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IronManBeta -> Greetings All! (7/29/2002 10:18:12 PM)
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My name is Robert Crandall and I'm the lead developer for Flashpoint Germany. Not too many people will have heard of me (well, no one really) so I thought I'd introduce myself and get the ball rolling.
I bought my first computer in 1978 (Apple 2+ with 48k RAM) and the second thing that I did with it was to start writing wargames. 24 years later and I'm still doing it (some people never learn...) albeit on an evenings and weekends basis. My day job writing HR software sucks - not nearly enough creativity involved - so I putter about with a string of titles that I have been researching and programming for years. During one glorius period I managed to release three titles with Simulations Canada and I thank the several dozen people out there who purchased them.
Like many, my ears perked up when I learned of the new relationship between Matrix and SimCan last fall. A casual inquiry via Paul Webber as to how it was going translated with blinding speed into a contract to bring the MBT Germany series back to life. (Visualize a deer pinned in the headlights here.) Mercifully, David Heath and Steven Newberg of SimCan were both wonderfully supportive (but not actually terribly fussy about how I went about it) and progress has been swift. I can say it was a genuine delight to finally see all the original C source code for Central Germany and Northern Germany and really come to appreciate the many subtleties involved. I hope that I can do justice to the original design. (Flashback to deer here.)
Steven, bless him, has a remarkably clear memory of the design issues that occured 13 years ago and is able to keep me on track. Those of you who know the original games will find a lot that looks familiar. Of course there have been a few changes too - DOS text mode (remember that?) is banished forever and David has allowed me considerable freedom to exploit the graphical interface to the hilt. Check out the coming screenshots to see what I mean.
This will be a collaborative effort so the esteemed Iain Christie will be highly involved with the maps and the very capable Marc S will be (re)doing a lot of the UI graphics. We will also get expert help for populating the database and setting up some killer scenarios. We want to make the user-created scenarios a particular strength of the game.
My mandate, broadly speaking, is to bring the SimCan MBT series back to life. The original games as published constitute my detailed specification but I can press on into new areas where actual events have revealed new interpretations or where the limiations of the computers of the era prevented a detailed treatment. Interpreting this somewhat liberally, I feel that I have pretty wide latitude with the game. My desire is to focus on the integrity of the player viewpoint and create a fast moving game that is full of surprises and can swing either way right to the very last turn. I do _not_ want an exercise in micro-management or 'ultra realism' that eviscerates game play. There is a place for that, of course, but I consider that to be a Simulation (another market entirely) and I'm working on a Game!
In light of all this, feedback is desired and appreciated! Steve and David are the final arbiters of the feature list of course, but I am keen to consider any reasonable suggestion that comes along that fits the existing concept. This will doubtless be a long range project, so there is ample scope for useful changes beyond the first release. Matrix takes the long view and we will want to keep this title going a long time....
Anyway, it's time to return to said boring day job. I look forward to the future and conversing with many of you about this exciting new title in the months to come.
Cheers all, Rob.
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