Any questions for the President of Epic Games?

Wow! How cool is that!

The only questions I can think of is his take on where the game industry is heading. A lot of contraversy has sparked in the media across the world about the "Hot Coffee" debarcle from Rockstar, and it would be interesting what Dr Capps take on this is, whether its a step back for developing games (especially as most by Epic are directed towards a mature audience) or whether it has been a good example of what responsibilities, if any, game companies have with the general public.

I also wouldn't mind seeing if a R18+ classification would be a good thing for Epic games in Australia :D

I've only just got home and I'm rushing to get some /research and questions done and trying to confirm an interview spot. I'm hoping to get some more questions. That one you have is great, Morphine. Should definately be included.

John Carmack recently commented that physics isn't easily scalable for level of detail, unlike graphics. An object in a game can react with another physics object or it can't. Carmack says this would mean physics accelerated titles enhancing trivial things like flowing water, and not affecting anythhing substantial to the core gameplay. How do you see physics taking part in games in the future, as Epic seems to be embracing Ageia and their Novodex physics engine and PhysX processing unit (the new physics card)..

The popularity of large scale battle games is pretty evident amongst PC gamers. Has Battlefield 2, or even the upcoming Quakewars: Enemy Territory influenced the design decisions for Unreal Tournament 2007? Whereas these latest games concentrate on class based team orientated gameplay, UT2007 sounds like it's heading towards its roots of close in-your-face fragging?

Will write some more. Need some questions on quality of life or next gen development costs (referring to Epics comments that next gen shouldn't be close to 2x the costs) and the Unreal Engine 3.

Ok, you know what, I think we should give the interview a miss. I prefer a bit of time to research some decent questions, and I don't wanna give him some half-assed stuff that he's probably answered/everyones read about multiple times before. The questions above are good, but I need another 13 more like that and within an hour or so, and the interview opportunity really came at a late notice. In anycase, I'm sure I can get an interview at a later date anyway.

Here is a few questions I can think of. Just things I have no idea about but hear when talking to others.

1)
Whilst the game industry continues to grow do you feel that the number of actuall positions within a company will actually fall with all the talk about keeping only a few core team members and shipping all other work overseas to be done cheaper. What impact do you think this will have on the industry as well as the quality of games produced.

2)
With games like Spore coming out next year and more and more demand on "open ended" game play will we see the end of scripted gameplay and linear stories in games?.

Semi-related, last night was a really good evening. Some great stuff shown of Unreal Editor 3 and what it can make (gasps from everyone in the crowd when "2 million polygon characters will be the standard" was said) and 3ds Max 8 will move thousands of copies for the new UV tools. Oh...my...god... Have you ever wanted a button that will just do all that painful UV mapping in one simple click? They've made one. And it's heavenly to watch (once it works properly, to the speaker's dismay *grin*) I can only find still images which do it no justice.

So yeah. Grouse night. Good to catch up with people I'd not seen in awhile, and to meet some new ones. Might see ya all at the max launch on the 27th @:-)

It was great wasnt it Chris! Although, I thought that the Max 8 Launch was on the 23rd? I am probablly wrong though ;/

20 something @:-) Know anywhere with further info on it? DBD and Autodesk's sites don't seem to have any info.

I was talking to Joe (one of the reps from Autodesk) and he said they were going to have it at the Griffith Southbank Conservatorium.

Did you end up doing the interview or give it a miss this time?

A bit off-topic now, but the comment about the pelting in max 8 I can attest to -- I've been playing around with the beta for a while now, and it is really good. However, most of the rest is a big disappointment. Customers of third party software I'll leave un-named will feel ripped off since it's now implemented into max, so your licence is kinda moot. The texporter "replacement" is fairly half-arsed. Really... the only good points that are well implemented is pelting and scene effect shader loader. The rest is feeling like another gaffa tape job, bandaiding problems and expected features.