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Interview: Bill Roper on plans for Flagship's first game, gaming industry idols, and community support.
Date: February 17, 2004
Source: inGame.de

inGame Interview

inGame: There are games, which are very innovative and groundbreaking. (Wolfenstein: first shooter; C&C: Click and Command). Is the first game of the Flagship-Studios supposed to bring completely new aspects into Games, even to be revolutionary? Or will you stick to successful principles in order to lower the risk of a total flop at the start of your company. (Somelike it went with Black&White, which was very innovative but turned out to be flop after some time.)

Bill Roper: Our game idea is something we really haven’t seen done yet, so in that way I do think it is somewhat revolutionary. At the same time, there are specific design philosophies in how we pace game play, reward players, structure interface and so forth that will provide a real connectivity to the games we have done in the past – although we are always looking at ways to innovate and refine even tried and true methodology. We don’t want to chase our past successes, although we strive to learn from both our achievements and our failures to improve our development processes and our games.

iG: Is your budget for the game less than you were used to in the past or have you an amount of resources and methods that is equal to the one you had when you made d2 and wc? Is it possible to create a blockbuster with a small budget in this time?

BR: We are fortunate enough to have built a track record where we can work with budgets similar to those we had while at Blizzard, and I do think that larger budgets are somewhat essential for creating “blockbuster” games. This is not to say, however, that excellent games that do extremely well both in the marketplace and with critics cannot be made with smaller budgets. What it always comes down to is the core game play mechanics and how easy and enjoyable it is for gamers to play your game.

iG: Will there be a philosophy in your new games just like Blizzard had some? For example: "Easy to learn, hard to master" and "its done when its done".

BR: Both of those philosophies are just a part of the way we have always approached the design and creation of games, so they will certainly stay with us. We will also try some new ways of designing games, managing our team, and even thinking about tools sets and systems within the game. But the core philosophies and tenets we have worked with for the past 10 years will always be a part of any game we do.

iG: Did you have an idol in the game industry in the past, alternatively with which person would you like to work with and why? (i.e. Carmack or Molyneux..)

BR: There are a handful of people in our industry who I would love to basically intern with – so sit at their feet, so to speak, and watch what they do and how they do it. My short list would consist of Peter Molyneux, John Carmack, Will Wright, Sid Meier, Warren Spector and Shigeru Miyamoto. I feel extremely fortunate to have grown up in this industry working with the top two Blizzard designers (in my mind) Allen Adham and Dave Brevik, and having the chance to take this next step in my professional life with the guys we have at Flagship Studios is really somewhat of a dream come true.

iG: In your new game, will the player follow a linear story or has he to run around until he meets a NPC to get a quest? Will it be rather a competitive game like WarCraft or Unreal?

BR: It is still a little early for us to delve into specifics of the game design, but our intention is to make it clear to the player at all times what they need to do. We do like interaction with the world, whether that be NPCs or in being able to blow stuff up, so you can bet we’ll have a lot of both.

iG: Has the new game a complete new storyline without any orcs, trolls or demons like Diablo? Did you create a completely new story?

BR: We are creating an entirely new world for our game, although it is unlike anything we have done before in the vast majority of ways. We like a dark, edgy universe and a clearly definable line between good and evil, for the most part, so these will play a central part in developing the place where our game is set. We are also looking to put the game somewhere familiar, but not the same. How’s THAT for a mysterious answer?

iG: Imagine the case, your upcoming game will be a hit and immediately place itself in the sales list. Would you start another "universum" or keep concentrating on the first game and design a sequel?

BR: I think no matter what our goal is to build a great game and the universe around it before moving onto a second world. We are all excited about the range of possibilities with our game and world design, and can see ourselves playing around here for a long, long time.

iG: Since now many fansites have established to serve the world with information about your firm and more are expected to join in, when the game will be announced. How do you arrange with that pressure and what do you think about the yet huge community?

BR: We want to stay as connected as possible with our community of gamers, even at this early stage of the company and game’s development. We have a great initial core of fan sites, all of whom are as excited about what we’re doing as we are. I am really looking forward to when we can be delving into the specifics of the game and really giving the people who are already such great supporters of our efforts some real info to chew on.

iG: As we are a WoW-Site, we just have to ask something related to that... does WoW having the potential to beat - later on - even Diablo 2 in matters of community? Or do you see danger in another game that could hand water to WoW? If so, which one is it? Maybe one of yours?

BR: I think World of Warcraft has the potential to be a truly fantastic and well-loved game. Its look and feel is really something special, and one of the things I honestly miss about being at Blizzard is the opportunity to throw ideas and comments back to the design team because I would be playing the game! I think that the community it builds for itself will, in part, be shared with Diablo II, but I do not think it will supplant it because the two games are very different in concept and execution. What I hope for is that WoW builds the interest in the MMORPG space and that they send me a copy!

iG: First of all, thanks for the interview. Is there something you always wanted to say, but never had the chance to? This is your chance!

BR: I feel fortunate in that I have always been able to reach out and communicate freely with the wonderful community that have formed around our games. I would like to say something incredibly important to everyone who has ever played and enjoyed our games that I may have said in some ways, but never this simply. Thank you. We make games that we want to play, but your acceptance and dedication to our ideas really means a lot to us as a creative team, and we hope that we’ll all be playing together again soon.