The Strategy behind the Strategy
An interview with BattleAtlantis, Inc. founders Chris Johnson, Serge Domkowski and Chris Kirkman

By John "Warrior" Keefer

GameSpy: Who originally came up with the idea for BattleAtlantis?

Chris Johnson: We decided to break it up into 2 phases, the Battle Phase (battle screen, troop movement, etc.), which Serge would program and the Province phase (all tasks outside of battle), which I would handle. Of course, it quickly grew into a HUGE project for us, and both of us having full time jobs didn't help much. When we started the project, Shockwave did not have built-in multiplayer functions (there was a third party extra available) but I was hoping that with the newer version of Director they would have that as a new feature. It seemed like an important next step for Shockwave, and it turned out that they did include it with Director 7 (which was released in December of 1998). Once the project really started moving, we quickly realized that we needed help on the site design and artwork. Chris Kirkman fit perfectly into that role.

Chris Kirkman: I knew that Johnson and Serge had been working on a game for some time, so I was more than happy to throw my hat into the ring. Sometime during the production of Fall of Atlantis, Chris Johnson and I started talking about the possibility of a much more complicated and expansive game that could make use of Shockwave's new multiplayer abilities. That was when the seeds of the concept behind Trinity were planted. After fleshing out the idea of Trinity as a game, it became obvious that we had the potential for a solid fledgling game company and that our site could be a place for lots of complex games like Trinity. I think it's an interesting historical note that Fall of Atlantis was originally called BattleAtlantis, but as the idea of a Shockwave gaming site formed we soon decided that was a much better identity for our gaming group and game site than just for the game.

GameSpy: Shockwave is typically known for simplistic arcade-style games. Why choose it to run your game?

Chris Johnson: Simple: Because we can. We have virtually no overhead by using Shockwave. We don't have to worry about a game publisher and we have access to an enormous amount of players.

Chris Kirkman: Right. Most game companies who program in C/C++ or another high-end programming language have to worry about computer platform issues, processor requirements, graphics ability... the list goes on. With Shockwave, we're pretty much guaranteed that you can play our games with nothing more than a web browser and the Shockwave plug-in.

Serge Domkowski: Also, Director has gotten far better then it used to be. The recent integration of JPEGs and Flash has also made it possible to do stunning effects in shockwave games and still keep the file size small enough for the Internet.

Chris Kirkman: Yes, Flash has been a Godsend. It's allowed us to do animation and vector effects with very small file sizes. We've been able to split up the responsibilities of animation and art in our games. For instance, in Trinity, Chris Johnson doesn't have to worry about animating any data card art since I can do all that in Flash at a small size and then send it to him to integrate into the game program. I don't touch a bit of code, and I can still be heavily involved in programming, which frees him up to concentrate on more complex code.

GameSpy: Why do you think shockwave is a viable gaming platform? Why do you think others have not adopted it?

Chris Johnson: Shockwave is really still in its infancy as far as I am concerned. Compared to other programming languages such as visual basic and C++, Lingo is a relatively new language. Many programmers don't take Shockwave and Lingo very serious and would hesitate to call some of the most advanced shockwave producers as real programmers. You can kind of understand that when you look at the average shockwave producer such as myself, a graphic artist with only basic programming experience before Lingo. Shockwave brings programming to everyone, and I think that alone has caused many die-hard programmers to label it as "amateurish."

Chris Kirkman: I agree with Shockwave bringing programming to the masses. Macromedia has packaged a fairly powerful programming language into an interface that doesn't immediately scare away beginner programmers. Lots of new programmers plus free time and good intentions equals lots of simple games. In my opinion, Shockwave has gotten a bum wrap from the programming community because of the abundance of the simplistic "arcade-style" games you mentioned before; but there has been an abundance of these games because lots of beginner programmers are giving shockwave scripting a chance while the veterans stick to older languages. It's really a Catch-22. This is something that we hope to turn around in the minds of Internet gamers as well as programmers... that it IS possible to put together an engaging, complex and fun game in Shockwave. That's really what BattleAtlantis is all about.

GameSpy: How much brainstorming/troubleshooting was needed before the beta release late last year?

Chris Johnson: We spent about 11 months working on Fall of Atlantis and then released it as a beta online. It quickly became apparent that there were still some major issues that needed to be resolved and the game didn't draw as many players as we expected. That's when we sat down and took a good took at the game and came to the decision to leave "Fall of Atlantis" in its current state and focus our efforts on our newest projects; Trinity and kill:Bot. It's not easy to halt production on a project you have spent nearly every free moment working on for the past 11 months, but we soon realized that Fall of Atlantis was really just a stepping stone in understanding Lingo's limitations, so we decided that our time could be better spent at that point.

Serge Domkowski: There was a lot of troubleshooting to do in Fall of Atlantis before the beta was released. To be honest though, I think we've already put in more time on brainstorming/troubleshooting for Trinity and kill:Bot then we did on Fall of Atlantis. One thing we learned from making Fall of Atlantis was that the larger and more complex the game, the more the brainstorming. I had over 40 pages of documentation on kill:Bot before I even started the game.

Chris Kirkman: The planning stage of Trinity has been a long one, that's for sure. I was already fleshing out game concepts and storyline while Chris and Serge cleaned up code on Fall of Atlantis. The months of pre-planning we did for Trinity has been extremely valuable in programming and production. We learned we really needed that from Fall of Atlantis. We also know that we'll have to dedicate much more time to troubleshooting before Trinity's beta is released sometime this summer.

Chris Johnson: When Serge and I began programming Fall of Atlantis by dividing the game into two parts, we really had no idea how we were going to 'connect' the two parts of the game back into one. Our lack of planning and organization made the process a terrible one, but it has turned out to be a valuable experience, as Trinity and Kill:Bot both have benefited from better planning and a more professional outlook.

GameSpy: What type of reception has the game received in the online community? How many people (estimated) play the game at any one time?

Serge Domkowski: So far we have not put a lot of time into advertising for Fall of Atlantis. Naturally, this has not helped us in generating hits. Still, the comments we've received from people who have played have been very positive. Many people have voiced a need for more games like Fall of Atlantis. This helped in our decision to expand our original goals.

GameSpy: How many people do you have on staff and are you hiring more? Who are others on the staff besides the big 3?

Chris Kirkman: I guess I feel as though our staff is a little larger than three because, as art director of Trinity, I manage a team of about 11 independent artists. Between Chris Johnson, Serge and myself, I believe we could create some amazing games, but Trinity is really going to be something special simply because we have a talented art team working with us. We plan to expand in staff after Trinity and kill:Bot are released and our profits increase. However, until then, it's up to our core team of three for game production - unless we run across a generous venture capitalist who knows a good thing when he/she sees it.

Serge Domkowski: We will be expanding - it just isn't time yet.

GameSpy: Are there plans for the company other games?

Serge Domkowski: Kill:Bot is based on a very old game which required you to program robots and then have them fight each other. I think the first version I saw was written in Basic and had to be copied out of a book. It looked like a good game for the Net, since you can play against other people even when they aren't present. The West will work the same way, the games play even if all the players are not present.

Chris Kirkman: We expect Trinity to develop a fairly large player base, so we'll continue to support the customizable trading card aspect of Trinity with expansion sets, and game updates. However, after the initial version of Trinity is released, we already have plans for our next project, The West (the working title), which is far from a card-based game. The West will be our version of a continuous online gaming community, (much like a MUD of the old days) with limited resources and the ability to gain strength and power over other players.

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