Interview with Tony Zurovec on GOG.com

Keenan

Administrator
Staff member
GOG.com has posted their interview with Crusader series creator Tony Zurovec. There is a ton of fascinating tidbits which I've not yet heard from Tony. I'm planning to further analyze what is said in this interview. Nevertheless, here are some snippets:

Regarding "Crusader II"
The primary reason why Crusader II was never completed was because I was personally promised by a senior Origin executive ? before official development on the first game ever started ? that I would receive royalties based upon the game?s profitability. After a year and a half of extremely hard work, the game sold far better than expected and, for many months after its release, I was repeatedly assured by Origin?s top management that the royalties would be forthcoming. As I neared completion of the next title in the series, I began to grow impatient with the stalling and pushed for a resolution. It eventually fell to one of EA?s top executives to inform me that Origin management didn?t have the authority to make such promises and that EA wouldn?t honor it. Instead, the EA executive said, all that they could offer me was a new block of options that would vest over a four-year period. I said that rather than accept that offer ? which was dramatically inferior - that I?d be leaving the company after I finished No Regret. Leaving Origin was one of the hardest things that I?ve ever done ? it had felt like a home ? but there was no way that I was going to support such a betrayal with more of my life.

Regarding No Remorse development
An interesting point about No Remorse?s development is that a debt of gratitude is owed to someone ? I never knew who - in the European marketing department of parent company Electronic Arts (EA). The initial sales estimates for the game had been relatively low because the marketers couldn?t point to any similar titles ? there weren?t any - and gauge Crusader?s commercial potential. As the game neared the end of its original development timeline, I tried to get those estimates raised in order to justify an additional three months of development time that was desperately needed in order to polish and debug the game. Origin and EA North America?s marketing departments refused to budge, but when some visiting European marketing executives saw the game at that late stage they dramatically increased their sales estimates and that was it ? the extension was approved. When the game was released, even those revised estimates were easily exceeded. I have always thought that Crusader would not have done nearly as well as it did had it not gotten those three additional months.

Check out the whole interview.
 
I see that one of my questions made it in somehow after all.

"And couple questions from our users that repeated many times:
Why is Silencer's armor red?"

" ... On the fictional side, the Silencer?s armor was red because the government?s hold on power depended upon ? at any given time - most of its people submitting?conforming?to the system. A government?s power is ultimately derived from its people, and a widely despised government can only maintain the status quo if it can keep the number of people simultaneously resisting its control to a minimum. Such governments typically employ a wide array of mechanisms to accomplish that objective, and one of them is fear and intimidation. Silencers were intended to be visible signs of the government?s military power ? a clear reminder of what would befall anyone who sought to overturn the system. Their red armor made them stand out in a dreary Orwellian future?and that was the point."

I had always wondered about that and submitted that as one of my questions. I never found the red suit to be stealthy while Silencers where meant to be one-man armies capable of everything and I figured stealth would be part of that. But the intimidation point on the fictional side actually makes sense. A Silencer doesn't need stealth. It's much scarier knowing a Silencer is out there ready to kick your ass. The technical reasons make a lot of sense also of course and I like the Spartan reference.
 
If he had gotten a good lawyer he probably could have made EA honor the promises made by Origin. "Apparent authority" is a subject that most lawyers learn before finishing law school.

Just think, a business lawyer could have saved Crusader II...
 
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