Posted 2/18/2008 at 12:06 PM By GamingShogun
We recently got the chance to interview Vic Davis, Founder of Cryptic Comet, developer of the popular turn-based strategy game Armageddon Empires.
GS) You founded Cryptic Comet, tell us a bit about your background in the gaming industry, or, gaming in general.
VD) I’m actually a neophyte to the gaming industry. I made interactive Civil War battlefield CD-ROMs for a bunch of years for a start up company with my brother. The company is called TravelBrains and if you visit Gettysburg you will see our tour there. It’s a very novel product in that it lets you learn about the history before you leave and then gives you a AAA tour at the site. Now I run a one man show called Cryptic Comet. My first game was the result of almost three years of work. It’s a turn based strategy game called Armageddon Empires.
GS) What prompted or inspired, if you will, Cryptic Comet to design Armageddon Empires as a turn-based strategy game instead of the more mainstream real-time variety?
VD) Well, turn based is really the central element in my design philosophy. I just like taking the time to sit and think about what I want to do in a game. I like to examine my units at my own leisure and revel in there stats, attachments, victories and power. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older. I still enjoy playing an RTS every once in a while but I always have this terrible feeling in my gut that there is something going on somewhere that I am missing. Mainstream gaming has left the turn based games behind on the PC so I thought I’d take a shot at it and see what I could do. I’m not alone though. There are some great small companies and many more indies doing this. You just tend not to find the games on the store shelves.
GS) Armageddon Empires features some really well-done 2D artwork. Who were the artist(s) for the game?
VD) I rounded up some great artists from all over the world. First on board was my sister Katie. She worked for cheap so she was a key hire. She did a bunch of the icons, interface art templates, the website and the manual. Then I found Matt Bradbury an amazing artist out of the U.K. He did the Machines, Mutants and a bunch of flavor images. Zdenek Sasek came on next. He lent his unique style to the Empire of Man and produced some great work. I also snagged an ex-Bioware artist by the name of Michael Grills. He did a stand up job on all the equipment you salvage from the Wasteland. Ric Lim Boon Keat then lent a talented hand to many of the indie facilities you will stumble upon in the game….. the beached Trident submarine being one of my favorites. Finally Jon Hodgson delivered on the tough assignment of bringing the tentacled Xenopods to life and Aaron Porter modeled all the 3-D dice. Team complete.
GS) There is a 'Collectible Card Game' aspect to Armageddon Empires, which really adds an additional layer of strategy as well as random chance to gameplay. Are there plans to release 'booster packs' for the game?
VD) Yes, I’m actually wading around knee deep in the guts of the program right now adding code for a free mini expansion pack called Cults of the Wastelands. It will basically be version 1.07 of the game and will let you toggle on a challenge mode of sorts to really up the difficulty. You will face off against some insidious cults that have there own plans for the wastelands. Normally the non-AI players called independents just sit there waiting for you to destroy them and claim their treasure. Not these guys. Pizza will send out for you!
GS) Despite all the positive reviews Armageddon Empires has garnered, a sticking point most reference is the unnecessary button clicking as well as button placement. What happened in the game's design of the user interface which led to this?
VD) Well the interface is really the result of a non professional like me taking a shot at what is really some complex game dynamics. I think it could definitely be improved and I’ve added some incremental steps to that. One of my last updates added a timer for the appearance of a message pad that only had an ok button to press….just some info I thought was needed before the next screen popped up. Because I wanted to mimic a board game and show all the dice rolls, you have this very regimented flow process for resolving conflict in the game. There are certain points where you can roll the dice, certain points where you can re-roll selected dice and even points where you can play cards to change things. The UI is probably a bit too literal. I’m going to keep smoothing it on the margins but in the end it is what it is… and short of a complete design overhaul its core character isn’t going to change. I do know that once people get used to the flow process they come to terms with it…. Sort of like a bad marriage
GS) Currently, your website lists Armageddon Empires as the only game in the Cryptic Comet stable. Any current projects coming down the pipe you can speak about?
VD) Well I’ve got the free mini expansion pack coming out in late March if everything goes according to plan. I’ve also made a lot of progress on my next game that I haven’t officially announced yet. It’s called Project Brimstone at this point but that’s just a code word. I really liked how the old Black Isle guys used to give code names to their projects. I got a lot of feedback that people really wanted some multi player for Armageddon Empires. Converting that game to multi player would be an impossible task because I really didn’t lay out the architecture for it. The design would also have to be heavily modified and frankly my networking code experience is non-existent. So for this next project I am going to attempt play by e-mail (PBEM) and see how that goes. The game is designed from the ground up for it with simultaneous turns and it has a bunch of cool board game mechanics. Right now my one line description of it is to think of an eclectic combination of Diplomacy, Dune, A Game of Thrones and Ticket To Ride.
GS) And lastly, is there anything you would like our readers to know?
VD) Just that I’ve got a long list of game ideas that I eventually want to bring to life. Ideas are a dime a dozen so I’m going to keep working on pulling off the execution. You can expect strong themes, brain itching mechanics, great art and solid support from Cryptic Comet in the future. I’ve also got a blog up on my website where I like to spout off about strategy game design.
Thank you again for the interview Vic, we appreciate it as do our readers. You can find more information on Cryptic Comet and Armageddon Empires at their website.
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