Bill Spieth stops in for a chat

[Chairman Robbo]

Bill Spieth, lead designer at Frog City kindly allowed the Blue Parrot to exclusively chat to him about Tropico 2.

Read the result here.

[Mr.P]

Excellent work Robbo, it is such a blast from the past to have the game designers talking to us like this.  

[Coconut Kid]

Blue Parrot: A pirate king is not the first thing I would think of in connection with pirates. When did you come up with the idea of being a pirate king for the game?

Bill Spieth: The concept of a pirate king (and the necessity of a pirate king) is just the logical result of combining pirates with a sim-style game. Since the player runs the island, he has to take on the role of the island's ruler. Just as in Simcity your role is mayor, or in Rollercoaster Tycoon you own the amusement park, or in Caesar 3 you are the Roman governor. So I guess the answer is I came up with the idea at the concept stage of the design.

Blue Parrot: Some have said that a better game could have been created if it was not based on Tropico. Do you agree and did you ever consider doing that?
 
Bill Spieth: We were asked to submit a design for a Tropico sequel. I have lots of ideas for games all the time, and a number of them at what I would call the design stage which is much more than a simple idea. In my experience the challenge is not coming up with ideas and designs, but in getting a publisher to fund development. Take 2 Interactive wanted a sequel for Tropico.
 
Blue Parrot: What brought about the change from the random map format of Tropico 1, to the campaign game format of Tropico 2?
 
Bill Spieth: Tropico 2 still includes the random map format found in Tropico. So it was not so much a change as an addition. I felt that with pirates a campaign would be fun, so we included one.
 
Blue Parrot: What game components do you think will draw a new person to Pirate Cove, this latest addition to the Tropico franchise - yet also entice the original Tropico players?
 
Bill Spieth: This is the main challenge of making a sequel. The pirate theme should appeal to lots of people, I believe--including new players. Hopefully Tropico veterans will appreciate the interface and other similarities that make the game seem like Tropico. But since the game has been out for a while, I think that people can make up their own minds now on the game's appeal; either by playing the game, or the demo.
 
Blue Parrot: How much influence did previous titles from Frog City such as Trade Empires and Imperialism, have on Tropico 2? What other titles on the market had influence over the creation of Tropico 2?
 
Bill Spieth: SimCity and Caesar 3 both influenced the design. Earlier Frog City games demonstrate what Frog City's designers find enjoyable in a game. Tropico 2 shares some elements with these games because we designed it. But it is a sequel to PopTop's game so it is also still quite different.
 
Blue Parrot: Have you played Port Royale? How would you compare Port Royale to T2? What does Tropico 2 offer above Port Royale in your opinion?
 
Bill Spieth: I have not played it so I have no basis of comparison.
 
Blue Parrot: Who created the scenarios and campaign episodes? How much time and effort was spent on their creation?

Bill Spieth: I wrote all the scenarios and episodes that shipped with the game. This took a lot of time in part because the scripting engine was being augmented at the same time as the content. But this was the right way to do it, nevertheless. As game designers, my brother and I believe in testing game play early and starting to balance the game early. Ted and I spent lots of time playing the episodes and scenarios over and over again as changes and corrections were added.

Blue Parrot: The scenario scripting engine is excellent. How soon in the development of the game was it written?
 
Bill Spieth: Bare bones came early. But more, (much more) was continually added. Some elements were added too late in development to be used in the episodes and scenarios we shipped. Some elements were only nailed down for the patch. I am sure Jon Edwards (scripting engine author) would like to add still more--and he will if there is another patch.
 
Blue Parrot: What are your thoughts about the S3D engine?

Bill Spieth: I think this is the name of the engine PopTop used for Tropico and RT2. We didn't use it for Tropico 2. Tropico 2: Pirate Cove runs on a augmented Frog City engine. Earlier versions were used for Trade Empires and Pantheon.

Blue Parrot: With the current focus in the gaming community on modding, how did modding factor into the thinking behind Pirate Cove?

Bill Spieth: The data structrues we used are not really suitable for modification. The development cycle was not long enough to rewrite things to the extent modding support would have required.
 
Blue Parrot: Who was behind the creation of the opening video?
 
Bill Spieth: PopTop's artists: Brian Feldges, Steve Mohesky, Nathan Harris. You can see their names in the game credits.
 
Blue Parrot: The skeleton haulers are great. Who came up with that idea?

Bill Spieth: Jon Edwards thought of skeletons, but I can't remember who thought to make them haulers.

Blue Parrot: Many players thought any sequel to Tropico, should contain armoured vehicles. Was any thought given to the inclusion of tanks in Tropio 2?
 
Bill Spieth: No. Not for a minute.
 
Blue Parrot: Who's your favourite captain? Your favourite ship? Why?
 
Bill Spieth: Charlotte DeBerry. She's the prettiest.
I guess my favorite ship for game purposes is the frigate, though really what I use in the game whenever possible is the frigate -- galleon pair for maximum plunder. If I go on appearance, like I did for the Captain, then my favorite is the Galleon.

[Coconut Kid]

Blue Parrot: When Tropico 1 was in development, Poptop were asked by CafeTropico if an advisor character would be included, and they replied that they felt it would be more a hindrance than a help, with the player feeling they weren't playing the game, but being told what do to. Tropico 2 includes an advisor, Smitty. Do you believe he is a help or a hindrance to the player?
 
Bill Spieth: I believe an advisor is a good thing for rookie players of Tropico 2. The two games demand different types of game play. It is easier to get stuck in Tropico 2 because of something you don't understand or didn't know.

As for Smitty in particular, he and I got along okay. But my brother Ted really hates his ugly face.
 
Blue Parrot: If you had been granted an extra month, what would you have personally included that is otherwise not in the release?

Bill Spieth: A month is not really much time. Just enough to polish the game more and fix the bugs that ended up being fixed in the patch anyway. Six months more and you might have seen significant additions. A better campaign scoring system including among other things a cool scoring screen, a complete reworking of all episodes and scenarios to reflect all abilities of the scripting engine, a piracy mini-game, more depth in war, diplomacy, invasions, fostering wars and related edicts, additional island log functionality, and no doubt a lot of other stuff. And as long as we are dreaming of "pie in the sky", with a 3rd CD we could have included more buildings, complete rotations for all buildings, more music, more decor, three more pirate ship types, and more captain characters.

But the main point is that games have to be paid for and they have to ship. I am happy with the game we shipped.

Blue Parrot:  What game concepts did you have to leave out of the final cut and why?

Bill Spieth: I would not say we left out any concepts. Conceptually, the game came out as I pictured it. Extras or added features did get left out, I guess. My previous answer includes some of these.

Blue Parrot: Looking at the final product, what parts of the game make you smile and think, If only the players knew how much work that was?
 
Bill Spieth: For me, balancing and testing and rebalancing the campaign. For my brother, balancing and testing and rebalancing the basic economy. But the most difficult features or challenges in development were really not design-related at all. I'd say they were performance and pathfinding.

Blue Parrot: Do you have any regrets about how the game turned out or anything you would like to improve?
 
Bill Spieth: Any game can be made better with additional time. I have some ideas about how to do this. But these ideas don't become regrets because this is a business--you have to work incredibly hard especially at the end of a project-- and then you have to ship a game. If you did a good job with your schedule the game is a final quality product when it ships and it is stable. If you failed, you're forced to ship it when it isn't ready. When we released Tropico 2 it was final quality, it was stable, and it conformed conceptually to the original design.

Blue Parrot: Did the Poptop beta tests and/or beta demo bring about a lot of changes to the game or just minor ones?

Bill Spieth: PopTop's beta testers, as well as Frog City's, were helpful mainly be finding feedback gaps. These are areas where the game was hard to understand or failed to tell you something critical. They also helped us set difficulty. The game was much too difficult prior to the feedback we got from these testers. Beta is too late to change the big things.

However, Phil Steinmeyer and Franz Felsl (at PopTop) played the game at much earlier stages and offered valuable input on the design, interface, and game play. Their help was critical. This was mostly pre-alpha. Their feedback changed the game fairly early in the process -- not because they told us what to do -- but because they pointed out problems and left us to find the right solutions.
 
Blue Parrot: Tell us a bit about the atmosphere at Frog City during the final 4 weeks wrap-up time of game production?
 
Bill Spieth: I would characterize it as stressed and tired, but not panic-stricken or exhausted. To give you a personal example of hours, I figure I averaged 12 hours a day 7 days a week from mid January on. And some people here worked longer hours than I did during this time.
 
Blue Parrot: Tropico 2 has a cheeky attitude about it. Is this something you deliberately set out to achieve, or something that just happened?
 
Bill Spieth: Deliberate.
 
Blue Parrot: How reflective is this cheeky attitude of the team at Frog City?
 
Bill Spieth: Not very. It seemed appropriate for the game. We're all very earnest and serious here, of course.

Blue Parrot: How important are fansites such as the Blue Parrot, to the success of Tropico 2?
 
Bill Spieth: In my experience interest in a game prior to release (which fan sites provide) is one of the ways the publisher decides to allocate marketing and sales clout. So fan interest can be used to build the game's market to prior to its date of release.
 
Blue Parrot: How happy is Frog City with the success of Tropico 2 so far?
 
Bill Spieth: In Europe very happy. Less happy with North America

[Coconut Kid]

The interesting things Spieth mentioned as things he would have added:

Six months more and you might have seen significant additions. ...; a piracy mini-game; more depth in war, diplomacy, invasions, fostering wars and related edicts; additional island log functionality, ..., three more pirate ship types, and more captain characters.

I wonder what he meant by piracy mini-game? I have to speculate that he meant providing the animations for the ships at sea. Not being able to see what happens on the cruises is the big frustration for many players.

It is a puzzle to me what additional three ship types he had in mind.