3/17/2000 | |
![]() Interviews Scott Le Grande and Stephanie Wukowitz
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Scott Le Grande and Stephanie Wukowitz are members of the team that
recently released the game Battlesphere for the Jaguar. They
decided to donate all the profits of the game to charity. The first
copy, signed by the authors, sold on
ebay for $1,575.00. In this interview, Scott and Stephanie talk
about their game.
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Makegames:
Who are the members of your team, and how long have
you been working together?
Stephanie:
There are three of us:
Scott and Doug met in middle school where they competed
with other friends to see who could write the coolest
videogames.
Scott and I met on Usenet when we were both at Penn State
in 1990 -- on psu.flame, though I'd answered his math
questions online too, before.
Scott:
Scatologic is a triad composed of myself, (Scott
Le Grand), Doug Engel, and Stephanie Wukovitz. Doug and
I have been writing games together for over 20 years and I
co-opted Stephanie into the creative process about 7 years
ago.
Makegames:
What kind of game is BattleSphere, and what platforms
does it support?
Scott:
BattleSphere is a cross between 3D space sims like
Wing Commander and Freespace and the old mainframe Star
Trek games of the 1960s and 1970s. It currently only runs
on the Atari Jaguar, but we've made tentative steps towards
a platform-independent OpenGL-based edition.
Stephanie:
In addition, it networks up to 16 consoles and
32 players with a variety of play modes. All three of us
would love to bring the game to a modern platform!
Makegames:
What kind of market did you perceive for this game?
Scott:
Back in 1993, we thought there was a huge hole in the
market for this sort of game. A lot of gamers and game
magazine editors agreed with us. Interactive Magic tried
to plug it with _Star Rangers_, but that was a very
disappointing product and I think it may have scared
anyone else off from trying. More recently, I think
the release of _HomeWorld_ might spur another mainstream
attempt. The hole's still there. Unfortunately, since
this game is not an example of a recently successful
genre, it's hard to convince a suit to take a chance with
it.
Stephanie:
We do know a lot of people who'd otherwise given
up on the Jaguar who have kept one or two in anticipation
of this game -- which probably does say a lot about this
hole in the market.
Makegames:
What prompted your decision to give the profits of
this game to charity?
Stephanie:
Don Thomas (http://www.icwhen.com) has a real
love for classic games and good gameplay in general, and
he's always been supportive of our efforts. At one point
he suggested we give away our profits, and we thought it
was a great idea. I've been diabetic from the age of 4,
so donating the profits to support diabetes research seemed
perfect.
Scott:
In the wake of Columbine, we were wondering how to
negate some of the scapegoating of video games that arose
from the aftermath. Don's suggestion fit nicely with this,
and the rest is history.
Makegames:
What do you plan to do next?
Scott:
We have a lot of choices. We're working on a few
stealth technology projects and we also have the option
of porting BattleSphere to modern hardware or completing
a puzzle game we designed a few years ago that made Nolan
Bushnell's eyes bug out when he first saw it. We're also
working with a really cool new technology at our day
jobs. Time will tell what comes from us next.
Stephanie:
As Scott mentioned, there are a number of things
we could do next, all of them incredibly interesting and
not even all game-related. In addition, I spend a lot of
time on music and audio, and plan to continue doing so since
I'd like to score films (as well as videogames).
Makegames:
What is it like being a female game developer?
Stephanie:
As far as Battle
Sphere was concerned, Scott and I had been dating for almost
four years (married in 1997) when it began and I was the
closest available musically- and technically- inclined person --
in that respect, being female DID matter. Aside from that, I
can't think of a time when it made a difference as we worked
together. Neither Scott nor Doug lets ego get in the way of
listening to an expert opinion (on math, for instance) just
because it happened to come from me.
As far as trade shows and conferences go, I've seen a *real*
change in attitude over the past few years, mostly in others'
body language. I'll admit that it's REALLY funny the first
few times you shock someone who's clearly pegged you as an
oddly dressed "booth bunny" (until you opened your mouth!)
but it gets old quickly. I'm glad that's changing in general!
It still feels odd to mingle with the game music crowd but I'm
sure that this, too, will change in time.
People have commented that my composing style is "very
different" but I don't think that's a "female thing" so much
as a "left-handed thing" or maybe even a "spent too long
getting math degrees thing." :-)
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To learn more about BattleSphere, visit these websites: Doug Engel's web page is here
You can contact Scott and Stephanie by email: Thank you, Scott and Stephanie, for your good work on behalf of charity, and for granting this interview with Makegames.com!
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