Interview with Pumpkin Studios

[aubergine]

I've been contacting some members of the original Pumpkin Studios team and looks like I'll be getting some interviews lined up!

Do you have any questions you'd like to ask them? If so, post here

[Rman Virgil]

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Neat.

Alex Lee came by here a couple years back and we asked him 2 questions.

I would ask the same here of the others.

1.) What were you planning to do with commanders that you never got around to ? The source code certainly gives the impression much was left unfulfilled... radically scaled-back to meet the release schedule..

2.) Would be cool if you could speak to Pumpkin's design idea behind WZ 2100 being an evolving, "living product", to quote Nick Cook (I recall Jim B. and A. McLean referring to it as such as well). With the original Pumpkin comments lost along with the original RETAIL Release BBs this was a key generative commitment that merits re-exposure, from the "horses mouth", you could say. Thanks.

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[Giani]

What do you think of the new WZ versions?

[Per]

I would love to hear about ideas they tried out and then abandoned (and why). From reading left-overs in the original source, there seemed to be many such trial and error rounds.

In particular, what were their plans for the Deathmatch mode?

Anything they would have done differently in retrospect?

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

1) (Giani's question, plus) and how would they proceed if they were in our shoes?

2) What were the plans for Warzone 2120?

3) Do we have their blessing with the current direction of Warzone?

[Giani]

...
2) What were the plans for Warzone 2120?
...

Warzone 2120?

[Shadow Wolf TJC]

1. Was there anything that you guys wished was done differently back when you 1st made Warzone 2100? If so, then what?

2. Other than Warzone 2100, are there any rts games out there that you guys like, or are interested in?

3. Lately, there's been quite a bit of interest in developing mods around here, not just the NEXUS Total War mod, but also Iluvalar's New Research System mod, NoQ's Nullbot AI, NoQ's Ultimate Scavengers Mod, aubergine's and my Enhanced SitRep Mod, and my own Contingency mod to name a few. Moreover, there are plans for developing more such mods, like Goth Zagog-Thou's work on a Campaign 4, and Iluvalar's plans to develop his Cooler Research System mod. Any favorites among them?

4. Would you guys be interested in developing a (spiritual) sequel to this game? Or if someone else wanted to develop a spiritual sequel (like how Supreme Commander was developed as a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation), would you guys be interested in participating? A few of us here, myself included, see great potential with this game's "strategy by design" design.

5. What do you guys do nowadays?

[Cyp]

1) Were there any plans to give commanders a powerful self-destruct option to make them actually be a bit useful?
2) Do you consider making the mini-map and unit design UI features dependent on building an otherwise-useless Command Centre to have been a mistake?

[Giani]

1) Were there any plans to give commanders a powerful self-destruct option to make them actually be a bit useful?

[Conor]

Warzone 2120?

Warzone 2120 was (I believe) the intended sequel for Warzone before the studio was closed - but I've never actually seen that officially confirmed by a developer from there.

[Giani]

Warzone 2120?

Warzone 2120 was (I believe) the intended sequel for Warzone before the studio was closed - but I've never actually seen that officially confirmed by a developer from there.

Thanks
Another question:
Have you ever played 2.X or 3.X? Or would you like to?

[Rman Virgil]

Warzone 2120?

Warzone 2120 was (I believe) the intended sequel for Warzone before the studio was closed - but I've never actually seen that officially confirmed by a developer from there.

Larry Green conducted an interview with the Pumpkin Team in early 1999 and asked them about WZ 2120 and they responded as such:

http://www.strategyplanet.com/warzone21 ... view.shtml

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[Shadow Wolf TJC]

I'd still be interested in reading what the old Pumpkin Studios dev team has to say about our questions.

[Lord Apocalypse]

hehe I still have some of the Q&A from the NEWST days. If I can find it do you want a copy of that to go with your collection aubergine?

[aubergine]

Yes