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First, this is a great pleasure for me to get a chance to have an interview to you! (1)Please tell a little about yourself and how you got started into programming? I'm 30 years old and live in Austin, Texas. I started programming early on, when I got an Apple II in 1979. I programmed simple games and other things for my Apple all through Junior High and High School. I continued programming on the Apple II and then later started programming on the Mac when I went to college in 1985. Even though I received a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas as Austin, most of my Mac programming experience came on my own, since the university didn't use Macs for many of their programming classes. After I finished my degree in 1988 I went to work for a small company writing the IBM PC and Mac versions of a science fiction game called Space Rogue. I've been writing Mac games (commercial and shareware) most of the time since then. (2)Please tell about Westlake Interactive, the staff of it, and your wife if you would like to. Westlake Interactive was founded by four people- myself, my wife Suellen, Phil Sulak, and Ken Cobb. Phil and Ken were programmers I had worked with at previous jobs and both worked for Lion Entertainment until it went out of business. Phil, Ken and I do all the programming and design work, and Suellen handles all of the business affairs. We formed Westlake because we thought there was a need for a company devoted to doing high quality Mac games, and we all love working with the Mac. (3)Please tell about the games that you are planning to release now. Our biggest current project is Unreal, a action 3D game. We also recently started work on another high profile game that we can't publicly talk about yet, and are in negotiations to do the Mac version of another very highly acclaimed PC game. (4)When will you release Unreal, a high anticipated 3D shooter? My source indicates that Unreal for PC will be released after July.... Will you be able to release the demo version of it before the release of the full version? We don't have a firm release date, since it depends a lot on when the PC version is finished. We are hoping to be done within a month or so of the PC version being completed. I'm not sure about the schedule for a demo, that also depends on when the demo is released on the PC (we have to be able to take their final code and integrate it with the Mac code). (5)John Romero, the CEO of ION Storm and Quake's father indicated that DAIKATANA 2, ION Storm's next generation 3D shooter will be developed based on Unreal engine. And Wheel of Time, 3D action RPG is being developed based on Unreal engine. Does it mean the high possibility of the Mac version of DAIKATANA 2 and Wheel of Time? I have heard that you ports a game to Mac if you like the game very much.... Having the Unreal engine on the Mac will go a long way to making it easier to port other Unreal based games like Daikatana 2 or Wheel of Time. Since much of the code is already running on the Mac, it wouldn't take as much time to convert an Unreal based game. We have been talking to some of the people doing Unreal based games about Mac versions, and it looks promising, but nothing definite yet. (6)Which of genre do you like except 3D shooter? And, what's your favorite game now? What game do you want to port to Mac NOW? I'm personally a big fan of sports games, and would love to do a good baseball or basketball game for the Mac. I did a couple golf games a few years ago (Links Pro, PGA Tour Golf II), and really enjoyed them. It would be hard to pick just one game to do now if I could choose anything, but a sports game would probably be high on my list. (7)Actually, are you good Quakers? ;-) Its kind of funny, we probably aren't as good at Quake as a lot of the game players out there. When we work on a game like Unreal or Quake we spend a lot of time playing it in testing, but its usually to see if certain things work right, not to get good at playing. So I don't think I'd want to go up against many of the hot Quake players out there :) (8)What machines do you use when developing? Please tell us your developing environment. I use a G3/266 with a 96MB ram & a 6GB hard disk, 20" and 15" monitors. I also have a PowerMac 4400/200 for testing and a 8500/150 for network testing. We use Code Warrior for our development system. (9)Thanks to you, the demand on 3Dfx native titles for Mac platform is getting increased in Japan as well as abroad. Would you like to apeal to Japanese Mac game developers that 3Dfx games are VERY WONDERFUL and they should develop 3Dfx games for Mac! 3Dfx is a very nice system to develop for, and can really increase the number of effects and speed of your games. It really is worth adding to your game, the API is very straightforward and with more and more cards installed it allows you to spend less time optimizing graphics routines and more time on game play. (10)I have heard that you are dreaming to develop your original commercial games. How are you planning are your original games? Is it possible that you will develop titles for Windows platform? We have had some discussions about doing original games, but that is in very preliminary stages. If we did an original game, we would probably do a Windows version also, but would do the development on the Mac version first (a bit like Bungie did with Myth). (11)Pleeeeaaase, tell us your SECRET PROJECT!!! ;-) One of my friends, which is a duker, says "I really wish it would be a Duke Nukem Forever!!" But I know your secret project is an A+ PC game that has already existed. (No?) I don't know just the name of the project!!!! ;-) All my readers in Japan are wainting for your anouncement about it!!!!! I can't announce the current secret project we're working on, but it should be a welcome addition to the Mac game line up. We have talked a bit about Duke Nukem Forever, and I think its a strong possibility to come out for the Mac, but there isn't anything definite yet. We're waiting for the publisher of our current secret game to make an announcement about it, then we will be free to talk about it. (12)Many of the people in the industry repeat that Mac game market is getting decreased. Can I have any comments about that? I think the Mac game market is at least stable if not growing. MacSoft had very good sales of games like Duke Nukem, Civilization II and Quake the last couple quarters of 1997. If Apple continues to release fast machines at good prices, and people stick with the Mac, the game market will continue to rebound. (13)Many of the peple in the industry fear the PC emulation softwares are raising thier heads. As one of the pioneers of Mac game industry, what do you think about such a situation? I don't think emulation will ever replace good Mac versions of games. Its never quite as fast (you may be able to play games that are a year or two old, but the very latest hot games won't work very well), and you have to deal with all of the Windows configuration problems just like a real PC. I have run Virtual PC on my G3, with the 3dfx card, and while some games play OK, there are still enough problems and quirks that I'd much rather have a good Mac version of a game. If there is some lesser known game you really like that probably won't ever get converted to the Mac, it wouldn't be bad to buy an emulator to run it. But for the really A+ games that push the limits of the machine, there is no substitute for a native PowerPC game. (14)I am a big fun of your Blit! and Blit 2!. That's GREAT!! ;-) Are you planning any shareware games now? If you are, would you like to tell us the games? Thanks! I wrote Blit several years ago, and when I got married last summer my wife started playing it. She liked it so much that she convinced me to do Blit 2, and helped on level design and testing. We have had very good response to Blit 2, and may do some more add-on levels. We have also recently released two tile based shareware games, QuickTile and WordTile, and are working on a couple ideas for some new shareware. (15)Are you interested in Japan? Don't you imagine that Japan is like a world of Shadow Warrior? ;-) Would you like to visit to Japan? I am very interested in Japan, I have had very nice contacts with people there in regards to both my shareware (many registrations!) and commercial games. I had always been interested in Japan, and took Japanese as my foreign language in college. Unfortunately I've forgotten much of it from lack of use over the years :( I have actually been to Japan twice (once with my father when he was on a business trip and once on vacation). I enjoyed it very much, it was a very interesting country. I have been to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Sapporo (I even took the train all the way from Sapporo to Tokyo!). Kyoto was very pretty and especially liked seeing all the stores in Akihabara. Suellen has never been to Japan, but perhaps we will visit there together some day. I knew Japan wasn't like Shadow Warrior, I think Shadow Warrior is more like Kung-Fu movies that real life :) (16)Please tell me about your separate shareware company from Japan and Micro Conversions' Game Wizard, the first Voodoo 2 card for Mac. I and my wife, Suellen, do shareware games and utilities through a separate company, Maverick Software. Some of the games we've done include Blit & Blit2, QuickTile, and WordTile. We've done utilities like AppDisk and Theater Maker. The shareware company is a good way for me to work on small projects that don't take as much time as big games, and give me an outlet to do original things. We've had very good response from Japan to our shareware, and have had over 100 registrations from Japan! (17)Can we play Glide native games, for example Quake, Hornet: Korea, Myth, Unreal and so on, on system with Game Wizard? I haven't heard much about the Micro Conversions Voodoo2 card, but from what I know of the Voodoo 2 chipset it should be very nice. The Voodoo2 is compatible with all Glide games, so you should be able to run all the older games without a problem. (18)Is it easy for you to create patches to support Voodoo 2 cards? Mostly the Voodoo2 just works like a faster Voodoo 1, so we shouldn't have to patch anything. If there are any small tweaks we need to do for Voodoo2 it should be fairly easy. (19)Anything you would like to say to all Japanese Mac gamers, which always have a high regard to you all Westlake staff!! We appreciate that our games are enjoyed by people in so many places, and are glad you gave us the opportunity to talk to your readers! Mark Adams After the interview... First, I didn't think Mark would accept my request because I knew he and his staff were always busy. So, when he accepted, I was very excited! I found he was very frank. He accepted many requests. Thank you, Mark! I also found many other things when reading his remark. Although I couldn't I find out the title of the secret project, they are waiting for the publisher of thier current secret game to make an announcement about it. Who is the publisher of the game? MacSoft?? If they are, please make an announcement about it SOON, MacSoft! ;-) MacSoft announced they were interested in publishing sports games the other day. Mark would love to do a good baseball or basketball game for the Mac. Maybe, MacSoft' announcement has relations to his remark, I guess. No?? It is worthy of note for us that he thinks it's a strong possibility to come out for the Mac! And his comment about PC emulation is also very meaningful. He likes Japan. I am glad to hear that. And, the biggest thing for me is that thanks to his wife Suellen, Mark wrote Blit 2!, the sequel to Blit! I like VERY MUCH!!! She also helped on level design and testing. Thank you, Suellen! Let's try and register their games, Japanese Mac gamers!! Thank you very much again, Mark and Westlake interactive staff! I would like you to produce many wonderful works for Mac game community always has a high regard to you!!! |