[Originally written in 1997, since then, 3D Realms has had, well, a pretty delayed times of things, with Remedy's "Max Payne" still a long way off, seemingly (as of March 2001), and "Duke Nukem Forever" also extensively delayed, plus "Prey" cancelled a long time back, even. However, this isn't to say these games won't be kickass when they finally get released..]

Scott Miller started programming games in 1975, the year this interviewer was born. Wow. Having made over 100 games to 1990, and co-authored he then quit his day job to start running Apogee Software full-time.

From then onwards, things have only got better, with the Duke Nukem phenomenon and the cultivation of the much-respected 3D Realms development brand. And with Prey and Max Payne forthcoming, it seems the future looks bright.

So, videogamedesign.com has managed to procure a most interesting interview with the owner/partner of Apogee/3D Realms, dealing with Prey, Remedy, and that nice man Duke Nukem himself.. process this.

h0l: How much of a say do you think the more senior management of a company (such as yourself) should have in the design of a product?

SM: In our company, the two owners, George Broussard and myself, are intimately involved with game development.  George is the project leader on Duke Nukem Forever, and I handle games by our by our external teams, such as Balls of Steel by Wildfire Studios (in Australia), and Max Payne by Remedy Entertainment (in Finland).

George and I have a long history of creating/coding our own games, back when one person did it all (multi-person teams really didn't become a given until the late 80's), plus we were involved in the game industry in other ways, such as arcade managers and professional writers.  We even tried to start a gaming league for the top players in the early 80's, which would organize tournaments like the PGL, but then the arcade industry had it's first crash in 1983 and that killed our effort.

Basically, George and I *are* developers--game designers, more specifically--who happen to own a business.  We've both been playing and designing games since 1978.

h0l:Should companies employ separate games designers, or does the role integrate nicely into existing job titles?

SM: We don't employ dedicated game designers, but that's not to say that they're not necessary at all game companies.  Our approach is to settle on a game concept, and every developer on the project gets to have their influence on the design of the game.  We have project leaders, such as George on the Duke games and Paul Schuytema on Prey, who help filter the appropriate ideas and shape them into a usable form--not every idea from every developer can be used, after all.  (We invented a phrase several years ago, "shit filter," which refers to a person's ability to recognize good ideas from bad ideas.  People with bad shit filters let bad ideas get into their games.)

So, at 3D Realms, a project leader is the closest thing to a dedicated game designer, but really the roles are quite different.

h0l: Why so many add-on level packs for Duke Nukem?

SM: Simple:  They keep selling.

Our marketing manager at our Duke Nukem publisher, GT Interactive Software, recently remarked that anything they slap "Duke Nukem" on sells.  If you combine all the different Duke versions, Duke add-ons and the number of Duke games that we sell direct, Duke would be the top selling game since its release nearly two years ago.  As an game property, Duke is probably one of the top five in all of gaming, right up there with Mario, Lara Croft, and Flight Simulator.

h0l: Does having a major Apogee/3DRealms external developer like Remedy such a darn long way away (Finland!) make things tricky? How have you tried to get round this problem?

SM: It's not too tricky, thanks to the Internet and email.  Plus, they've come to visit several times and we meet at every E3.  The Internet has compressed the world into a much smaller space.  We get milestone CD burns from Remedy every month, and have a round of discussions based on the current state of the game.  Mark my words:  Remedy will soon be recognized as one of the world's leading independent PC developers.

h0l: Do most publishers know anything about games? (heh, is this a leading question?)

SM: A better question is this one:  Do the key decision makers at most publishers know a good game from a bad one?  My answer is "no."  For example, you recently interviewed a CEO who, when you asked if he had time to play his own company's games, said: "Not really. I do a few hours of each game, but that's it."

Is there any wonder why this CEO's company releases such hit and miss games?

The problem with most large publishers is that the CEO's and V.P.s are not from a developer background, they're most likely business, marketing and financial people, and don't have a long track record of game development and playing games.

We had one of these V.P.s visit us right before Duke Nukem 3D was released, looking at our games to see if we had anything worth porting to consoles.  This guy passed on Duke, not seeing it's potential, and thinking it was just another DOOM clone.  He simply didn't understand all the new innovations Duke brought to the genre.  He no longer works for this company.

h0l: Do you think there'll be 'copycat' new companies trying to emulate G.o.D (the new 'publisher' conglomerate that 3DRealms/Apogee have pledged support for)? Or do you think the rest of the industry will have trouble breaking away from their current business model?

SM: I think established publishers will not attempt to copy g.o.d.'s business model, simply because a key element of this model is a board of directors mostly comprised of developers.  The board's job will be to maintain a priority on developer concerns, such as royalty rates, developer ownership of intellectual property rights, and pushing the developer's name ahead of g.o.d.'s name.

h0l: It's noticeable that not that many companies have tried emulating Apogee's innovative business model.

SM: The reason few developers have copied Apogee's shareware marketing and direct sales methods is because most publishers do not allow developers to do what we do, because it cuts the publisher out of a good portion of the game's revenue.  G.o.d., though, will help developers with selling their games via shareware, by having its own order taking and fulfillment division.

h0l: If you could steal one coder for your company, who would it be?

SM: I have the utmost respect for John Carmack as a coder.  He amazed me back in 1990 when Apogee first brought id into the shareware industry. Over the years that we worked together I spent a lot of time talking to John picking his brain and trying to figure out how he came upon his innovative solutions to problems other coders couldn't solve--trying to understand his genius.  He was always three steps ahead of anyone else in the industry.  His strength is not in his programming skills--it's in the fact that he's very accurate at predicting which future technologies are most important and appropriate to pursue.  John probably has better binoculars than anyone else in this industry.

h0l: When you managed an arcade location early in the eighties, which games were the most popular?

SM: Even people born after the early 80's know which games we played back then, such as Asteroids, Missile Command, Defender, Joust, Xevious, Battlezone, Tempest, Galaxian, Centipede, Zaxxon, Gravitar, Space Invaders, Scramble, Robotron, etc.  The key back then is that gameplay mattered, simply because the graphics sucked and couldn't carry a game. Nowadays, graphics must play too important a role, which is a distraction from the depth and polish of the gameplay for game developers.

h0l: And did you sneak round after work with the keys getting plenty of free credits? :)

SM: I didn't wait until after work, I played constantly *during* work hours!  :)  And, yes, even after work I played, allowing all my friends to play for free, too.

h0l: Do you think you started promoting "Prey" too early?

SM: Not at all.  Prey is actually two projects.  The first one was cancelled after a year of struggling with which direction to take it.  The second and current Prey incarnation has very little to do with that first project called Prey, because it has entirely different objectives, and a new staff running the show.  When Prey is released, it will have been a two year project, which for a game as ambitious as this, is not too long.  Plus, unlike some games long in development, like Stonekeep and Descent to Undermountain, Prey when released will be a cutting-edge game in both gameplay and technology.

h0l: Capcom or Namco - which rules more?

SM: Namco in the 80's, Capcom in the 90's.

h0l: How's the sports car quotient at your company going compared to those show-offs at ID? 0:)

SM: I think overall our developers are a bit more pragmatic than those at id, and don't necessarily want expensive show-off cars.  We've had our Ferrari-owning exceptions, though.  ;)

h0l: "Balls Of Steel" - what makes it stand out?

SM: Five tables, compared to one table in most PC pinball games, such as the Pro Pinball series.  Also, we didn't set out to make a 100% pinball "simulator."  Instead, Balls of Steel adds many cool, animated features that are not possible with the real game--we take advantage of the fact that this is a computer game, and do very cool things like breathing dragons, burning buildings, ball-eating monsters, exploding enemies, morphing table features, and even a table that can be totally submerged underwater with floating landmines.

h0l: There seems to have been relatively few releases on Apogee recently - is this down to lack of good material submitted to you, or because you want to concentrate on a small number of projects?

SM: Apogee is basically retired as a game label.  We've decided to focus on our 3D Realms division for now, because we think 3D games are where all the action is at.

h0l: Why do people identify with Duke Nukem?

SM: He represents the kick-butt nature buried in all of us.  He's a fantasy that we all wish we could sometimes be like.

h0l: And finally.. give us your "State Of The Gaming Nation" speech. What's been good, and what will continue to suck?

SM: If you've got money to burn, things are good because advancing hardware technology will mean incredible new games (at least, great looking games) are around the corner.  If you don't have the money to keep up, you might not be able to play coming new games.  Progress is a double-edged sword.

Finally, I think more and more developers and publishers are realizing that they cannot rush out a game without months of polishing the gameplay, and this will result in better games for us all.

h0l: Thanks!