Rock, Paper, Shotgun Interview with Soren Johnson and Dorian Newcomb

from Stardock Forums

Rock, Paper, Shotgun caught up with Mohawk Games Soren Johnson and Dorian Newcomb at GDC to talk about Early Access and Offworld Trading Company.

"RPS: How’s Early Access going so far?

Johnson: It’s been good so far. The nicest response we see is people saying, ‘Oh, this is fresh. I’ve never seen something like this before.’ They’re really excited about that. Our big concern going into selling the game was, we’re specifically trying to make a game that’s different. There isn’t an economic RTS, there really isn’t something quite like that, and we’re doing that because we’re a small team. We’re not going to make a StarCraft RTS, it’s just not going to happen, so we want to do something different. And everyone says they want something different, but do they actually want something different? Are they ready to buy something different? So from a sales perspective, it’s been great. It’s been more than Stardock projected internally, and just from my own point of view, it was basically hanging around the top 25 for three weeks. It was great to see."

Read the full interview here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/11/offworld-trading-company-interview/


37,117 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Very nice interview.  It makes me more glad I got in on the ground floor of early access.  Its not only because the developers care about making a good game, I suspect that's true of 90% of all developers, but I find I really like watching the game develop. In traditional releases, once a game comes out, there is the initial hype and promise of future updates, which vaporizes within a month.  With early access and the quality of this team, I can savor the hype and watch the updates for quite a while.

 

By the way, during the interview, Dorian was surprised there weren't more comments on the current art state.  I say its the same reason people don't get uppity about the sound quality in talk radio.  Talk radio isn't primarily about the fidelity of the audio, but what is being conveyed.  Of course, audio helps.  A game like this, doesn't draw people to immediately worry about texture quality.  If we can clearly tell a power plant from a steel mill, and can tell who it belongs to, that more important than the actual fidelity of the art.  I don't find I have that much time to admire how a blimp sinks into the HQ, just get in there and unload dangit.

 

 

 

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I agree tigershawk.

I think another way to put it is [Gameplay] >>> [Awesome Graphics & Audio], just look at chess and where it's at.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

It was so funny when NewComb talked how surprised he was when everyone liked the art... I was also like, what it's gonna be better? But yeah, the most important thing for me in strategy game art is if you can functionally easily tell the difference between everything (+just looks modern), and the only problem so far are the 2 ices. :)

Awesome stuff anyways.