Gaming Voice	Rick Goodman
Of the different roles you've had in game development, which do you prefer?	I love games so I'd have to say that being a game designer has been and continues to be my favorite role. I've been playing strategy games since I was a kid, making up rules and trying them out on unsuspecting friends. I started with board games and then went to computer games. Now I am President of a computer game company, but designing is still the best part of my job!
You worked on Age of Empires and clearly Empire Earth hints at that game in at least a superficial way. What was the greatest challenge in designing Empire Earth so that it would be better than AoE without simply being a clone of it?	It is true that Empire Earth could not have been made without the experience I gained working on Age of Empires. AoE is a great game that accomplished most of the design goals I and Ensemble established. I feel really humbled by its success. The challenge in designing Empire Earth was its scope. I wanted to make an RTS game that covered all of human history. That's a pretty big goal, but I believe I and Stainless Steel Studios met the challenge. Empire Earth has a lot of depth but is easy to learn and fun to play.
There are design details that are now standard across all RTS games (resource gathering, basic unit types, etc.). The resource-types for example in Empire Earth are the same as in AoE, both games being historically based. Did you feel an urge to come up with new resources just to be different or were you content with what was tried and true?	Real-time strategy players understand resource gathering, whether it's food or Tiberium or Vespene Gas. We wanted to stick with tried and true design elements to minimize the learning curve for Empire Earth while improving and expanding upon areas where we could do so. We had numerous design meetings early on about what resources we wanted to include. They had to be familiar and historically relevant. In the end, we decided we wanted five resources: food, wood, stone, gold, and iron. Five resources gave us the flexibility we needed to achieve our main design goals, such as game and unit balance, giving players strategic and tactical choices, and so forth. To a degree, Citizens are even a sixth resource as they are needed to create new Town Centers and Capitol buildings.
What do you feel are the strongest features of Empire Earth?	Certainly they are the scope and depth. The game covers 500,000 years of human history, from the discovery of fire to the future. There are 14 historical Epochs, each of which is practically a game in itself, and 4 big single-player campaigns that follow the rise to power of a well-known civilization. More than 200 air, land, and sea units were created for the multiplayer game with an additional 100-or-so available in the campaigns. Add to that custom civilizations, special units and buildings, and perhaps the best scenario editor ever created for an RTS game and Empire Earth has amazing staying power.
Are there things that you wanted to do with Empire Earth or features you had designed that were left out for this version?	In any design process, there are ideas that never make it into the game. That's just the way game development is. But developers never throw those ideas away. They remain for consideration on new projects. To give a real example, we had originally wanted to have a Day/Night Cycle in Random Map games (single and multiplayer). But when we play tested it and got feedback we found it just wasn't that much fun. Units were harder to see at night and the constant light-to-dark-to-light transitions got in the way of just playing the game. As a result, Day/Night is found only in Empire Earth's Campaigns, where it adds to the mood of certain scenarios.
Let's talk a little about some specific aspects of the game. One thing that strikes me as very different is the ability to grow your civilization over the course of the game. Can you talk about the Civ Points concept and what brought it about?	Empire Earth comes with 21 historical Civilizations that are ready for battle, but players can also create their own Civilizations to suit their strategies. The "Civilization Builder" allows players to build custom civs from scratch by spending "Civ Points" on different bonuses. There are around 100 different bonuses, so there are literally thousands of possible combinations. Players can hone their civilizations over the course of many games until they come up with some that work best for them. Additionally, players can "evolve" the Civilizations in the single-player campaigns. You can take on the leadership of Ancient Greece, Medieval England, early 20th Century Germany, or near-future Russia. During the campaigns, players are occasionally awarded Civ Points for completing objectives, which they can then spend to improve their civilization. Bonuses carry over to the next scenario of the campaign.
All Civilization bonuses are available early in the game. So that a civilization in the prehistoric epoch could spend their Civ Points for bonuses that wouldn't take effect until the Nano Age, if the player desired?	That is true. Players can create a custom civilization before a game and save it for use in the game, or create one "on-the-fly" during the first 5 minutes of a Random Map game. Buying bonuses that won't take effect until later in a game is a strategic option that players have available to them.
Likewise, unit types can be modified as in other games, but in EE you are limited to a certain number of "steps" for each type. This requires the player to strategically improve their forces rather than just spend resources to get every bonus allowed. What was your goal in implementing the "steps" feature?	You pretty much hit it on the head. You can improve units' attributes, such as hit points, armor, attack strength, etc., and make them better in battle. When you improve an attribute such as speed for one unit, say a Musketeer, the speed of all Musketeers increases. But as you point out you are only allowed to make so many improvements, so players must decide which improvements best complement their strategy. In this way, players can customize their troops to suit their needs.
Can you explain the benefit of Heroes in Empire Earth?	There are two kinds of Heroes in Empires Earth: Warriors and Strategists. Warriors are good fighters and provide morale to surrounding troops, allowing them to fare better in combat. Strategists increase the stamina and vitality of nearby troops. Strategists can also produce a Battle Cry that demoralizes enemies. There are 24 Heroes in Empire Earth, 2 for every Epoch starting in the Copper Age. You can command Julius Caesar, William the Conqueror, Napoleon, and other legendary figures. There are also Heroes you'll find only in the Campaigns.
At first glance, Empire Earth looks like it simply has really well done graphics but then you realize that hey, these are 3D models with 3D terrain! What was behind the decision to go to a 3D engine?	The truth is that Empire Earth was designed first and foremost to be a fun game, regardless of whether it had been 2D or 3D. Going 3D, however, allowed us to implement a number of cool features, such as: realistic 3D physics, smooth topography, obstacles that block projectiles, special lighting and other effects. You can also zoom in the 3D camera to an eye-level view of a battle or zoom out to look at a whole battlefield. In the campaigns, the 3D camera is used to great effect during the in-game cut scenes - and you can control the camera to create your own movies using the scenario editor.
As a designer, do you find it difficult trusting other hands to create your vision? Do you feel you have a good grasp of what can and cannot be done with the current level of technology - meaning you don't put unreasonable demands on the development team?	Game designers come up with many of the concepts, rules, and details of a game's design, but it is the development team that implements it all and makes it all work. The team also contributes their own great ideas. It's therefore the team's effort that brings a game like Empire Earth to life. I can't praise the team here at Stainless Steel Studios enough. It's amazing how many of my "unreasonable demands" they actually met!
Empire Earth is chock full of little features that set it apart from other RTS games. Some of them hit you right off and many are subtle. We've already covered many of the strongest features of the game, but what features do you feel add the most to the overall game atmosphere you envisioned?	There are many, but here are a few examples: The environment is amazing. Trees and crops sway in the breeze, birds chirp, animals produce offspring, and there are 3 terrain sets for Random Maps: temperate, arctic, and desert. Special effects like smoke, lights, the great Calamities (which are invoked by the Prophet unit), and futuristic Cyber weapons really add a lot to the feel of the game. Heck, you can even see the breath of horses on arctic maps. The sound effects. Listen to a musket, an artillery bombardment, or a nuke go off and you'll know what I mean. You can even hear the bustle of your cities. We employed expert RTS gamers to help play balance Empire Earth and their efforts really paid off. The game is very well balanced so no one strategy is likely to dominate all others. This makes each game and even each battle different.
What other games are you playing currently or have played recently?	That's the great part about being in the gaming industry. You get access to all sorts of cool games. Recently I survived the "Iron Fortress" level of Half-Life 2 and every Tuesday night is our weekly WarCraft III LAN party. Just kidding!
Do you prefer PC or Console platforms (personally)?	That's like asking "what's better: apples or oranges?" It really depends on the game. I wouldn't play a strategy game without a mouse and keyboard nor would I play a fighting game WITH a mouse and keyboard. It's all about the game.
What's next for Rick Goodman and/or Stainless Steel Studios?	Keep making great games!
Thanks again for taking the time to answer our questions. Hope you and yours have a safe and wonderful holiday season!	You're very welcome - thanks for your interest in Empire Earth! Happy holidays!