Regroup and Recharge
Taylor's abrupt departure from Cavedog took everyone by surprise. "Chris did leave very suddenly, and it was a shock," says Gilbert. Kauzlaric admits, "It was pretty quiet around here for a while after Chris left, because we all had to look at his departure and wonder what it meant to all of us and the chemistry of the team."
Compare the art style of the original Total Annihilation to...
With Taylor off to start his own venture, Cavedog was caught in a quagmire: Where does the series go from here? Clearly no one at the company anticipated Taylor's departure, and as such, the TA team of some 30-odd individuals was left without a leader, and the question of whether to do a sequel was still up in the air.
Kingdoms would give the team a break from the robotic sci-fi realm of TA and let them flex their creative muscles with new creatures, sides, and terrain.
Shortly after Taylor left, lead artist Kauzlaric went to Gilbert with an idea for a new Total Annihilation game, one that would be more of a sister product than a sequel. Everyone at Cavedog was a fan of fantasy games and novels, and Kauzlaric's idea was to do a new RTS with a strong fantasy theme, while still maintaining the key aspects of what made Total Annihilation such a great game. The project would give the team a break from the robotic sci-fi realm and allow them to flex their creative muscles with new creatures, sides, and terrain. Although Gilbert had initially planned on beginning work on a true sequel to TA, he liked Kauzlaric's idea so much that it was immediately green-lighted. The name of the game would be Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, and Clayton Kauzlaric would be in charge.
...the 3D-accelerated world of TA: Kingdoms, due in 1999 from Cavedog.
"It wasn't like I stood up and beat my chest, proclaiming 'Me Leader!'" says Kauzlaric. But once Gilbert gave the go-ahead for Kingdoms, Kauzlaric was the obvious choice to become the new project leader. "Everyone here at Cavedog really likes Clayton," says Gilbert, "so he was a natural choice." When asked whether he can adequately fill Taylor's shoes, Kauzlaric is both diplomatic and confident. "Visions can be transferred to a team - Chris was a great evangelist for what makes a good game, and everyone on the team learned a lot from him."
