Age of Empires was still called "Tribe" when shown at the E3, so don't be confused :-)
Q:
In your opinion, what separates a blockbuster strategy game from the
merely mediocre?
A:
Q:
I think a blockbuster strategy game has several key attributes.
First, the topic is big and easily comprehended by a majority of
players. Tight little topics appeal to a smaller audience and limit
their potential market. Second, the game has a big goal/payoff at the
end and many smaller, satisfying payoffs/rewards along the way. In
Civilization, conquering the world or being first to colonize space were
big payoffs toward which a player could strive. Along the way there were
small rewards for conquering cities, achieving new advancements, wiping
out rivals, and so on. Third, the game offers more than one path or plan
to victory. There is more than one way to succeed. In Civilization you
could emphasize either economics, diplomacy, or military conquest and
still win. In Railroad Tycoon you could emphasize either finances,
operations, or competition. Fourth, a superior game grabs and holds a
player's attention by posing interesting and well-paced decisions. The
provision of interesting decisions is the key to making a game fun.
Trivial or random decisions are boring and kill player fun. Fifth, the
game interface and technical execution are not a source of frustration.
Bugs, crashes, and frustrating game play kill player interest. Sixth,
game art and audio enhance the playing experience without being
intrusive or disruptive.
Art, sound, and music do not have to be outstanding technically or even
industry standard so long as they do their job. My colleagues and I at
Ensemble Studios considered this question as part of the development of
Age of Empires. We hope we have the right answers and that Age of
Empires meets the criteria.
When you're not working on Age of Empires, what games do you find
yourself playing? Can you name some products-from other developers -
that you admire?
A:
Q:
I spend so much time alone in front of my computer during work that I
play games during my spare time only occasionally. I concentrate usually
on the project underway or on existing games that could be a source of
ideas or competition. I prefer games that make me think rather than
react. Lately I have been playing the solitaire scenarios of Warcraft II
and Command & Conquer. When I am in Dallas we play three-on-three team
Warcraft II over our network. Old favorites that I still play are
Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Colonization, and Empire Deluxe. For a
quick game fix I might play Shanghai, Hearts, or Free Cell.
What game projects have you been personally involved with over the past
few years?
A:
Q:
I worked at Microprose Software from 1988 through 1992. Major projects I
worked on there were F-19 Stealth Fighter, F-15 II, Railroad Tycoon,
Covert Action, and Civilization. During my last year I worked with Sid
Meier on a tactical/operational Civil War game that has never been
completed. After leaving Microprose I did almost no game design work for
two years and then we started Ensemble Studios. We have been working on
Age of Empires for the last year and have started outlining
specifications for a second game.
Are there any other game developers who you admire in this industry?
A:
Game developers are largely anonymous to me. They don't get the
publicity that movie stars, sports heros, and movie directors receive
and few have consistently developed games I enjoy playing. The one that
stands out is my ex- colleague at Microprose, Sid Meier.
I wanted to work there because I enjoyed playing Pirates!, one of his
earlier designs.
It was my privilege to work closely with Sid on four games. I think he
has developed more quality games than anyone else in the history of the
business and has a better understanding of what makes them fun than
anyone else I've encountered. Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds developed
Colonization and Civilization II together with Sid. I would guess that
whatever those three are working on now will be the next strategy game
that I definitely want to play.
Q: Angelo, what is your major responsibility on Tribe?
A: I'm the lead programmer. I mainly work on interface, sound, database,
and graphics programming.
Q: What is your current priority task on Tribe?
A: I'm currently working with Tim Deen to make the game engine more
robust and run more efficiently.
Q: What part of your work on Tribe have you found most interesting?
A: I've most enjoyed working on making the game faster. It is an
interesting challenge to figure out how to squeeze a few more frames out
of the code.
Q: What is your background in your field?
A: My parents bought me a TI-99 4/A computer when I was ten or eleven.
Then I taught myself Basic and really got into programming. Video games
and computers have always been some of my favorite things. I've been
programming professionally for nine years. I started working at Ensemble
around three years ago and I was one of their first employees. While at
Ensemble, I wrote a product called Renaissance. It allows you to
visually create database applications and it won an award from the
Paradox Informant. I've always wanted to program games, so around two
years ago, I started getting into graphics and game programming. I've
been at Ensemble Studios since the company was started.
Q: What computer games have you particularly enjoyed, past and present?
A: My favorite computer games have been Wing Commander I and II,
Civilization, Day of the Tentacle, Doom, and WarCraft II.
Q: Do you have any favorite magazines, television programs?
A: My favorite magazines are Computer Gaming World, Next Generation,
Wired, and Details. I don't watch very much television, but when I do,
it's usually MTV or E. My favorite shows are Beavis and Butthead and
Talk Soup.
Q: What would you be doing right now if you hadn't ended up in the game
business?
A: If I wasn't programming games, I would probably be programming
another type of product since I really like product development. Most
likely I would be doing something for the Internet since there is such a
big opportunity there.
Q: What is the all-time best game you have ever played and what makes it
so enjoyable for you?
A: The best game I have ever played is definitely WarCraft II. It is
such an awesome game, and I've been hooked on it for over six months!
The game play is fun and addicting and the graphics and sound are very
good. I think the balance between action and strategy is perfect.
Playing multi-player WarCraft II on the network is one of my favorite
things to do.
Q: Scott, what is your major responsibility on Tribe?
A: Most of my work has been in character animations. I worked with Brad
to make the people and creatures look life-like and interesting as they
moved about the map.
Q: What is your current priority task on Tribe?
A: Several of us are working on cinematic sequences to be linked to
individual campaigns. I also fix animation bugs as we discover them. The
cinematics are a huge undertaking and soak up most of my time.
Q: What part of your work on Tribe did you find most interesting?
A: The character animations were the most interesting work that I have
done on the game. It was fun and challenging to make the characters look
real.
Q: What is your background in this field?
A: I studied commercial art at Western Kentucky University before coming
to Dallas to study computer animation. Working with Ensemble Studios was
my first industry job.
Q: What computer games have you particularly enjoyed, past and present?
A: I was not much of a computer gamer before joining Ensemble, but I got
hooked on Warcraft II when we were playing it multi-player here after
hours. Lately the game I have been enjoying the most is Nascar II.
Q: What would you be doing right now if you hadn't ended up in the game
business?
A: Racing, if I could have found a way to support myself doing it.
Q: Brad, what is your major responsibility on Tribe?
A: I'm an animator. I'm responsible for the humans and creatures that
move about the map. I have to make their motions look realistic as they
go about their tasks.
Q: What is your current priority task on Tribe?
A: Most recently I have been upgrading the units and their animations.
All units in the game have been reworked completely and a few new units
have been added.
Q: What part of your work on Tribe have you found most interesting?
A: Character animations are the part of my work that I find most
interesting. It is a challenge to capture the natural movement of a
person or animal. It is also a challenge to reproduce believable
emotions in our characters. I am especially pleased with the new
versions of the chariot, cavalryman, and war elephant, including the
animations of their deaths. I really enjoyed creating the animations of
the animals (lion, gazelle, birds, whale). Most game animations deal
with humans and it was fun to attempt to replicate the motion of these
creatures.
Q: What part of your work on Tribe have you found most difficult?
A: The most difficult part of my job, I must confess, has been working
inside the database. On several late nights I have had the programmers
in my office responding to my wild cries for help! They saved me by
replacing any table entries that I deleted accidentally and put back
whatever else was out of place. I also had a great deal of difficulty
with the elephant animation. I watched a lot of videotape trying to get
that motion to look real.
Q: What is your background in your field?
A: I have been interested in art as far back as I can remember. When I
was in elementary school, my teacher would ask if I would rather sit in
the back of the class and draw while she read stories to the others. Of
course she already knew my answer. I took art courses all through my
years of schooling. I received an Applied Science Associates Degree in
computer animation and multimedia from the Art Institute of Dallas. Soon
after graduation I received a phone call from Tony Goodman, "We are
creating this game called Tribe...," he said. Things have been good ever
since!
Q: What is the all-time best game you have ever played and what makes it
so enjoyable for you?
A: I haven't always been a game player, but believe me, I am catching on
quickly. The game I have most enjoyed playing, though I am not the least
bit good at, must be the game of Chess.
Q: What is the worst game you ever played? Why?
A: The worst game I ever played was Slipstream. The graphics weren't all
that bad. The movement of the screen that made me sick after only a few
minutes. Later I noticed the warning label on the back of the box (in
very small letters): May Cause Epilectic Seizures Or Altered
Consciousness!
Q: Mark, what is your major responsibility on Age of Empires?
A: Officially, I'm the communications programmer, which means I get to
figure out how to get multiplayer games working. Unofficially, I'm the
multiplayer and cooperative play games evangelist-if people are
discussing anything that takes two or more to play, I'm usually in the
middle of it.
Q: What is your current priority task?
A: Multiplayer has been working pretty well for awhile. I'm
concentrating on making it easy to use, robust, and bug free.
Q: What part of your work have you found most interesting?
A: Well, besides the challenge of multiplayer in the Genie game engine,
it has been offering suggestions for some of the game design elements. I
have really enjoyed the more 'open' design style here-where everyone has
the opportunity to contribute ideas and suggest better ways for game
features to work.
Q: What parts of your work have you found most difficult?
A: Keeping up with the changes in Direct Play (Microsoft's multi-player
software) and making it work well on a variety of networks was a
challenge. I also learned a few new APIs (Application Programming
Interfaces) and in the process gained a real appreciation for
Microsoft's Common Object Model-though it took me awhile. I've described
making Age of Empires as a lot like climbing a mountain. First, you have
to be determined enough that you're sure you'll make it up and back
alive. Second, being halfway there is the scariest part because you're
far enough along to kill yourself but you still have a long way to go.
And last, even though it pushes you to the limit, the view is worth the
journey.
Q: What is your favorite part of AOE?
A: I love cooperative play. My favorite is to have a 'warlord' partner
and concentrate on resource and intelligence gathering. Oh, I enjoy
combat-especially with priests (wo-lo-lo) and cavalry units-but I get
the most thrills from contributing to a shared effort.
Q: What is your background in your field?
A: I've been programming and designing software systems nearly as long
as some of our best artists have been alive, most of it in mission
critical and communications programming. I've been writing various
multiplayer games (on Mainframes even!) since 1983 in my spare time and
when I had the opportunity to do games full time I jumped at the chance.
I only thought I was doing cutting edge work before-in games programming
we're trying to write for hardware that is barely invented yet.
Q: What computer games have you particularly enjoyed, past and present?
A: Amazingly enough (grin), the multiplayer games-DecWars, Modem Wars,
Mule, Populous, DoomII/Quake are the most fun for me, but I also enjoy a
good puzzle like Myst and the old Infocom games. A few years ago I
co-wrote a lot of material for on-line multi-user Domains (MUDs). I
think I like making games just a little bit more than actually buying
them.
Q: Do you have any favorite magazines or television programs?
A: I read Boardwatch because its honest, Wired because its cool, and a
bunch of techie magazines because I need to know what is going on (Game
Developer, C++ Report, MSJ, Dobbs, etc). On TV, I'm just a sucker for
hidden-camera video exposé's and real video shows. Babylon 5 for drama &
entertainment, British comedies for humor-because they're so
well-written. If I have the time I rapid-fire scan a bunch of news
channels, c-span, and the like. Oh, I've also become a fan of
Politically Incorrect. I have been known to yell at the people on the TV
at times-until Chez pointed out that he didn't think they could hear me.
Q: What kinds of things do you do when you're on the World Wide Web?
A: Well, I'm known as the guy who "can find anything on the Web" and I
usually use WebCompass to keep that reputation. I've been having fun
searching for mentions of Age of Empires on the Web and in Usenet and
tracking those down. I read all the game sites of course (gamespot,
c|net, gamecenter, etc). I also check out the occasional massively
multi-player world to keep up with the state-of-the-art. My activist
spirit is involved in helping to fight Spam on Usenet and e-mail, and
for Internet free-speech.
Q: What would you be doing right now if you hadn't ended up in the game
business?
A: I'm not the kind of guy who does mediocre work-I get in elbows deep
in anything I do-so it would definitely be something interesting, but I
can't imagine anything more rewarding than what I do now.
Q: People say you're always smiling-why is that?
A: I am grateful every day that I work with the Ensemble team-folks who say you learn something new every day should work here. I think I learn about 6.5 things every day. I have the privilege of doing absolutely killer games and seeing my ideas implemented in them. I have two families that I love - my game-making office family and my family at home. Who could help but smile?
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