The Swarm

[jsaurman]

I just wanted to ask Mok, what he thinks now 5 and a half years down the road, what the journey has been like.

I have always found it quite amazing that you took something that most people in the industry considered a long-since-dead game and revitalized it.

I also found it amazing that they copyright holders would even let you mess with their stuff, as most companies zealously guard their intellectual property, even when they think it is not really worth anything anymore.

So you managed to clear two huge hurdles and actually put thousands of hours into getting it up and running again, then tons more supporting the product after you launched it.

So in retrospect, what would you change if you had to do it all again? What was incredibly easy that you thought would be the hardest and vice versa, what was incredibly hard that you thought would be the easiest?

JIM

[mok]

First, one thing I want to clarify :

I am the IP owner of Empire Deluxe and The Perfect General. This was purchased outright from Mark Baldwin and (the late) Bob Rakowsky. So the copyrights are mine. It took some work and some money to make it happen, but that was the investment I made. I hold the trademarks as well.

I do have a license agreement with Walter Bright as well, to credit him in derived products due to his creative contribution to Empire, Wargame of the Century, so many years ago.

It has been a wonderful experience, and I have not regretted doing it. I am sorry I have not been able to wrestle free other games like CHQ and Perfect General II and a few others. What I have found is in those days IP custody chains were not always very clear. The huge advantage for PG and ED was it was clear enough to get.

So I have found it very interesting, extremely fun, a wonderful experience, but not lucrative. I have found the need to go back and work in other areas. It has given me some insight as to how other "One Man Show Independent Developers" have been successful. (one way is only having one mouth to feed). Take a look at this guy to see a really good, successful indie dev: http://www.positech.co.uk/ .

The whole face of gaming appears to be in quite a change at this moment. I am not sure where it will end up. There are advantages and disadvantages to being independent in this time period.

It is hard to say what I would change, I think the biggest mistake I made was assuming everyone loved the game for the same reasons I did. It turns out I have learned everyone plays the game very differently, especially differently from me. Fortunately, I was pretty religious to sustaining it close to what it felt like in 1993. So I did not stray to far. But the outcry from doing things like leaving out hotseat for EDEE was not anticipated. ;> I also think I should write an AI that cheats, as that would have been easier and I get accused of having done that anyway ;>


I think the next year or so it will still be slow, but I would like to make some more platform independent versions of the game, and get them in some interface where they can be used on more portable devcies. But I have been so busy with other work (read: mouths to feed) I have not pursued these things. My work situation has changed vary recently, for the better, so it could pickup.