Space Colony is so much more than "Sims in SPAAAACE!" We talk with Paul Harris at Firefly Studios, developers of Space Colony, regarding the game's development cycle, if it helps to be described as "Sim-like", and pathfinding, among a host of other topics. Thanks for your time, Paul!

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Space Colony Q&A

Please, the introductions: Who you are, your involvement in the gaming industry, your role in the development of Space Colony, and your favorite sci-fi cliché.

Hi there, my name is Paul Harris and I’m the Associate Producer at Firefly Studios, creators of Stronghold, Stronghold: Crusader and Space Colony. Sci Fi cliché…I’m always amazed at how most aliens seem to be able to speak perfect English despite the fact that they’ve never been near the earth, let alone England!

For someone that doesn’t know, describe what Space Colony is all about.

At its heart Space Colony is a builder game involving resource collecting, base building, alien busting and a dollop of people managing. At the start of the game you are given a group of colonists and your goal is to turn them into a happy hard working team. If you can do this, you are well on your way to completing your mission objectives. However in space things are never easy, and Space Colony is no different. What makes Space Colony unique is that unlike most builder games of this type Space Colony’s characters aren’t faceless nameless drones who will do whatever you say, they are real characters with real personalities, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way – the only way to succeed is to manage these personalities as effectively as you can. If that’s still not clear imagine a Caesar III type builder game set in space with a bit of the Sims thrown in and you’ll be on the right track!

Was Space Colony developed to break new ground and expand gaming horizons, or for gamers to have a bit of fun?

It sounds like a cliché but at Firefly our primary objective is always for people to have fun in our games and I think you can see that in the sense of humor that runs throughout our games. If we can do this by breaking new ground and expanding new gaming horizons then that’s great but we would never do that at the expense of fun. While Space Colony isn’t ground breaking I do think it gives gamers a different gaming experience and it’s most definitely fun!

As Space Colony has a sci-fi setting, what obvious (and not so obvious) sci-fi references might the keen observer spot?

The idea of Space Colony was developed by looking at sci-fi, such as Star Trek, Aliens and the British series Red Dwarf. In these great films/programs there is always a group of individuals with different personalities placed in difficult circumstances needing to overcome their differences by working together. Essentially that is what Space Colony is about too.

Does having Space Colony compared to The Sims help in terms of coverage from media outlets and more sales at the retail level?

I think it’s a mixed blessing. We know that people who like the Sims will love Space Colony so we obviously want to appeal to that market but we don’t want to alienate people who didn’t like the Sims because Space Colony offers so much more than pure people management.

Does Space Colony have the same potential for add-ons at the same level of tribble-like Sims expansion packs?

I think Space Colony definitely has potential for some expansion packs but I don’t think we would go down the Sims route. At the moment we are seeing what the response to Space Colony is like and if it’s as good as we think it will be then expansions will definitely be a possibility.

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It’s an often-repeated question but what was the most difficult aspect of developing Space Colony?

Probably the hardest part was merging the two different styles of gameplay into one seamless game. It sounds incredibly straightforward in theory, but in practice a lot of tweaking is needed to get it just right. If we hadn’t taken the time to tweak the gameplay I think players would have been overwhelmed by the two styles.

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Did the individuals on the development team get along as a group? Were there egos involved?

As Firefly is quite a small team we don’t have room for any egos!

What did Firefly Studios learn from past projects that helped with Space Colony’s development?

Designing Space Colony was a lot easier thanks to the experiences of Stronghold and Stronghold: Crusader, as Space Colony follows a lot of the design principles laid down by those games. I also think our experience of building Stronghold’s campaign proved useful this time around. Space Colony has a great many buildings, aliens, people, robots etc to learn about and they are introduced gradually throughout the story, making discovering and using them a fun and focused activity rather than bombarding the player from the outset.

Getting computer AI and pathfinding working correctly can be difficult. How much time was spent with that aspect of Space Colony?

Because the colonists have been designed to think for themselves they needed to have good AI. A lot of the time the player will be directly controlling the colonists but at other times the colonists will happily go about their business. We could have designed it so that you have to make every decision for the colonists but this kind of nannying just isn’t much fun so we’ve made it so the colonists can think for themselves when they need to. This means that they’ll go to work when it’s time to go to work, take a shower if they really smell and blow up aliens if they are standing right next to them just as you would expect them to.

From start to finish, how long was Space Colony’s development cycle? And how much snack food did the team consume during that time?

We started work on Space Colony straight after finishing Stronghold: Crusader so from start to finish the development time was only 1 year which is pretty good going these days. Towards the end it got pretty hectic and I can’t deny a load of fast food was devoured. The local takeaways couldn’t believe their luck!

How did the team regulate what made it into the game and what didn’t?

Ultimately it comes down to what can be done in the timeframe available. At the start of the project we had a pretty clear vision of what we wanted Space Colony to be and I think we have stayed pretty true to that vision with the final game. We also had a wish list during development and a lot of these made it into the final game but a lot had to be left out simply because there just wasn’t enough time.

It’s dusk and you’re standing in a field. The sky is that kind of purpley color that Romantic poets drone about and a UFO lands near you. Its occupants approach you and ask who the leader of Earth is. What’s your answer and why?

Obviously I wouldn’t be at all surprised they were speaking English! I think it would have to be Bill Gates as he seems to own the planet at the moment. Hopefully he wouldn’t give them any free software though as they’re bound to crash on the way home! (Apologies for that terrible joke. )

What is the single greatest problem facing the gaming industry as a whole?

Personally I feel that the biggest problem in the industry is the amount of power a publisher has over the developer. Recently a number of developers have gone out of business because their publisher has canceled the licensed product they were working on. Obviously the developer can’t take that game anywhere else so they have no choice but to close down. Surely that’s not right.

Should NASA just give up on the space exploration thing? I mean, think of the bitchin’ games those guys could develop!

Especially with a budget like that. Move over EA, here come NASA!

(November 23, 2003)


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