Welcome, dear reader, to the new part of the diary of the developers of UFO: Aftermath. Obligatory thank you to everybody who read the previous part and commented on it on our boards. Next, I should probably apologize, as I am writing this instalment more than one month later then I should and intended to.
Explanation may bring understanding if not forgiveness and explain I will try.
Memoirs: Things going sour
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It was around Christmas last year when we could not help noticing a strange thing. The milestone payments from our publisher, Titus, grew even more delayed.
Maybe I should explain some aspects of the developer-publisher relationship in general terms, even though many a reader has undoubtedly already heard about it. Still, I constantly receive letters from people confusing the two and therefore I'll try to explain briefly. If you already know what the cross-collateralised royalties are, please feel free to skip the next four paragraphs.
We, ALTAR interactive, are the developer. Therefore, we develop: we code, we design, we program, we model, we render, we compose, we write and we sub-contract. We do not publish and distribute - this is publisher's job. The publisher takes the game when it is finished by us, has it pressed, packed and properly marketed and then actually sells it, via various distribution companies, to the players.
The development is a protracted and costly business. An average game takes about two years to complete and costs more than a million dollars to finish, that is, the developer spends more than a million dollars developing it (it should be noted that for UFO: Aftermath both numbers are lower). In an ideal world, the developer can pay this by itself and bring the finished game to publisher, just as an author can go to the (book) publisher with a completed novel under his arm.
But million dollars is a lot of money for most small companies and indeed for many developers and so, just like a writer could, they ask the publisher for and advance that would allow them to create the game. It is customary that the publisher and developer than settle on an outline of the work, detailing what and when shall be ready (this is called the milestone schedule) and the publisher than gives the developer the advance in instalments, very much as if the author would submit a new chapter to his publisher each month, getting a part of the agreed advance.
These payments are called milestone payments as they are subject to the developer completing the corresponding milestone and the publisher approving it. No milestone no payment - it is as simple as this and this is a great way how to make the developer complete the game on time.
Let's now move back to our story now (do not despair if you feel that you still do not know what the cross-collateralised royalties are, maybe next time). Maybe it should have been a warning to us, when Titus signed our contract, dated August 3, on August 23rd, explaining that otherwise they would not be able to send us the "on signature" payment. However, delays and excuses are something you will get used to very soon when developing computer games and summer, as we all know, is the period of drought for publishers.
However, the situation did not get much better even early this year, when the windfall of the holiday season was supposed to ring in, nor did $40 millions for sale of Shiny enable the beleaguered Titus to meet its obligations to us. Just before E3 it become apparent that we will have to part ways and it fell to us to find a new publisher for UFO: Aftermath.
But this is another long and convoluted story I hope I will be able to relate in full (including the happy ending) in the next instalment of this diary.
Diary: The strategic part
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But enough of boring industry gossip. The fact that we are looking for a publisher does not mean that we do not work on the game. We are still committed to our release date in Q1/2003 and we are moving along for this target.
The most impressive advancement over the past month or so is the beta version of the strategic game - but let me explain what we mean by that first.
In UFO: Aftermath you are in one of two "modes" you are either in a tactical mission (i.e. you are blasting away the aliens) or in the strategic simulation, where you carry out research, re-equip your soldiers, manage your bases and decides what tactical mission you will play next.
When designing the game we tried to put more stress on the tactical part - we expect the player to spend there about three quarters of his total "game time". At the same time we wanted the strategic game to be able to stand on its own, to be more than "go there, do this" kind of wobbly prop. The strategic game should give the player as much freedom as possible, it should present the player with true alternatives and reward strategic thinking.
On the other hand, the strategic game should not bog the player down with micro-managing of every single aspect of the game. The player thus alternates in two roles: while in strategic game his is de facto leader of CoE (Council of Earth, the umbrella organisation of the Earth resistance), making decisions about the direction of research and manufacturing, and also deciding which tactical opportunities need/deserve attention of the CoE's most elite special combat unit (currently we call it the Phoenix Legion). The latter are then solved by the player in his second role, that of the commander of Phoenix Legion.
Besides selecting the tactical missions, the player also decides about the types of bases he conquers or founds in the conquered territory. These in turn influence his military strength (which again influences e.g. the chance of successful air interception), the speed of research or manufacturing, etc.
I could go on about this for a long time, but this should be a diary, not a preview, and I am also running out of space. So, briefly, where are we now? Broadly speaking, the strategic game works: the UFOs are flying, the player crafts are pursuing, the research is being carried out, and the territory is expanding and contracting.
It also seems to work in the other sense of the word - though it obviously needs a lot of balancing, tweaking and polishing, the basic gameplay dynamics appears to work all right. Even when everything you do in the way of fighting is selecting Player wins/Enemy wins checkbox and pressing the OK button, it is an interesting game.
I hope I will be able to write more on this subject next time, along with a progress in our search for the new publisher.
Martin Klíma
ALTAR interactive