Summer interview

[DeveRRo]

Hey, please tell us something about yourselves!

Thrive and prosper, and may all your water be with you, o the most curious of the game communities!
We are the loyal and obedient servants of the Muad’Dib’s cause, may his name live throughout centuries, and we try, as much as possible, to bring glory to the great chronicler Frank Herbert and partially put his great universe into a future modification, which, we hope, will be equally independent...
We are the driving force of Dune: Evolution, we are the [ADVENTURERS], the free creators.

Please tell us something about your Mods!

Mods? Unfortunately, you overestimate our humble abilities, o kindest ones, we are a humble and, of course, non-commercial team and we have enough strength for only one project, but there we try to show the best we can, here we have a complicated storyline, our distinct stylisation, and, of course, difficult work with code and gameplay balancing.

What makes your Mod so special? What is the difference to other Mods?

That is a serious question, o most cunning of the demanding ones.
As for the very idea of Dune: Evolution... hm... at first, our goal is to tell you the story, a wicked story, but thus a humane one. We removed all “good” characters, but those who remain are ordinary people, and we hope that we have created a good, complicated conflict, without clearly pointing out the heroes, but with interesting personalities. It is a battle for life, not for truth, not for honour, but that’s why there is no hypocrisy. The story will be short and linear, but at the same time it will be dramatic and intriguing. If everything goes smoothly, we hope to make a little "revolution", a truly interesting campaign for RTS-game...

How long did the development take / How long will it take until it’s released?

Time is like sand... almost three years have passed, if we consider the very beginning, before our rebirth, but we still don’t lose interest to the project, may both moons of Arrakis shine over its golden path... Only the Kwisatz Haderach knows how much time is needed, but we plan to begin beta-testing in winter.

Will the AI be able to handle this Mod? Will there be any problems?

Yes, D:E is meant for both multiplayer and singleplayer, we will have skirmish and campaign, so we can’t cope without any AI at all. At this moment we had no problems, but I’m afraid we will have some in campaign... but it is too early to think about it now...

Do you have any future plans for your Mods or your real life? What’s about to be next?

Only the Mother Desert can decide, right now we are thinking only about Dune: Evolution, get more experience, learn from our mistakes, and mey luck still be on our side, the time will show whether it will be useful in future.
Our plans are as immense as sand dunes, and it is only within D:E, the whole story is divided into three episodes, and if the first one we are working on will be accepted well by the audience, it will be followed by the second and the third ones...

How important is the community for you?

May Shai-Hulud bless the community and all its members, we do our best mostly for them.

What do you think about the situation now after the release of CnC4?

The situation is like after the rain on Arrakis, everyone was waiting something completely different and it is not clear what to do with what we have got ...

How easy it is to Mod CnC4 in contrast to other games? Easier or more difficult?

After Generals and BfME series the SAGE engine was becoming less and less modding-friendly, we didn’t even try to work with CnC4, its engine doesn’t suit us, unfortunately.

What do you think about the support of EA and the Community?

I think that EA support is at least better than the support of some other companies, but it is still far from being the best, there is still way to improve.
As for the community, we love it and forgive everything ^_^

Are there any problems with the Mod or within your Team? Or is all working out perfectly?

We have enough problems, may sands consume them all, but we solve them, the most difficult is to cope with laziness. If we encounter something completely unsolvable, for example, with some coding problems, we try to find another way, sometimes it works, and sometimes we have to make radical changes and turn everything upside down, this is the main reason why we haven’t had any updates lately.

What is your next project / the project you’re working on at the moment?

Right now we are working only on D:E, that’s already enough work, and we don’t look ahead too much. =)

How did you get the idea to make this Mod? How did it all start?

We have already written much about it, our first article was even devoted to that, Who are we?

What are your next steps? Will there be additional maps?

Now we are finishing the Harkonnen and work on the gameplay, after that – the Atreides and the Fremen, and the work on the storyline.
We will have only our own maps for D:E, our gameplay greatly differs from the vanilla one and you simply won’t be able to play D:E on standard maps.

Where is the difference between the normal factions and the ones of your Mod? What is so special about the factions?

Pardon, what do you mean? I’m afraid you don't quite understand what exactly we are doing. We are not just changing the game, we are making something completely different. Everything will be different, from resource gathering system to global abilities. Factions will be completely different from the vanilla game as well.

Why is it exactly 'Dune Evolution'? What's fascinating about it?

Dune: Evolution is not just a modification, we are quite ambitious and the aim of our work is to show that even a non-commercial project can be of great quality. D:E is really serious! =)

Is there anything you want to tell the community?

Yes. Thank you for your interest =)
And, we also have a small bonus to this interview. A new story and a new artwork, don't miss them.

http://www.cncsaga.de/foren/viewtopic.php?id=629