When I first heard of this game, it was initially called Ozzy's Savage Skies. My first reaction was. . ."Whoa, an Ozzy Osbourne game. . . . I have GOT to see this". Now that I have had a look at the game, the graphics, the gameplay, all I can say is . . . I can't wait.

I think that the we are seeing a trend towards COOL licensing agreements, which result in kick ass games. KISS Psycho Circus did a great job making a really fun game out of a "Rock Star" premise,  So...with a little know how and a lot of work, I am expecting big things from Ozzy's Black Skies. I tracked down the PS2 Programmer for the Project, Paul Rowan, and hammered out a really damn good interview. Check it out....

1.) First things first. . . . Who are you, and what do you do???

My name is Paul Rowan and I am the lead PS2 engineer at iRock Interactive. I was a programmer with MicroProse starting around 1993 or so. Our small team in Chapel Hill, NC ported several of their DOS games to modern platforms like the Macintosh and Windows, most notably, Civilization I, F117a Stealth fighter, and CivNet. Later we grew from our original two employees to around 15 and went on to create XCOM: Interceptor among others.

I started programming in when I was ten. The most consuming games at the time were Star Trek and Adventure on mainframes. If you wanted to play, you pretty much had to write your own games. The advent of microcomputers made it all a lot more rewarding. These days programming is still a passion, but one that's restricted to my work life. At home I enjoy playing guitar, windsurfing, hanging out with my wife and pets, and preparing for our first baby due this summer.

2.) How did you become involved in the Ozzy's Black Skies Project?

When Hasbro Interactive shut our studio down in January, 2000, it became clear that iRock Interactive was, for me, one of the most exciting ventures in the area. I think everyone's known that the music and gaming industry could benefit from each other. Here's a company that's going to do it. Not only that, but, they are embracing the next generation of consoles, which are fast becoming the only platforms you can actually sell products for.

3.) Tell me about the game engine your using on this project. The RFEngine must be a fairly powerful, flexible engine as demonstrated by the ability to make a PS2 port as well as the standard PC/MAC releases.

RFEngine was designed up front to handle multiple platforms. This differs greatly from many projects I have worked on where a platform release is crammed in as an afterthought. This has allowed the PS2 team to get in there and start implementing the PS2 support relatively seamlessly. As always, there are hitches, but they have all been surmountable. Many of our troubles have centered around mundane issues like compiler incompatibilities between platforms and memory constraints, but in the end, it's making us all better engineers. Several sections have been completely rewritten, but as testament to its design, these changes haven't caused the architecture to come tumbling down.

4.) Since you are the PS2 Programmer, what is the biggest challenge for you making a game like this??

One of the primary challenges for all of us working on PS2 titles is the fact that the PS2 is a system in its infancy. Everyone is just getting up to speed. There isn't a huge body of knowledge and tricks that developers have accumulated over the years. Add to that the fact the PS2 represents a groundbreaking paradigm shift in the way we deal with processing data at the hardware level. Assumptions about processing ability or methods for processing data have all changed. This represents a need to restructure software that was not built with these assumptions in mind. This, however, is typical in game development. Last years rules about technology generally do not apply this year.

Unfortunately, the PS2 is getting a bad rap for its groundbreaking nature. Pundits postulate that the machine will meet its demise at the hands of scores of developers that just can't handle it or don't want to bother with it. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have found the PS2 very rewarding to engineer for. It is difficult, to be sure, but the results are very pleasing. We are going to see a lot of great content for the PS2 in the next few years.

5.) I have heard that since the PS2 (as well as X-Box, Dreamcast etc.) are "fixed systems" they are easier to program games for. Meaning without all almost unlimited Video, Sound, O.S. hardware combinations in a PC, the developing of a title is much less daunting. True??

I would have to say that the compatibility testing phase of projects on fixed platforms is less daunting. It is also much easier to make estimates about and decisions regarding performance criteria. If it doesn't work, everyone gets instant feedback. This doesn't make the development any easier, though. Many PC games still make it out the door with only a vague hope of running acceptably on their target machines. If your fixed-platform game doesn't perform, everyone knows and it must be fixed. There are no video-card upgrades or patches possible, it's got to work before you ship, period. That's not even touching upon the fact that the console-market's audience typically is less forgiving of buggy or obscure game flow. As always... Content is everything, and you still have to create a kicking game regardless of platform. Daunting? Yes.

6.) Doing a game based on a Heavy Metal Hero can have it's upsides as well as it's downsides. But as ThirdLaw proved with Kiss Psycho Circus, action CAN take the drivers seat and leave the "Heavy Metal" influence as a cool overtone. How much of an emphasis is being put on action??

Action is important and there will be plenty!, but from reviews I've heard, Kiss fans were a little disappointed not to see more realness to the dynamic foursome in the game. You will / can not miss all the Ozzyness in Black Skies.

7.) People you most admire.

Wow, that's tough. I admire most people who are happy with less. Like Buddhist Monks. I could never be like that.

8.) Please tell me Ozzy hangs out with you guys on a regular basis......Have you met the man??


Okay, Ozzy hangs out with us on a regular basis. Of course, I'm lying. I would like to meet him, though. He has worked with some of the crew here, most notably on the in-game voiceovers and music. They will, however, stick a life-sized cardboard cutout of Ozzy in our office when we've been bad.

9.)Favorite drink??

Seawater after blowing a planing jibe. 

(**interviewers note: Wind Surfer Stuffs**)

10.) Babe of choice?? Everyone has one. . . no holding out.

I can never remember, it changes from week to week. You'd have to ask my wife.

11.) I have read that you are drawing heavily on Ozzy's influence for the game content, what does that mean??

The game world, story and environments are based on Ozzy's career and music. There are all kinds of fantastical gameplay elements that are Ozzy inspired as well as artwork that is created with some classic Ozzy imagery. The game designers and producers have spent a lot of time studying and discussing Ozzy's integration into the game and have really struck on a good balance between kickin' gameplay and the cool Ozzy overtones. We have Ozzy fans that email us regularly. It's great to see the excitement building.

12.) I have always wondered how a programmer MAXIMIZES the visual impact of a game for the console Market?? For all the "Super Powerful Graphics Abilities of <insert console here> we are still talking about graphics that are limited because of a Televisions maximum resolution. (Face it, My GeForce 2 Ultra still looks like ASS at 640 x 480 ;^)

One of the distinct advantages of a fixed platform is the fact that you can guarantee the exact same game experience on every machine. This allows us to custom cater the graphics engine to utilize the hardware to its best. Frequently in PC game development, features must be removed because they do not fit well into the scalable nature of PC graphics hardware. What works and looks great on one machine can bring another to it's knees. What results is usually a pandering to the lowest common denominator or far too many graphics options that confuse the player and subtly change the game experience. Early adopters of the latest and greatest video card may not see any appreciable difference in performance or features because games were written for lower end cards. For fixed-platforms, this is not an issue. If a feature looks good and performs, it stays. Everyone gets to enjoy the same experience.

However, I believe that "MAXIMIZING" the visual impact of a game has more to do with the holistic incorporation of all the game elements. It's not about turning on twiddly features on that card that aren't possible over here, or optimizing scene generation over there to squeeze a few more polys into the scene. Truth be told, most of your audience won't care. They will only see the big picture, and that is a cooperation between art, design, audio, and engineering. The trick is to create a game that is so compelling that we forget that 640x480 looks like ass, because we're going to have to get by with TV resolutions for a while.

But... The next generation of consoles to hit the market are going to show us some things we've never seen before. The PS2 can push some big-time polys down the tube and the programmer has the best access yet to the low-level pipeline that gets them there. The X-Box is boasting similarly huge specs. The truth is, though, they cannot be compared. They embody two entirely different design philosophies about building a machine that puts triangles on the screen. Perhaps the most important question is "Who cares?" The hardware manufacturer wants you to care because it's the only way they can distinguish their system from everyone else's. That's why we're seeing so much numbers hype about PS2 and X-Box. The truth is, the numbers are meaningless when used for comparison. One processor can hand you 800 mega-apples per second but the other gives you 300 mega-oranges. How and where you spend the technology is always a critical issue and we are always doing our best to spend it wisely, but in the end spending too much time on tech can kill you. The fact is, people play games not pixels.

13.) A favorite question of mine. . . what kinda car do you drive?? Are we talking Super Car here or basic transportation rig?

Subaru Outback. It looks a little like a Ferrari if you squint your eyes enough. I did see a nice mini-van the other day, too.

(**mini-van?? He must know Levelord**)

14.) Looking at the industry right now, what do you see on the near horizon??? 

Historically, the industry has cycled through heydays and dry spells. After the initially huge success of the Atari 2600 games, early eighties arcades, and several other platforms, there was a mid to late eighties slump. My theory is that these successes spur a focus on money and technology at the expense of good gameplay. Unfortunately, I think we may be on the brink or in the midst of another such slump. In the early nineties, we saw another surge of game content, but games were a lot cheaper to make back then, and the PC market was more unified.

Now most homes have a PC of some kind, but they're not necessarily gamers. The last several years have boasted an incredible rate of technology improvement. One that I believe has left most people behind. Hell, I'm a developer and still use a 300Mhz PII at home. The desktop PC market flourished several years ago, but most of the purchasers of those machines don't feel the need to upgrade. We are, however, developing games that really only cater to the highest-end platforms. Barring the rare smash hit, most high-end PC games fail to make back the money invested to make them.

Fixed platforms, in my opinion, are the only hope for the gaming industry. We need high-tech machines that won't change for several years at affordable prices. This will allow for a large enough install-base and a consistent enough gaming experience to actually sell products and satisfy the customer. Games now cost many millions of dollars to make, and the sell-through has to make up for those costs, because the price per box hasn't really changed. Additionally, we need to remember that the market may have grown, but the dominant type of gamer has changed. Hard-core gamers (and I'll probably get
lambasted for this) do not make up enough of a customer base to fund the big projects that they demand. The huge surge in platform sales (especially desktop PC's) is due to regular people buying average systems. We need games that everyone can enjoy. I mean no disrespect to the hard-core gamer, just a basic plea for understanding and tolerance of games that may not meet their criteria. The market is making demands on us, the game developers, to change the focus of our content. To survive, we have to adapt. Hell, I'm a flight-sim fan, but we sure don't see many of those around these days do we?

15.) Favorite music??

I'm all over the map. Here's a sample: Art of Noise, Led Zeppelin, Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, Chumbawamba, Chieftains, Ice-T, Kid Rock, Talking Heads, The Cult, Mouth Music, Beck, Neil Young, Beatles, Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld, Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, Jethro Tull, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Tricky, and The Pogues

16.) Since you and me have been friends for years ;^) please tell my readers a little something about you that they may not know.

Sometimes want to throw my PC out the window and become a farmer..

A huge Thanks goes out to Paul for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer a bunch of these burning questions, Also congrats to the Rowans on the news they are expecting a baby this summer!! If you are like me and want to know more about Ozzy's Black Skies. . . .head on over to IROCK Interactive and see what they have cooking. . . . .