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{subhead} Digital Dreams Entertainment Interview{def}{p}
Article by Chris Seward
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CS - Chris Seward
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CC - Cvijan Cvijanovic (Digital Dreams Entertainment)
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CS : When was Digital Dreams Entertainment started and why? please give as
much background information as possible.
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CC : We started as Digital FX Entertainment in January 1992. When our
work has become more serious, we have changed the name to Digital
Dreams Entertainment. But it all started a couple of years before
(somewhere around 1987-8). At that time I was involved in making of new
local TV station. I had some experience in commercials and computer
graphics so my role at TV was to ensure that everything connected to
computer works fine, and it did. As I'm very curious by the nature, I have
started to learn how to use every single machine on TV. Several months
latter I was offered a technical director position at the station (it was
not a big station, around 200000-250000 possible viewers), but I have
refused that offer as I have plans to move from the city. During that
period spent on TV I have met several people that had same interests
like I had, and that is computer games. Unfortunately we have split
apart because of different opportunities that each of us had at that
time. But in January 1992 the 3 of us have met again and this time the
timing was perfect, so we have formed Digital FX Entertainment. As we
all was programmers we have hired two graphics artists and two musicians
and start working on a computer game for Amiga. But as we were short
with the cash we soon realized that we had to find some other resources
that will allow us to continue working on the game.
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Soon we have made contacts with TV stations and we were hired to make
some commercials with computer graphics. To be able to make those
animations we had to buy new computers, so we have spent our money
and money we have earned on new equipment. And it happened over and
over again, every time we make some money we have to invest it back to
new equipment and people. More and more our work has started to be TV
commercials, video presentations, TV games and virtual environments and
computer games was become our hobby.
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But the computer market is changing rapidly and to finish a game has become
very hard to us, so we had to decide ether to quit working for TV (which
provide us money) or to quit working on games (on what we spend money). And
the choice was obvious. But in 1996-97 our business has become stabile
and I had much more free time to start working on computer games again.
I have decided to finish one of our games, and that game is Wasted Dreams.
Unfortunately I couldn't find enough people who was ready to work on the
game nether those who would know how to (because of the pattern graphics
etc.), and I still was only able to work on it as a part time job. Now as
Wasted Dreams is probably on the market while you are reading this,
we are still working for TV, as well as I have convinced my partners to hire
more people to work on computer games.
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CS : Who are the main members of Digital Dreams Entertainment and what does
each member do?
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CC : First you should know that Digital Dreams Entertainment is mainly oriented
on video, commercials and TV jobs. So the part of Digital Dreams
Entertainment that you are interested in is actually very small:
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1. Cvijan Cvijanovic (director, producer, lead programmer).{p}
2. Raymond Cindric (lead graphics artist){p}
3. Igor Riff (3D graphics artist){p}
4. Hrvoje Velic (graphics artist, programmer, but actually "one man team"){p}
5. Goran Cvijanovic (producer, additional programmer)
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Those are people that actually work on Amiga games. But we hire people for
part time jobs depending on project needs (i.e. for Diablo's Land we
needed part time programmer for map generator etc.). Currently we still
need some 3D character models for Diablo's Land and we are searching for
people for those job (Anyone interested?). Also we will (maybe already
have as you read this) soon make a contents for that purpose, so visit our
page at {link http://www.dd-ent.com}http://www.dd-ent.com{end} to find more about it.
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Beside people who actually work on game design, we have "outsiders" that
work for us during publishing and distribution process, and from the past
experience we've learned that this is an important part of the circle.
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CS : With all of the games being designed these days, has anyone given thought
to doing a series based on the Middle Earth books written by J. R. R.
Tolkien? These books would be The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy
[Middle Earth, The Fellowship of The Ring, The Two Towers], The Return
of The King, and The Silmarillion.
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CC : I must confess that I haven't read The Return of The King and The
Silmarillion, so I can't tell how it would be to make a game upon them,
but as much as I like Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings I can't imagine a
game that will be enough interested to replace the book. What I'm trying
to say is that the book has everything you need, and if you make a game
upon the book there would not be anything new in the game and everybody
who has read the book would know exactly what to do, but if you change
something then it won't be upon the book. If somebody knows how to make
a good game based on those books I would like to hear it.
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CS : What are the base requirements that your games are written for?
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CC : We wanted to make our games playable on almost every Amiga, so you only need
to have 2Mb-chip memory, 1 Mb Fast memory and 2xCD-Rom. You can even have
68000 CPU with ECS as long as you have required memory and CD-Rom. But to
get full potential from the game you'll need A1200, 2Mb chip + 2Mb fast,
4x+CD-Rom. Diablo's Land needs a little more memory and will only work on
AGA or GFX card machines.
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CS : Which platforms do you currently develop for?
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CC : Currently as Digital Dreams Entertainment we are developing only for Amiga,
however our other teams are working for PC and soon for PSX. Maybe we will
convert those games for Amiga too.
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CS : How far are you going to support the Amiga?
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CC : As far as there will be interest from the community, which means as far as
someone will actually buy our games. We don't make games for Amiga because
we want to make money (we hope that one day we will, when AmigaNG will
become reality) but for now we just want to cover our expenses and to
support the community.
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CS : Are you now investing in more games or is the, 'to do' list finished?
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CC : We don't have enough people to work on more than two Amiga games at the
time, so currently we are working only on those two games. However when
they will be finished we will see if there is something new on a hardware
field and then decide what to do next.
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CS : Can you give a list of your current games and when you expect each one
to be complete?
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CC : Well, we had through lots of problems with the publishing and distribution
in the past so it took us a much longer than we've planned to go out with
Wasted Dreams, so I won't make the same mistake and tell when exactly
the game will be on the market, but we expect to have Diablo's Land
finished within month and month and a half.
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Wasted Dreams - already completed.{p}
Diablo's Land - to come.{p}
Megapolice - after Diablo's Land (but this is our biggest project and it
would be something really special).
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CS : Why did you first start to use the Amiga?
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CC : My first contact with computer was in 1982 when I spent whole night,
along with my brother, typing in some game from a magazine. This computer
was Sinclair ZX-81. Since then I was completely possessed by the
computers and especially computer games. And it started with ZX Spectrum,
Commodore64 and when I saw pictures from Defender of the crown in some
magazine I just had to buy it. So basically I have bought Amiga 500 to
play games. Latter I have start programming on it and make animations.
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CS : What would you personally like to see in a future Amiga?
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CC : I can say I would like to see lot of processor power, super graphics, DSP
chip etc. but we all know that this is something already available, so
what I really want to see is Amiga, however it will be I just want to
see "her".
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CS : Are you interested in publishing other users games and how should they
go about contacting you if they think you would be interested?
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As I said we had through lots of troubles to organize publishing and
distribution for our products, but now we have good distribution network
and we will continue improving it. And of course that we are interested in
publishing other developers products as we are sure that we can provide
best terms for them. But from the other hand we want to make sure that
our customers will only get the best games currently available, so those
games should fulfill certain quality standards. However we are opened to
estimate all games so if you have something that may be interesting for
Amiga community please contact us at {bold}developer@dd-ent.com{nobold}.
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CS : Will you be staying with just the games market or can you see yourself
moving into the serious software side in the future?
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CC : Well to satisfy my company partners and to convince them to invest more
in our Amiga projects I'll definitely need to show them that there is a
potential in there. Also I believe that we will become the one of the biggest
Amiga software houses in next six to eight months.
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CS : Are you looking for anyone in perticular to join the Digital Dreams
Entertainment team like programmers, gfx artists, etc?
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CC : We are always opened for new talented people, so if anyone wants to
participate in developing on our projects fell free to contact us. In
particularly we are currently in need for network programmer and 3D artist
for character modeling (Lightwave, MAX, 3DS, Maya).
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CS : Is there anything you would like to say to the Amiga community?
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CC : Keep your faith.
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Thanks to {bold}Cvijan Cvijanovic{nobold} for doing this interview and a few members
of the {bold}JUST-AMiGA{nobold} mailing list for submitting some questions for the
interview.
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