Master of Orion III Q&A
Our interview with Master of Orion III producer Constantine Hantzopoulos reveals new information about the game, including news of a delay.
The Master of Orion series has a long history dating back to 1994, when the first game was released and set the standard for modern space empire games. It's been quite a while since the second Master of Orion game was released in 1996, and Master of Orion III's designers at Quicksilver haven't been content to just do a graphical update of the earlier formula. While some of the team's ambitions were refocused when the game went through a major overhaul earlier this year, the new game will still have quite a few new features when it's released in a few weeks.
Master of Orion III is in the homestretch, and we recently caught up with the game's producer at Infogrames, Constantine Hantzopoulos, to find out the latest details on the project as it nears completion.
GameSpot: A lot has happened with Master of Orion III since Quicksilver shifted gears on the project earlier this year. Tell us, where does the game stand right now?
Constantine Hantzopoulos: We've been at art asset lock now for about three weeks and hit feature completion two weeks ago. We're just nailing down the last of the few crash bugs related to multiplayer, still doing some minor tuning on the user interface, and continuing to make minor tweaks to game balance. We are very close.
GS: There's been some talk about the release date slipping again. What's a realistic date to expect to see the game on shelves?
CH: Well, the game could go out right now, but unfortunately players would hit a few multiplayer crash bugs. I believe quality should be paramount, so we're going to hold the game until it's ready. We've missed our dates, but it's critical to have the multiplayer work out of the box.
It became clear to me a while back, when there was a lot of pressure to ship the game in November, that we would have to cut the multiplayer to ship the game in time, and then release it in a patch after game was out. I didn't want to do that. Of course, there'll be a patch. That's the way things work. But I want the patch to be about enhancements to the game based on players' feedback.
GS: Bottom line, is it going to miss the holiday season?
CH: I wouldn't say that. We just have a few more weeks of regression testing ahead of us. After making changes, we freeze the code and play the game all the way through. That's the only way to be sure a game is actually absolutely free of major bugs. Master of Orion III is a beast to test, with all the permutations to play through.
GS: What have been the biggest challenges as you've been approaching the feature-complete milestone?
CH: Making all the game's parts work within the whole and presenting it in an easy-to-understand fashion. Master of Orion III is very deep and allows you to play the game you want to play. It does not paint you into a corner by making you follow a linear path of play during your journey, and there's almost always an out of a particular sticky situation (and multiple at that). Balancing all that is, to put it bluntly, a gargantuan task.
In a way, Master of Orion III is a very personal experience. You are creating and telling your own story as you play--similar base experiences yet uniquely different approaches are what these kinds of games are all about. Talk to 10 people about a similar base experience, say going to war, and they'll each give you 10 different answers on how they dealt with it: Spies. Sanctions. Embargo. Enforced peace. I crushed them all. Total war via Senate bill. Complete space combat/planetary bombardment smack down from the (really large) New Orion Fleet (which also happens to start with just about every tech).
GS: What are some of the components in the game that have most changed in recent months?
CH: If by components you mean features, not much--just lots of tuning and balancing. We did our big overhaul last February and ever since then have been working towards seeing that vision through.
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- Atari
- Quicksilver Soft.
- Sci-Fi Turn-Based...
- Release: Feb 25, 2003 »
- ESRB: Teen
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