If my plaque was to go in the Wargaming Hall of Fame next week, the 2-sentence bio on it would say this about me:
He was a journeyman game developer who loved every minute of what he was doing. The pinnacle of his success came when he finally cadged a free coffee mug out of his publisher.
You would know me from my work in this corner of the wargaming world:A few might know me as the developer and programmer of the computer wargame Flashpoint Germany for Matrix Games, and a very, very few might remember my three text-based computer wargames for Simulations Canada in the 1980s. I did the Apple 2 and Amiga versions and SimCan did the Atari and IBM versions. The games, as I recall, were Malta Storm, Pacific Storm: Midway and Pacific Storm: Guadalcanal and I actually saw some copies at Origins a couple of years ago.
I'm currently working on:
I have been a student of grand tactical ground combat from WW2 right on up to now. I rather incautiously expressed an interest in maybe doing something on those lines to David Heath in 2002 and I haven’t had a free moment since. I took a Simulations Canada design called “Main Battle Tank” and married it to the UI I had developed for a North African game and released it as Flashpoint Germany in 2005. The same engine has been rewritten and then rewritten again and will be out before too much longer (ha!) as Flashpoint Middle East. From there on I will make far fewer changes to the engine and work on getting more maps and scenarios out for the various conflicts around the world since 1940 or so.
What was the first wargame you designed? Did it ever see the light of day?
My first computer wargame was a battalion level game of the battle of Normandy in 1944 on the Apple 2. The whole thing had to fit into 32k plus another 8k for graphics plus another 8k of unused memory that could be peeked and poked into. That was in 1980 or so. Some of the core ideas from it are still in what I am doing today. Sadly, it did not actually see the light of day but hey, there is still time.
What was the first wargame you designed your own scenario for?
Panzerblitz. I loved that game and had multiple copies so I could really go to town on the scenarios. I would read a chapter from one of Paul Carell’s books on the eastern front and then mock up a scenario based on it. They were all bloodbaths of course but what well adjusted teenage boy wouldn’t like that?Pick one game whose graphics you really dig, and tell us about them.
To tell the truth I am still looking for that game. For board wargames I was a big fan of the old 1970’s SPI look and still use it myself. There is far more innovation now of course and I love to go to Origins each year to check it all out but I still haven’t seen THE style that really captures my heart. As for computer games I prefer an uncluttered design with muted colours. I definitely prefer functional to ornate. The whole point of course is to convey information to the user quickly and concisely and no one has quite got it down yet. I study books on graphic design and web design sometimes to get ideas. It is astonishingly hard to get right!
What wargame made you want to be a designer?
I bought a lot (all?) of Gary Grigsby wargames back in the day and without a doubt it was Guadalcanal Campaign that made we want to be a designer. By then I had studied a lot of naval history and wanted to tweak the AI and algorithms in the game, but the only way to do that was to write my own game from scratch. I got fairly far along with that project but never actually finished it.... The precedent had been set though.
Are there any wargaming magazines you read regularly? Military-focused magazines? History magazines?
I used to read a ton of magazines but then this Internet thing came along. I look at Strategy & Tactics still and had a sub to Against The Odds until the recession bit. I also get the Canadian Military Journal because I want to support the local effort and it has surprisingly in-depth articles on important but obscure topics. I like it rather a lot actually.What's one game that you'd like to see produced, but wouldn't want to do it yourself?
Easy. An operational WW2 East Front game that you can play in an evening. It would have incredibly wide setup parameters so that you could play the historical game and then say repeat with twice the Lend Lease and Turkey entering the war on the Axis side. Then you could play it without the Soviet officer purge versus Hitler handing back operational control to his generals in 1943 so that they had freedom of movement. I can think of a million variations to explore. I would also like to see a decent economic model and a diplomatic model to go along with the military model.
You ought to check out Victory Point Games' The Barbarossa Campaign, which includes some hypotheticals.
What was your favorite subject in school?
Girls, French, History. Regarding the latter, I was the only one who learned the entire sequence of major battles in the Civil War and could write them out on my exam.
Oy vey! Geek alert! Hahahaha
I liked science and math too and I actually find myself using it after all this time in the game implementations. Amazing!
What actor would you like to see play you in a movie?
Well, most IT guys are the spitting image of any number of Hollywood heart throbs out there, but my fav would have to be Mel Gibson still. In fact, when I first signed up with Matrix I tried to get them to put the picture of Mel up on the Who’s Who page instead of me. I particularly fancied the one where he is playing that Scots hero and has his face painted blue while hollering at the English. Matrix allowed that yes, the resemblance was unmistakable, but had a problem with the IP or something and my own mug ended up there instead. Yes, definitely Mel.Favorite piece of furniture in your house?
Without a doubt it is my green leather La-Z-Boy couch. I have a glorious 42” flat screen positioned directly in front and I keep my laptop handy right beside it. A table to the right holds a cold refreshing beverage (currently ice water – stupid recession!) and to the left my cat and/or girlfriend can sit. I put on the Military Channel and then fire up my laptop to remote into my main development machine upstairs. After opening and compiling the game source I can set it to AI vs AI and let it run. The back of the couch then goes down and my feet go up and when something blows up on the TV I just have to raise my eyes a fraction to see it, and when something blows up on my laptop I just have to glance down a fraction. It is heaven! I wish I could debug like that at my day job too....
By: Brant
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