franchise. So we really wanted to focus on the most powerful systems first, y’know? And the PS3 and 360 allow us to recreate these fighters and these fights in a better fashion. Obviously you’ve got to look at the Wii and the DS and the PSP. You can’t lie with the amount of units that are out there, but for this, the first iteration, we wanted to start with something strong and build from there. The processing power to take care of the Havok [physics engine], for the Wii, it just doesn’t make any sense.

UFC is huge, but how are you going to rope in people who are unfamiliar with (or uninterested in) UFC?

Well, I think that’s sort of our goal is to educate people not only on the brand of the UFC but the sport of mixed martial arts… That’s why we really try to approach it like it’s a sports game. We have fighting elements, but it’s about the strategy of the sport you’re involved [with] in martial arts. And the things that you do in the octagon to be successful are the same things that you have to do in the game to be successful. It’s about mitigating your strikes, taking somebody down if you’re stronger than that, avoiding being submitted, going for a submission.

So I think the cool thing is that if you start getting better at the game… if you didn’t know anything about mixed martial arts or UFC, just by going through the tutorial and playing the game a lot you’ll have such a greater appreciation of watching an MMA fight on TV. Everyone understands the stand up punching and kicking. That’s pretty self explanatory. But going on the ground, all of a sudden you’ll say “oh, he’s in side control now” or “now in this position he can go for an armbar.” That’s definitely our goal, in a systematic way, to educate people about the sport of mixed martial arts.

There’s a big, daunting list of combos in Undisputed.

Certainly.

If I’m a first-time player, am I going to stand a chance against someone like you who’s an expert?

You will. I think that’s one of the cool things that the game captures… We don’t have these hard, rigid rules. I mean there still is the aspect of flash knockouts if you stay in the standup. Like if two guys keep the game standing there is a chance that somebody will get caught, much like in the real UFC. I’ve had people play the game that have no clue about videogames. And I’m just like “Here, hold these buttons and you can do this.” You know, you’ll have a limited amount of success doing that. We definitely wanted to make it have that pick-up-and-play, friendly aspect to it. But if you wanna win, and win consistently, then you’re going to really have to invest time in the game and learn all the combos and submissions and ground game.

And that’s much like the real UFC. Guys a couple years ago were coming in very one-dimensional, just strong punching and little else. Or, you know, strong ground but no striking. Now, in order to be successful in the UFC you really have to master all aspects: the ground game, the clinch game, standing. And we represent that in the game as well. So you’re gonna be able to play with your buddies and knock them out, or even knock out somebody that’s good, but someone that’s good is going to try and exploit your weaknesses.