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Interview with Bohemia Interactive
by Ed Reddy

Three weeks ago I received a tip about a new game in development called Flashpoint. With a little research I came across the developer called Bohemia Interactive, based in Prague, Czech Republic. Flashpoint has been in development for a number of years and is expected to be released this fall. I had a chance to speak with Marek Spanel (MS), team lead for the development of Flashpoint.

Fig. 1. Abrams in Action

COMBATSIM: Who, or should I say what, is Bohemia Interactive? How long has this company been together?

MS: Bohemia Interactive is the leading game company in the Czech republic, distributing, publishing and developing games. It is based in Prague. It's a large group of companies now and Bohemia Interactive Studio is one part of it. I am personally with Bohemia Interactive from its very beginning in 92. Ondrej, the lead programmer of the game and the engine and me, we were working on various games mostly on Atari computers since 87. In 96 we moved towards the PC platform and started development of our next generation 3D engine for PC. I stopped my activities in the game distribution and we started to build the team in 98. Finally the team growth gives us enough power to beat any other tactical action war game - we're more than 10 people working on the game, we own great technology developed last few years and we have installed state of the art motion capture studio here for Flash Point.

Fig. 2. Convoy moves down road

COMBATSIM: Flashpoint looks like a fantastic Cold-War era combat simulation. What are the games key features?

MS: Flash Point creates a large and detailed world and engages huge variety of cold war military equipment and vehicles directly in the combat without any limits. Players can play as the infantry and use all mobile, armored, aircraft units in both single player and multiplayer. Everything is created in accurate 3D graphics and with decent physical simulation and complex AI routines. We're trying to remove artificial limits and we give the player large world where is everything possible. Do you think you can steal an enemy helicopter and fly - try it. Do you think you can command a group of soldiers? Do it - you may have up to 11 soldiers in your group at your command.

Life like graphics, animations and sound effects help to the total immersion. The game offers a simplified action type user interface but there's a deep tactical simulation behind it - every single bullet has own simulation and ballistic. This game offers more freedom and realism than any other game and we think it is a refreshing change after tons of simplistic shooting infantry games and or sci-fi military games full of colored lights and effects. Flash Point is similar to Delta Force or Hidden and Dangerous in some aspects but it offers much more realism and opportunities to the player.

 

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