WP : Who has the honor to talk to us? State your name, rank and occupation!

Francisco Perez, Associated Director, CEO

WP : What sort of graphics engine did you use for War Times? In-house or licensed? Why this particular choice?

FP : The engine used for War Times was made by Legend Studios. By developing our own engine we will be able to use it again to develop more games along the same lines.

WP : What is the current status of War Times? How much game time (for an average gamer) will it take to complete War Times?

FP : How much time left in the development of War Times? Most of the campaign missions are complete and there is a lot of Quality Assurance to be done.

WP : Can you give us some info on some of the historical battles you will partake in ?

FP : Some missions included are The Battle Of England, Red Beard Operation, Tobruck, Target The Bismarck, The Abbey Of Montecasino, The Normandie Disembarkation, THE BATTLE OF HURTGEN Bush, plus many more.

WP : How many levels will you have in it? How many different terrain types will the maps contain?

FP : The game in campaign mode will have 32 levels, in multiplayer it will have 5 levels of difficulty with different AI levels. There are a variety of Different terrain types, like water, land, snow, asphalt and grass. This not only influences the look of the game, but also affects gameplay. For example, on asphalt the units ran at full speed, but on snow they slow down to approximately 70% of their top speed. Terrain types are a very important aspect of the game.

WP : Are there different weather types, day & night cycles in War Times? If at all, how will the weather conditions affect units as well as the game play?

FP : No, there are no weather or day/night effects.

WP : Can you give use a break down on the number of units each side will have? How many different variants of a unit class will War Times come with? For example Light/Medium/Heavy Tank etc.

FP : There is an average of 16 units per side. Basic unit types include infantry, ground vehicles, air units, and ships. Most types have at least 3 variants, although it depends on which army you are using. For example, there are sides which can create light, medium and heave, and others that can only go up to medium. Some sides can build bombers and transport airplanes while other can not.

WP : How many sides are there in War Times? Can you play as each of the different sides? What are the main, if any, differences between the various factions?

FP : There are 4 sides to choose from: Germany, Great Britain, United States, and the Soviet Union. Some campaign missions, however, will allow you take the role of Polish, Belgium, or FRENCH units. In the single-player campaign, you choose either Axis or Allies. As the Axis, you take the Germans through 10 missions. In the Allied campaign, there are 22 missions where you take the role of Great Britain, United States, or Russia. It is set-up chronologically – you start as the English, then play the Russians, and finally the Americans, although sometimes you will find yourself with a mix of units from all three in interesting ways that combine there strengths.

Germany has powerful ground units, the largest heavy artillery, and advanced weaponry like the V2 rocket. The English are more defensive and make use of spies and radars. The Russian are powerful on land and have a large number of abilities that can be developed in a short amount of time. In addition, they have a very massive tank factory that lets you create 10 tanks at once. The Americans are very powerful in the air and posses the Elite Soldier, who has various powerful abilities.

WP : Will you be able to capture enemy tech and incorporate it into your side’s tech?

FP : There is no feature of the game that allows you to steal enemy technologies, but in multiplayer modes you can share your abilities with your allies.

WP : “Military units of every nation are unique: each military unit has its own properties and special abilities.” Can you elaborate on this?

FP : There are many examples of this in Wartimes. Fore example, when it comes to harvesting minerals, each faction has to build a building to do so, but some sides will collect minerals automatically while others require you to send out collectors. Depending on your side, you might have access to grenade men, soldiers with mortars, amphibian soldiers, combat engineers, soldiers with explosives, or one’s with flamethrowers.. Some sides get transport vehicles, ambulances, or anti-aircraft vehicles. There are light, medium, and heavy tanks, tanks with flame throwers, tanks that destroy bridges and others that are great against other tanks specifically. Aviation is a bit more uniform from side to side, but some sides can drop paratroopers while others can’t. Some planes are faster than others are, and some are better against land targets and others against air.

WP : Are you planning to a unit limit for both the amount of units on the screen as well as the amount of units you can select at once?

FP : Each side can have a maximum of 70 units.

WP : What will the resources be in War Times?

FP : There are two: mineral and fuel. THE mineral is the basic resource needed to go forward in development and fuel is for more advanced units and structures.

WP : Let’s get some info on the buildings, are you planning to have full range of buildings, such anti-air/anti-tank, walls, as well as your weapons factory etc.

FP : Yes, we’ve tried to add as much depth here as possible in the game. The building tech-tree is different for each side, but each has about 15 buildings. Many are factories for unit building, but some are defensive like Towers and V2 factories.

WP : What role will the infantry play in War Times? Will they actually be useful or just cannon fodder?

FP : Infantry are very important in Wartimes. They are the the key unit at the beginning of the campaigns and you can often have massive hordes of them. In the advanced stages of the game, however, you will want to keep them out of the way of the more devastating units, as you will enjoy discovering.

WP : How realistic will the maps be? Will you see craters after heavy shelling? Can you garrison neutral buildings etc? Will units leave wreckage after being destroyed?

FP : the design of the game is based on the actual chronological events of the war. Most maps, however, are smaller representations of legendary battlefields more suited to RTS gameplay. Terrain is not deformable, but there are plenty of effects like tank tread tracks and scorch marks. You cannot garrison units in neutral buildings, however.

WP : In multiplayer what sort of game modes are you planning to have?

FP : “Melee” and “Protect the General” are a couple of examples.

WP : Besides the campaign, will there be a skirmish mode/instant action? Are these maps different from the campaign ones? Does the game have various difficulty settings? If so, what are the changes? Simply more enemy units, smarter AI, both?

FP : The only game modes supported are the campaign and the various multiplayer modes which use a unique set of maps. We also intend to periodically post additional multiplayer maps for free download on our official website.
There are five levels of difficulty featuring four AI modes

WP : Are you planning to have any super weapons such as the Atom Bomb?

FP : Yes. An example is the German V2 rocket which is very devastating.

WP : Lately there have a been a flood of games based on WW1 or WW2, what decided you to make a World War based game, and what will make War Times stand out in the large crowd?

FP : True, but with WarTimes we were looking to create an RTS with units and battles that were a more accurate representation of the time. Wartimes have enormous possibilities when it comes to combining faction strengths in multiplayer modes, and we believe that it will be a refreshing experience when compared to other RTS games.

WP : Will you be able to create other aspects of the game besides new maps with the in-game editor?

FP : No, there is only the map editor. We wanted to focus on making it as easy to use as possible.

WP : In creating the game, what was the biggest challenge you encountered? Why, and how did you solve it?

FP : The biggest challenge for us was to find financing to create Wartimes. It’s the first Legend Studios has ever created. In Spain the industry of videogames is almost non-existent. For example, the only well known game to come out of Spain is the Commandos franchise. We had qualified people, but there is no government assistance for financing a venture in this market so we had to find private investors. We accomplished that, and in fact got enough financing to make more videogames in the future.

WP : Any chance we will see a demo before the game appears on store shelves?

FP : Yes, we have promised our publisher a demo.

WP : Finally is there anything you would like to add? Perhaps something I missed?

FP : I believe that the interview has covered many/most of the points. I would like to mention that Wartimes has many top-notch video sequences and a lot of detailed briefings describing real events from WWII. I expect that when WarTimes hits the market it will engage players with its deep level of gameplay.