Croteam Interview - March 21st, 2006

[SALvation]

Now that Sam 2 is out the door and Croteam has recovered from the long development, we asked our friend Goran Zoricic of Croteam some questions about what they thought about Sam 2, and in doing so uncovered some nice hints about their next project.

GM: Hi Goran, nice to talk to you again. Can you remind everyone what you do at Croteam?

GZ: I'm usually referred to as 'the network guy', which is mostly, but not entirely, true. I've implemented low level networking, and did some work on high level, but i'm not solely responsible for all workings of entities in networking. I was also responsible for scripting support, and various parts of engine internals.

GM: Sam 2 has been out for almost 4 months now. How has the game sold compared to what your expectations were? Also, how has it done compared to the first two encounters for the PC?

GZ: From what I heard, it's selling well, in line with our expectations, especially since we hit the Christmas period.

GM: The Sam 2 engine was developed from scratch after Sam FE and SE for the PC. Have you guys been looking at licensing the engine since then? Have you had any takers yet?

GZ: We are getting a lot of requests for Serious Engine 2 licensing with some developers doing an evaluation right now, but at this stage I can't comment more on this.

GM: It's no secret that the PC and xBox versions of Sam 2 were developed concurrently, and because of that the PC version had many console-like features. Do you think that this development process and image hurt the PC version of the game? Were you limited in design choices because of the co-development?

GZ: Developing for XBox and PC at the same did influence the development process in some way. But, this was not that problematic, unlike the tight schedule we had, which influenced co-development much more.

GM: When Sam 2 was released, it did not come packaged with a dedicated server, deathmatch modes, or the SDK, yet all were promised to be included in upcoming patches. Since then we've seen the dedicated server released along with some general fixes. Can you tell us where you are at with the deathmatch patch and also the SDK tools?

GZ: Well, the deathmatch patch has been already released and we're currently preparing the SDK, which will go to Q&A pretty soon. Linux version is also in the works, but i can't give any precise estimate on that.

GM: Have any mod teams had the chance to work with the new SDK yet in private, or will they be starting from scratch once its available from the public?

GZ: Only our testers and potential engine licensees have been able to use and evaluate the SDK so far.

GM: Are there still plans for a Linux port? If so, where does development stand?

GZ: Linux port is being worked on, as i've said before, i can't give no real estimate for a release date.

GM: Given the franchise's past of appearing on current-gen consoles, is it safe to assume that we will be seeing Sam on next gen platforms such as the 360, PS3, and Revolution?

GZ: It's safe to assume that our next title will indeed appear on next-gen consoles as well as on PC. That's as specific as i can be at this time.

GM: The Sam franchise has always been sold with a budget price. As prices for next-gen games touch $60 for sometimes as little as 10 hours of gameplay, can you continue to offer new products at budget prices or will you be forced to raise prices as development costs increase? Would you ever consider a download service like Steam to help with publishing costs?

GZ: It's still too early to make any sensible predictions for the price of our next release. We've considered online distribution, but the decision about that can't be made by Croteam alone. It depends a lot on our publisher(s).

GM: Graphically, Sam 2 took a turn towards a more cartoonish look compared to FE and SE. Was this done on purpose or did it just happen as you improved the models and graphics from the first games?

GZ: The look and feel of Sam for Xbox started to move in that direction, and Sam2 took that one step further. Reactions from the community were mixed. My personal opinion is that this was a good thing, since it made the game different than the first two. Having said that, I have seen early design concepts of the next Sam game and I would say it's looking even more realistic than FE and SE and to me it already looks much better than anything we had done in any of previous Sam games.

GM: Also, the humor in Sam 2 ended up being well...cheesier than in the first games. Was this a case of trying to hard or just your weird Croatian humor?

GZ: Heh, for me Sam was always the not-too-bright-macho type, and this kind of humor fits him great. I find most of the cutscenes very amusing in the Monthy Phyton kind of way. Which is good.

GM: Will you have anything at E3 this year?

GZ: We might, but it's still early to say.

GM: When can we expect an announcement on your next project?

GZ: I can only speculate that it would be within a couple of months, but that's just my lucky guess.

GM: Last Question...How is development of Sam 3 going?

GZ: Sooo... how's the weather over there?

[SALvation]

If you look closely at the answers, it's easy to determine:

• Croteam is planning Sam 3 and it's in design phase
• It looks like it will drop the cartoony look in favor of realism
• It will appear on next-gen consoles