Ask the Developers a question or two

[Callum Rowley]

Some information from one of the developers who worked on RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 below

Q2: Any plans on a RCT3 DevKit if nothing ever comes to fruition with another RCT title?

Most of the content within RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was either made in 3D Studio Max, Photoshop, Notepad, or it was hard-coded - and then there were also a slew of track tools. With everything cross-linking to some other program/tool it would make it quite difficult to create a Development Kit out of what we have – these things really need to be planned from the beginning.

Q3: IF AT ALL possible Would you guys flat out tell us or hint about how you created Peeps and Animals in RCT3:Wild! ?

3D Studio Max & Biped is what we used to make them. I believe that the peeps used keyframed animations and the animals had some form of skeletal animation.

 

[Callum Rowley]

Given the success of Lost winds for you, does this mean that Frontier is looking to expand out into producing games for Xbox Live and PSN as well?

Who knows, I'm sure if an opportunity presented itself Frontier would jump at the chance. Nothing on the cards for now though - we've got AAA boxed-games to deliver :-D

Do you think Natal and/or Move offer you a novel approach to game design so that your products would stand out from the crowd?

We're all pretty interested to see whats being shown at E3 for Move / Natal. There's a lot of room for some creative ideas with both devices - and as long as they remain interesting to the mass-market we'll see some really high quality products.

Or do you think a testing of the waters with a more conventional game (or even an update of an old classic such as Zarch/Virus) would suit you best?

Products such as The Outsider are a big focus for us - a new IP which (we feel) is exciting and fresh. Tackling products like this moves us away from a studio-for-hire mentality, which we've been involved with in the past, and moves us towards retaining independant control while having big blockbusters out there people can associate the Frontier name to.

 

[Marcus]

Who knows, I'm sure if an opportunity presented itself Frontier would jump at the chance. Nothing on the cards for now though - we've got AAA boxed-games to deliver :-D

Lol, well yes, I can see how that might be a distraction

We're all pretty interested to see whats being shown at E3 for Move / Natal. There's a lot of room for some creative ideas with both devices - and as long as they remain interesting to the mass-market we'll see some really high quality products.


Products such as The Outsider are a big focus for us - a new IP which (we feel) is exciting and fresh. Tackling products like this moves us away from a studio-for-hire mentality, which we've been involved with in the past, and moves us towards retaining independant control while having big blockbusters out there people can associate the Frontier name to.

Sure, I recognise thats where Frontier want (and need) to end up.

I was wondering more if projects like Lost Winds help you get there by providing a stream of revenue in between those bigger projects, ie smaller revenues but more often or bigger (but riskier) projects with bigger payoffs....

 

[RCTAeon]

Some information from one of the developers who worked on RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 below


Most of the content within RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was either made in 3D Studio Max, Photoshop, Notepad, or it was hard-coded - and then there were also a slew of track tools. With everything cross-linking to some other program/tool it would make it quite difficult to create a Development Kit out of what we have – these things really need to be planned from the beginning.


3D Studio Max & Biped is what we used to make them. I believe that the peeps used keyframed animations and the animals had some form of skeletal animation.

So do you think the Custom Content Community that exists now could get a tidbit of info as to how to crack the code as it were to make Custom VIPeeps, Entertainers, or Animals? Pretty please with sugar on top? lol

 

[SPACEMTNMAN]

Given that the custom content community of rct3 is so large and that new developments are being made almost every day, Do you think it would be a possibility to release the source code of the game and any production documentation such as how peeps were created etc? Given that the RCT3 forum on atari is the most popular forum on their site do you think this is a possibility?
Also you speak of these track tools. Could you go into further detail on these?

 

[Old-Spice]

It seems as if the game was designed with custom content in mind. I know I read somewhere that there was supposed to be a tool where it Allowed us to create this content. I guess that fell through with that lawsuit or somehting.

The game is how many years old? You would have to admit that dome of the develpments just on our own has made the game better, not that it want already fun, it was just limited.

I am sure it is up to you, atari and Chris? All must agree, and sign a bunch of ass protecting papers before this can be done?

 

[Callum Rowley]

I was wondering more if projects like Lost Winds help you get there by providing a stream of revenue in between those bigger projects, ie smaller revenues but more often or bigger (but riskier) projects with bigger payoffs....

Having the smaller projects (6month+ dev time) provide a constant stream of revenue while the bigger projects (18month+ dev time) is certainly a sound strategy in my book. Whether we utilise this beyond LostWinds is still undetermined - you'll just have to hold out

 

[Callum Rowley]

So do you think the Custom Content Community that exists now could get a tidbit of info as to how to crack the code as it were to make Custom VIPeeps, Entertainers, or Animals? Pretty please with sugar on top? lol

I don't think you'll get that information anytime soon, sorry. If we owned the IP (Intellectual Property) then we'd want users to experience custom moderation through accesible, polished and official tools - rather than cracked processes

Given that the custom content community of rct3 is so large and that new developments are being made almost every day, Do you think it would be a possibility to release the source code of the game and any production documentation such as how peeps were created etc? Given that the RCT3 forum on atari is the most popular forum on their site do you think this is a possibility?
Also you speak of these track tools. Could you go into further detail on these?

Again, we don't own the IP for RollerCoaster Tycoon so there isn't anything we can do to provide custom tools. Atari, the publisher, are the ones who hold the keys to custom content in this instance. If Frontier owned the IP then I guarentee you I'd be battling alongside you to get some custom content creation tools out there ^_^

 

[RCTAeon]

*sigh* Guess it's a lost cause then since Atari has pretty much shelved RCT3

 

[lloydgeorge]

elite 4 mmo?

 

[SuperG]

elite 4 mmo?

So your spamming the forum with your MMO adiction. So very offtopic.

This part of the forum is about game development.

So this would be nice to know. What does MMO feature has for impact on gameplay mechanics funding and planning. Are MMO more compex compared to non mmo. Is the risk higher.
The rumor is they started and quit development in 2000 of a Elite MMO?
Because off technical unfeable?
Is there any MMO experience within frontier studio?

PS. I hate MMO.

 

[Callum Rowley]

The rumor is they started and quit development in 2000 of a Elite MMO?
Because off technical unfeable?

I don't have the exact details but I think it was along those lines - the technology at the time didn't hold up to the ambitious vision David Braben has for Elite IV.

Is there any MMO experience within frontier studio?

Collectively, no. Though I'm sure we have individuals here who've worked on MMO and multiplayer games before.

 

[RCTAeon]

I don't have the exact details but I think it was along those lines - the technology at the time didn't hold up to the ambitious vision David Braben has for Elite IV.

Flash forward 10 years later...how about now?

 

[potsmoke66]

yes there is something still unsolved, somekind of "hypno-chair" where you can sit in, no screen, no input devices needet, you will dream yourself into elite's universe without knowing that it isn't real life

but i have no idea if you could stand death then?

 

[Spacegamer]

I don't have the exact details but I think it was along those lines - the technology at the time didn't hold up to the ambitious vision David Braben has for Elite IV.

AH! the old George Lucas excuse

 

[Callum Rowley]

AH! the old George Lucas excuse

I'm not going to comment

 

[potsmoke66]

one a little more serious question,
you will have noticed the the pioneer thread i've opened.
after all i got a little far how i do the model scripts for it, to explain they are based on ffe's original object's code.
now the problem is the developer of pioneer get's scared about that and that it will infringe the copyright (it will, i know).

what i wan't to know is now, how you at frontier.dev feel about that, unless no one argues about that and it was one of the reasons i started that thread to see what response i got for my models from your side to. that's why i made it also offens how i did them.

so a plain answer now would be helpful, did i allready go to far?
or can i work further in the same way i did?
what would be the limit's from your side, by now?
or is this a problem of your lawyers representing the copyright?

thanks for any kind suited answer, because i would really like to know if i had to retreat and "wreck" some of my models, before we got a problem.

the one was making the pioneer developer suspecting is the eagle i did lately
and posted to him, the download is allready cancelled and i won't offer this "bird" no more if it's a problem

this time i was stupidly that free to used one original texture as a base for the my model to, that's the main reason why i take this serious now.
but if that would be the sole problem i can fix it and offer it again, but if you feel it's a no, no, i will stop covering any of the original models. even if i would feel sorry for that.

gernot

 

[Callum Rowley]

Though we haven't officially released the source code for any of the Elite games, we're not stopping people from creating their own alterations or modifications - if we were to do so it would leave a bad taste in everyones mouth. So to answer your question, you can continue doing what you've been doing

 

[Geraldine]

Thank goodness for that! I was really liking what Potsmoke has been doing with Pioneer. Long may he continue! Also don't forget that with every community based project out there, the idea of Elite is still being kept fresh in everyone's mind and that can only help Frontier Developments when they finally decide to do a new official Elite sequel.

 

[potsmoke66]

yep, thanks a lot for your generosity.
keeps the dream alive and after all we're just a small bunch of FE2 hardliners
i guess for a lot, my models are to basic, but it's a different task to do them scripted and tomm's (pioneers dev.) is after all lucky he found one who can handle that (even if i think it's not to hard, you just have to start once). it's weird and needs a lot of sketches and paperwork to do just one, my whole desk is filled with such fuzzy stuff. the way that you have to script the models instead just putting them together in a cad prog. seems a bit to complicated for some, but i like the freedom that it gives to me and you can do some things you can only dream of in cad, or models that's beeing just ported "stiff" to a game.

20 years ago i have read that higher level (programming) means less control, that's still true and will allways be. or to say in other words, if you just have one button to press, not many options you will have to the result.
mainly that's the reason why a lot of newer games look like they are made with the same construction kit to clutter them together.