Otto Matic Post-Mortem Interview
November 14, 2001 | Tuncer Deniz | | Pages: |  | 1 | 2 |  |
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Otto Matic, the new sci-fi action adventure from Pangea Software recently went to GM and will be making its way to stores in early December, just in time for Christmas. We recently caught up with Pangea's Brian Greenstone to chat about the game he just finished.Why Post-Mortem? I've gotten several emails about why I've called this interview a "post-mortem", which means "after death". A few years ago a site called Gamasutra, a developer related gaming web site, began publishing articles called post-mortem's that discuss games AFTER they were completed. The gaming industry has since then adopted this term and is now widely used. Please visit the Gamasutra web site to check out more "Post Mortem" stories.
IMG: Now that you've finished the game, how do you think it turned out?
Greenstone I think it turned out great! It definitely evolved from the original game design, but it deviated much less than most of my games do. Most games I've done have started as one thing and ended up being something totally different, but Otto Matic stayed on-course pretty well. This is by far the best 3D game we've ever done.
IMG: Tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea. Greenstone The idea came about from two completely different game ideas I was pondering. One was to do Nanosaur 2, and the concept was to have it in space. The other idea was a Flying Saucer Flight Simulator; I'd been mulling that idea around for years. I had always been a huge fan of the old 1950's sci-fi movies, so it occurred to me that I could go with the Saucer Flight Sim idea, but just as a small part of a bigger game with that theme. Bugdom was such a huge hit that it made sense to do another action-adventure genre anyways, so Otto came from all of that.
IMG: What was the most difficult part in making Otto Matic? Greenstone The most difficult part was getting it to work on OS X since we started the game before OS X had even shipped. Up until the 10.1 update, we were not sure if it was going to work at all on X, but 10.1 came through for us and everything now works great. But it was definitely a struggle to get it all working.
IMG: What's your "favorite" part about Otto Matic. Why should people buy it? Greenstone Tough call on that. In a general sense, my favorite part is all of the unique gameplay that we crammed in there. Stuff like riding bumper cars, skiing, etc. But the level which really makes me happy is the one where you get to fly a flying saucer and lay waste to an alien camp (hence the flight sim part). The game is a little bit of Bugdom mixed with a little Nanosaur mixed with a whole lot of new gameplay and sci-fi elements. It's a really fun game, and it looks and sounds incredible!
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