GDC 2018 panel shares insight into the struggles of creating NBA Jam

NBA Jam is very fondly remembered by an entire generation. Countless hours were spent in arcades and on gaming platforms dunking over the competition. At a GDC 2018 panel, developers Mark Turmell and Sal DiVita, along with the game’s announcer, Tim Kitzrow, sat down to discuss some details of how the project came together.

- the dev team didn't think they could get the NBA license, and didn't even consider it until halfway through development
- the NBA was against the idea at first, as they didn't want their logo in arcades due to their perceived seedy nature
- Midway produced a video showing the safe, fun, and carefree environments of arcades, and this won the NBA over
- the dev team filmed local basketball players performing moves in front of a blue screen for the characters
- the team had to remove the actor from the video by hand and spend time cleaning up the sprites
- they also created various skin tones to accommodate all the NBA players
- Midway would scour sports magazines and record footage of games hoping to find the right angles for players faces
- these were then scanned and put into the game
- the game has you miss more dunks when you’re way ahead to keep games close