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Part 1: The Countdown Begins
Westwood Studios President Brett Sperry says Tiberian Sun will be done "in 48 hours."
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It's a sweltering July afternoon just off exit 82B in Northwest Las Vegas, Nevada. Down the road from a local high school in a stark residential neighborhood, Westwood Studios president Brett W. Sperry stands in the corridors of the company's gray office building with a look of anticipation and urgency on his boyish face. "We're probably going to be done in 48 hours," he says. As Sperry slides his hands into the pockets of his stonewashed blue jeans, producer Rade Stojsavljevic briskly walks through the corridor, bug list in hand. He's heading for conference room three, where the design team for Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun will hopefully meet for the last time. Seeing his producer walk through the corridor, Sperry gently glances up and puts his left hand on the back of his neck, as if to brace himself for the oncoming reality. "This is just surreal," he says, pausing to exhale slowly. "Four years of our lives, and it's all coming down to this!"
Associate producer Rade Sotjsavljevic (far left) meets with the design team.
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As Stojsavljevic approaches the conference room, he proudly proclaims the bug list he's holding is mica-thin. Walking through the halls, one half-expects George Harrison to pop out with an acoustic guitar to sing Here Comes the Sun in his barbershop-quartet-primed voice. But perhaps it isn't necessary, as Westwood knows the sun is close to breaking on the horizon. "Last week we fixed about 150 bugs," says Stojsavljevic, "and we're getting down to the last couple of dozen." As he enters through the conference room door to see lead designer Adam Isgreen and designers John Archer and Michael Lightner, he knows the end is near. "Yesterday I had to bring in three dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for the testers," he says, admitting he lost a bet with a tester who found a pesky bug.
Designer Pat Pannullo (far left) arrives, Starbucks in hand.
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The producer and designers sit down around the wooden table to go over the remaining issues. As Stojsavljevic begins to read the list, designer Pat Pannullo walks in, sipping a newly purchased Starbucks beverage. Asked if he needs the caffeine to keep going, he replies with a rhetorical, "Doesn't everyone?" Pannullo takes his seat to hear the latest bug reports.
Sotjsavljevic (left) goes over the bug list with designer Michael Lightner.
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"OK guys, the first thing is that we are going to do a release candidate tonight," says Stojsavljevic. There's almost an unspoken sigh of relief. Then, the list of squashed bugs is read, one by one. "Fixed, fixed, fixed," goes the cadence. Then there's a change of pace. "Well, we just fixed the bug where the GDI Orca Carryall could use its grappling hook to pick up enemy troops and transport them," says Stojsavljevic with a slight grin on his face. The designers all chuckle, self-deprecatingly.
Tiberian Sun takes warfare into the heart of urban metropolises.
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The laughter of the designers drifts into the halls of Westwood, where it swirls with the underlying tension that hovers over the entire building, and justly so. Tiberian Sun, the highly anticipated follow-up to 1995's Command and Conquer, is the biggest PC game of 1999. Day one, it will ship out an unprecedented 2.2 million copies around the world. By the end of its first weekend on store shelves, it will likely set a sales record that would make, if such a thing were possible, Hollywood blockbusters blush. But today, those factors seem unimportant. There may be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but the sun has yet to shine into the mist to create a multicolored arc to victory. First, Westwood has to finish the game.
The Mammoth Mark II with its dual rail guns is one of the many new units in Tiberian Sun.
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Heightening the urgency to finish, Westwood has promised retailers and consumers worldwide the game will be on store shelves August 27. It's a date they committed to back in May. "Back then we said we were going to be done July 1," admits VP of marketing Laura Miele. "But here we are at the end of the month, and we still don't have our gold master," she rues. How ever, there is a silver lining. "The good news is that we're incredibly close. We really think we're going to make it," she says, as if to convince herself the largest PC launch in history isn't going to go up in smoke because the game isn't done.
Tiberian Sun continues the epic struggle between the GDI and Nod factions.
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But luckily, the tension, anticipation, laughter, and hard work will pay off - the game will be done within the next 48 hours. From squashing the final bugs to a frantic last-minute trip across the Atlantic on the Concord, these are the final hours of Tiberian Sun…and a preview of where Command and Conquer is going next!
Next:
Commanding the Market
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