Star Control: Origins - Brad Wardell Interview

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Spaceman
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Brad Wardell was interviewed about Star Control:Origins by PCPowerPlay.

...
The franchise was recently bought by Stardock, and a reboot is in the works. When we recently caught up with Stardock CEO Brad Wardell the first thing he wanted to impress on us was the magnitude of the production. "It's definitely our biggest project ever."

His team is currently working on the planetary exploration aspect of the game, where you can send a shuttle down to hunt for resources. As revealed in the recent teaser trailer, what was an abstract, 2D game mode in SC2 is now rendered in full 3D.

"From an engineering point of view it's an interesting challenge, because this game has many different parts to it, but it has to be seamless. No-one wants to sit there and wait for a planet to load. You need to be able to go to the spherical planet, land on it, do stuff, have interesting adventures, and then be able to leave in one swoop, and it has to work on a reasonably powerful machine."

To this end Star Control: Origins is being built with Nitrous, the powerful 64-bit engine from Oxide that made possible the spectacular action in Ashes of the Singularity. "People love Star Control, and people ask: ‘Why hasn't anyone taken that basic formula?' Well, it's because Star Control is actually several games put into one. You have the planet exploration, you have the ship battles, and you have the alien story part, you have the star system exploration... it's a lot of different what we call ‘graphical scenes.'
[...]

On top of all that content, Star Control: Origins will also come with an editor that will allow users to create and share their own space oddities on Steamworks. "So if someone wants to make a Star Control 2 or something, I suppose they could [laughs]."

One of the most memorable aspects of SC2 was the music, all of which was created in the MOD file format popular at the time. For Origins, Brad hired the Finnish composer who came up with the distinctive themes for the Thraddash and the Yehat. "We actually are working with Riku Nuottajärvi, who did most of the best-known themes from Star Control back in the day. He was actually just a kid back then. He's obviously an adult now. He's handling pretty much all the music in the new Star Control."
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I hope Brad himself stays far away from the designer seat and assigns a lead with actual talent in the field.
 
I hope Brad himself stays far away from the designer seat and assigns a lead with actual talent in the field.

Sadly a cracked writer is developing the plot. At least the music should be good through and an editor could allow the community to 'fix' the game somewhat.

I'm not a fan of the graphics at all so far. Planets do not look like planets but some cartoony abomination. Why do the designers today have no feel for what is cool or at least what the audience is after?
 
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Sadly a cracked writer is developing the plot. At least the music should be good through and an editor could allow the community to 'fix' the game somewhat.

I'm also not a fan of the graphics at all so far. Planets do not look like planets but some cartoony abomination. Why do the designers today have no feel for what is cool or at least what the audience is after?

Gah, you're right - what a terrible art style.
 
Wait is this supposed to be a new Star Control game? SC2 was one of my favorite games as a kid. Especially the Ur-Quan Masters.

PS I thought SC was always cartoony, or maybe it was only a matter of technology. :p
 
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*skims article* This really looks like shit, you're right. Way too infantile for my taste.

Planets look like the terrain in Worms.
 
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The only thing that is memorable for me in the original was the humor. Brad doesn't once mention the game as being funny. He needs to kiss Butterscotch Shenanigans or prepare for a flop of Elemental proportions.
 
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I love The Ur-Quan Masters so I'm looking forward to this. I can live with cartoon-y graphics if the gameplay is interesting. Had not really seen a game like UQM before, so anything in the same vein would be refreshing.

Edit - Nice to hear it's at least 40 hours long, with potential for much more if you do all the side stuff. Very good, very good indeed. :)
 
When Starflight is rebooted, then I'll get excited. Star Control was kinda arcadey for my tastes.
 
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Never played Starflight - except very little as a kid.

Would love to see a modern take on that formula, though they'd have to spice things up a bit.

I did enjoy Star Control 2 - but I was never quite as enamored with it as others. As I recall, I found it a bit simplistic overall.

Most certainly, Stardock is just about the last developer I would trust to understand the appeal and improve upon it.
 
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