Firaxis Interview
Sid Meier and Soren Johnson did an interesting interview with Gamespy at the DICE summit.Here's a link to the full interview:
(http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/694/694349p1.html)
For starters, they're releasing the source code for Civ IV in "a matter of weeks," which is just fantastic. There are going to be some unbelievable mods created, and I think they deserve a huge amount of credit for doing this.
Here's what Soren Johnson had to say when he was asked about game budgets:
I'm really interested in how much you can do with less. Guitar Hero is this great example to everyone in the industry. Everyone's saying, "Wow, they're going to make a ton of money!" If nothing else, it's inspiring to think of the fact that games are dynamic, you can make these really interesting games that are actually just very small pieces.
Guitar Hero. It's everywhere.
Johnson also made reference to Brad Wardell saying that Galactic Civilizations II was made on a $300,000 budget, which astounds me. That game is going to sell and sell and sell. It may wind up being one copy per dollar of development budget.
I know that I get on Sid Meier for not coming up with more new ideas in this century, but that's the only complaint I've ever had about him. He always comes across as an interesting, engaging person, and he generally makes great games. The gaming industry has problems, but he's never been one of them. And if some of those problems are ever solved, I'm sure he'll be at least partially responsible.
<< Home