| FUBAR Interview |

FUBAR Interview - The Game Of War

Interview with Ross Liversidge, director of marketing/PR of Rosande LTD. Rosande LTD. develops the strategy-game called `FUBAR`

SK = Stefan Keilwert / AmigaScene
RL = Ross Liversidge / Rosande Ltd.

SK: Hi Ross !!

RL: Hello :)

SK: Be so kind and tell us something about your person...(how old, where u live, jobs,....)

RL: Me? Well, I'm 20, living in the UK (Harrogate, North Yorkshire to be exact) and I'm the Director of PR and Marketing here at Rosande, although most of my time is spent running the company side of things. I also help design the gameplay, draft the contracts and arrange the finances...

SK: What were the first contacts to the `AMIGA` ? Have you ever been an active member of the `scene` ? Tell us...

RL: I'm not really an active member of the Amiga scene - well, it'd be difficult as I don't own one... However, I have had influential contacts in the amiga industry since I was seven, most important of which was a guy called Bill Donald - he's written a few books on the Amiga and was one of the very first people to own an A500 - it didn't even have a badge!

SK: ok. We already know, that you`re director of marketing/PR. Are you a founder of `ROSANDE LTD.` or when did you join?

RL: I'm one of two founder members of Rosande Ltd (The other being Andrew "Oondy" King). Rosande was only officially formed in November last year.

SK: So when did `ROSANDE LTD` start developing? (which platforms)

RL: Well, as I said, Rosande started in November, but we've been working on FUBAR seriously some 3 years now. We were originally called Q-Group software, and we were all working on it part time. Our main programmer, Oondy, has done numerous bits and pieces, and was a contributor on Foundation. Now both myself and Andrew work on the project full time - it kind of has a life of its own...

SK: Who else is in `ROSANDE LTD` ?

RL: Well, most of the people we use are freelance. We bring in the skills when we need them. There have been a lot of contributors, chief amongst which have been Andy Kinsella, our long standing GFX artist and Will Morton's Q-Labs who are responsible for the soundtrack. We also have contributors like yourself and Jean-Pierre Rossouw who contribute specialist gfx and fmv.

SK: I know, that at the moment you`re developing a game called `FUBAR`.How much can u already tell us about the game, genre, highlights,...

RL: FUBAR is a strategy war game which incorporates lots of different ideas from different genres to create something altogether different. Highlights would be the way in which you can create vehicles and weapons based on three different types of technology - Nuclear, Electrical and Biochemical. Other highlights include the graphics, music and the lovely Rosande logo ;)

[Logo]

SK: Sounds interesting ... tell us more ...

RL: Okay, well the game functions in three stages. The first of which is the world map screen, where you can position troops and keep an eye on your cities. In this screen, the game is very much like Civilisation.

SK: Then we have the city screen, where you control the population, vehicle building, troop training and so forth. You need manage yourself before you attack others.

RL: Finally, the battle screen. This is a real time strategy affair, like Command and Conquer in many respects. This is where the action takes place and you get to "test" your weapons...

However, FUBAR is much bigger than the sum of its parts so to speak...

SK: When and why did you start with the idea of such a game ? Who had the idea ?

RL: Originally Andrew had the idea of releasing a PD North and South clone, with updated graphics and gameplay. The project had been kinda shelved when I met him, but together we re-invented it and came up with what would be the foundations of FUBAR.

SK: How much is finished yet? Is there a demo version available?

RL: The demo that was available is so old that it no longer represents the game at all! We're about 40- 50% done, but we have everything in place to ensure that the remainder is finished comparatively quickly. The GUI is in the final programming stages, and there's a game engine up and running too. It's basically a case of cobbling everything together. We're also using our own programming language (!)

SK: So when will it be in the shops ?

RL: Well, it'll be finished in August if everything goes according to plan, so September.

SK: ok then. At least you`ve sent me some nice screenshots ;)Any comments?

[Air Combat]

SK: Well, I think its very hard today to live from developing for `AMIGA` only (although the situation is getting better). How profitable is it really?

RL: The Amiga isn't really profitable anymore, mainly due to piracy - people who buy hardware and think that they're entitled to rip off the software because they're "Supporting the market" are kidding themselves. If we can't make any money on the Amiga, we'll concentrate on the PC - but we are really keen to stay with the amiga!

SK: One solution is, to develope a game for other markets, too. Will you do that ?

RL: FUBAR's source code is already optimised for conversion to the PC and Playstation. That's where we'll make our money. We already have the DirectX and 3DFX programmer ready and willing (last time I checked...), so a PC version won't be far behind the Amiga game.

SK: I`d like to know the relation of the profits (if you`d precalc them) between the sales ofan amiga-version and a pc-version of the same game.

RL: Erm... Times the Amiga profits by hundred and you're probably getting warm. The market is far bigger on the PC...

SK: I think its time to show the people out there some more screenshots ... here they come...

[Title]

SK: Lets talk again about `FUBAR`. You know, that there are many other good games (and clones) out there. If you want to produce a top-selling game, you have to be different to the others, in fact,you have to be better than the rest.How do you want to reach that with `FUBAR` ?

RL: Well, FUBAR aims to succeed by offering options and ideas not available in any other game of this kind. On the subject of clones, the problem is that people like them - otherwise they wouldn't sell. How many Doom/Quake variants are there out there for example? Look at Half Life compared to Quake II - practically the same format, but implemeted differently - Half Life opts for strategy and offers highly intelligent adversaries as opposed to Quake II's "scrag and run" format. FUBAR will be the intelligent and more varied relative of a host of other games.

SK: To come to an end, what will the future bring us? Whats your opinion about the classic-Amiga <-> NG-Amiga discussion?(G3-boards, OS3.5, OS5.0, QNX, ...)

RL: It's not a discussion I really enter into to be honest.

SK: Do `ROSANDE LTD`-games support the PPC?(powerpc or ppc, warp3D, rave3D)

RL: We've been asked to by Blittersoft, and we will if it's viable. The problem is that there's no support for developing programs on PPC, so it depends how much work it will take.

SK: Will `ROSANDE LTD` support the new NG-amigas (if they`ll ever come) ?

RL: If it's financially viable, then certainly. We like supporting the Amiga, but we have to be able to support ourselves first. We're anxiously awaiting the specs that are promised at Londons World of Amiga show this year!

SK: What are the future-plans of `ROSANDE LTD`? are there plans for a new game ?

RL: I already have a team waiting to go on the next project, working title "Silver Falls" which will start as soon as FUBAR is in the can. There's a band ready to supply some decent vocal tracks to it and I have a very talented artist called Vanessa Wells ready to do the character designs and posters. Q-Labs will be producing the soundtrack again and I've lined up Technoarts cc to produce the FMV.

[Soldiers]

SK: Is there anything else you want to say to our readers ?

RL: Well, most importantly, support the Amiga by buying the software even if it isn't ours - a machine lives or dies on it, it doesn't matter how good the hardware is. Just look at the dearth of titles on the N64... There were more second hand N64's in Japan than new ones when Squaresoft moved to Sony in the first six months :)

SK: oki. I think thats the end now. Thanks alot for your time, and much success with `FUBAR` !

RL: Thanks very much :)

Stefan Keilwert
Robert Niessner