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Re: Bear's Pit Interview with Ian Currie about Flashback, JA3 and life in general[message #319599]
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Tue, 14 May 2013 12:06
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Shanga |
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Messages:3482
Registered:January 2000 Location: Danubia |
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@Ian
- Everyone thinks they know "what is JA". Most got it wrong. For you which is THAT feature that makes JA a unique title and defines it as a highlight of the TBS genre?
- Have you ever before felt as confident about a successor of JA2 being made? And did you try to offer advice to any of the previous developers?
- Back in the old days you talked in great detail about the hardships to put a game on the market, with distribution chains being controlled by the big companies and absurd pressure being put on smaller developers. Do you think that has changed since Steam and other digital platforms emerged? Would've JA2 had a much brighter future if you had Steam back in 2000s?
- If you still had the JA license yourself, you would've made the next game by crowd-funding or the traditional way (through a publisher)? We know a couple of former Sirtechies were let down by the Kickstarter adventure, did that lower your enthusiasm about crowd-funding?
- On one of this posts on Bear's Pit, Chris Camfield estimated that JA2 budget was roughly 4 million USD. And that was for a team of 12 people working on an isometric engine. Would that be enough to make JA2 at today's standards?
- About JA2, there was a debate on what engine you used for it. Camfield said on the forums that you basically had to write it from scratch. Some websites are reporting JA2 and Fallout share the same isometric engine. Care to clear tha up?
- And while are on game engines, if you were to make JA3, would you pick Unity or go for something like Unreal? If the money wasn't an issue (it always is, we know) which of the modern engines you'd see best suitable for a game like JA3?
- Going back to JA:F, considering nowdays you're just a fan (with golden wings, but still) like the rest of us, what feature from the past games you'd like to see in it? You can pick from anywhere in the series, from the features that were scrapped for JA2 or from v1.13 (or any other mods). And you can only pick one.
[..]
@Chris
- You worked for a year on JA3 only to see it cancelled. If you'll ever get the chance to start again on it, what is that one feature from the old project you'd bring along?
- We know how you felt when you heard the news about JA3 project being canned and we shared those feelings over the years. We didn't push much for info back then, but now would you tell us a few words about what you left behind? What stage was JA3? What did you had in store to amaze us?
- Have you ever thought about going to Kickstarter to publish a game yourself or you got turned away from it by what happened to Brenda's project?
- We know you were a driving force behind rallying former Sir-tech staff to support JA:F. We know Ian and Andrew Simmons are backing JA:F KS. What are the others feeling about this?
- Would you pay for a young-sexier-than-Brad-Pitt Gumpy if we get Full Control to make one for you?
[..]
@Thomas
- What did you know about the JA community before the project and how did this KS change your views?
- We know Sir-techies basically put themselves in JA2, with mercs, NPCs and locations sharing their looks or their names. Ian was Madlab, Eric was Dr. Q, etc. If you were to put yourself in the game, describe your merc/npc in a few words.
- On that line, ask around the office and tell us how your main team sees them as a JA:F merc/NPC.
- Which is your favourite fan-made suggestion so far (made on KS page, your forum or Bear's Pit), the one that made you go "oh why didn't we think of that"?
- Now that you have earned the trust and friendship of so many people in the community, if the KS doesn't work, have you considered developing your own TBS title with community help, even without a JA license?
- Did we make you work more overtime on this KS than you ever imagined?
[..]
[Updated on: Tue, 14 May 2013 16:51] by Moderator Report message to a moderator
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Re: Bear's Pit Interview with Ian Currie about Flashback, JA3 and life in general[message #319624]
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Tue, 14 May 2013 14:23
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derek |
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Messages:147
Registered:April 2010 |
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Q Thomas: Why turn-based tactic games, in the world where action adventure RPG and MMO games "rule" game industry?
Q Thomas: Why Jagged Alliance after BIA? Especially as you are small and "unknown" studio? It's a huge "risk".
Q Thomas: What if KS fails? Will you try to raise founds in some other way? Do you hope that community will still be as supportive as they are now?
Q Ian: How was it working on JA franchise?
Q Ian: Thoughts about 1.13 and BP?
Q Ian: What do you think was the reason for JA to "vanish"? Why nobody wanted to buy rights (until BC and now FC)?
Q Ian: Would you get yourself involved in this project regardless KS?
Q Chris: What was the main stream that made you join this project?
Q Chris: Thoughts about 1.13 and BP?
Q Chris: Would you get yourself involved in this project regardless KS?
Q Chris: What do you expect from JAF? Will it be huge success? Or will just give the community what they were hoping and praying all those years (new JA title in turn-based environment with easy moding - unlike JA2)?
[Updated on: Tue, 14 May 2013 14:26] by Moderator Report message to a moderator
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Sergeant
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Re: Bear's Pit Interview with Ian Currie about Flashback, JA3 and life in general[message #319662]
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Tue, 14 May 2013 19:55
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Arulcish_Lion |
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Messages:257
Registered:January 2013 Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia |
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Questions to Ian:
About JA (and Metavira Island)
* When did you decide to create Jagged Alliance? I mean do you remember that day, when you decided to start this game?
* Have you heard about our Russian project to make JA1 based on JA2? Do you think it's a good idea?
* Why Ivan speaks Russian in JA and speaks English in JA2? It was pretty good to have Russian speaking person in the English language game.
* Why did you decided to place Brenda in danger? Have you managed to save her?
About JA2:
* Have you ever played any mods? If yes, which of them? Do you like them? Which is your favorite? Do you think that some of them are a good continuation of JA2 (and JA1 too)?
* What do you think about modding? Are you happy that thought many ears passed there are a lot of JA2 fans, who modify and play this great game?
* Did you want to make a multiplayer based on JA2? It was rather popular in Deadly Games?
* Do you think that 10/25/50/100 years later people will play Jagged Alliance 2?
* Why A.I.M. was censored so much? While working on our Metavira project I discovered for myself that the mercs with the worst biographys where retired or killed. Others (Malice, for instance) received good and kind stories. In JA2 in A.I.M. there are no such persons like Reuben and it makes game not so interesting and unpredictable. Ivan and Reuben were a good team.
About life:
* Would you like to make a new Jagged Alliance?
* What are you favorite games, books, music and films?
* I think computer games are getting easier and not so interesting nowadays. Do you agree with me? If we can compare two great games: Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2, I'd like to say that JA2 is larger and much more beautiful then JA, but it's simpler. Which of them do you like more?
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Master Sergeant ☆★GL★☆
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Re: Bear's Pit Interview with Ian Currie about Flashback, JA3 and life in general[message #319676]
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Tue, 14 May 2013 21:50
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Hrodger |
Messages:4
Registered:May 2013 |
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For Ian, just two questions:
- Aren't you getting sick of all these fans harassing you about something you did so many years ago?
- What is it about Full Control or this Kickstarter that makes you confident about this attempt for a new JA?
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Civilian
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Re: Bear's Pit Interview with Ian Currie about Flashback, JA3 and life in general[message #319691]
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Wed, 15 May 2013 00:28
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Hrodger |
Messages:4
Registered:May 2013 |
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Questions for Thomas:
- I read somewhere you are thinking of implementing three game difficulties in JA:F. The hardest difficulty would include iron man (no saving during combat). Wouldn't it be better to make iron man mode a separate option? Because sometimes a man just hasn't got time to complete sectors in one sitting. Or, the other way around, he might want that tension of the irreversible decision on the battlefield without the frustration of the hardest difficulty.
- I also read you want to make gradual progress in making better, bigger and more complex turn-based tactical games. From an IOS game Frontline Tactics via Space Hulk to Jagged Alliance. For a lot of the old fans, JA is the summit of it's genre. What kind of game do you see as a possible step-up after JA:F?
- Say the game gets funded; after finishing development and battling the community, how long will your vacation be and how remote the destiny?
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Civilian
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Re: Bear's Pit Interview with Ian Currie about Flashback, JA3 and life in general[message #319725]
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Wed, 15 May 2013 13:45
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Shanga |
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Messages:3482
Registered:January 2000 Location: Danubia |
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@Bivol - Robert Sirotek explained this in one of the interviews:
http://www.ign.com/articles/1998/10/16/sir-techs-last-words
With Sir-tech Canada it was a case of JA2UB needing a publisher and nobody coming up with a decent offer until it was too late.
Quote:Gamers Central: From the huge number of dedicated JA2 fans, it appears that JA2 sold at least well enough to warrant an expansion. How come Talonsoft, who published JA2, isn't publishing the expansion?
Ian Currie: I wonder the same thing, but don't have an answer. It's my understanding that JA2 was Talonsoft's 2nd best selling title (ever). I could speculate, but I won't, as there are always two sides to every story and I obviously can't speak for them.
@Pambam - that's a good question for Chris or Ian, since those were never released. I found an old Chris post from when the news about Sir-tech Canada layoffs hit us. He was so bitter and dissapointed that he wasted one year of his life on JA3 that he didn't really want to say much more.
[Updated on: Wed, 15 May 2013 14:46] by Moderator Report message to a moderator
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