HardWar - Interview Ciaran Gultineks

Interview With CIARAN GULTNIEKS

by John Shiali
November 98

HardWar


Prison Oubliette


THE MOTH

General Descriptions
Combat Performance
Silver-Y
Moon Moth
Neo-Tiger
Hawk
Death's Head
Police Moth (L-2000)
Swallow
Engines
Cells
The Fusion Cell
Pods & Drones
Software
Start-up Moths
Upgrading

Getting Death's Heads
& Police Moths




WEAPONS

Cannons
Missiles
Defensive Items
Weapons Combinations

How Your Enemies Are Armed

Getting Specialty Weapons



SURVIVAL

Setting Up The Game

Basic Training
Flyng & Targeting
Evasion & Defense
Dogfighting

EMERGENCIES !!
(the most important page on this site!)


Amnesty 101
Further Reading
Using Tunnels
Advanced Tactics

Titan's Economy
(an overview)


Making Money



LIFE ON TITAN

Interactive Map Of Titan

Detailed Maps Of Titan

Factions
Amnesty
Handling Enforcers
Titan's Economy
Trading Basics

Nar Sluke's
Trading tips


Zaznorf's
Hardlist
(in XLS/Excel format)


Trade Items
Trade Routes
Geography
Scavenging
Advanced Drone Use
Bounty Hunting
PIRACY

Captain Zedo's
Dirty Pirate Tricks


Getting and Using a Hangar

Cloning

General Tips

Cheats



DOWNLOADS

Cheats

Saved Games
for version F2.1


Saved Games
for verson F2.0


Hardwar Wallpapers
(for Windows)


Hardwar Skin
for WinAmp


Rob Hawke's
Hardwar Font


Shrekken's
Hardwar Cursors


Shrekken's
Hardwar Icons


Shrekken's Alien Pix

Hammer's Galleries

Screenshots
(by the ton)


How To Take Screenshots

Moth Skins

Offline Game
Setup Manual


Official Patches

Ouch's Patches
(the Wizard of Greed)


Free Playable Demo



SKINS

How To Skin
a Moth


Silver-Y
Moon Moth
Neo-Tiger
Hawk
Death's Head
Police Moth
Swallow

Redeemer's
Skin Pack


dyar1's
Skin Pack


Viper's Hawk
Pack


Hardwar Skin
for WinAmp


Rob Hawke's
Hardwar Font


Shrekken's
Hardwar Cursors


Shrekken's
Hardwar Icons


Shrekken's Alien Pix

Hammer's Galleries



SITE SERVICES

Walkthrough
Bulletin Board
Chat
Patch News

Polls
(favorite Moth, weaopns, etc.)


Links
Interviews
About Hardwar
Site Updates
Pilot Profiles
E-Mail Me



ONLINE PLAY

Joining an Online Game
Hosting an Online Game
Online Game Setup
Online Problems
Advanced Tactics



OFFLINE CHALLENGES

Xaffax's Challenge
(original)


Venom's Challenge
Ashlocke's Challenge
Nar Sluke's Challenge

Police
Guard 3's
Challenge


Venom's Hangar Turret Challenge

Lancelot's Challenge

Xaffax's Second Challenge

The Hippie Challenge

HARDMAN'S Challenge










(The following is an interview from "A Talent For War". It occured during the early days of HardWar. I am presenting these interviews to help give viewers a better understanding of HardWar's history and hopefully give clues as to its future evolution. Please keep in mind that this interview is over a year old. -- Captain Zedo)


We picked letters of the alphabet completely at random, and ended up with "Ciaran Gultnieks", who coincidentally is also a programmer at The Software Refinery. We interpreted this as a cosmic sign, and asked him a load of questions about Hardwar...

Ciaran, tell us about about Software Refinery. Where are you based, how many people work there, etc?

We're based in Leeds, England. There are three of us here at the moment, though that will be changing soon.

Why did you decide to set Hardwar on a moon, rather than out in space?

Having everything in a confined environment like that adds to the feeling of the real world. You can be flying along on your way somewhere and come across a battle between two ships, while others pass by in the background. In space, things would be much more spread out.

Why is Hardwar a year overdue?

There are several reasons, not least the change from DOS to Windows and the introduction of 3D accelerators - Hardwar began life as a DOS software-only game!

Why do you think so many good games come from the UK? What makes a game from the UK so distinct from an American game?

I think both the UK and the US are capable of producing good and bad games. If there is a difference, perhaps it's that UK teams tend to be smaller, and therefore more focussed.

What do you think of the current state of the 3D accelerator war? Who do you think will still be winning this time next year?

I think there will still be a number of players doing well in that market, particularly with recent improvements in Direct3D making the proprietary API's slightly less important.

Do you think that Intel is good or bad for the games industry, the way it keep producing faster and faster processors?

Both, I think. It keeps things exciting, while making it difficult for the average gamer to keep up.

Why did you decide to make Hardwar's weapons so clever? In the demo they seemed to pretty much lock on to a target every time.

The more powerful weapons are very expensive things to buy. It's not very satisfying to see that kind of technology sail off and hit a crater wall. Also, the emphasis is more on the consequences of your actions than the accurate aiming of a missile.

What is your favourite thing in Hardwar?

My favourite thing has to be 'reality' of the world. I've spent a lot of time just following the AI pilots around to see what they're up to.

Is it true that the actors in the movies are friends and relatives of the developers? How did you persuade them to take part?

No, it's not true - it just seems that way. Although the uber-clerk you see in several of the police videos is played by Ade Carless, the game's producer.

Are there any ideas that you had that didn't make it into Hardwar?

Literally hundreds. Once you get a 'real world' like that up and running the possiblities for adding new ways of interacting with it are endless. Hopefully many will make it into a future game.

A lot of people are calling Hardwar a new verison of Elite. Do you think this is a valid comparison? Why?

Yes, it's a valid comparison, if only because of the open-ended gameplay style and the ability to make your own decisions as to how you want to play.

What other games are you playing, particularly any space-sims?

Activision's BattleZone is interesting, and Quake (the original) still heats up our network cables on a regular basis.

What is the recommended specification for a machine to run Hardwar well?

Hardwar should run well across a wide range of machines, but to get the best out of it a 3D acclerator is a good idea. During development, we played it quite happilly on everything from a P166 to a PII-450.

Why are Interplay in the US releasing this as a budget title? What do you think of this?

I can only suggest you ask Interplay or Gremlin Interactive. My comments are unprintable.

The choice of music fits the game perfectly - who chose the music? Why did you decide to have a "name" soundtrack?

The music is all licensed from Warp Records, who have been one of my favourite labels for a long time. I've always been a fan of artists like LFO and Autechre, who both feature in Hardwar.

What are your future plans for the Hardwar universe? Or are you now onto new projects?

Time and money permitting, we're hoping to release an update patch for Hardwar, incorporating a few new features and following some of the hundreds of suggestions that have been sent in by fans of the game. Other than that our future plans are a closely guarded secret for the time being.

Thanks Ciaran, and good luck with all your future projects. We'll be looking forward to more excellent games from The Software Refinery.

A Talent For War © 1998-9

To Ade Careless Interview >>






Interview with
Ade
Careless





HardWar




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