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Interview: Bill Roper on publisher negotiations, 2D vs. 3D, game developer struggles.
Date: February 24, 2004
Source: FSSPlanet.de (Dead site.)

FSSPlanet Interview

FSSPlanet: The last weeks we heard that you already are in final negotiations with a publisher. Did you already get a final one?

Bill Roper: We are hoping to have an announcement about who we will be working with as a publisher in the near future. We had the opportunity to meet with a great number of publishers and were very impressed with the obvious dedication and focus on releasing quality products that is prevalent in the industry. We were exceptionally fortunate to have the breadth of choices in regards to a publishing partner and we're excited about where we are headed in this regard.

FSSPlanet: How big is the Flagship studios crew and how is the temper in the team?

Bill Roper: There are nine of us and since we all worked together at Blizzard North for many years, we have had a great time getting things started with our new company. Since we're focusing on a single game, and it's still early in the development process, we're starting with a very solid core group of designers, programmers and artists. One of the best things about the core team that we have put together is that we already know how to make a game together. We feel fortunate to have the nine people that we do as the foundation for the company - as developers and as people.

FSSPlanet: Maybe you can already say something about the architecture of your first game; will it be designed in ISO perspective, as Diablo is, or in 3D?

Bill Roper: We are looking to do some very different things with this game than on our previous projects, and to that end we built our own 3D engine up and running. 3D programming tools, the knowledge base, and the video cards are so much more advanced now then they were even three years ago that this had made our job easier in some regards, and more challenging in others. We really think it is best to have the game design drive the technology as opposed to the other way around. Just because there may be an utterly amazing piece of technology out there available to license, that may not be the best thing for the design of the game. 3D gaming and graphics have come a long way over the past few years and it's exciting to be working in such a dynamic and growing field.

FSSPlanet: When you'll setup a German mirror of the website and will there also be a German community board?

Bill Roper: We definitely will be looking to increase the global accessibility of our website, as well as our game, and I anticipate this is the type of thing we will be able to focus on over the next year. We definitely know the importance and passion of the German gaming community, and we want to make sure that we are staying in touch with those players as best we can.

FSSPlanet: When will you be able to show us some ingame impressions of the game?

Bill Roper: This is obviously the kind of thing we will want to time with the announcement of the game and coordinate with our publisher. We work in a very organic development environment where the game is always up and running, and so we're both putting in entirely new areas and systems while tweaking and tuning the game. When we do start sharing the game in detail, we want to make sure there is a representative amount of images and information so that people will have an excellent vision of what we are creating. So, while it may not be for a while yet, when it happens, we will be putting a lot out there.

FSSPlanet: Will your first game work on low-end computers, like the blizzard games?

Bill Roper: We have always had a dedication to supporting the “lower end” systems, and this game will be no different in that regard. We feel that someone went out and bought a computer today, they should be able to play the game we are working on. Also, one of our programmers does a lot of work on his laptop, so our game HAS to run for him!

FSSPlanet: Flagshipstudios.com was registered in 2000. Did you register the domain then because you had plans to found your own company in the near future?

Bill Roper: Actually, after we decided on the name, we found that the domain was already owned by someone else. We called him up and worked out a deal to secure the URL from him so that we could have the website address that matched our company name. We honestly didn't plan on starting a new company until after we found out we were leaving Blizzard.

FSSPlanet: At the moment, the German community is still quite small. Because you have good experiences from Blizzard, when do you think this will change?

Bill Roper: We certainly hope so, and we'll do whatever we can to encourage its growth. I have had the good fortune of visiting Germany on numerous occasions and have found the gaming community there to be vibrant and incredibly excited about both single and multiplayer gaming. And of course, the best board games in the world come from Germany , so we need to do maintain a strong connection to the gaming community there.

FSSPlanet: The game market has changed very much. The games are getting more and more complex, there are many clones of older games. What do you think of this unfolding and what do you think will happen in the next few years?

Bill Roper: We'll keep seeing clones, and we'll see budgets continue to climb on the top titles. What we are seeing in the games industry is very similar to the film industry over the past 20 years. Fortunately that also means we'll see some great indie titles breaking into the consciousness of gamers as well as the expected sequels and franchises that have become a staple of gaming.

FSSPlanet: Many game developers went bankrupt in the last years. Why do you think this happened and what will you do to success?

Bill Roper: Starting any new business is a difficult and risky proposition, and the large amount of financial investment in the development of games makes this a very volatile industry. The amount of money that can be spent on making games can lead companies to make their budgets as tight as possible. If the development process takes longer than expected, and especially if they are self-funding or using a non-standard model for financing their game, the lack of enough funding to complete the game can drive a company to close. Also, the advance against royalty model can work against a developer if they get just enough to make it to shipping the game, but then cannot stay in business for the 3-9 months it may take to start getting royalties. Planning out your company finances for a period of 3-5 years in this industry is very challenging, and it is no surprise that, combined with other issues such as changing development platform, rapidly advancing technology and changing distribution models, that so many companies fail.