GameSpot: You published Kyrandia with Virgin, and that soon led to Dune II. Did the Dune interface stem from the same frustrations that resulted in Kyrandia's accessible point-and-click format?
Louis: I was more hooked on the real-time aspects of strategy games. I liked being pressed to make decisions quickly. Brett was the guy focused on interface back then. Dune was his game.
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Many believe that Westwood's Dune II helped usher in the real-time-strategy genre. |
Brett: I was really interested in the real-time dynamic. Even Eye of the Beholder with SSI was an experiment in doing a good real-time dungeon game, and it was heavily influenced by Wayne Holder's work on Dungeon Master, an Atari ST game that worked great in real time. Eye of the Beholder was a big moment for me, both creatively and commercially - it was our first megahit.
But yes, Dune II was a result of those early struggles with interface and design. It was an intellectual puzzle for me: How can we take this really small wargame category, bring in some fresh ideas, and make it a fun game that more gamers can play? It was a what-if scenario.
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Westwood's Eye of the Beholder was another game built with an accessible gameplay interface. |
GameSpot: And Command & Conquer was sort of a natural progression from Dune II, right?
Brett: Yes, Dune II was all about taking on the challenge of combining two dynamics together. So the mechanic of C&C was really an extension of Dune II - making it more accessible.
C&C was a game built on the concept of how we like to outwit other people. We wanted players to figure out the rules quickly and then have fun surprising themselves and opponents. It's the same concept
as a fighting game with the special moves - living on the edge. That's really what C&C is all about.
Louis: Absolutely. Again, Brett was doing C&C while I did SNES games and Monopoly. C&C has been and always will be his baby.
GameSpot: What about the whole GDI vs.
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Brett Sperry and the crew at Westwood celebrate the release of Command and Conquer in 1995. |
Nod story? How quickly did it come together?
Brett: The story came together pretty quick. We just wanted to make something very hip, and I had a lot of help from Eydie Laramore. It was a great collaboration.
The C&C story is very deep; there's a lot I have yet to reveal about the conflict between Nod and GDI.
