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Developer's diary: Part IV(July 20, 2002)Welcome, dear reader! First, an obligatory "thank you" to everybody who has our previous instalments and commented on our message boards. Next, I should probably apologize, as I am writing this more than one month later then I intended to. An explanation may bring understanding, if not forgiveness, and explain I will try. Memoirs: Things Going SourIt was around Christmas last year when we could not help noticing a strange thing. The milestone payments from our publisher, Titus, grew even more delayed.Maybe I should explain some aspects of the developer-publisher relationship in general terms, even though many a reader has undoubtedly already heard it all. Still, I constantly receive letters from people confusing the two, and therefore I'll try to explain briefly. If you already know what the cross-collateralized royalties are, please feel free to skip the next four paragraphs. We, ALTAR interactive, are the developer. Therefore, we develop: we code, we design, we program, we model, we render, we compose, we write, and we sub-contract. We do not publish and distribute -- this is publisher's job. The publisher takes the game when it is finished by us, has it pressed, packed, and properly marketed and then actually sells it, via various distribution companies, to the players. The development is a protracted and costly business. An average game takes about two years to complete and costs more than a million dollars to finish, that is, the developer spends more than a million dollars developing it (it should be noted that for UFO: Aftermath both numbers are lower). In an ideal world, the developer can pay this by itself and bring the finished game to publisher, just as an author can go to the (book) publisher with a completed novel under his arm. But a million dollars is a lot of money for most small companies, and indeed for many developers, and so, just like a writer could, they ask the publisher for and advance that would allow them to create the game. It is customary that the publisher and developer then settle on an outline of the work, detailing what and when shall be ready (this is called the milestone schedule), and the publisher than gives the developer the advance in instalments, very much as if the author would submit a new chapter to his publisher each month, getting a part of the agreed advance. These payments are called milestone payments as they are subject to the developer completing the corresponding milestone and the publisher approving it. No milestone, no payment. It is as simple as this and is a great way how to make the developer complete the game on time. Let's now move back to our story now (do not despair if you feel that you still do not know what the cross-collateralized royalties are, maybe next time). Maybe it should have been a warning to us, when Titus signed our contract, dated August 3rd, on August 23rd, explaining that otherwise they would not be able to send us the "on signature" payment. However, delays and excuses are something you will get used to very soon when developing computer games and summer, as we all know, is the period of drought for publishers. However, the situation did not get much better even early this year, when the windfall of the holiday season was supposed to ring in, nor did the $40 million for the sale of Shiny enable the beleaguered Titus to meet its obligations to us. Just before E3 it become apparent that we would have to part ways and find a new publisher for UFO: Aftermath. But this is another long and convoluted story I hope I will be able to relate in full (including the happy ending) in the next instalment of this diary. The Strategic PartBut enough of boring industry gossip. The fact that we are looking for a publisher does not mean that we do not work on the game. We are still committed to our release date in Q1/2003 and we are moving along for this target.The most impressive advancement over the past month or so is the beta version of the strategic game -- but let me explain what we mean by that first. In UFO: Aftermath you are in one of two "modes:" either in a tactical mission (i.e. you are blasting away the aliens), or in the strategic simulation, where you carry out research, re-equip your soldiers, manage your bases, and decide what tactical mission you will play next. When designing the game we tried to put more stress on the tactical part -- we expect the player to spend about three quarters of their total game time in this mode. At the same time we wanted the strategic game to be able to stand on its own, to be more than "go there, do this" kind of wobbly prop. The strategic game should give the player as much freedom as possible; it should present the player with true alternatives and reward strategic thinking. On the other hand, the strategic game should not bog the player down with micro-managing of every single aspect of the game. The player thus alternates in two roles: while in strategic game they are the de facto leader of the CoE (Council of Earth, the umbrella organization of the Earth resistance), making decisions about the direction of research and manufacturing, and also deciding which tactical opportunities need/deserve the attention of the CoE's most elite special combat unit (Phoenix Legion). The latter are then solved by the player in their second role, that of the commander of Phoenix Legion. Besides selecting the tactical missions, the player also decides what type of bases they will conquer or found in the conquered territory. These, in turn, influence their military strength, the speed of research, or manufacturing, etc... I could go on about this for a long time, but this should be a diary, not a preview, and I am also running out of space. So, briefly, where are we now? Broadly speaking, the strategic game works: the UFOs are flying, the player crafts are pursuing, the research is being carried out, and the territory is expanding and contracting. It also seems to work in the other sense of the word -- though it obviously needs a lot of balancing, tweaking, and polishing, the basic gameplay dynamics appear to work all right. Even when everything you do in the way of fighting is selecting player wins/enemy wins checkbox and pressing the OK button, it is an interesting game. I hope I will be able to write more on this subject next time and show detail our progress in our search for the new publisher. Until then, happy gaming. Martin Klima, ALTAR interactive |
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Buy UFO: Aftermath online! 
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