Takuto: переводы

→Yavuz: The mods and the mod community. Mount&Blade has arguably some of the best mods developed for a computer game. Of course the mods are not our own doing, but seeing all that creativity and energy, and feeling ourselves as a part of that is a wonderful thing.

→RPS: And related to that, what are you most proud about the game?

→Yavuz: It took us several years to come up with the first commercial beta version that we offered to the players. Until that time we were very concerned that all of this would not work and we would have to close the shop and go do something else to earn our living. But after creating that first version we put a few messages on some boards and started to see what would happen. The first day or so nothing much happened, but then news of the game started to go like wildfire through lots of forums on the internet. The players were blissfully supportive and lots of people seemed to enjoy the game a lot, and we kind of realised, “Yes, this may actually work!”

→RPS: Was there a moment when you were developing where you suddenly realised “Oh wow! This is actually going to work!”?

→Yavuz: We like the feeling that we are in charge of our own destiny in a game. In a typical, fixed storyline game, you will go through the game and at the end, you may feel that it was a good story. But still, you know that it was the story every other player experienced. There was nothing really special with your experience. But with a well designed freeform game, you will know that all the challenges you faced, all the interesting game moments were unique to you. When you finish the game, you will know that your game experience was your own doing, and you went through your own personal story. Nothing beats that feeling.

→RPS: Freeform open world games are one of the major themes of the last five years. But Mount & Blade kind of shows how much many of those games are really on rails, in terms of the things you can do as a player. What is it about the more open approach which appeals to you?

→Yavuz: When we first tried to pitch Mount & Blade to several publishers, we weren’t having much luck at all, so we decided to try to continue development by allowing consumers to download the most recent version of the beta and pay us for that content. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the game really caught on, and we developed a wonderful fan base early on that spread the word about Mount & Blade and kept us going until we were fortunate enough to get publishing assistance from Paradox Interactive. This system may not work for everyone, but some independent developers who have difficulty partnering with a larger publisher may find that the best way to get their game “out there” is to deliver it directly to the fans, even if it’s a first look at a game that is still in development.

→RPS: You’ve used an unusual model to support development - the paying for access to the full beta, with that allowing you to play the final version. How has that worked for you? Was it enough to fund development entirely or are you going to still require it to be a big hit now? Would you use it again or recommend it to other developers?

→Yavuz: I would say that many Turkish gamers tend to favor PC-based gaming, although consoles are catching up in recent years. I guess we are closer to Europe than we are to US in that regard. Also gamers in Turkey tend to prefer multiplayer games over other types. All in all we probably aren’t very different from most other countries.

→RPS: Could you talk a little about Turkey as a gaming country. What’s it like? I’m a British writer, but generally speaking, I feel in the games press the American cultural position is kind of assumed to be the default one. What’s the differences? What’s notable about it?

→Yavuz: As I mentioned before, we were very much influenced by the feel of Sid Meier’s Pirates!, along with other games such as Darklands, The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, Elite 2, and older Koei strategy games like Ghengis Khan. Each of those games does certain things very well, but we are especially fond of having lots of freedom and replayability.

→RPS: What sort of games inspired you as creators? And linked to that, why did you decide to create games anyway? What do you love about them?

→But Mr. Chen did not achieve this success by safely climbing the ladder that leads from game tester to executive producer. He did it by having a strong artistic vision and the courage to create things out of the ordinary. If games ever become a mature medium, it will be thanks to the likes of him.

→Jenova Chen became world famous over night when he released Cloud. A student project followed quickly by another one, a small webgame called flOw. Almost before graduating from game design school, he and his team were picked up by Sony and signed a contract for 3 Playstation Network games. The first one of those, flOw, quickly became the best selling game on that network. The next one, Flower, is in the works. A success story to make any wanna-break-into-the-games-industry-so-badly green with envy.

→Last year a little Japanese freeware game called Doukutsu Monotagari ("Cave Story") took the internet by storm. Doukutsu is a 2D non-linear platformer in the vein of console classics like Metroid and Castlevania. With finely-tuned gameplay and great graphics and sound, this gaming gem boasted a kind of polish that is rare in commercially-developed games, let alone a freeware title. With the help of an English translation patch (developed by rom-hacking heroes AGTP), Doukutsu quickly became cemented in indie gaming lore.

→I've attached the picture, of course. The caption reads, 'The 26-year-old programmer commuting to work. 10 minutes by bike, standing the whole way.'"

→And here's the picture he attached:

→Also, I'll attach a pixel-art portrait I drew a while back. You're welcome to use it if it'll come in handy.

→My legs are short. I have a rounded back and sloping shoulders. My clothing is almost never fashionable. I wear tights in the winter. I recently bought glasses for the first time.

→Height: 166 cm (5 feet 5 inches)
Weight: 56 Kg (124 lb)