Question: Vanguard was first shown at E3 a couple of years ago and then, true to your word in 2004, it was on the floor at E3 in 2005. Has the game changed in any ways between then and now?
Brad: “I would say, for the most part, the vision, the core design, has stayed very much the same as we planned initially. Certainly, in beta, as we have received feedback on our systems, what’s fun about this, what’s not so fun about this. We’ve made some changes but as far as the fundamental core of the game, I’m pretty proud as to how …”
Jeff: “We’ve gone through it so many times. These development cycles are so long that one of the biggest dangers you can fall prey to is a lack of focus in terms of what your IP is, your thought processes and your philosophies. So we sat down, and we were six guys in that 1,000-square-foot building, we could pull up the design schemes and I could show you that our ancient documents that dictate what our philosophy for how we wanted our ranged combat to be …”
Brad: “Some things got more fleshed out. We had come very original ideas. We said we want this, we want …”
Jeff: “Diplomacy is a great example of what we said we wanted to implement …”
Brad: “… when it came time to actually implement it in code, then you go from a high-level design to a lower-level design and adapting it so the designers can deliver it in the program. And then you look at those, talk to different people and actually implement them. But nothing fundamentally, as far as the realization or fleshing out of those ideas relative to how the game is progressing, relative to how technology is, what we hoped was possible with our engine that either turned out to be not as possible, or – more often than not – more doable. Oftentimes we were able to exceed our expectations, what was very rewarding.” |
