![[ b l i t z · b a s i c ]](blitzlogo.gif)
The Blitz is back!
Edge magazine interview with George Bray -- unedited!Edge magazine recently interviewed George Bray of Guildhall Leisure, the fine software publishers bringing you Blitz Basic. Although Edge were excellent enough to devote a whole page to Blitz (we consider that a major honour!), George wanted to put his full answers up here, to make up for the parts that had to be ruthlessly edited for publication.
What was the reason you decided to do a PC version of Blitz?
Initially we looked at the strong community we had created from the Amiga version of Blitz Basic. Then we researched the PC market because we felt that alot of the ex-Blitz users now had PC's. When probed further, we found an untapped market - No one was addressing the "back bedroom programming" fraternity properly and there must be thousands of game ideas out there waiting to be unleashed onto a PC, rather than all the bog standard first person shooters that keep appearing in the charts week in week out.
The whole Blitz team come from a background of Sensible's Shoot Em Up Construction Kit, Garry Kitchen's Game Maker, STOS, AMOS and obviously Blitz Basic Amiga, so we know the excitement of nurturing your own creation onto a computer.
When did the product start and how much reworking of the original code was needed?
Mark has been coding Blitz for around 15 months now. The only reworking that I can really comment on is with things like the Blitter chip for instance i.e.. the PC doesn't have one. So we basically started from scratch and optimised everything for the PC.
How many compatibility issues have you had considering the fluid
state of the PC platform in terms of CPUs and graphics cards?
Surprisingly this has not been a problem. I personally tested Blitz to death on around 5 or 6 different test beds in-house throughout the various development stages. The Beta testers we immensely helpful here - we had around 30 who reported to us every few days with their findings - this really helped iron out any compatibility issues - so I have to thank them.
How easy was DirectX to work with - the work log seems to like some bits and hate other bits?
Mmmm....I spoke to Mark about this and he felt that DirectX is bug ridded or just too damn confusing!
There was lots of fuss over the GOTO/GOSUB commands. Why did you want to remove them?
They were tricky to implement, that was all :) We are finding that not many people use them in their code either! But they are there and I'm personally happy with that.
Does the code support online multiplayer?
I'm proud to say Yes to that one.
The jump between 2D and 3D is a big on. How is that process going?
Well Mark is around 1 month into the 3D version of Blitz and he has assorted spaceships and scenery being whizzed around the screen at a frantic pace - so things are looking good :)
Was 3D always the final priority of the project?
I wouldn't say a priority - The priority was to create a tool that everyone can use to program their own video games with ease. The more effort you put into Blitz the bigger the rewards. The ultimate goal was a 3D engine though - but on the flipside of that, some of the best games ever were created in 2D.
How many downloads have you currently had?
Currently over 5,000.
What's the plan for releasing games based on Blitz BASIC - The Blitz Gaming Range?
The plan is to launch a range of games written by Blitz Basic users. We are fully aware of the pitfalls in software publishing we've been doing it for over 15 years now - so a programmer may not know how to get his product sold, this is where we would like to step in. All they have to do is send directly to myself, either a demo or a finished game, because we'd like to bring to market games that have been written with originality and playability in mind. I appreciate that there will be a diverse range of quality so we are looking to release a budget and medium priced PC gaming range. So for all you would be programmers reading this - get coding and start sending me your games :)
Will those games be retail boxed or just downloadable?
We haven't fully decided but the wheels are in motion to cater for either and both scenarios.
Do you think the quality of amateur coders is high enough to sustain this idea?
I do, I really do. Just take a look at some of the examples you can download from the Blitz Basic website, there's some real talent uploading their code onto it. Plus Worms was written with the Amiga version of Blitz, so all it takes is your imagination, some effort and who knows....
Although it's not finished yet, what's the likely release date and price of the Pro version?
We have pencilled in February 2001 for that. Watch this space :)
Do you have a brief bio of Mark Sibly & what was/is G-Tok?
Mark is a 30 something year old programmer :)
His softography reads:
G-ToK is a fast paced arcade shoot em up for the PC - which rekindles the days of aiming for a high score.
AND REMEMBER: VIDEO GAMES ARE FOR LIFE AND NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS
George Bray |