Tag Archive

Interview: CitiesXL

Written by Jim Rossignol on October 29, 2008.

Idly clicking through game websites becomes something of a habit for us genre omnivores, and it’s always pleasant when something you’d expected to be a little dull actually looks like it might just shine. That was the case with forthcoming city-builder CitiesXL. The (hopelessly cheesily voiced) footage actually looked really impressive, and having digested the proposed cleverness (online shared planetary city maps, infrastructure as conquest game mechanics, internal tycoon minigames) we decided it might be a good idea to question the developers themselves. Answering the questions is one Philippe Da Silva, followed by those CitiesXL trailers.
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RPS Interview: Love

Written by Jim Rossignol on October 23, 2008.

Following on from the recent trailer, I decided to see if one-man-studio Eskil Steenberg would answer a few more questions about his city-building MMOFPS. Below we find out a little more about what we can expect from his strange indie project.

Jim: So, my first question is about the visual style of Love. Was it something you envisioned, or did it come about via experimentation?

Eskil: I had an original vision, but it has taken a lot of experimentation. Being a graphics programmer means that I never really stop tweaking it and testing new things.The graphics look has already moved on a bit from the trailer, even. I have clear inspirations, like Craig Mullins, Syd Mead, and Ralph McQuarrie.
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Empire: Total War, An Interview

Written by Jim Rossignol on October 13, 2008.

Not all empires are built in intergalactic space, you know. Some are built in history, and that’s the subject of this latest interview: matters pertaining to the latest strategic behemoth from the British studio, Creative Assembly. We chart some of the major differences between this and previous games, with particular attention paid to the turn-based campaign map and the radical changes brought about by the new game’s battle engine. Crucially, Empire: Total War drags the Total War series a couple of centuries closer to the modern age. The 18th century setting is one of ranked, musket-heavy land armies, rip-roaring sea battles, complex revolutionary politics, and colonial ambition. It’s these two elements, as well as a desire to reflect some of the social changes (hiring generals rather than relying on hereditary feudal heirs, for example) of the 18th century, that motivate the designs implemented by Creative Assembly’s lead on the project, James Russell. We were lucky enough to be able to put some questions to Russell. You can read his rather detailed responses below.
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Tastes So Goo-d: 2D BOY Interview

Written by John Walker on October 13, 2008.

World of Goo launches today. In fact, if you look at the 2D BOY website, it seems to have quietly launched already. Buy! It will also be appearing on Steam, Direct2Drive, Greenhouse, and Beanstalk as the day goes on.

Despite their crazy pre-launch weekend, 2D BOY’s Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel generously spared some time to answer our questions about the process of developing the game, the complicated life of the independent developer, and why it’s so very important to care deeply about your game (rather than your cat).

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RPS Exclusive: Hinterland Designer Diary

Written by Alec Meer on October 9, 2008.

Tilted Mill are one of those developers who are quintessentially PC. Risen from the ashes of Impressions Games, the hugely respected studio behind the Caesar, Pharaoh and Lords of the Realm series, they coolly made their own name with their first title, Children of the Nile. Things didn’t go so well when they picked up the reigns of Caesar its fourth instalment or Sim City for the recent Societies, but the extensive, redemptive patching of the latter proved this was definitely a company that cared. The real proof of this was the announcement they were going to go it alone, self-publishing their own titles - starting with an enhanced version of Children of the Nile and, just last week, followed up with by fascinating RPG/city-builder hybrid Hinterland: a game most of RPS (excluding Crazy John Walker) were desperate to play.

Below the cut, the game’s producer and co-designer Mat Williams writes exclusively for RPS about the thinking behind Hinterland - and why it has much in common with that most ubiquitous of man-fads, poker.
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The Horse’s Mouth: Mount & Blade Interview

Written by Kieron Gillen on October 1, 2008.

It’s been a bubbling indie favourite over the last few years in its Beta state. Mount & Blade is arguably the greatest horse-based combat game ever, a medieval open-world game with true freedom and genuinely pretty nifty. Having finally reaching V1.0 and its commercial debut, we thought it time to talk to TaleWorld’s lead developer, Armagan Yavuz, about the long journey from inspiration to release
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Interview: Jeffrey Steefel on LOTRO: Mines of Moria

Written by Kieron Gillen on September 26, 2008.

We’ve spoke to Turbine Producer Jeffrey Steefel before, but with the forthcoming Mines of Moria expansion, we grasped the chance to do so again. Coming fresh from hands-on with the Beta code in the game, we sat down to talk about how far LOTR:Online has come, the importance of Moria to the RPG, the really novel Legendary Weapons system (which will be the feature which everyone steals, I strongly suspect) and the current state of the Fantasy MMO. The transcript hides beneath the cut. Speak Friend, and enter.
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Interview: Pete Hines On Fallout 3 Mods

Written by Kieron Gillen on September 23, 2008.

Well, on other stuff too, but that’s the most headline-worthy. After getting hands on with Fallout 3 last month I had ten minutes or so to chat with Bethesda’s VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines which I’ve finally transcribed. In it, I ask why they’re not initially supporting mods and mention the conspiracy theory that they’re sidestepping them to increase demand for downloadable content. Plus stuff on violence, misapprehensions and 100-post+ comment threads.
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Interview: Spore’s Lead Designer On Spore’s Design

Written by Kieron Gillen on September 22, 2008.

Much like everyone else, we’ve been thinking far too much about Spore recently. Alex Hutchinson, the game’s lead designer, has been thinking about it for years. With the game released, we grabbed the opportunity to talk candidly and extensively with him about its design choices. From high level decisions like the actual in-game effect of customisation to basic technical elements like the lack of autosave to the question of the sudden difficulty spike in Space (And the lack of difficulty elsewhere), he reveals Maxis’ thinking. Whether you adore or abhor it, after reading this, you’ll understand exactly why Spore is the game it is.
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Space Aces: Kerberos On Sword Of The Stars

Written by Alec Meer on September 19, 2008.

To those in the know, Sword of the Stars was expertly and epically doing the space 4x thing long before Sins of a Solar Empire sauntered onto the scene last year. The first opus from Kerberos Productions, risen out of the ashes of Barking Dog - responsible for Homeworld: Cataclysm and eventually folded into Rockstar Vancouuver - it’s picked up the sort of deeply passionate following you so often get with deep and complex space-games. On the eve of second expansion A Murder Of Crow’s release, we had a chat with CEO and Lead Designer Martin Cirulis about Kerberos’ past, present and future - including some first details on their next two games, RPG Northstar and the splendidly-named Fort Zombie…

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