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CTP1: Interview with Mark Lamia
What is your involvement in the development of "Civilization: Call To Power"?
I'm the Producer. The Producer is in charge of team operations. It's my job to acquire the resources necessary to implement the vision, manage it and do whatever it takes to keep us moving forward according to plan.
What is your personal history with Civilization-style games?
Civilization II is, in my opinion, the greatest computer game ever made. Producing a Civilization: Call to Power is literally a dream come true.
On what other games have you worked on in the past?
I have worked on a number of games in various production capacities , ranging from games in the MechWarrior II series, Zork series, Interstate '76, and Dark Reign amongst others.
When did this team start to work on CTP? There were rumors for a long time but we first heard confirmation about it in June, if we remember right.
Design and pre-Production work began in September of 1997. By January of 1998 we were in full-blown Production.
Until now what was the hardest and the most fun part in the creation of the game for you?
The hardest part for me about creating CTP has been making decisions on the project that put limitations on our design or creative possibilities due to the economic and commercial realities involved in delivering the game within our budget and schedule.
It would be difficult to pinpoint the most fun part of this production. But I would have to say, it all comes down to the people. The opportunity to work with such creative, talented, and intelligent professionals day in and day out during the creation of this game is very exciting. There is no greater feeling as a producer, then when you are working with truly great team creating something that you all have a passion for.
The press seems to love C:CTP so far, and there is a very good response from the fans also. What is the impact of all that on the team?
The team loves it! Their working very hard to make this the best game possible. To hear positive feedback from fans makes it all worthwhile.
Tell us a bit about the C:CTP team and its people. How many people work on C:CTP?
The Civ: CTP team is an amazing group of very talented developers that have worked on games in almost every conceivable computer gaming genre. They are completely dedicated to the mission of making CTP the best game possible.
The number of people working exclusively on the project at any given stage during the production varies from 10-25 with 2-4 outside contractors, who have their own production personnel.
Is C:CTP being developed entirely by employees of Activision or has their been outsourcing of tasks?
The design and programming are all being done in-house, along with the majority of the Art. Most of the CG movies for the wonders and the Intro and outro movies were done by Creat Studios in St. Petersburg, Russia. Most of our modeling was done by Viewpoint Datalabs in Utah. Some of the sound effects were done in-house and some out of house. Music was composed by 2 different contractors out of house.
Speaking of balance, some units and wonders in CivII are just too powerful. With C:CTP extending until 3000AD it must be really hard to balance the game, or not?
There is no doubt about it. Civilization: Call to Power is huge! Balancing this game is extremely difficult and time consuming. The powerful special units you mention, are just one part of an extremely large balancing plan that has to account for many other factors which are even more difficult to account for and balance. It is a tremendous undertaking that you can be sure our designers are working very hard on.
Can you tell us a bit about the artificial intelligence being developed for C:CTP?
I'll save that for when you interview our Lead Programmer. Needless to say, were going all out to make sure it rocks!
It was announced a little while ago that the beta testing of C:CTP would be made internally and not public. Can you be specific as to why this decision was made?
Logistics mostly. Being able to meaningfully process all of the information that could come from a large external beta test would inhibit us from getting the necessary feedback that beta testers provide. However, I have been working on a solution to this, where we could let external beta testers test, but restrict the numbers so that their feedback could be heard. Stay tuned.
Are there any plans to release a playable demo of C:CTP before or after its release?
Presently we are discussing doing a demo for post-release.
Do you have any definite plans on porting C:CTP in other platforms?
Nothing definite, but the Macintosh platform looks promising, as well as a Linux port.
Finally, is everything according to schedule?
While the team has done a fantastic job meeting its milestones to date, the play balance period is going to require more time. As you know by now, we have decided that a Holiday release would not be the best thing for the game, and that more time for play balancing would be best for the product.
That was all ladies and gentlemen. The Mac and Linux fans can hope for a better future. 
Our next interview is with Steve Mariotti, CTP's Lead Programmer.