Interview: Michael Harrison from Parasoft/Intertia Games

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Ed "Brandor" Reddy recently had a chance to shoot Michael Harrison a few questions regarding Screaming Demons Over Europe and the upcoming RC Simulator.

1. Fighter Squadron: The Screaming Demons Over Europe is over one year old and still has a huge online following. What are your plans for SDOE in the future?

At this time we're primarily working on making the FS engine available to a small group of people under NDA. This will allow them to make additions to Fighter Squadron which have been requested by the general FS community. As time permits (less and less these days) I have also been working on working on an unofficial patch.

2. We have heard you are working on a custom patch for SDOE for some time now. What are the features and enhancements of this patch? OpenGL support? Improved Flight model?

The entire list is actually too large to list here as the changes to FS will include not only fixes for known bugs, but also the additions and modifications that we've been working on for RC Simulator and our next WWII sim.

3. Does Inertia Games have any plans for a SDOE II?

Yes and no. It most likely won't use the Fighter Squadron name as that's owned by Activision, but we have begun design work on a WWII simulation using an updated version of the OpenPlane engine. At the moment we don't have a full team working on this project although we hope to have one going in the near future.

4. What can you tell us about your contest for SDOE? How many entries are there and for what planes?

We had more than 30 planes entered into the contest, with quite a variety. The full list is available Here.

5. How many aircraft are currently being used by the online community in version 5.3? Did you expect such interest and growth into add-ons through OpenPlane?

The list of available planes changes on a daily basis as the community but at last count there were something close to 35 new planes available. All the people who've created skins, planes, missions, documentation (add missing element here) deserve a round of applause for the great work they've done. It's really impressive. I can't say that we "expected" the growth we've seen, but we did hope that people would pick up on OpenPlane and run with it. So far, the effort we put into making it open has definitely proved to be worthwhile.

6. Someone mentioned that you are working on a Pacific version of SDOE, is this true? If not, are there any plans for it?

See question 3.

7. Michael, RC Simulator is being developed at your shop. What can you tell us about it?

RC Simulator is just what it's name implies, and then some. We started with the goal of creating a simulator for radio controlled airplanes and added a training section and events. The training section is intended for people new to the hobby and will help them learn the basics, while the events will allow the user to practice their flying skills in a setting similar to what they would find at their flying field. RC Simulator includes ten different aircraft which may be modified by the user (engine, prop, airfoil and balance to name a few ways) and also includes ten different flying fields which range from farmland fields to fantasy oriented fields such as floating stations. We have plans to broaden RC Simulator in the future by adding helicopters and other rc controlled vehicles.

8. Who is the typical SDOE pilot?

He is a godlike individual who enjoys both shooting down his mates and flying WWII planes. In all seriousness, there really isn't a typical pilot. There are a wide range of ages, backgrounds, tastes in planes, etc that all combine to make up what we call the FS community.

9. Can you describe the community that is currently following SDOE?

Boy, that's a hard one. Describe the sound made by an Angel dancing on the head of a pin. :-) Answer 8 I think covers this as well.

Michael Harrison has 22 years experience writing software of one form or another with the last six in the entertainment market. Entertainment credits include designer and senior engineer on Fighter Squadron: Screamin' Demons over Europe, senior engineer on A-10 Cuba!, lead engineer on Qin: Tomb of the Middle Kingdom, supporting engineer on Robot Club, JunkLand Jam and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

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