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George Geczy
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Canada
Jun 2002
time: 05:16
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Hi all - it's been a while since I've had a chance to come by to apolyton, but I thought it worth a quick visit now that our game has 'gone gold' (ie gone in to manufacturing). I'm the Lead Programmer for BattleGoat Studios, the developers of Supreme Ruler 2010.
Interestingly, as if five years of development wasn't enough of a challenge, the biggest task we have now is getting the word out to people about SR2010, so I'm glad it got some notice over here. A lot of stores, distributors, magazines etc all seem to be concentrating just on the 'big' titles and things like first person shooters, etc. Some titles with a history (Civ, the Paradox stuff) gets noticed, but otherwise strategy gamers are getting ignored.
Yes, as noted above in this thread, Supreme Ruler 2010 was a very ambitious project - but I think we've managed to pull it off. (Of course, I am a bit biased...) We've had a half dozen good previews, already won a 'best of show' award at E3, and a few other tidbits, but of course the real test will be real gamers like yourselves. We've also been in a very large beta for about a year (!), something that has also helped in making sure this game actually PLAYS well, and not just looks good on the spec sheet.
I'm sure not everyone will like our choices - for example, we went for 'good gameplay' graphics instead of fancy 3D units with particle-physics explosions, etc. But overall I think this is a strategy game that players of this genre should at least take a look at.
One comment from the thread above that I had to smile at was regarding "its easy to boast thousands of units, yet often all that means is slightly different numbers that get rounded up into a simple strength vs defence roll for the entire stack and has no meaningful effect." Being the lead programmer for SR2010, it was my job to make sure that this never happened, and I can assure you that in our game it doesn't. The point I often like to make is that SR2010's battle results do NOT use a random number generator at all - there are SO many different variables that are considered behind the scenes, that it is not humanly possibly to predict the exact outcome of a single battle, and so no random numbers were required. (For example, an attack of 5 tanks against 3 infantry is not only affected by the unit attack/defense values, but there's also unit efficiency, morale, terrain, close combat, entrenchment, facilities, artillery support, overall readyness, and a few more). But the real elegance is the fact that these elements are not "in your face" micromanagement issues; they are all simulated in the outcome, but the player isn't forced to deal with all the depth if they don't want to.
And that doesn't even touch on the economic, diplomatic, and political elements of the game.
I'll try to check back here again soon if there are any questions; our own website (at www.supremeruler2010.com ) will be getting an update shortly with more details on game features, though there are also a lot of discussions about the game at our forum (at www.bgforums.com ). The game should be hitting store shelves in North America by the middle of May. (Our coverage in Europe is much more limited, unfortunately, see my ranting at the start of this post for the reasons!)
-- George.
- George Geczy, Lead Programmer, BattleGoat Studios
PS - with it having taken 5 years to get this far, I haven't really starting making in-depth plans for the release date of SR1936 :-)
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29-04-2005 10:21
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