Interviewed by Soren Johnson

[Kael]

Soren interviewed me and the team, you can check out the interview here: http://www.designer-notes.com/.

For those that don't recognize the name (shame on you!) Soren is the lead designer and programmer of Civ4. He was hired by Maxis to work on Spore about a year after Civ4's release though he still keeps tabs on the Civ4 community. Designer Notes is his personal blog and worth checking out to see his ideas on game design.

 

[Marnok]

I thought Soren was the god of random numbers, or something.

 

[Kael]

I thought Soren was the god of random numbers, or something.

 

[Jean Elcard]

I thought Soren was the god of random numbers, or something.

Very nice interview. I had to laugh a lot about this one, too.

EDIT: Can't wait for Part 2.

 

[Grey Fox]

Cool, I check his blog out from time to time, but haven't read it lately.
(EDIT: Kinda annoying to keep reading Fall all the time instead of FfH, I keep thinking EffEffEich instead of Fall )

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

cool blog he has there. it's too bad that Spore sucks so bad

 

[westamastaflash]

cool blog he has there. it's too bad that Spore sucks so bad

The Creature Stage is GREAT. The rest is terrible...

 

[HadesScorn]

Personally, Cell Stage [though brief] was my favorite. It was a total rip-off of Flow, but good none-the-less. Should have been expanded.

Creature stage was playable, but fairly boring. Most of the achievements that would have been fun were too rare to attempt. The paucity of genuine choice in creature parts kind of pissed me off.

Tribal was without a doubt the single most annoying stage of any game I have ever played. EVER.

Civ was alright, loved having fun as a religious civ.

And Space? Someone needed to tell Will that "metagame" does not mean "endlessly repetitive game". The first time a colony came under attack, it was cool. Zipped over and killed some aliens. The fifth time? After having upgraded every city on it with cannons? And them still needing my help? I uninstalled Spore, and then got rid of the POS copy protection that actually made the game run slower than hacked versions.

 

[megamanx06]

cell stage sucks, but the space stage is pretty fun until you get to the center of the universe (where you find steve). my main problem is that the civ stage is so short.

but what does this have to do with FfH?

 

[Grey Fox]

rant: Actually, Cell stage was pretty fun, and since it's short it's weaknesses don't affect the whole game so much. But now, the Space stage, it was FRUSTRATING! I have to defend, colonize, save the ecosystem, etc alone, in all mine and my allies planets. I can't send a fleet to attack enemy planets, I have to do that alone, with the possibility of getting some lame fleet buddies that die immediately. While the AI can send armada after armada of multi-fleet invasions.
Creature stage was kinda fun, but repetitive. And only two possible things to do. Tribal stage was the same as Creature stage, but instead of gathering DNA you gather food. And Civ stage was better, but a bit short.

 

[Humakty]

Don't worry boys ! Pretty soonish their will be a nice extension that will, for a bargain price, make this game interesting !
Be sure these kind of maneuvers stay exceptional, and won't reproduce before...EErrr...Let's say the next game....

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

Really, who has time to play Spore when you have FfH2?

What is Spore anyway? o.0 [a rhetorical question]

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

cell stage was fun. everything that came after that was boring and shallow. Super Mario Bros. 1 is way better imho

 

[Tarquelne]

cell stage was fun. everything that came after that was boring and shallow.

Are we still talking about the game?

(Is this thread that Existentialism thing I've heard so much about?)

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

yes, actually the game itself was so boring and shallow that it made the whole universe surrounding it boring and shallow as well. I blame Will Wright for making me lose my Will.. err, will to live.

 

[slowcar]

Soren is one of the coolest living persons. he is funny and really knows how to play civ, i read most of his public games back then, especially the one where he wins without building a single unit.

 

[bonedog]

I thought it was an interesting interview. I always somehow assumed Kael knew a lot about programming before taking the plunge and starting his own mod, so its kind of surprising (and inspiring) to find out that he started with very little prior knowledge in that area. The take-home message seems to be that planning your major goals in advance and giving yourself deadlines to accomplish certain things are key to success. And frequent updates that progressively bring in new features are important in sustaining interest in your mod.

How very organized. One wonders what would have happened if Kael were more like Perpentach...

 

[Methuselah]

One wonders what would have happened if Kael were more like Perpentach...

You think he'd have been bothered to make FFH if he could dominate people's minds?

 

[Marnok]

You think he'd have been bothered to make FFH if he could dominate people's minds?

that's how he does it!

 

[zup]

Exactly. FfH is an enormously effective method of mind control. You just can't help become obsessed with it.