Julian Gollop Interview

If you’re interested in a fairly in-depth interview with Julian Gollop, the creator of the original X-Com games, that’s mostly focused on his new X-Com inspired project, Phoenix Point, then you may want to check out this RPG Codex feature. From the game’s strategic Geoscape layer and branching research trees, to Julian’s thoughts on the current trend of streamlining gameplay, it’s quite a nice read. A few sample questions:

What do you think about the way video games have evolved? You’ve been in the gaming industry for centuries. You created complex simulation games like the original X-COM, and you’ve seen the remake by Firaxis, which many people say is less complex, less simulated and overall feels more like a board game. How do you feel about that trend towards “streamlining”?

Given that I used to play highly complex board games, such as Squad Leader, almost everything seems streamlined to me. However, given the huge amount of high quality games out there competing for peoples time, it is understandable that games which require a lot of time investment to learn will suffer in the market place. Streamlining for XCOM Enemy Unknown clearly worked, because it reached a wide audience and drew many people into turn based strategy games for the first time. The presentation was also top notch. However, I believe we can strike a balance with Phoenix Point that will offer deep game play but with an easily manageable interface and great presentation. It’s not easy, but we are working on it. I am aware that there are a huge number of old X-COM players out there and I definitely want them to be happy with our approach to Phoenix Point.

How will missions be generated on the Geoscape? We’ve been told that the strategic map will be composed of “points of interest”, and that the beginning of the game will have an exploration element, like in a 4X. So the question is, if I’ve explored all the points of interest around my base, do they cease to exist? Will they be “empty space” from that point on or will new ones be generated?

The current implementation is fairly simple – Points of Interest within range of discovered havens will appear for you to investigate. They could turn out to be other havens, scavenging sites, alien structures or inactive Phoenix Bases. However, there will be additional types of locations that are revealed in different ways – usually connected to the events system. Spying missions can also reveal location much further away. New points of interest will arise based on alien construction, faction construction and special events. Mission types are unusual in that the player effectively decides what he wants out of them rather than having some kind of performance rating. Haven defence is a common mission type where havens will request assistance in defeating an intruder (alien or human). They will usually offer some kind of reward, but after arriving you may find something useful that you can just steal, such as an aircraft, and then abandon the haven to its fate. Naturally you won’t get the reward and their will be diplomatic consequences – but you do manage to steal the aircraft. The player can actively deploy squads to various zones inside havens for doing whatever he likes, or he can respond to requests from havens or faction leaders.

[…]

In retrospect, what do you think went wrong with X-COM: Apocalypse? Were there any ideas for that game that you weren’t able to implement? Maybe something that might show up in Phoenix Point?

The ambition of the game was quite high and there were many problems with the artwork, which was being done by MicroProse. It was a struggle to create and building the isometric 3D environments for the game. We didn’t actually cut much from the game, apart from the idea of multiple alien dimensions.

The Multiworm from Apocalypse that burst into four Hyperworms on death was pretty awesome. Any chance we might see something similar in Phoenix Point – a “carrier” enemy?

Yes, one of the alien queen’s mutations has a death spawning abdomen. There is also a shell like attachment on this alien called the Juggernaut which will spawn fire worms continuously after death.