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By Gunman Central
Published December 1st, 2000
https://web.archive.org/web/20010211233319/http://www.gunmancentral.com/features/articles/20001201_chatlog/index3.html
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Cannel: Briag Legge, Lead Programmer
CyberaciD: Chriz Izatt, Modeller and Animator
HerbF: Herb Flower, President and Lead Designer
hostage: Rodney Houle, Level Designer
ilian: Christopher McArthur, Programmer
Lando_: Renier Banninga, Modeler
_PUG_: Adrian Banninga, Cinematics
soulsounds: Peter Immarco, Sound Effects
tom[gunman]: Tomaz Zagar, Level Designer

<Jeh> The Gunman intro movie was awesome. Where did the idea for it come from and how long did it take to create?

<HerbF> Originally that intro movie was going to be done in-game.  We decided it was going to be too much work that way considering the fancy camera work, so it ended up as a movie. <Cannel> Pug did all of the 3DMax work. 
<Cannel> I was blown away whenever I saw it.  I remember the first time trying to figure out where the movie team was.  Hehe 
<HerbF> Many of the models and landscape, and building textures are in-game stuff that we threw in. 
<_PUG_> the movie took a while cause it was basicaly a 1 man job 
<_PUG_> umm no landscapes. textures yes 
<_PUG_> team? :) hehe 1 man team on that one. cept for some game models used and textures were all from th egame.

<eskimoJOKER> To all Rewolf members: What would you recommend to other mod teams?  I read before that you believed there is too many "chiefs" and "not enuff indians" so to speak.  You guys had a pretty tough job I assume, seeing how wide-spread you were, how did you go about organizing everything?

<HerbF> Its hard to pin that one down, XQ.  It came down to finding people that wouldnt wander off once they had to do some real work 
<Cannel> Right. 
<Cannel> Finding people willing to really be dedicated to a team project isn't easy. 
<CyberaciD> Herb did an extremely good job of organizing the team and getting the most work he could out of us. We would be online a lot of the time to communicate our ideas... 
<_PUG_> yeah lots of mods pop up. mostly one person saying they are putting a team together to do a mod. 
<_PUG_> not many people specialize in doing one thing on a mod 
<_PUG_> everyone wants to have their own mod. 
<HerbF> Everyone on the team learned to think of Gunman as their own project.  We developed a good company culture over the years 
<Cannel> when you are developing a team, be sure that no one individual holds all of the teams work.  Too many teams have died because 1 person disappears. 
<_PUG_> or HDD crashes :) 
<Cannel> Right.  That was a painful lesson for us. 
<CyberaciD> hehe... thats true Pug... 
<Cannel> Don't trust anyones machine.  Or machines.  Or RAID system. 
<CyberaciD> ouch... I remember that day. 
<_PUG_> i blaim dust 
<CyberaciD> Its hard to take out anger on dust though... hmph. 
<CyberaciD> :o(

<Jeh> do you guy have any plans to expand the multiplayer aspect of the game? 

<Cannel> We do.  We aren't at the point yet where we can announce what oure plans are, but that is definitely one of our priorities. 
<HerbF> We're working on ideas.  We've already got some great ones, actually. We're testing the ideas to see if they're doable 
<Cannel> If Valve and Sierra are willing, we could like to allow mod support.  We started out as one, and to us, it would be fitting if people could make mods with Gunman. 
<HerbF> We're just now recovering from crunch mode, you must understand.  I've been a zombie for about 2 weeks straight.  Its hard to get back into things quite so fast

<Frightener> When can we expect a Gunman Chronicles demo, and will it feature new content (ex: the Half-Life demo)?

<_PUG_> heh took me while to wanne look at my pc again 
<CyberaciD> Hey Lando :o) 
<Lando_> Ello 
<Cannel> Herb is the best to answer that one. 
<HerbF> The demo.  I'm working on that.  We're going to base it on existing levels but with a lot of changes too.  
<Cannel> So yes, that is a confirmation that there is one in the works.  We just want to do the demo right and do the Gunman justice.  Too many demos recently have reflected poorly on what was a good dame. 
<Cannel> game 
<HerbF> Yeah, this is true Cannel

<Wadmaasi> Entire team: Once the decision was made to go retail with Sierra's backing and blessing, why were some "TC elements" (remnants of Half-Life) retained?

<Cannel> Can you get an example of that? 
<XQ> he mentioned sounds 
<soulsounds> still need an example 
<CyberaciD> I thought we completely re-created the sounds ... we did right? ... 
<Cannel> We came close. 
<soulsounds> we missed about 3, but 99% 
<_PUG_> yup

<Wadmaasi> Weapon and ammo pickup sounds, alien blood spatters, etc.

<HerbF> Some HL sounds were dumped in just in case we had used one and hadnt tracked it down.  Though they may be in the sound dir, they're not likely used.  
<hostage> I think the some half-life sounds were shipped with the game, but I'm not sure if we used them in levels in the game 
<Cannel> The bloodspats were new actually. 
<soulsounds> Did you hear them or just see them on the disk/pak file? 
<Lando_> the weapon sounds ammo pickups and blood splatters sounds where replaced if i remeber right 
<_PUG_> yes they were 
<CyberaciD> yeah thats what I thought... 
<Cannel> We DID have some elements of HL still in the game. 
<Cannel> We had set ourselves up to finish the game as a TC about the time we ended up releasing it commercially.

<Jeh> What was it like to all meet for the final crunch mode in Seattle? Had you all met before at any time?

<CyberaciD> We still haven't all met yet... 
<HerbF> We saw eachother a lot at E3 and mod expos etc. 
<Cannel> While we did have time to fix and replace things that didn't fit well enough with it as a commercial project, we didn't have time to go back through every sound file unfortunately. 
<Lando_> most of us met at E3 this year also :) 
<_PUG_> well a lot of us met for the 1st time at E3 
<tom[gunman]> i havent seen anyone in person yet .. just pictures :) 
<Cannel> It was cool at first, then stressing.  Its hard living and working with the same people for 3 months solid with no real breaks. 
<_PUG_> yup 
<Cannel> I think for those 3 months we averaged 14 hour days, 7 days a week. 
<CyberaciD> yeah hehe - and some funny pictures they were eh Herb? 
<_PUG_> luckily i didn't kill my brother or boss :) 
<CyberaciD> hehe... 
<soulsounds> yeah thankfully we only lost 2 team members to gunfire 
<CyberaciD> arf arf. 
<Cannel> I still find it amazing that there weren't any significant personality conflicts on the team.  We were very lucky that way. 
<_PUG_> yeah we all fit in well together

<CableCow> what was your favorite part to work on in gunman?

<CyberaciD> hehe my favourite part was building and animating the Critter Gib main torso hehe... and I think its high on SS sound list too. 
<_PUG_> mine was the movie :) what i alwayes wanted to do 
<HerbF> My favorite part of the game to work on is:  Textures and model skins.  Especially the boss monsters 
<Cannel> Seeing that the amazing artists were pilling of was definitely my favorite.  And seeing what new innovative uses Chris had in store for the TriangleAPI. 
<_PUG_> yeah chris could do some cool stuff with th etriangle API 
<Lando_> now that was fun doing new FX with the traingle API was fun hehe 
<tom[gunman]> AI girl is my favorite :) 
<_PUG_> i am so proud of some of my sprites hehehe 
<CyberaciD> hehe. 
<_PUG_> lol ren had to fight to get his girl in :)
<CyberaciD> hehe - ren and his girls ... 
<soulsounds> fortunately the retail customers never saw the AI girl with a deep male voice
<_PUG_> lol 
<CyberaciD> heheh.

<Apache> Sorry if I missed this before, but will there be a demo, and when will it be released?

<HerbF> Apache:  Yes, there will be one.  Released "soon" 
<_PUG_> yes there will, release pending  
<Apache> okie, thanks 

<LadyICE> One of my favorite parts of the game was wheeling around in the tank; was its inclusion planned from the beginning, or did the thought to include it come later?

<_PUG_> from the beginning 
<Cannel> The tank was actually 'done' for Quake2 originally. 
<soulsounds> Hi LadyICE 
<CyberaciD> I think we always had plans for the tank... 
<CyberaciD> we had plans for a HORSE at one stage if I remember correctly? 
<Cannel> We first were going to do a direct port to the Half-Life engine with it. 
<HerbF> The tank is something we've had working since the Quake2 days. 
<Lando_> I had to work double the time to get my other stuff done and also get time to finish the AI queen :) 
<Cannel> Then we realized how much farther we could take it for Half-Life. This version is much much better than the old Q2 one. 
<Cannel> It always has been a feature we focused on. 
<_PUG_> yup

<XQ> There have been several questions about the sheer number of screenshots released, would you care to comment?

<HerbF> Gunman is very "photogenic" I guess. 
<Cannel> When we first started, way back when we were just getting going, we were use to pumping out screenshots to get attention and to attract others to work on the game 
<Cannel> Once we had a solid team and things were coming along, we stoped the and tried to focus on just working. 
<Cannel> Getting good screenshots take time. 
<Cannel> The last month or so before our release, a few net game sites managed to get ahold of a demo and took some pictures themselves. 
<_PUG_> yeah a lot of those came out 
<Cannel> Some of those weren't that great and didn't reflect the game very well. 
<CyberaciD> Yeah - with a lot of unfinished model texture work - like the hand and stuff... ack. 
<Cannel> Those tended to be 'this is the wall of something.  notice .. it is grey' type pictures. 
<CyberaciD> hehe yup. 
<Cannel> Thats where a lot of the flood came from. 
<_PUG_> everyne had to take one of the renesaur 
<Cannel> The pictures that we did were done careful.

<Jeh> The weapon customization was a great feature. Who came up with this idea, and was it tough balancing the options so that each weapons had a use at some point?

<HerbF> The original idea was mine, and Chris (ilian) did most of the code work.  
<Cannel> I had been working on a mod previously when I joined rewolf that was focused on guns which.. the player built. 
<Cannel> If anyone remembers a old Q1 paintball mod.. that was a bit of the inspiration for that other mod I was doing. 
<Lando_> I was not a happy camper whent hey took screenshots of the unfinished weapon models 
<Cannel> Herb came up with the idea a bit later on his own and proposed it.  
<CyberaciD> yeah I bet Lando - 
<Cannel> It fit very well, since we had some ideas about how to do it alreayd from previous work. 
<CyberaciD> I was like... erm hold on - that is a little unfinished eh? 
<Cannel> Chris spend ages on balancing it and trying to make sure everything was useful.  It wasn't a trivial matter. 
<HerbF> We had some even wierder gun designs in the past, like a bug-gun with bugs that could "learn" the more you used them.  Its customizing was done by training and genetic stuff.  It was too wacky though so we dropped that one  

<Frightener> Are there any plans to implement Parametric Animation in a future patch?

<Cannel> Thats unknown at this time. 
<HerbF> No.  That animation system isnt as useful as you'd think for a single-player game 
<Cannel> Our multplayer component is still so deep in development and design that its hard to say how useful it would be, but if it is, we will be talking with Valve about the possibilities. 
<Lando_> well i talked to the Valve guys when we where there. Its alot of work but it looks good in the end 
<ilian> Thats a good idea.

<eskimoJOKER> Having been a part of a couple mod teams myself, I found it hard in many aspects organization and development wise.   Would you consider making a Chronicle, if you will, of your Development of Gunman describing your development obsticles and how you delt with them for the Mod community?

<soulsounds> I think he wants a Game Developer Post-Mortem 
<_PUG_> i think a lot hangs on how dedicated everyone is to the mod. how willin gpeople are to work the hours and stay with it 
<HerbF> Yeah.  It would take a while to write that one up. 
<_PUG_> ages 
<CyberaciD> Yeah - I think we have achieved an amazing thing... I mean making a GOOD game in a well funded studio is hard enough... 
<Cannel> I am willing.  ; ) 
<Cannel> I would love to share in greater detail than is possible here in chat how we managed as we did. 
<_PUG_> programmers like typing miles of text canal :P 
<CyberaciD> yeah... 
<soulsounds> haha 
<Cannel> It wasn't easy.  And we went though a lot of people. 
<CyberaciD> arf arf PUG 
<Cannel> Thats the basic part. 
<_PUG_> heh 
<CyberaciD> hehe. 
<Cannel> Over time, we probably have had over 100 people working with Rewolf.  Very few stuck around long enough for a variety of reasons. 
<Cannel> So .. those who did finished.  
<soulsounds> couldn't stand the stellar salaries :) 
<_PUG_> yup like basements 
<HerbF> 100 is a bit high probably.  :o) 
<Cannel> Its all about finding dedicated people willing to work at something for a long time and willing to trust others. 
<Cannel> How many sound guys Herb? 
<CyberaciD> Yeah - I found it very hard to keep up with school, I think a few people dropped out of college... 
<Cannel> Heh.  Yeah. 
<_PUG_> or moved all over the globe :P

<Butters> how old are you all?

<tom[gunman]> 21 
<CyberaciD> hehehe yeah you crazy banninga's 
<Cannel> I am 20. 
<CyberaciD> hehe :o) 
<hostage> 19 
<ilian> Twenty 
<CyberaciD> I'm 16 
<_PUG_> heh 
<_PUG_> 23 
<HerbF> almost 29 
<CyberaciD> I'm the baby. 
<soulsounds> anyone tells mine gets shot 
<CyberaciD> hehehhe. 
<HerbF> SS is an old fart 
<Lando_> 20 
<Cannel> Come on SS, admit it.  ;) 
<_PUG_> herbs anchient SS is dead 
<CyberaciD> the scary thing SS, is that your not joking :o) 
<_PUG_> lol 
<soulsounds> you're are all deathmatch fodder to me 
<CyberaciD> arf arf. 
<Lando_> well 19 but 20 in a month 
<Cannel> Another fair question is where is everyone here from. 
<Lando_> hehe 
<Cannel> Castro Valley California 
<_PUG_> you meen originaly or right now? :) 
<CyberaciD> Surrey - UK 
<soulsounds> yeah with pug and lando that's a long list 
<_PUG_> yeah 
<CyberaciD> hehe. 
<tom[gunman]> Slovenia / Europe :) 
<CyberaciD> just say Earth. 
<HerbF> Utah 
<Lando_> yup we have globe trottet like crazy 
<_PUG_> yeah 
<CyberaciD> I remember how ICQ always got messed up with Lando hehe... because he was on a BOAT. 
<_PUG_> and stole MY PUG nick 
<CyberaciD> yeah hehhe. 
<CyberaciD> I remember when PUG kicked you off hehe.

<DarkSea> Question: When you knew Gunman: Chronicles would go commercial, what new features did you add to the game to spice things up?

<soulsounds> sound 
<CyberaciD> yeah sound was really improved... 
<HerbF> We improved the special effects for the weapons quite a lot. 
<_PUG_> and lots of fx 
<Cannel> For the most part, the games design was complete and didn't change.  The quality really improved though. 
<soulsounds> I was kidding cyber 
<_PUG_> some models wer ereplaced with better ones with new skins 
<HerbF> Increased the scripting 
<CyberaciD> no it was man - 
<Cannel> Most of the maps ended up getting redone in the final months 
<Cannel> MUCH more scripting. 
<_PUG_> yeah lots of map changes 
<CyberaciD> I remember - we didn't really have a Sound Guy... 
<Lando_> lots and lots more scripting 
<CyberaciD> it was just lots of people doing bits and bobs. 
<soulsounds> yes we did, blevo did a great job, just ran out of time 
<Cannel> And a lot of polish. 
<HerbF> We added the tube-queen (onion monster or turkey xenome to everyone else)

<XQ> Did you have any reservations about going commercial?

<CyberaciD> yeah and Lando reworked just about every model he could lay his hands on hehe... 
<CyberaciD> Sorry! I forgot BLEVO! 
<_PUG_> it was what we had all hoped of doing from the very beginning 
<HerbF> We wanted to go commercial.  But it was a BIG responsability.  
<Cannel> No reservations, just resolve to work even harder on it to get it done right. 

<eskimoJOKER> Well, it's pretty amazing that you guys accomplished this!  Do you have any thoughts whatsoever what kind of projects you'd like to work on next?  Perhaps another space-themed shooter, or Gunman 2? 

<HerbF> We're working on ideas for another game 
<_PUG_> yeah ideas in the works 
<Cannel> Right now our focus is on supporting Gunman. 
<HerbF> Cannel's right. 
<Cannel> Thats definitely whats most importand to us. 
<CyberaciD> Yeah we need to see GUNMAN through ... 
<CyberaciD> Support it as much as we can - as Valve have done to HL.

<Jeh> Having so many people scattered across the globe, it reminds me of Epic when they were developing Unreal. Would you do this again, or would you want everyone in a centralized place for your next project?

<_PUG_> well some of us can't move to a central location 
<_PUG_> but we have been lucky to learn how to work online and still get work done 
<HerbF> We'll centralize people where we can.  Its not easy to pull people in from overseas with all the laws about it 
<CyberaciD> Yes... 
<CyberaciD> I think we would all like to work in the same building... 
<Cannel> Our goal is to centralize as much as we can.  Because of how multinational we are, we couldn't fully.  We do know now though how much more productive we are as individuals when we are all working together in the same location. 
<_PUG_> there may be a few rwolf bases round the globe :) 
<Lando_> work visas are like finding lost treasure :) 
<_PUG_> lol yeah 
<_PUG_> rewolf bases 
<CyberaciD> Yeah Pug hehe... 
<CyberaciD> I'll be camping at yours for awhile :o) 
<_PUG_> heh

<Mxx> who do you think if your biggest competition right now?

<soulsounds> consoles 
<HerbF> Thats a good question 
<_PUG_> yeah consoles 
<HerbF> The SIMS hehehe 
<_PUG_> the pc market is real small. and the 3d shooter market is one of the very small pieces of that market 
<_PUG_> lol the sims 
<CyberaciD> I think the X - Box is really going to change things... 
<CyberaciD> arf arf. 
<Cannel> There isn't much out right now like Gunman.  Its more of a pure action game than say, Hitman.  I am not too worried about competition. 

<LadyICE> Will there be a patch released to fix up some of the little bugs; and if so...about when can we expect it?

<_PUG_> yeah we ar emore a atraight hop in de stressify yourself action game 
<Cannel> We are still looking at issues that we will want to patch.  Once we are comfortable with what we have found, we can establish a timeline. 
<CyberaciD> are you talking with a strong afrikaanse accent PUG? 
<Cannel> We aren't quite there yet.

*MODERATION ENDS*

<HerbF> Well, goodnight everyone.  It was fun seeing such a full room!  I've got to go grab dinner and get back to work on the demo stuff.  
<CyberaciD> :o) 
<_PUG_> bah it's late so my typing suffers :P 
<Lando_> anyway been a nice chat but i have to go CYA all :) 
<_PUG_> cya herb 
<CyberaciD> hehehe. 
<HerbF> Yeah.  Some of the team is up WAY late 
<CyberaciD> 1:45am 
<Butters> bye everyone 
<Cannel> Thanks everyone for your support. 
<_PUG_> 2:39 here am 
<CyberaciD> hmph I start work soon 
<Jeh> thanks guy! 
<Butters> thanks for the great interview 
<Frightener> See ya. 
<Win2kman> bye! 
<CyberaciD> thx

<CableCow> Cyberacid your really only 16? 
<CyberaciD> yes 16.
<Cannel> And good luck to everone there working on mods. Keep at it; it will be worth it in the end.
<CyberaciD> Yeah stick to your MOD's - you will prevail! :o)
<CableCow> im a 17 year old bum modeler/animator :P too bad i got nothen to do
<Jeh> CyberaciD: where in the UK?
<CyberaciD> In Camberley - in Surrey.
<CyberaciD> 14 when I started.

<Win2kman> You guys releasing an FGD or an SDK or somethingof the sort?
<hostage> I think the FGD is on the Gunman CD
<Win2kman> Really? Where?
<hostage> look for /gunman/rewolf/halflife.fgd

<CableCow> Cyberacid any tips for modelers here?
<CyberaciD> Well I learnt all I learnt from just practising all I knew until I got it right.
<CyberaciD> and from asking questions when I got stuck.

<eskimoJOKER> What do you think of Counter-Strike? I remember the competition topic came up, you think CS is any competition on the market, and/or in actual play?
<_PUG_> we are aimed at single player. cs is multy.
<HerbF> Oh if counterstrike is competition, then its friendly competition. We like the CS guys and the valve guys who helped on it.
<CyberaciD> CS - its a LOT of fun to play... 
<_PUG_> yup :)

<eskimoJOKER> btw, is there a soundtrack for Gunman?
<ilian> yes
<eskimoJOKER> who made it?
<_PUG_> a couple of people :)
<Win2kman> The music rocks

<Bulk> Grr, when is Gunman out in the UK?
<CyberaciD> Sierra told me GUNMAN would be out EARLY December.

<phlypsyde> is it possible to copy the rewolf folder from gunman into my half life dir and delete the rewolf folder? (seems like a redundant waste of space for the same engine)
<^NoLaN^> you could stick the /gunman/rewolf folder into /halflife/rewolf and it'd work
<_PUG_> won't get the movie that way :P