Colwyn
05-09-2006, 05:07 PM
Horizons: Tulga Games' David Bowman Interview on Ten Ton Hammer (http://www.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=294)
Horizons launched in 2003, yes, but David’s the first to admit that Horizons wasn’t ready. Bowman, who came on board in a troubleshooting role a meager 4 months before launch, thanks Atari for publishing the game, but says, “Atari put the wrong box on the shelf, and we put the wrong product in the box. Our client wasn’t ready. The server has been incredibly stable, the simulation layer’s been fantastic. But we wanted, needed, another year. We lost tens of thousands of people for a lifetime, and I apologize to them. No developer, no designer, no person whose desire it is to entertain, wants to know they’ve turned off tens of thousands of players for a lifetime. That’s a hard burden to bear.
“We want to try to convince people that, yes, we made a mistake, we’re sorry for the mistake, and we’ve worked for two and a half years to correct the mistake… We’re know where we’re going, we’ve seen the builds, and very soon we’re not going to apologize to anyone for the client ever again.”
Horizons launched in 2003, yes, but David’s the first to admit that Horizons wasn’t ready. Bowman, who came on board in a troubleshooting role a meager 4 months before launch, thanks Atari for publishing the game, but says, “Atari put the wrong box on the shelf, and we put the wrong product in the box. Our client wasn’t ready. The server has been incredibly stable, the simulation layer’s been fantastic. But we wanted, needed, another year. We lost tens of thousands of people for a lifetime, and I apologize to them. No developer, no designer, no person whose desire it is to entertain, wants to know they’ve turned off tens of thousands of players for a lifetime. That’s a hard burden to bear.
“We want to try to convince people that, yes, we made a mistake, we’re sorry for the mistake, and we’ve worked for two and a half years to correct the mistake… We’re know where we’re going, we’ve seen the builds, and very soon we’re not going to apologize to anyone for the client ever again.”