Designer Notes 19: Louis Castle

[Soren Johnson]

In this episode, Soren interviews Westwood Studio co-founder Louis Castle. They discuss why early video game artists were also great at Etch-a-Sketch, why Dune 2 was not Dune 1, how Boom Blox was almost Angry Birds, and why narrative games can’t end on a negative.

 

Games discussed: Temple of Apshai, The Mars Saga, Command & Conquer, Monopoly, Dune 2, Eye of the Beholder, Blade Runner, Boom Blox, LMNO, The Battle for Middle-Earth

 

https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/louis-castle

[Ninja Dodo]

The audio cuts out a couple of times around 7:15 and 8:00. Maybe in other places as well but that's as far as I've listened so far.

[Soren Johnson]

Thanks, please let me know if you hear any more.

[DefaultHuman]

There were a couple of audio hiccups - I'd thought maybe my podcast app was messing up on silence-skipping, so glad to hear it wasn't just me. Thankfully, no more problems for the remainder. 

 

Thank you, so much, for this interview. I wasn't familiar with Louis before, but his products and company are the stuff of legends to me and I was utterly captivated. 

[Soren Johnson]

I didn't realize until going through the interview, but I think it's clear that Westwood is absolutely unparalleled in breadth of game development (meaning being willing to make almost any type of game).

[biz]

very nice episode

 

i'm not sure what the podcast is truly about, but these stories of how older game software got made always ends up being pretty interesting to me even if i haven't played the games discussed

[Ninja Dodo]

Got around to listening through the whole thing now (no audio hitches this time!). That was great. Really interesting overview of the history of Westwood and their games and also interesting to learn about how Castle's background and interests informed how he ran the studio.

 

Having been indirectly involved in LMNO at one point it was also nice to finally hear a more concrete reason for why that project was canned. Could have been really interesting.

[Ruarl]

What a fascinating interview. What an incredible set of achievements over a career to date. And incredible insights into important factors in games design. Working for a company which is still trying to tweak 3D graphics, and push the capabilities of hardware into new directions, it's incredible to hear just how much was accomplished on Blade Runner in particular, but others too. AND some amazing insights on non-linear storytelling, which I have already shared with the interactive storytelling crowd at work. I can't wait to see what he does with AR.

[cornchip]

Enjoyable episode. Louis' way of talking and his "dive into it" mindset remind me of Rob Pardo's from the first interview.

[osmosisch]

I don't know what the selection process is for these guests but it's skewing decidedly male

[Ruarl]

  On 6/25/2016 at 10:04 AM, osmosisch said:

I don't know what the selection process is for these guests but it's skewing decidedly male

Hey that's a really good point. Can you suggest some female games designers with similar experience (or as close as possible, given current industry biases) for Soren et al to interview? This is not a troll, but a genuine request. I'm not involved in the industry, just a consumer.

[Soren Johnson]

I feel bad about that too. Part of the problem is that my group of game dev contacts (not to mention the games I am familiar with so that I can ask good questions about) are on the strategy game side... which is not where female game designers tend to end up. Would like to improve the balance, however!

[osmosisch]

That's good to hear Soren. I figured a major part of it is simple network issues.

Some people I'd love to hear from:

- Kim Swift

- Roberta Williams

- Amy Hennig

- Jane Jensen

- Rebekah Saltsman

- Megan Fox

And kudos again on already getting Meg Jayanth on.

[cornchip]

Roberta Williams would be interesting after hearing Louis' account of the bad deal Sierra offered Westwood. (But really, she would be interesting.)

[infernovia]

Great interview! I absolutely love the discussion on Blade Runner. One of the greatest games released in the 90s and I honestly wasn't expecting so much discussion on it in a strategy game podcast.

 

I love his attitude and it's a shame that Westwood couldn't succeed on their ambitions. It would be absolutely amazing to see a new game like Blade Runner that in the modern age.

[osmosisch]

Oh! I can't believe I forgot about Robin Hunicke!

Fascinating stuff:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-08-10-robin-hunickes-extraordinary-journey

[tsubasanut]

Big thanks for the podcast! Just started to attend and it is really interesting stuff. Not many podcasts now focusing on games creation aspects. Was attending one on russian language "How games are made", which was run by Sergey Galyonkin (a guy behind SteamSpy). But "only russian guests policy" was severily limiting the scope. Plus he is now too busy with his new work and podcast looks dead now. So i'm looking forward for this podcast.

 

Westwood was a great studio, lots of different genres, but they were able to catch the lightning in a bottle most of the time.

If it is possible to forward question to Louis, there is one on my mind for a couple of decades.

I am a huge fan of Eye of Beholder 2 and consider it one of the best dungeon crawlers of all times. There is a scene here, where you meet King of the Frost Giants. He tells you a sad story, then "mysteriously turns to dust" and leave "tongue of Talon" artifact ( a blade of the sword). 

But while looking though game assets, i found pictures, that suggested a different scene. King of Frost Giants was supposed to kill himself with said blade by doing "harakiri", which will surely looked more dramatic.

Was it ESRB case, that this scene was removed from final game?