Interview With Gathering of Developers

   The following interview was conducted with Gathering of Developers 
producer Josh Galloway.

Ivan Trembow: When a company submits a game idea to the Gathering for 
approval, what is the process that decides whether the game is approved or 
rejected?

Josh Galloway: Originally, there were several development companies that 
founded GOD and had ownership stakes in the company.  These companies each 
had members on the development board, which helped to evaluate new title 
submissions.  Now that we've been acquired by Take-Two Interactive, the 
process is basically the same as before.
   We evaluate each submission that comes in and decide which ones we are 
most interested in.  Then we turn these titles over to the development board
to evaluate.  The development board is made up of members of our current 
development teams, and they review titles based on the genres they have 
experience in working with.  Based on the their responses to the titles, we 
determine whether or not to work on signing a contract for these titles.

Ivan: Of all the game ideas that are submitted, what would you say is the 
percentage of them that are approved?

Josh: I don't know the percentage, but I do know that we are always 
searching for the best games out there.  The development board is a very 
experienced group of developers, and they can be very critical when it comes
to reviewing titles.  The board may seem to be easier on and approve titles 
quicker from companies that we've worked with before.  This is mainly 
because it is easier to judge the quality of their work, and it is easier to
know what working with that company will be like.

Ivan: How has the Take-Two buy-out affected the way things work at GOD, if 
at all?

Josh: Other than being fully owned by Take-Two, things haven't changed much
at all.  They are basically letting us continue to do what we know best, 
which is publishing great games.  Take-Two also has a very strong worldwide 
distribution network, so we can now offer this resource to our developers.  
Plus, we can provide our developers with better worldwide distribution and 
better European publishing deals. 
   We want to be a strong, worldwide publisher that can provide the very 
best support for independent game developers.  Joining with Take-Two lets us
reach out to more developers, and take on more projects, and provide them 
with better publishing deals.  In order for GOD's business model to be a 
truly viable alternative for the best talent out there, we have to be able 
to offer the same strength and financial stability as the other publishers 
out there.

Ivan: What's the rationale behind holding all of your E3 festivities outside
of the convention center rather than inside?  

Josh: Inside E3 is a zoo of companies trying to draw people into their 
booths, and it's really too easy to get lost in the confusion.  Outside the 
convention center, everything is different.  It allows us to get to the 
basics, which are the games, the guys that make them, and having fun.  

Ivan: Are you going to be doing the same thing at the 2001 E3 show?

Josh: No comment.

Ivan: The Dreamcast version of Railroad Tycoon 2 was touted as having online
capabilities in previews, and several months' worth of print ads were even 
purchased advertising the online capabilities.  Then it turned out that the 
final product didn’t have any online options.  What happened?

Josh: Railroad Tycoon is a really great single-player game.  The single-
player mode was always the main focus of the game the best part of it, even 
in the PC version, which had multi-player options.  The online 
implementation for the Dreamcast version proved to be trickier than 
anticipated by the developers at Tremor.  Sega's online system wasn't 
scheduled to go live for over a month after the game's release... and then 
there was the fear of the PlayStation 2 launch hurting Dreamcast sales.  
All of these reasons were involved in making the decision to cut the multi-
player option. 

Ivan: Some developers have complained that at least initially, Sega wasn't 
been very helpful with technical information about making third-party 
Dreamcast games online-compatible.  What has GOD’s experience with Sega in 
the development of Railroad Tycoon 2 and 4x4 Evolution?

Josh: I think that most developers without online experience are finding out
that it's one of the hardest parts of game development to get right.  On the
other hand, online play is nothing new to Terminal Reality, so they had no 
problem getting 4x4 Evolution working online.  This is why you're going to 
see PC developers do well in cross-platform development.  

Ivan: When Take-Two sold its stake in Bungie Software to Microsoft, Take-Two
acquired the rights to publish two games based on the incredible-looking 
Halo engine.  Can you confirm that GOD will be developing one or both of 
these games?

Josh: No, but I can confirm that Take-Two is excited about seeing what the 
Halo engine can do.

Ivan: Can you at least say what systems these games will be on?

Josh: No, because there haven't even been any official announcement about 
which platforms are supported by the engine itself.  What I can say at this 
point is that if a platform can support the Halo engine, then it's a 
possibility that the game will be released on that system.

Ivan: Take-Two also gained future rights to the cult hit Myth series as part
of the Bungie deal.  Will any future games in the Myth series be developed 
by GOD?

Josh: Yes, Take-Two and GOD are both very excited about continuing the Myth 
franchise.  Stay tuned to see what happens.

Ivan: Has GOD ruled out the possibility of bringing any of the Blair Witch 
games to any consoles?

Josh: Yes, we have.  All three Blair Witch games are done in the Nocturne 
engine, which only exists on the PC.

Ivan: Is GOD going to stop supporting the Dreamcast in 2001 like most other 
third-party publishers, or will you continue to support the Dreamcast in 
2001 and beyond?

Josh: The Dreamcast is a great machine and there are still a lot of gamers 
out there who love it, but right now we're just going to wait and see what 
happens with it.

Ivan: In your personal opinion, do you think that the Dreamcast, 
realistically, has a chance over the long run?

Josh: I think the Dreamcast could have another decent year on the market.  
In my opinion, nothing I have seen yet on the PS2 is that much better than 
what is coming out on the Dreamcast, except for Metal Gear Solid 2... but 
this won't stop all of the PlayStation owners out there from buying a PS2.  
Personally, I will probably end up buying them all, including the Xbox and 
GameCube.

Ivan: Is GOD going to be supporting the PlayStation 2 and/or Xbox?

Josh: The Gathering has always focused on getting really good games to the 
PC market, but some of our games could do well as console titles.  With the
relationship between GOD and Take-Two, there is probably a chance that 
something from our current developers could show up on the PlayStation 2 or 
Xbox.  Both the PS2 and Xbox are really good sometimes and they should both 
do really well... we would support every platform if we could find a way to 
make it financially feasible.

Ivan: What is GOD's take on Nintendo's GameCube?  Is the GameCube something 
that GOD is going to be supporting as well?

Josh: Personally, I think that Nintendo has always put out great consoles, 
but we don't currently have any plans for titles on the GameCube.  Still, we
are always interested in bringing the great content that our developers 
create to as many audiences as possible.  

Ivan: With the higher sales of console games, is it ever frustrating to make
a PC game and then see console games selling many more copies?

Josh: Yeah, it is.  A good or even mediocre console game can out-sell a lot 
of PC games.  You almost expect that, but it's still disappointing when a 
team spends 18-24 months making a really awesome PC game with a deep story 
line and hours of gameplay, and people are buying console games instead.  
All I can say is they don't know what they're missing.

Send your thoughts on this feature to ivan@mastergamer.com

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