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EXCLUSIVE TROPICO PARADISE INTERVIEWS
Special thank you goes out to POPTOP for allowing us to interview them. Periodically, I will be posting these interviews here. Our newest interview is with Brent Smith, the game's programmer.
INTERVIEW WITH BRENT SMITH
Tropico Paradise: What did you do before joining Poptop and how did you get involved with Poptop?
Brent Smith: I worked at Interactive Magic before Poptop. Before that another game company, and another one before that :) I've been working on games for about 10 years now.
When Interactive Magic decided to change their direction and move away from doing PC games, I started looking around. I had been playing the RT2 demo and so, just for grins, I took a look at the Poptop webpage. Lo and behold, they were advertising for a programmer position that fit my skills and experience pretty closely, and the rest is history...
TP: What was your responsibility on the Tropico project?
BS: I am the game programmer (as opposed to the engine programmer). I work on the high level stuff that makes Tropico a game (AI, units, buildings, etc.). I also designed and wrote some of the tools we use to create unit and building data for the game.
TP: What is your favorite feature or aspect of Tropico? What features or aspects would you like to have refined a bit more?
BS: My favorite aspect is the individuality of the people in the game. It's cool to look at an individual unit and see what they're doing, what they're thinking, and what is having an effect on their little sim-reality.
I would have like to have seen a little more 'political' go into the political aspects of the game. A number of ideas were cut along the way because of time constraints or because we wanted to avoid complexity.
TP: Not much has been said about the map editor. Could you describe the editor for us? Will it be as deep and involved as the editor in Railroad Tycoon 2?
BS: Just like the engine, the editor is an enhanced version of what was available with RT2. That means pretty much anything that could be done with RT2 can be done in Tropico, and a few more things besides (for example, RT2 had no units, so there is now a whole new aspect of the map editor to deal with units).
Not much has been said because we haven't made it a focus to 'pretty up' the map editor. It is integrated into the game just as it was in RT2, but it is certainly intended only for the advanced user.
TP: Are the characters of Tropico all programmed to behave a certain way or will they sometimes surprise you with random actions?
BS: When you have any system this complex, and by complex I mean the number of attributes and actions associated with units, you will be surprised by the way parts of the system interact with other parts and how the system interacts with the player. This can be both positive and negative. For example, you can never predict where a unit will decide to go next, this makes it fun to watch the individual units - a positive thing. Units who detect that they are about to collide with another unit will stop and wait to see if the obstruction clears up - when two units meet this way it looks like they've stopped to chat for a minute - a pleasant surprise that certainly wasn't intended when I wrote the collision code. On the negative side, sometimes units will do something when you'd really prefer that they do something different. You have goods queued up on the dock and you want your dockworker to come load them on a freighter. Suddenly he decides that he needs to go to church and starts walking in the opposite direction to the church you placed on the other side of town, or suddenly he decides to quit his job and go to work in that new factory you built. Doh! That's an example of a negative thing that is still good in terms of gameplay - unpredictability. Other negative things, like units deciding that it is easier to walk across the water rather than around it like they're supposed to, well, I'm in the process of eliminating those now :)
TP: How many rebels are needed to stage a rebellion of your dictatorship? Is it difficult to change the opinions of a rebel once he/she has left society?
BS: Rebels will take into account the strength of your army, the potential support they might receive from your populace, and the ease of hitting certain government targets (radio and TV stations, armories, guard posts, the palace) among other things. So there are a lot of factors that play into how many rebels are needed before they feel confident to come running out of the jungle to attack targets in your city.
BS: It is difficult to change the opinions of your rebels once they are gone, but not impossible. If the situation improves, they may re-evaluate their decision, especially if they were borderline to being with. You can also decree amnesty for rebels, which can cause some of them to take you up on your offer and rejoin society.
TP: How difficult will the game be? What determines the difficulty level?
BS: The game will be as difficult, or easy, as you want it to be. There are a bunch of game setup options which will allow you to control this and to focus on those aspects of the game you enjoy most. For example, you can turn the political aspect way down, thereby making the game into much more of a builder where you can watch your island develop without much fear of political trouble.
TP: My understanding is that Tropico has a limit of 500 citizens. What happens when your island reaches max population? Do the citizens just quit having babies?
BS: There's no hard limit of 500 citizens; the end game is aimed at having about 500 people on your island, but there is no fixed number. In RT2, the end game was aimed at having a certain number of trains on the map, 10 to 40 depending on the scenario, but that didn't stop people from playing games where they had hundreds of trains. I'm sure the case will be similar here.
TP: What are the various factions and what determines which characters belong to which factions? Could you describe the political model for us?
BS: There are a number of factions: capitalists, communists, religious, militarists, peasants, intellectuals, environmentalists, rebels...
As a leader, you will have a 'rating' with each faction - how favorably they preceive you based on your background and your actions. Each unit in the game will have ties of varying degrees to these factions. For example, one unit may be a die-hard militarist, a capitalist, and mildly intellectual. Another may be a religious peasant. How units react to you politically will be based on how these factions view you and how closely the unit is tied to that faction. Their reaction will also be colored by how courageous and charismatic they are. A courageous, charismatic, unhappy citizen is of much more danger to you than a cowardly, unhappy citizen.
Some factions are opposite (i.e. capitalist-communist, religious-military, etc.), so it is hard to please the followers of one of these factions without angering the followers of the opposite faction. You will be forced to decide which factions you want to curry favor with and which you want to take the chance of angering.
TP: Is there anything else about the game that fans should know?
BS: It'll be in the stores in April!
TP: What does the future have in store for the Poptop? Will there be a Tropico expansion pack? Any discussions of your next project?
BS: It's too early to talk about any of that. Right now, all our efforts and focus are on finishing Tropico. Once we are done with that, we'll take a step back and see where we want to go from there.
INTERVIEW WITH GUILLERMO GARCIA-SAMPEDRO
Tropico Paradise: How did you get involved with Poptop?
Guillermo Garcia-Sampedro: When I graduated I applied here (is the only big game company in
St. Louis) and they gave me the job. Phil and I exchanged some emails one year ago
before my graduation, but nothing came out of that. I remembered the company
name and applied after I graduated.
TP: What was your responsibility on the Tropico project?
GGS: There were many responsibilities, I had programming duties along with some art duties too. In the programming I did the 3D model tools and the 3D model engine, (not the terrain, just the 3D lowpoly units) I programmed the clouds/weather system, the airports and planes game logic (not the ships) and the fish and bird logic. There is some other stuff I don't remember. In graphics, I made all the lowpoly 3D vehicles of the game, (boats, planes, fish, birds) and I also made the graphics of the clouds.
TP: What is your favorite feature or aspect of Tropico? What features or aspects would you like to have refined a bit more?
GGS: Overall the game feels and looks good. I don't know, heh, once you do something, you always find ways to do it better.
TP: Not much has been said about the map editor. Could you describe the editor for us? Will it be as deep and involved as the editor in Railroad Tycoon 2?
GGS: The map editor will be an expanded version of the RT2 map editor. It's built in the game and no need for external programs.
TP: How difficult will the game be? What determines the difficulty level?
GGS: There are several difficulty settings, including economical and
political 'easy modes,' along with the initial character settings.
TP: Can you describe how establishing the dictator profile at the beginning of the game will affect gameplay?
GGS: It's important, but not determining. Your style will determine the final outcome of the game.
TP: What are the various factions and what determines which characters
belong to which factions? How do factions come into gameplay?
GGS: Factions are important. You will want them all to be happy, and its a
difficult task!! If factions aren't happy, they can start an uprising.
TP: My understanding is that the demo could be released this week. Do you know what the demo will include? Will there be a playable scenario?
GGS: It will be time limited, without the movies/music and some of the
features/graphics removed.
TP: What does the future have in store for the Poptop? Any discussions of your next project?
GGS: We haven't decided yet, we have couple of ideas in mind, but at this point nothing is for sure. It all depends how we stand after Tropico is done. :)
POPTOP FAMILY
Standing: Franz Felsl, Phil Steinmeyer, Todd Bergantz, Steve Mohesky, Brian Feldges.
Kneeling: (LtoR) Paul Mullen, Guillermo Garcia-Sampedro, David Deen, Brent Smith, Craig Matchett
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