Derek Smart (Battlecruiser Millennium) Interview

A. Well, I’m fondly known as the ‘Battlecruiser guy’ I’ll have you know! *G* My background in gaming as a hobby goes back to the early days. In fact, I might be regarded as one of the late starters, seeing that my first serious games consisted of Elite, Echelon, Star Flight series, Star Fleet series and the like.

As for being in the game dev industry, I first appeared – out of the clear Blue sky – one perfectly normal day, back in 1989. Nothing has been the same for the industry since. I suppose you could say that they never did see me coming.

Anyway, it wasn’t until Computer Games & Strategy Plus (now Computer Games Magazine) put my game on the cover of their issue 18 (May 1992), did anyone even know that I existed. Apart from the denizens of The Well, Compuserve, Delphi, BIX, CIX and Genie where I used to hang out, nobody knew who I was. The whole Battlecruiser gig took off way back then.

A. That’s a trick question, right? Right? I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m over zealous nor that I should ever be in a position to ‘defend’ my games. What’s there to defend? My games cater to a specific niche group of people. All game developers will, at some point or another, find themselves defending their games. My situation seems to be a lot more pronounced and widely publicized due to my exposure and my industry history. I think I spend more time on personal defense (against net kooks and trolls) than I do defending the game. Besides, I already have a legion of dedicated gamers who defend the game – their game – designed and developed for them.

A. I have never, ever created a design doc (at least not in the traditional sense) for any of my games. Ever. And I don’t plan on it. Most of my designs are either in my head or in an MS Word document somewhere on my hard drive. And I have never had to print any design spec on paper. I live in the digital age and I don’t print anything unless it is absolutely necessary.

My game designs and development are not done by committee, nor inspected by anyone (e.g. publisher, investor etc). As such, there is no need for me to have to waste time doing stuff like that. Like going into meetings, hanging around the water cooler talking shit, I don’t waste my time writing design docs. I’d rather spend that time writing proof-of-concept code. Which I do a lot. I am an artiste. If I have an idea in the shower, in between bouts of sleep depravation, driving around or from playing other games, I just make a mental note of it, kick it around in my head, try it out and go from there. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t, well then, I’m the only one who knew about it; not some fool named John Doe, down in marketing who took off on a tangent, told the media about it, forcing me to now follow through. It comes from God to me. If it ever make it into my games, I’m directly responsible for that decision. Not a committee and/or team based design doc or any such medium.

In answer to the second part of your question; all design elements in this day and age, are probably done on a computer and then transferred to digital medium. It works the other way in the some cases, especially in the artistic and modeling side of development. I have, on occasion, found myself drawing (in addition to a coder, I am also an artist and modeler) some game elements on paper and then communicating that idea to my artists/modelers who then take the ball and run with it. For example, Jason, my lead modeler is very in tune to my spur-of-the-moment design specs and after all these years, can pretty much read my mind now. The same applies to my contract programmers. Its all about working with like minded individuals who are focused on what they do best.

A. You know, that’s funny. In the hundreds of interviews that I’ve done over the years, I can’t remember anyone ever asking me this. Good thing too, because it is all but a faded memory now.

The primary ‘Battlecruiser’ inspiration came from my days with Star Fleet (developed by Interstel back in the mid eighties). On page 50 of the training manual, (yes, like Star Fleet, I own every game I have ever bought) there is a chart showing the different ship classes. They had Battleship, Heavy Cruiser, Light Cruiser, Destroyer, Frigate, Scout, Freighter. In playing both games in the series, I wished for a heavier battleship (usually when my Alliance butt was getting kicked by the Krellans). So, once I decided to do my own game – and incorporate aspects of every game I liked at the time – battleship plus cruiser pinged in my head. The idea was to combine the power of the battleship with the agility of the cruiser. Hence, Battlecruiser.

The old folks reading this and who have played the Star Fleet series and any of my games, will immediately recognize the inspiration. Being that it is the only game (back then) that allowed you to command such a massive craft, complete with crew, repairs, ship systems etc. And it also allowed you to do planetary bombardment from orbit.

The 3000AD part (which was later to become the name of my company in the mid nineties) was just a play on the future of my world. A world I crafted from the ground up and populated it with a galaxy consisting of races and castes from my imagination. Back in the early days, the game was only about a single Battlecruiser. The second game carried this trend. However, in the recent and third title, Battlecruiser Millennium, I have expanded it so that the player can command other types of crafts (carriers, cruisers, transporters, fighters, shuttles, vehicles) as well. I have kept the Battlecruiser name through three products in order to maintain and preserve the industry recognized franchise name; also because it is one of several trademarks that I own. In fact Battlecruiser 3000AD is a registered trademark.

A. Yes. Plenty in fact. But constructive criticism is subjective isn’t it? What one might consider to be constructive – to them – could end up being complete and utterly useless garbage to me. It happens all the time. I try not to ask anyone about their opinions of my games because more often than not, unless their opinions are in line with mine and indeed the games’ very premise, it comes off as pure nonsensical opinionated rubbish. But, it never stops them from offering it anyway. Constructive they claim – most of the time. We live in an opinionated society.

A. No. I’ve done it three times already and evolved Battlecruiser in two very large steps. Why would I want to ruin that progress in order to cater to the whims of a few who are not inside my head? Besides, I don’t dwell on what I wish I’d done or what I’d like to have done differently. I spend my time on my aspirations to do better and to excel at what I do best.

A. Not in a million years. Then again, we already know that. The Net is a haven for maladjusted antisocial misfits who spend the best part of their time exploiting the Net and abusing its very premise therein in their attacks on others. There are those of course who use it for illegal purposes – but this question is not about them. Never in my wildest dreams did I - back when only the elite of the elite ever made it online - ever dream that the Net would come to this. But I blame it Mozilla, Netscape, Microsoft and AOL. You know how in Escape From L.A. Kurt literally turns off the world at the end and plunges it back into the dark ages? Well, if there was a switch that would turn it [Net] all off, I’d be the one to flip it without so much as a second thought. They can blame it on me. Why not? I am Derek Smart - industry rebel - remember? I would gladly turn it off, man.

A. The same reason people eat uncooked or partially cooked eggs - knowing the chances of catching Salmonella poising; smoke cigarettes – knowing its only going to kill them; drive while under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance – knowing they could get caught or worse kill themselves or someone else; have unprotected sex – knowing it could end up being the worse time of their lives; attack me, Derek Smart, online, knowing they’re going to get a virtual verbal beating – the likes of which they’ve never seen from a developer and prominent figure such as myself.

It is a self-destructive act perpetrated by fools who do it just because they can and because they are outside the realms of reality based retribution. They think they’re untouchable because they are on the Net and not some pimple faced prick walking up to me in public and giving me shit to my face.

But considering how much the law, as it relates to Internet abuse, in terms of libel, defamation, harassment, stalking etc has come along in the past few years, there is a clear indication that their days are numbered.

Me? I can wait until it [the Internet laws] matures. I’ve got nothing but time and I’m as tenacious as a pit bull on steroids. That much is obvious. A time will come when folks would think twice about mouthing off online – in much the same way you have to out here in the real world.

A. It all depends on the people in the team. The horror stories you hear about are usually true, especially in terms of large teams headed by untalented dunderheads brought into head a development team just because some equally untalented dunderhead at the top, decided that what a development team needed was some moron in a suit with the power to determine the direction that a project should go. Regardless of the opinions of those who actually designed and are developing the damn thing.

Doesn't happen to me. When it comes to my design and development, I am God. And since I don’t have anyone on an ego trip working for me, I’ve never run into this problem. In order to be able to command and lead a team – even if they are your peers – you have to first earn their trust, respect and loyalty. Get that and you’re home free. Then all you have to do is extend the same. With that, you’re a team – regardless of who is in command or signing the checks. Once a loose cannon on an ego trip enters the fray; unchecked, it could spell disaster for the team and have an adverse effect on the project. There is a very good reason why most dev teams splinter off with rapid frequency in our industry. The idea of making more money is rarely the reason because as artistes, our first loyalty is to our work and our creativity. Being paid to do what we love, is just an incentive to do better and to excel at what we do best. Develop games.

A. IMO, that would be freedom of choice and play style. I think the gamers in general are sick and tired of canned, repetitive games which offer them little chance to play a game again or one which doesn’t stretch the limits of their imagination.

What made GTA3 such a massive hit is because it is an excellent game that offers both freestyle and canned modes of play in a large virtual world. The thought of going back in and doing it all again, is a very strong premise and one which works. My Battlecruiser games, while a niche and unable to command such numbers, have always catered to this premise since day one. Which is why, to this very day, there is someone, somewhere in the world, playing one of my games.

A. No. There is nothing artistic about profanity. It is merely an expression of speech and one which we are entitled to. But games are meant to be an escape from our real world and which should immerse us in a virtual fantasy world. I don’t know about you, but if I wanted to cuss to my heart’s content or to find out how many ways I can juxtapose a certain form of profanity and come up with more creative ways of saying for example "….you fucking prick", I’d go on the Usenet or visit one of many online forums.

A game is supposed to cater to our need to escape. I don’t want to jump down into a dungeon and run into a foul mouthed, axe wielding dwarf yelling "….c’mere you fucking prick! Am gonna shove this here axe up your ass and make you my bitch!!". Even if he doesn’t speak English. Do you?

Thank goodness for the ESRB and some game developers and producers with common sense, otherwise that’s exactly what we’d end up with. They want to do it? Fair enough. Let them. At the expense of an M rating. Fucking shock-value pricks.

A. Yes. Lots. For one, no pointless meetings. But, lets leave this one out for another interview because I could write pages and pages on the merits of this sort of game dev style. You’ve sent me so many questions, I can’t even tell when the next page ends. *G*

A. It already is. Or hadn’t you noticed. Contrary to what most (usually the idiots who have no clue what they’re doing in the industry) think, the use of contractors goes back to the early to mid nineties. Back then, assets such as sound effects, music, pre-rendered cut scenes etc, were all done by outside sub-contractors who were specially trained to do just that. Shortly after, I guess the publishers figured that they’d cut costs (fools) and have more control by building their own internal studios catering to these assets. In fact, as the years have gone by, the teams you find heading these internal studios, either came from those contractors of yesteryears or specially got trained elsewhere before joining the company.

Nowadays, you can sub-contract 100% of a game’s development and still end up ahead of the curve. I should know. I sub-contract 100% of my games’ content creation and have no less than four programming work-for-hire sub-contractors who develop specific technologies based on my specs and requirements. And I’ve got three shipped commercial projects to my credit. In an industry where even large development houses with tons of money (which they eventually piss away on coffee and doughnuts it would seem) can’t even ship a game.

In fact, back in the old days, sub-contracting program modules was a definite no-no because everyone wanted to protect their source code. Heh, who knew? Today, we’ve ALL got the technology and the know how (at least those of use who know what the hell we’re doing when we’re doing it) to do kick-ass games. So, protecting code is just a procedure wrapped in NDAs and which serve as the imaginary first line of defense against the pilfering and proliferation of trade secrets and IP. The end result? If its [tech] out there; someone’s got it. If it can be done; there are no less than a thousand people who can do it. In their sleep.

There is absolutely NO reason for you or anyone else for that matter, to believe that indies are the answer. What? Are you on crack?!? There is a reason we have indies in the industry. That reason is primarily that no investor or company in their right minds would give us money to do what we wanted to do and let us have that much control. OK, so that whole Eidos/Ion or Take2/GOD thing were exceptions. But who didn’t see that coming?

Look, I’m not the torch bearer for publishers, but the fact is, publishers consist of a specific group of people (or assholes, depending on who you ask) who are qualified to do what it takes to see a game go from concept to design to ship. These people are paid to do just that. Sure, they don’t always get it right, but then again, neither do we [developers]. Don’t we ship games with bugs (known or not) in them? Don’t we make the worse imaginable design decisions (e.g. no in-game saves. Arghh!!). So who are we to judge the merits of the decisions made by people who sit at the top of the publishing food chain and whose job it is to make money? Time and time again we’ve seen instances where publishers have given indies a chance to do what it is they do best. To the extent of funding them from scratch. And what happens? They blow it. They go and fucking blow it. The result? We [indies] all bear the brunt of it.

There was a time when I could command any amount of money I wanted to do a game. Now, I can’t even command a Ham sandwich without me paying for the damn thing. In cash. And its got nothing to do with my games – ALL of which have made money. That’s right. Every single Battlecruiser game ever developed – even Take2’s premature release of the first one in 1996 – has made money and turned a profit. Its all about taking risks and not having control. Publishers don’t like not being in control because it offers no security to them.

For example, I’m sure that Interplay – who never expected that BC3K v2.0 would, at first breath, sell in excess of 60K units in North America alone when they signed it back in 1998 – are probably wishing they’d given me the money I asked for on BCM, rather than burying it on other mediocre offerings. And look where they are today. Look where BCM is, in terms of actually getting done, on the shelves, and selling. That’s what I’m talking about. You win some and you lose some. Sure, I could’ve taken my sales figures and gone to a publisher and would have received funding (in fact I did get several offers on BCM; which I turned down) to do BCM. But after sitting down and thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that the only way I was going to do the type of games that I wanted to – without some jackass turning my game into someone else’s flavor of the month, is if I either (a) funded it myself (b) the tooth fairy left me a rare tooth from a dinosaur or (c) I caught the CEO of my favorite publisher with a hooker when he was supposed to be at the GDC or E3.

The more I think about it, the more pissed I get. Look how much money Bill Gates and his band of merry men, threw into Digital Anvil. They still can’t ship a profitable game!!! All that money. All that talent. Literally wasted. The last time I checked, Starlancer didn’t even sell 10K units in North America for crissakes. BC3K v2.0, a DOS game, literally buried it at retail. That, and practically every space game since then (excluding the excellent Freespace series).

Then you look at Halo, Operation Flashpoint, Serious Sam, Max Payne etc and you go "…..there is a God!" and you wish that more indies given a chance to do this, would actually deliver. And thus pave the way for publishers to take more risks on the few talented indies who are trying to break into the industry by either buying or funding them.

Then again, the other side of the sword is that the end result is publishers end up giving the Green light to me-too titles. And yet they wonder why they tank at retail. Fools.

Indies to sweep in??? Please. Don’t even get me started. There are a LOT of indies out there who’d like to think they were talented just because they had access to a compiler, a copy of Notepad and a naïve group of investors or publishers forking out cash like it was going out of style. It takes all kinds. There are very few indies who can and are making it. And more often than not, that success comes from alliances with – gasp – publishers. Look at Croteam for example. I’ve known and dealt with them long before anyone even knew about this band of highly talented developers from Croatia. Those guys are talented, humble and are rarely in the spotlight. Look at Remedy. Same level of talent and commitment to games. Hell, have you seen what Chris Taylor and his gang have been up to? No? Do yourself a favor and go look. That’s a guy, confident that he could do the type of game he envisioned. Then went out, got the funding (from our friend, Bill) and seems poised to shock the living crap out of the industry. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Its not going to take us indies to do anything. Without the necessary evil [publishers], there is no industry. As such, there won’t be anything to be indie with or about. I don’t know about you, but even though I can put my games on the shelves, with or without a publisher, I sure as hell don’t want to keep having to deal with the business aspects of game development; nor do I want to go to the days of selling games out of Ziploc bags. Thank heavens I missed that latter era.

A. Not much. I do read the dailies, surf a lot etc. But people being hired and/or fired, bears no relevance to me personally or how I do business. As such, those developments are just news bytes similar to what I catch on CNN around the clock. I can’t do anything about them so I don’t pay too much attention to the outcome. We are in a competitive industry and survival of the fittest is the motto. Even if I had the chance to change the world, I doubt that I would. Too much pressure. Short of flipping the switch and turning off the Net, I could care less what goes on in the industry if it doesn’t directly affect me, my company and team, my games or my fan base. This whole thing [game industry] can come crashing down and I probably won’t flinch nor bat an eyelid. I have a backup plan. *G*

A. By grabbing on and holding on tight. Just ask the developers of WW2O or AO.

The fact is that the MMO landscape is quickly becoming a farce. Its down to this. Throw as much crap at a wall – in this case a naïve group of gamers – and hope that some of it sticks long enough for you to stay in business. There is absolutely no plausible reason why some of these games should ever be made. Then again, I can ring off a list of several hundred single player games that should never have been made.

Several years ago, back when in one of the anniversary issues of CGW (I’ve forgotten which one. It was the one with Mark Hamill in it) I said that online games would be the wave of the future; as usual, nobody took me seriously. Here we are. I also said that freeform games would become the norm and that gamers would just start crying out for it once a group of developers actually upped and did it. Here we are.

MMO gaming is just another genre waiting to be exploited. And then massacred. It is beginning.

Its only going to get worse.

A. What? You mean as opposed to having time to engage in flame wars? Sure I play other games when I find the time. I am a movie buff, so I spend more time at the movies than I do playing games. Never mind that I have over 3000+ games in my library. Just ask Jeff Green over at CGW. I think he almost passed out when he came down on an interview and saw my game library.

At the moment, I am playing the excellent AvP2 and MOH titles. I find myself going back to those two, as well as Silent Hunter II, Falcon 4, IL2 and Ghost Recon. This week I am planning on picking up Destroyer Command.

On the console side, I’m playing Halo (*sigh* again!), Ace Combat4 as well Jak & Daxter.

A. Not yet. The closest I’m ever going to get to developing console games (assuming that was the question), is the Holy Grail. The XBox. Thank you Bill!! I don’t want to learn anything new that I can’t grasp in a matter of days. Period. In case you were wondering. Yes. I’m that smart. Pun intended. I know game development for the PC, inside out. I have more skills and technology than I know what to do with. Literally. But I would like to expand my wings and to learn/do something new. The extra revenue would help too, I think. *G*

Besides, I’ve been flamed by adults for a good number of years; now its time to be flamed by kids not even old enough to vote – let alone strong enough to lug their XBox around, and my life will be complete, don’t you think?

I can’t wait to take a break from PC game development. My games are developed to last and stand the test of time due to their replay factor. So I’m quite sure than once I take a break (BCTC will be my last PC title as I’ve said before) from PC gaming, my games will live on until my return. The fan base are more than welcome to follow where I go; but I have this irresistible urge to do an XBox game. It must be what I fondly term as The Halo Complex, I dunno. Or maybe its just the idea that I could develop a different kind of game on a stable platform. No patches. No aggravation. No driver problems. No hardware incompatibles. Just focus on the game.

Right now, I’m hopeful. Especially due to Microsoft’s commitment to getting developers with an industry track record on board. The XPK program went the way of the Dodo, but the Incubator Program is a lot more straightforward and provides a greater opportunity for an indie to prove why they should be on the XBox. You can’t prove it. You’re not getting in. Period. Me? I’m always open to a good challenge and I’m working on it. We’ll see how it goes. I’m sure that MS would like nothing more than my fan base to show up and buy a console and/or my game.

Psssst, tell Bill that he can send me a check for the plug later. The XBox folks have my details on file.

A. Almost everything. But I’m not going to touch this one with this here nine foot pole. I’d need a longer pole. Let me get back to you on that.

A. I’m an artiste. I’m not in it for the fame, fortune or chicks. I’ve got all that. I’m in it for the love of the game. The money helps too. You can’t develop a game without money. Its not like the starving artist moniker applies to all types of artists. I’m certainly not one of them. I’d rather not starve while doing something creative, it could severely impact my creativity.

A. If only it were true, then I could get in on the action and get some decent amount of money to do a game for once. I’d like nothing better than to owe the mob money. After all, my games make money, so I don’t stand the risk of anyone coming to break my legs.

A. No. I develop the games I think of first. I don’t sit around wishing it. I just do it and hope that PC technology can keep up with my ideas. So far, it [tech] is only just catching up.

A. I’m a jazz person myself, with the occasional soft rock or light soul. So, in my South Florida locale, my stations of choice are 93.9, 97.3, 101.5 and 105.1 respectively and depending on the mood I’m in.

A. Either working for Senator Lieberman or writing a magazine or newspaper column, systematically and regularly pissing off everyone in the gaming industry on a weekly or monthly basis. Now I only get to do it on occasion and I don’t even have a regular column!! No, my soapbox column doesn’t count. I know my calling. I’m just not ready for it yet. *G*

No, but seriously, I’d probably go back to being a consultant or maybe become a teacher.

A. There are. Unless they’re buried in game development. Its just that some [the crazy ones] like me, are more accessible than others. Mixing with the fan base and common folk has its good and bad sides. On one hand, you want to mingle with your fans because you’re all about them (at least for us who realize that without a fan base we’re nobody, really) and they are in tune to you because they buy and play your games. A good thing. On the other hand, there’s those idiotic trolls [common folk] just waiting for a chance to throw some shit your way just so they can feel good about their own shortcomings. So, because most developers are under the corporate thumb, so to speak or are just smart enough (unlike me) to not deal with the aggravation, you rarely see them visibly. I was just involved in a similar dialogue with the EIC of a well known gaming forum about this very aspect. Most game developers rarely ever post outside their fan sites – and rarely on public forums – anymore, due to the wanton abuse and harassment that goes on out there.

At the end of the day, who needs that crap?

As for gaming hitting the mainstream; I think you should know that in 2001, the movie box office receipts were only approximately $2 billion shy of the gaming industry receipts; at about $8.1 billion IIRC. It doesn’t get any more mainstream than that. Gaming is big business and it is poised to get even bigger.

A. Star Trek and Star Wars. You silly man! What a silly question.

A. They shouldn’t if they can’t be bothered because it doesn’t make their lives any better. All the publishers do is turn around and either (a) sell it or (b) use it for marketing. Nothing else, as far as I’m aware.

A. Yes. Some. Though a crotchety ol’ bitch I’d rather refer to as Mrs. Crotchety ol’ Bitch, tried very hard to scare the shit right out of everyone I knew in high school. And most ended up leaving, never to be heard from again. It didn’t help that I was voted "Most likely to get expelled this term" as frequently as I topped the class. Yes. Even back then I was an outspoken loudmouthed, albeit smart, trouble maker. A rebel of sorts.

The story of my life.

Thanks for your time, Derek!