Battlestations: Midway producer talks of multiplayer modes and research

Eidos Interactive's World War II game, Battlestations: Midway is gearing up for a US release tomorrow, while the rest of the world will get it on February 9 (Europe) and February 28 (Australia). IGN Australia recently sat down and chatted with the game's producer Klaude Thomas. Basically, he talked about the amount of research they did to replicate real WWII battles and just how hard is it to develop a game like Battlestations.

He divulges that the research was done in the entire development process and they relied on videos, photos, and even original blueprints with permission from the National Maritime Museum. Now that the research part is covered, he was then asked about the challenges they had to face to create this game, he says that:

Creating an interface (including the control system) which fit seamlessly into the game and empowered players to give and set advanced tactical commands quickly and effectively was difficult. To make that work across all the different situations and unit types in a way that probably now seems simple and obvious was hard work.

He also mentions that the coolest gameplay experience that they had during development was to "to play the multiplayer mode first with four players. It was very exciting to see the game moving and alive, and also we had fun shooting at each other and trying to avoid torpedo swarms." Hopefully, future players of the game would also have fun with the multiplayer mode.

As for what's next in the series, this is what Klaude revealed:

We'd love to add more content and historical detail in the sequels, for example experimental (but real) craft, early jets and rockets, submarine-launched aircraft (and Cruiser launched FBs), interesting and forgotten battles, and of course we would like to introduce new theatres of operation...We also wanted to see the biggest US warship, the Iowa, match-up against YamatoÂ…

For the word-per-word account of the interview, click on our read link below.

Eidos Interactive's World War II game, Battlestations: Midway is gearing up for a US release tomorrow, while the rest of the world will get it on February 9 (Europe) and February 28 (Australia). IGN Australia recently sat down and chatted with the game's producer Klaude Thomas. Basically, he talked about the amount of research they did to replicate real WWII battles and just how hard is it to develop a game like Battlestations.

He divulges that the research was done in the entire development process and they relied on videos, photos, and even original blueprints with permission from the National Maritime Museum. Now that the research part is covered, he was then asked about the challenges they had to face to create this game, he says that:

Creating an interface (including the control system) which fit seamlessly into the game and empowered players to give and set advanced tactical commands quickly and effectively was difficult. To make that work across all the different situations and unit types in a way that probably now seems simple and obvious was hard work.

He also mentions that the coolest gameplay experience that they had during development was to "to play the multiplayer mode first with four players. It was very exciting to see the game moving and alive, and also we had fun shooting at each other and trying to avoid torpedo swarms." Hopefully, future players of the game would also have fun with the multiplayer mode.

As for what's next in the series, this is what Klaude revealed:

We'd love to add more content and historical detail in the sequels, for example experimental (but real) craft, early jets and rockets, submarine-launched aircraft (and Cruiser launched FBs), interesting and forgotten battles, and of course we would like to introduce new theatres of operation...We also wanted to see the biggest US warship, the Iowa, match-up against YamatoÂ…

For the word-per-word account of the interview, click on our read link below.