The Art of... Carrier Command 2
Geometa’s game director Dan Walters takes Richie Shoemaker through the thoroughly modern sequel to the 1980s classic that’s old school MicroProse through and through
HOW DID THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP CARRIER COMMAND 2 COME ABOUT? We were interviewed by Laura Kate Dale in person for Kotaku AU a few years back about our game Stormworks, it’s one of very few interviews we had done. A few things happened because of that interview; a bunch of Stormworks players used some details in the article to figure out our office address, and sent us pizza one day when we did a big update, it was a really nice gesture. Initially it was a bit concerning because our studio location wasn’t published, and we thought maybe we should be more careful, but we got over it and ate the pizza. Weeks later, I got an email from David [Lagettie], the CEO of MicroProse, who had discovered us through that article. We got talking, and immediately I was on board with the mission to bring my childhood games publisher MicroProse back. David has a huge enthusiasm for games and genuine excitement and energy, has passion for quality, and puts games first. He spoke to me for a long time about game design and a bunch of niche games that I wouldn’t expect many people to know of. And this is a person who has dedicated their life to games and simulations. It was the first time I had met someone who had in common this specific side of me. Stormworks was doing well and we were expecting to make
42 | MCV/DEVELOP January 2022
more of our original IP next, but we just got excited about the original Carrier Command, and what we could do with it.
HOW FAMILIAR WERE YOU WITH THE ORIGINAL GAME? I first heard about Carrier Command, when Carrier Command Gaea Mission came out. Pre-release, I remember a few people explaining to me that it was a sequel to an old but legendary game. They must have all read the same article because they would have been toddlers when the original released in 1988. Never- the-less, it got me interested and I thought the whole concept of the game was awesome. It wasn’t until later in life when I became a game developer that I became more familiar with the original and played it.
HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE VISUAL DESIGN OF CARRIER COMMAND 2 - WHAT WERE YOU AIMING TO ACHIEVE? When we were concepting CC2, I was really excited about The Last Night and how the artwork for that game took an old “retro” style and brought pixel art into the modern era. It looks a thousand times better than pixel art games looked in the 1980s and 1990s, but at the same time, is exactly as I remember them in my head. We wanted to do the same thing for early 3D games, and mix low fidelity with rich lighting. We wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before in video games. I had played Alien Isolation (which is a masterpiece) and loved how it took the player back to the 1980s and was so true to the Syd Mead concept art.
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