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| .............CONTENT
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| (Tthis interview is between Nick Stewart of EntDepot and Mike Merren, Director of Development.) | ||
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MM: Mike Merren: Director of Development 1.) You've had a pretty long run of titles for the original Game Boy Color. How does the Game Boy Advance's extra power affect your ability to develop games? MM: With extra power comes more expectations on the games. Generally this means larger teams are required over the GBC products. The step up was something that both Artists and Programmers longed for. 2.) What are your plans for the future? Do you foresee an entry into home consoles? MM: We are working hard on our GBA
portfolio for a while yet - we will be doing Pocket PC products
and there is a possibility of working on the home formats at some
stage in the future. 3.) How did it feel to be a cog in the Olsen Twins' multi-million dollar corporate machine? Seriously though, how did you come to develop a pair of Olsen Twins games, and how was the entire experience? MM: We have good links with Acclaim, the Publisher of the Mary-Kate and Ashley titles and with our track record on GBC we were a good choice for the publisher to ensure that good games were produced each time. Crush Course is in fact our third Olsen Twins game. 4.) How did you make the transition from creating Olsen Twins titles, the pinnacle of pre-adolescent female mass-market entertainment, to Ecks Vs. Sever, a terrifically amazing and truly classic shooter? The quantum shift in terms of content is more than a little drastic. MM: We are now working on our 50th title, these have ranged through a great number of Genres, with Street Fighter, WWF, Driver, Maya the Bee, Space Invaders, Driven, Ecks vs. Sever, Ready 2 Rumble and Peter Pan amongst some of our titles we are anything by stereotyped with a particular product. (No more Olsen references, I promise - ED) 5.) The media response to Ecks Vs. Sever has been almost universally and powerfully positive. Obviously, this might be a bit early to ask, but what are the plans for Ecks 2, if any? MM: We have been really happy with the feedback we've received on the game. It would be great to continue with a second Ecks vs. Sever, but it's a little too early to talk about future plans right now. 6.) It's nearly unheard of that a game based on a movie script would hit the market prior to the movie even hitting the production stages. How much of the game remained true to the original script, and what was it like working on a title that precedes its source by such a tremendous amount of time? MM: We were very lucky to get a script so early on - Taking something so early is obviously a huge risk for the Publisher, because they are unsure of what might happen with the movie. However, I think that due to the fact that the feedback on Ecks vs. Sever has been so tremendous, it helps the movie and hopefully helps anything that might follow from a gaming sense. We tried to remain true to the script as it was last year - I'm sure that some changes will have been made prior to the movie's shooting. 7.) According to your official website, it appears as though you'll be working with classic studio Cinemaware to adapt some of their greatest work to the Game Boy Advance. What prompted this decision, and what is it like working with some of the developers of such historic titles? MM: We knew that Cinemaware was reforming late 2000 and we also knew that some of their IP's would translate fantastically to the GBA - Cinemaware was concentrating on Home Console titles and it was perfect for us to work on their IP's on GBA. It is great working with a company like Cinemaware. They have very good game ideas and we work well together to ensure the conversions of titles work well for the GBA and aren't just straight ports. 8.) Many gamers, including myself, have been greatly anticipating the arrival of the old Cinemaware great, Wings, on the Game Boy Advance this June. Has anything been scaled back or changed to fit the system, or have you improved anything? MM: Most of the game has been improved in some way - we have expanded the Strafing missions to give more of a desert strike feel to some of the missions. The Dogfight section is even smoother and faster than the Amiga original and we have added multiplayer to the game. 9.) What's your favorite aspect of providing your own rendition of such classic titles as Wings and Defender of the Crown? MM: Being able to work closely with the people at Cinemaware and producing something that is true to the original but takes it to the next level so that it works on a Handheld system. 10.) One of Cinemaware's greatest legacies was in fact the aforementioned Defender of the Crown. How true to the original will your adaptation be, and what challenges are you coming across in bringing the game to a handheld format? MM: We are keeping as true as possible
to the original format - but we are improving Gameplay to certain
elements such as the sword fight which we are trying to give a more
Prince of Persia feel to. 11.) How far along is it in terms of development, and when do you expect it to hit the market? MM: We are close to Alpha with the product and our hope is for it to be on sale in June. 12.) As a complete aside, what games are you playing now? MM: The office is mostly overrun with PC titles such as counterstrike, Medal Of Honour and C+C renegade at the moment. -- Thank you for graciously taking the time of your
schedule to conduct this interview. Once again, congratulations
on Ecks Vs. Sever, and here's looking forward to future releases.
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