Interviews

Top  Previous  Next

Master Firoball - one of the A5 Pro winners in Conitec's contest teaches us how to win an A5 Pro copy this year.

Q: When have you bought your first 3DGS package and what has determined you to do that?

A: I got my first 3D Gamestudio back in November 1996. At that time I was creating Doom Levels all the time and the idea of buildiung my own game came up. Then a friend told me about a commercial he found in a games magazine and so I got my first 3D Gamestudio, version 3.5.

 

Q: So hows 4LW going? Do you think that it will be finished this year?

A: Since it always was (and still is) a hobby project, it's going rather slow right now. I'm also a lover of video games and they're stealing my time for Four Little Warriors so often (especially Phantasy Star Online is very very evil ;). I could easily finish the game this year, but I won't make a promise here. Maybe another idea comes up in my mind, that I really want to put into the game, then it will just take a bit longer :)

 

Q: How much time did it take you to finish the demo for Conitecs contest?

A: I started just about a year ago (end of june 2000) with Four little Warriors. One week later I had to go to the army, so there was not much time for finishing the game. Some months after starting the project, I dumped the whole thing as suddenly as I began creating the game. But after I talked with some friends about the dumped game, they all encouraged me to finish it for the contest. Well I guess I got enough of it done, although a lot of things went wrong in the contest version. There were features missing, a quick and ugly menu was done, and it was full of bugs. But I finally had something to send in for the contest.

 

Q: Did you write the scripts by yourself? If so, how / where did you learn wdl?

A: I always wrote my scripts on my own. It's much easier to understand my own scripts than looking at the prefabricated scripts from Conitec. I started with WDL back in 1996, so I guess it's all a matter of time. I still remember my first script. It was a small code for letting doors open and close using IF_NEAR and IF_FAR (old A3 commands). It was not time corrected or even a GOOD script, but it was a first start. So I picked up more and more things with time passing by. I never mentioned it somewhere, but the first steps in A4 were really tough for me. I guess I did more stupid things than most of you can imagine, but I just didn't want to talk about it ;)

 

Q: What tools are you using for your models and sounds?

A: I create models using the OLD MED because I still can't get used to the new release. I miss the possiblity to first move a crosshair around and THEN place the vertices according to the position of the crosshair.
After I have finished the basic shape I begin moving some vertices and making the whole model looking more like a human body. If I run into problems with proportions I usually post a picture in the forums and ask the pros where the model is lacking. After that's done I save it as MD2 and bring it over to Qme. Now I create all bones, assign the vertices and set the keyframes. When that's done I create a skin layout in MED and save it as a seperate model. Now I can merge the "skin model" and the animated model over and over again if I want to add new animation frames. This works pretty good for me and is a solution that everyone can afford.

 

Skins are done using PSP 4.12 and if there's a chance I use Photoshop (don't have a copy at home). Creating sounds is something I'm not very good at. I use a Shareware program called COOL EDIT for it. It's pretty old, I think it was released in 1996. There may be newer versions available, but this is the only one I ever used.

 

Q: Do you plan to team up with somebody else or can you finish 4LW by yourself?

A: I can finish Four Little Warriors on my own, but it's just more fun to work in a team. The biggest problem is finding a good team. Since I'm a console gamer and hardly ever play a pc game, my games all look more console-like. Here in the forum are mostly pc players. How I can see that? Well if you read a bit through the forums or check the link page you'll find games that are typical pc games (a few exceptions, though). Not that this is a bad thing, but it's just not my world and finding someone who thinks the same way I do is quite difficult. I KNOW people who have my taste, but they all are gamers and don't have anything to do with game development.

 

Q: Who will publish your game? Have you signed any contract yet?

A: I was in contact with ARI, but haven't heard from them for a while. I didn't sign anything, because -as I already mentioned- 4LW is a hobby project. It might be dead one day later, you never know.
Apart from that, I think hobby projects should remain as what they are. You see what happens if you publish hobby games like Feuerwehr 3D or Killerhuhn. They get bad ratings (which is absolutely clear, they were hobby projects not a professional's work) and everybody thinks the Game Engine is not capable of more. I don't think 4LW would get a better rating than the two other games I mentioned.

 

Q: What else would you need to see implemented in A5 in the future?

A: I'm missing the flexibility of 3D Gamestudio. You are very limited in bringing addons for your game or integrating a nice support for user levels. Everything has to be inside the resource (except levels), and the resource can't be split into several files (not anymore - it is implemented in the beta - George's note). I'd also like to have more control over files, I can't rename, delete or copy files in the game directory, or having an EOF command to know when I have to stop reading data from a file. I'd also like to see a possibility to create and deform meshes in realtime for special effects (it is implemented in the beta - George's note).

 

Q: Do you have a new demo for this years contest?

A: Nope, so everybody who feared I might grab the pro edition again can be happy and hope for a prize ;)

 

Q: What should I do to make sure that my demo is a winner? Do you have any advice for the rest of us?

A: Hm... that's a good question. I can only tell you about 4LW, but whether I'm right or not is only known by the Conitec jury ;) To be honest I never awaited to win a professional version, especially after I read that Sammy Suricate took part in the contest :P.   So after I knew the result I started analyzing the whole game, coming to following conclusions:

- Sounds are there but not anything REALLY good
- I really like the background music
- Graphics are ok, but not great
- Models... well not too bad regarding I made them on my own
- Scripts are all selfmade and (most :) things are working
- The idea behind the game is something really unique

After all I think it primarily was the game idea. I and probably most people in the forum never saw a game of that type before. Just another shooter is nothing exciting, there are many commercial products out there probably better than such a game created with 3D Gamestudio. If you take a look at the first A4 contest, two unconventional games won as well (Desktop Guerilla and Ploing), so perhaps this is what Conitec wants to see.


Thank you, Firo.