|
Page 1 of 1
Interview by Patrick 'twisted' Hardy
|
Recently, I talked with Dan Kramer, Assistant Lead Programmer on
SoF. This Raven Software employee was kind enough to
answer some common questions many SoF gamers have been wondering.
|
|
twisted: Now that you have completed work on Soldier of Fortune,
aside from the patches, have you still been paying attention to the SoF
community's growth such as the formation of mods, etc.?
Dan Kramer: I am a regular on our official forums. I also visit the
fan sites pretty much every day, so I'm at least aware of what's going on
out there. Honestly, though, I spend the most time just playing SoF.
I play during lunch or right after quite often. Yesterday I finally got
around to getting a cable modem at home, so I spent a few (well, 4...) hours
playing from home. I'm kind of an addict. I'd love to actually work on a
MOD idea or two, but I don't think I can delude myself enough into believing
that I'll have the time to do it.
twisted: Many people have still been frustrated in their efforts
to play the game online, even after the release of the beta patch, does
Raven intend to clear up any bugs in the multiplayer area in the next patch.
With the next patch in mind, when is it expected to be released?
Dan Kramer: I don't know if I'd say "many." Given the number of different
systems, components, drivers, etc., I'd say we've done a pretty good job
making joining multiplayer pretty flawless. When people do have problems,
they tend, especially on the internet, to become a rather vocal crowd. Nearly
ALL of the tech support posts and emails we get eventually come down to
driver issues which are the fault of the hardware manufacturers.
That said, there are people who have had legitimate problems with multiplayer,
and if I were one of them, I'd be ticked too. I am not one of the programmers
working on the patch, so I can't really give you any information on the
specifics involved.
twisted: Another hardship a few fans have encountered is the SDK.
Will there be another version of it available to the public soon that corrects
the problems such as not being able to run the sofradient.exe?
Dan Kramer: I believe we will be releasing another version of the
SDK.
twisted: There has been a ton of buzz that Soldier of Fortune
2 may be the next project for Raven Software. Can you give us any information
to tease our appetite for more Mullins?
Dan Kramer: I wish I could. At this point, it's still dependent on
continued strong sales of SoF. We've already had meetings
on cool stuff we plan on putting into SoF 2 if we get to do
it. If we end up doing it, I assure you, there will be much coolness.
twisted: As we all know, you can't always include everything each
staff member wants in a game, with that in mind, what was one feature you
would have liked to see in Soldier of Fortune that didn't make the
cut?
Dan Kramer: I was a big fan of Action Quake 2. Anyone who plays realistic
DM should be able to see that. I would like to have played around with a
few other ideas I had for that game type. Since at some point I might get
to do them, I don't actually want to go into them just now.
If I had more time, there are actually quite a few features I would have
added to other existing game types as well. For example, I think we could
have done a lot more with team deathmatch in SoF. Again, since
I might actually get to do this, I don't want to show my cards too early.
twisted: How do you deal with game failures/successes?
Dan Kramer: SoF is the first project on which I was
part of the core team from the beginning (I pretty much just did some tools
work on Heretic II and the Hexen II mission pack). I think it's safe to
call it a success. The best part of it is hearing friends and family tell
me how much they enjoyed the game. Of course, it's also pretty cool to jump
on a deathmatch server and be recognized as a Raven employee. I mean,
I'll never be the centerfold in the SoF strategy guide, so
it's as close to rock-stardom as I get ;)
Dealing with the criticisms of SoF can be trying at times.
Oddly enough, it's the well-written criticisms that are easiest to deal
with. There is no way we can make a game to please everyone, and I can handle
people who say, "I can see why some people like it, but it's just not for
me." That's cool. It's the wild, flaming idiots who seem to think that they
know everything and anybody who disagrees with them is a *insert vulgarity
here* that get me. Of course, even worse than that are people who would
rather push their own political agenda to advance their journalistic careers.
There is a special circle in hell for them. Luckily, they seem to be relatively
rare.
twisted: How did you become interested in your area of work?
Dan Kramer: Ever since I was a kid, I've loved video games. I've
still got somewhere around 150 Atari 2600/Sears Telegames cartridges, and
the old TRS-80 Model I at my parents' house still runs. Whenever we'd have
those class projects where you had to answer what you wanted to be when
you grew up, I'd answer "video game tester." Of course, at the time, that
really wasn't a career option. Those were the days when people could still
write games in their spare time, when they weren't at their real jobs.
So, I went to college, majored in physics and math. Then, I went to grad
school in astronomy. I was in the midst of the miserable realization that
copious amount of homework coupled with an overburdening teaching load all
for a career-path that would likely see me working in a "related field"
anyway was NOT how I wanted to spend the next decade, I began just browsing
the web for jobs. I know this'll come as a huge surprise, but there wasn't
a single job in Wisconsin where "astronomy background a plus" was listed
in the description. However, there were something like 300 computer-related
jobs in Dane County alone. I typed in "video games" in the little search
engine thing, and it actually came up with a job at a local company called
"Raven Software." The rest, as they say, is history.
twisted: That's it! Thanks a bunch for your time!
Dan Kramer: Sure! Glad to be of service. |
« Back to Index
|
