Today’s featured game developer interview is from Muzzy Lane Software. David McCool, President of Muzzy Lane Software, and Ralph Gerth, Game Designer, share their insight on their work in the upcoming game, Making History II: The War of the World. Read on to find out what their experience and challenges are in creating a web-based game, their approach to games in a historical context, as well as what are some of their game influences.
Who are you and what do you do in the gaming industry?
Dave: My name is David McCool and I am President of Muzzy Lane Software. I am also the Producer for Making History II, a turn based grand strategy game we are developing and will be publishing in February 2010.
Ralph: My name’s Ralph Gerth. I work primarily as an art director/game artist but in the last several years I’ve also been the Making History game designer.
What are you currently working on or have recently released?
Dave: We are working on a number of projects at the moment. On the commercial side we are working on Making History II, a WWII grand strategy game with an innovative multiplayer solution. We are also working on Serious Games projects with a number of partners including McGraw Hill, DARPA, Health Games Research, and the Macarthur Foundation.
Ralph: We are in the process of finishing up a game called Making History II: The War of the World. It’s a WWII themed grand strategy game covering a broad variety of nation management gameplay.
What is the biggest difference making Web only games as opposed to standalone or console games?
Dave: One of the biggest challenges in making 3D games for the browser is getting access to hardware acceleration. Without that access the ability to render 3D, games is severely limited. We have developed technology that allows full 3D DirectX games to be run in a browser, including a back end service to allow multiplayer on the web. Our games can also run standalone on a PC. One difference with our engine is that we have integrated Javascript, which gives us the ability to create full hardware accelerated 3D games entirely in Javascript.
How do you like living and working in the Boston area, which has a large and growing gaming community?
Dave: I have lived in the Boston area since I came to MIT in 1982 and I love it. When we started Muzzy Lane in 2002 I was surprised to find out how many game companies were in the area, and it has only grown since then. The state has recently become very involved in promoting the game industry in Massachusetts, which really helps a small independent developer like us.
What game(s) are you currently playing?
Dave: Recent releases I have been playing include Dragon Age, Torchlight, and Solium Infernum. I also recently started playing Bioshock again – I’m hoping to finally finish it!
What is your favorite game you have every played on any console and why?
Dave: The console game that I have spent the most time playing would have to be Mario Kart. My daughters and I have played many hours and we always have a blast.
Which games are you looking forward to playing in the next year and why?
Dave: I am a big strategy gamer, so I’m really looking forward to StarCraft II, Victoria 2, and the Empire: Total War expansion. I’m also very curious to see what Civilization on Facebook looks like!
Ralph: Of course I’ll be playing Making History II but I’m also interested in Napoleon: Total War and the new Victoria II. Games that present an historical context or theme
What did you all learn from Making History I and are putting into Making History II?
Dave: Making History I was Muzzy Lane’s first game, so we learned a lot about the process of developing and publishing a game from that project. We learned the importance of settling the design early in the process and allowing enough time for content development and balancing.
Ralph: We definitely felt a need for a greater amount of game content and detail. Luckily Making History I was pretty solid as a game concept. So for the follow up MHII, we’ve been able to focus more on new features and aesthetics. The map has evolved from board-like look to a lusher 3D playing surface. We’ve also put a lot of work into crafting the nation AI to perform with more character specific qualities. The basic gameplay should still be recognizable to our current fan base except that every area of the game has received some measure of improvement.
Since you are close to your ship date of February 2nd, 2010, how long has the project taken and how many people are on the team currently?
Dave: We had a couple of false starts with Making History II, but the current project has been underway for about a year. The game team has varied but is about 6 full time developers/artists, and they are supported by our engine/platform team.
How do you plan on improving and supporting Making History II after its release?
Dave: We see Making History II as the first of a line of historical strategy games we plan to develop on our engine. Like with Making History I we will provide mod tools to the community and also release new scenarios ourselves. Since future products in the series (Cold War WWI, etc.) will build on the same codebase we will continue to patch and improve Making History II after its release.
What is next for you?
Dave: We plan to continue to release games that appeal to gamers with an interest in history. We will expand the Making History line with games in other time periods, such as the Cold War and World War I. We also plan to develop other games with similar appeal, perhaps moving into more tactical or role playing genres.
Anything else you want the Gaming Bits readers to know about Muzzy Lane Software or Making History II?
Dave: We had a couple of design goals for Making History II that we felt would differentiate it from the other WWII strategy games that are out there. First, we wanted to give players a full military/economic/diplomatic strategy game experience, not just a wargame. We also wanted to make multiplayer much more accessible and easy to use. Strategy games have their roots in board games, which were generally played by friends sitting around a table and interacting. When they moved to computers much of that was lost – multiplayer support in strategy games has been uneven at best over the years. We felt that by moving the game (including matchmaking, hosting, and notifications) to the web we could bring that back. Players can use our www.making-history.com social networking site to build friend lists, play games with them, and compare themselves against other players. The service allows for asynchronous multiplayer play, and notifies players by email when it is their turn. We feel that by taking advantage of the advances in social networking on the web we can bring a more enjoyable multiplayer experience to strategy gamers.
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Thanks to David McCool, Ralph Gerth, Luis Levy and Muzzy Lane Software for making this interview possible! See recent screenshots from Making History II here. Keep a lookout for more on Making History II here at the official website.
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