Meta Flashback: Metagamers Second Interview With Echelon Software
Posted on 22. May, 2008 by Jonnymovgamer in Interviews
The questions were answered by Jon Chang, President of Echelon Software. (Thank you for the interview).
1. How is Black Powder, Red Earth coming along?
We’re doing fairly well. It took a bit longer than expected to add the polish we wanted to the demo level but we’re finally there. The Unreal Engine tools are pretty amazing, but like any new tool, it takes a bit of time to really push the capabilities to their limits and there’s always more to learn ^_^
The integrated social/commercial networking elements have also evolved quite a bit as well. We are really tuning and adding elements to make us more than a game where you can buy guns online. The web component of our game is a fairly rich experience and in some ways, a whole other game to itself.
2. Is there an estimate as to when this game might be available?
It really depends on when we get funded. For the time being we’re still 4 guys working on it and taking in outside work to keep the lights on and pay rent, feed ourselves, etc.
3. How many developers are working on Black Powder, Red Earth?
4 full time and 4 part time. We’re also working with some partner studios to provide assets in areas where we couldn’t find local people that shared our vision. Most notably Production IG and Simply Dynamic Tactical.
4. How has the feedback from people awaiting the game been for Black Powder, Red Earth?
Well we’ve had some play testers and the feedback has generally been good, but honestly no one outside of 3 or 4 of us have really experienced the full game. We normally limit our tests to very specific things, like weapons balance or new field tech, so we can control and see what effect every new element has on game play.
One of the biggest changes we made was to push the game in a more scifi direction. It freed us up to do a lot of cool things we were coming up with during/after play tests without trying to keep everything “realistic” which we found was unattainable anyway.
5. Back on June 25, Echelon Software released the first in game shots and first trailer for Black Powder, Red Earth. When will you be releasing new screenshots of the game?
Not sure. Honestly, we wish we hadn’t released those shots as we were just excited to show progress. The company should have held out a bit longer and done a complete and polished presentation (which is what we’re working towards now). Honestly, the market is unforgiving and releasing stuff prematurely is one of the biggest mistakes anyone can make. When you see BPRE again, it will be near finished quality.
6. How many players will Black Powder, Red Earth be?
It’s multiplayer and that’s all we’re saying for now 
7. How will single player levels compare with multiplayer levels, assuming there will be multiplayer of course.
Actually, our initial release is multiplayer only. To create a rich single player experience, we would need a lot more $ and people to produce a useful demo by today’s standards. We discovered when meeting with people that showing a game demo these days is nothing like it used to be. The first thing everyone cared about was graphics and how good they looked. Gameplay was honestly a secondary concern. If you look at today’s top billed FPS games, they are all pushing graphics with only “minor” evolutions in gameplay.
I’ve been told that most games we see coming off the line have several totally “finished” levels up and running and that many companies dig deep into their pockets to create these builds. For us, with shallow pockets and a lot of sweat, we can only do so much and achieve the level of quality we want to bring to the table.
8. Last time I asked you what are your views on the next-gen systems. I was wondering, what are your thoughts on rumble returning to the PS3′s controller?
Cooltastic. Honestly, I never really missed it that much. I play a lot of PC games, I know that feedback is nice to have but by no means essentially to enjoying a game.
9. I thought I would ask your thoughts on the new $399.99 PS3. How much of an impact do you think this will have this holiday season? For prediction purposes only, how do you think the consoles (Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3) will fare this holiday season? You don’t need to answer this question if you don’t want to. I just want to get a developer’s prediction on this.
I was an early PS3 adopter for Armored Core 4. Which I loved. I recently got an Xbox360 for Halo3 and I really enjoy that as well.
In terms of the market, I think with so many major titles missing this holiday season it means sales might be leaner than brick and mortar places expected or it means Halo 3 is going to sell 10 billion copies, LOL. It seems like the only ones with a killer app this season are Microsoft, be it Halo3 on the console or Crysis on the PC side. Crysis made me even consider Vista, though not for too long 
The bigger thing to see here is how long it takes to make “Next Gen” content. Even with teams exceeding 200 people, triple A games are taking more than 4 years to make now. That’s a scary amount of money right there. Multiplayer only is much more attractive to smaller organizations such as ours. I think the focus for the future will be less content at a higher quality for a lower price tag. But that’s just my thoughts as a person trying to survive
