Interview with M. Spanel translated

I have translated an interview with Marek Spanel published on the game server Doupe.cz.

Doupe: At the beginning, we could return to the first part of Operation Flashpoint. The game soon overran a limit of one million copies sold - how does your situation look like in the present? Do people keep buying it at present?

Marek Spanel: After more than two years, people all over the world and also in our country are still interested in Operation Flashpoint very much what makes us really happy. In the recent time, we have been working on the modified and improved version of the game for the Xbox that will enable many new players play Flashpoint.

The Resistance datadisk has also been accepted by the public very positively. Has it been also selling so well?

Resistance was a successful project, however, we expected a bigger result in some countries (but somewhere, e.g.: here in the Czech Republic, we were surprised kindly). Resistance’s hardware requirements were too close to the highest possible limit in that time, so it had also some part on its saleability. Anyway, it is an experience to the future - some things weren’t managed ideally, maybe also on the side of the distributor’s marketing. For example, the story with the Red Hammer datadisk developed directly in the Codemasters turned off many people from the Resistence, probably. Today, there may be lot of people who don’t know its asset to the Flashpoint, and there is much of it.

The game caught many players who made some real miracles with the engine. What is your attitude about loads of maps and many more unofficial updates made by laic public? Do you support them?

We try to support as much as possible. We have always wanted to create an open system and we have also built in an easy-to-use mission editor. Step by step, we released all the develop utilities that we were using for making our maps and models. We are still trying to support the community. We hope that working with the community has really great value and will be good for Flashpoint 2.

So, let’s get on the main theme of the interview. Where do you see the unique of the 70’s that you decided to locate Flashpoint 2 into this time?

The Cold War was at its zenith. The superpowers were armed and ready to attack. But at the same time, nobody was such a fool to start the direct contact. So, there were some individual conflicts all round the world where the Soviet Union and United States were involved and where they were comparing their political powers and also where they were testing how a direct conflict would result. This scene makes really an interesting background for the game. It is also quite important that the conventional way of war was still used in that time - without any supermodern technologies - what is much better for the game design. So, the step forward with more modern environment was closed for us, immediately.

How did the team changed compared to the original game?

Now, our team is over two times bigger against the team finishing Operation Flashpoint, so about 25 people. The most of members from the original team work also on the second OFP.

At the official site, three localities are announced (southeast Asia, central Europe and Africa). It could direct to the idea of the story split into several conflicts. Could you say any more details about the storyline?

Not for the moment.

We are curious if the fights take place also at our place, in Czechoslovakia?

Yes.

Flashpoint has impressed everyone by its freedom of movement. Will the maps’ size be changed?

Flashpoint 2 engine will allow us to make bigger maps even with more details. We believe the freedom of the game is one of the most important features in Flashpoint (and in the games, generally), so we will keep this thing also in OFP 2.

You have announced a lot of solo actions, commander’s duties and army vehicled control. What news will Flashpoint 2 bring in these areas?

We don’t try to do any revolution compared to the original Flashpont. We want everything to be more realistic and more detailed. I wouldn’t like to reveal particular details because there can be many changes in the area.

Will the control of vehicles, choppers and aircrafts have more action character what we could see for example in the Battlefield 1942?

We keep going our own way. Our goal is to make the physics and behaviour of all the vehicles as realistic as possible and the basic model of control as accessible as possible to all players, at the same time. On the other hand, we don’t want to disappoint all the simulator fans who would like to control the planes and other stuff in Flashpoint like they are accustomed in the specialized simulators. So we want to continue with the control character from the original game but we are trying to improve the game physics and control logic as much as we can.

What will the general game “character“ be? It will be as much realistic as possible or will be there some simplifications?

Like in native Flashpoint, we want its players to feel as much as possible they are engaged to the modern war conflict. So, the realistic game on the maximum. At the same time, we are trying to create really good logic of the control, so it will be no problem to play it for the beginners. We have a great advantage that we are not starting from zero. Our own experience from last years with the game together with the skills of the players all over the world give us a big chance to improve many things.

What will the announced “full multiplayer support” bring?

At first place, everything possible from the Operation Flashpoint and Resistance after two years of development. First version of the game was not very good for the internet playing. So, the possibility of LAN and internet playing with more players with the support of the dedicated servers under Windows and Linux. From the technical aspect, the net code of the Flashpoint 2 will be optimized and moreover it will allow to join into the started game that could make it available to many new players.

How will the game graphics be changed? Can you estimate its hardware requirements?

We find the pixel and vertex shader so important technologies that we will use them in our new engine very intensively. So, the game will require at least GeForce 3 or some other graphics card supporting pixel and vertex shader. A fast processor and sufficient memory will also be necessary. Our goal is to create the game that would run smoothly on the 2GHz processor, 256 MB RAM and GeForce 3. But, of course, the stronger computer, the better experience from the playing.

In what phase of development is the game now?

The majority of the work stays just in front of us, however, at the same time we have been working on the special version of Flashpoint for the Xbox for the last year. Today, it is sure that the game won’t be released next year because we have so much work and our plans are very ambicious.

If you should summarize the biggest advantages of Operation Flashpoint 2, what would it be?

Flashpoint 2 will bring a maximum accent to the great imitation of reality, extremely wide game environments, all vehicles fully-controled. Everything for a single and multiplayer with possibility of making own game content. The range of possibilities has been large in the native Flashpoint but Flashpoint 2 will go even further. Moreover, in more developed form with the use of the performance and abilities of computers of the present.