Part 3 – Game Development and Summary
If you have followed the worldwide action game scene a bit over the last years you know how unusual it is to see a game like Y Project coming from Western European and especially Germany. Lately there were a lot more shooter games from Eastern Europe (Serious Sam, Operation Flashpoint, Codename Outbreak, Kreed, ...) than from Western Europe.
Westka: The conditions for software developers in Western Europe are difficult. The production costs are high and there are few investors who are willing to take the high risk for an ambitious project like Y Project. You can make a game with a low budget game and a small team, but when (if) you actually manage to finish the game some day, the quality will probably show. Your game will end up as the 20th lousy clone of some other game; chances are you won’t make any money and end up as the slave of some publisher. Needless to say that this is not a very comfortable situation for a developer. We at Westka are in a lucky situation that we have a mother company who have the necessary financial and technical power to support us and who are willing to take the risk of making a game that meets top world market standards. Despite some financial trouble that Westka has gone through recently we are still very confident that Y Project will be finished and will be a commercial success.
The fact that Westka’s mother company is a TV and media company also shows when you look at the project team. You’ll find a lot of people from a TV and movie background: Camera man, set designer, screenplay writer, lighting experts, … Furthermore there are several architects and designers on the team. Quite unusual to have so many people who do not come from an IT business background.
Westka: We want the game to stand out in the design and art area. Back in the days when a chair consisted of only a few polys there wasn’t much to be designed about it. But now that the hardware and engine has become so much more powerful we actually have the freedom to create a chair that looks special. And that is best done by somebody who has professionally designed real life chairs. That’s why we put experts on every job. Every area of the city has a unique style that you’ll easily recognize from certain elements of design.
Overall there are 30+ people on the core team, plus a number of freelancers that are used for special tasks. Some of them come from other German and European developers and publishers like BlueByte, Ubi, CDV, Virgin, Infogrames, ...
The publisher for the game is still undecided:
Westka: I can’t really say much about it since we are still talking with several parties. But the fact that we deliver an almost finished product and all the financing and development is already done gives us a very good position in the negotiations. I’ve got no doubt that we can present a strong partner for publishing and marketing very soon.
Westka are aiming for a Q1 2003 release and confirmed to me that they are well on track.
The only spoiler I was able to spot: Currently there are no plans for a multiplayer part of the game:
Westka: We want to concentrate on making a top class single player experience. Making multiplayer, even if it is just a simple deathmatch mode, takes more work than most would imagine and we don’t wanna bind any resources for this that we could use for making a better singleplayer game:
The game will ship with multiplayer support for mod makers though. Also co-op may make it into the game. This is not decided yet. The final decision on this will be made together with the publisher.
Sounds familiar. Unreal 2 anyone?
BeyondUnreal: What about Y Project Tournament 2005? ;-)
Westka: We’re trying to establish a new game brand here. If Y Project is a hit, as we hope, all options are open for sequels and expansions. This certainly includes multiplayer too. But that is too far in the future to even think about. First of all we have to make this game a great experience and build up a fan base.
After what I’ve seen and heard I’ve got no doubt that Y Project will be a hit with the fans. We can expect a game that is technically top notch, has a deep story and very variable gameplay. We’re in for a kick-ass game experience here. I’m really looking forward to this game and I hope I’ve whetted your appetite too, if you hadn’t heard about Y Project before.
BeyondUnreal: Any final words for the BeyondUnreal readers? ;-)
Westka: We’d like to invite everybody to stop by at the Y Project forums and to give us feedback, make suggestions and discuss ideas. The German forum already is quite busy already, but the forum for the English speaking folks could use some more visitors. We listen very closely to what the fans want to see. C'mon, shoot us your ideas; we'll reply as good as we can.
A big "Thank You!!" to Westka Interactive for giving BeyondUnreal the chance to peek-preview the game. Special thanks to Thomas Schaefer for giving me that big presentation and answering all my questions so patiently.
Links of Interest: