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| Apolyton: |
Being one of the two remaining BHG founders to be interviewed on our site, please
introduce us to yourself and to your work on BHG and RoN.
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| Dave Inscore: |
As the VP of Graphics, I'm the "art guy", responsible for the look and feel
of all things art in the game, as well as the care and feeding of Big Huge's
extremely talented art department. I also care and feed the fish in the Big
Huge fish tank. I've known the other founders from back
in 1995 when I started in the industry as an intern with MicroProse. I
joined Brian, Jason, and Tim at Firaxis for several years, and then formed
Big Huge with those guys in March of 2000. Although my work on RoN includes
general art direction, I try to spend as much time as possible working on
in-game art--that's what I really enjoy doing, and I'm fortunate to work
with a group of people who are very self-motivated and able to work
independently. At the moment, I'm plowing through game interface work with
fellow artist Brian Busatti and intern Dan Halka.
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| Apolyton: |
You have followed the same route with several other people: Microprose - Firaxis - BHG. Do gaming developers move together
in groups or something? :)
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| Dave Inscore: |
We tend to remain in small, close-knit groups, very similar to the isolated
island leper colony in the film, Papillon. When any outsider arrives we ask
them to kiss a wart on the playtest intern's finger before they're accepted
into our group. It's standard operating procedure.
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| Apolyton: |
You have done worked on all kinds of games: fantasy (Magic: The
Gathering) science fiction (Alpha Centauri) and historical
(Gettysburg). Which was more difficult?
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| Dave Inscore: |
The most difficult would have to be Alpha Centauri. At the time, I'd played
few turn-based games and found myself, along with fellow BHG'er Jason
Coleman, tasked with re-working the entire interface paradigm in the last 4
months of the project. As I'm sure the readers of Apolyton are aware, the
amount of information that needs to be displayed in a turn-based game dwarfs
nearly all other game genres. It was quite a challenge but I'm very proud of
the end product.
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| Apolyton: |
And which was more fun?
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| Dave Inscore: |
Easy question... Rise of Nations. I've been hooked on real-time strategy
games since the very first Command and Conquer. It is an absolute joy to
work on a game that captures the fast-paced elements of the RTS genre while
mixing in the thoughtful depth and complexity of the turn based world (...I
doubt you'll believe me when I say that response was NOT taken from a
marketing memo ;-)
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| Apolyton: |
Which are the graphical challenges for Rise of Nations?
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| Dave Inscore: |
Once you calculate all of the historical units, with their various racial
and ethnic variations, RoN should have upwards of 450 distinct units. As our
unit lead, Bill Podurgiel can attest, this has been the biggest graphical
challenge so far, but one the BHG art department is very proud of.
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| Apolyton: |
RoN has been "accused" of looking too much like AOE. Is that something
that cant be avoided or was it done in purpose? Or just not true?
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| Dave Inscore: |
Seeing our all new 3D game engine in action tends to dispel notions of being
overly similar. Screenshots do not do the graphics or the engine justice.
Watching a group of MLRS's lay siege to a city, fighter planes engaged in a
dogfight, Bombers dropping their payload over a metropolis, flame throwers
lighting up an enemy factory, and machine gun groups emptying round after
round go a long way towards differentiating the two titles. And by the way,
if you get the chance to drop a nuke on a pesky neighbor you should be
thoroughly satisfied by the resulting fireworks. Of course, Age and RoN are
both historical real-time strategy games, so there's going to be some
overlap just in terms of subject matter.
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| Apolyton: |
So far we only have seen in-game shots. Will we see some smac-style
cool artwork in RoN?
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| Dave Inscore: |
Keep an eye out on our website www.riseofnations.com. In the coming months
we'll be releasing more concept sketches, storyboards, and cinematic shots
from our opening movie. We're also putting together a much more
comprehensive fansite kit that should contain even more of the above.
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| Apolyton: |
Are you doing any research in order for the appearance of the units,
buildings, etc to be historically accurate?
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| Dave Inscore: |
Ted Terranova, our building lead and owner of the coolest name at Big Huge,
uses his architectural degree from Carnegie Mellon University along with his
keen artistic eye to establish the look and feel for our buildings. Before
unleashing the team on a particular building set, Ted will scour the net as
well as Amazon.com for books and various other source material. He'll then
compose a style
sheet of 15 to 20 images that will act as the roadmap for the other building
artists. This ensures that the entire building team is on the same page with
regards to style and design. We've found it to be so successful that the
unit team now works in much the same way.
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| Apolyton: |
Will you have leaders' artwork like SMAC and Civ3? If yes, please tell
me you're doing a more accurate Alexander :D
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| Dave Inscore: |
We are not planning any leader artwork at this time. We'd rather spend our
time doing more cool in-game units and special effects.
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| Apolyton: |
You have different buildings styles for each nation. What
happens when a city is conquered?
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| Dave Inscore: |
When you conquer a city, the artwork remains unchanged, partly to give a
sense of historical perspective to the conquest of nations, and partly
because it would look strange to have a city go back and forth between
sides, changing artwork all the way.
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| Apolyton: |
After SMAC were you bored of TBS games (just like Brian ;)) or is it
the same from the artist's point of view?
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| Dave Inscore: |
SMAC was a challenging and fun project and I'm extremely proud to have been
a part of that development team. However, I've always been an RTS player
first and foremost. When I was presented with the opportunity to work on an
RTS title alongside Brian, Tim & Jason I jumped at the chance.
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| Apolyton: |
And the most crucial question: what is your favorite civ game? :)
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| Dave Inscore: |
Favorite Civ game: SMAC
Not that you asked but here are a few other favorites...
Favorite RTS game other that Rise of Nations: Command and Conquer (the
original in all it's 320x240 glory)
Favorite racing game: Gran Turismo 3 for PS2
Favorite Olympic sport: Curling. It's truly chess on ice.
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