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Written by Jeff Kang

Unreal will be remembered as a landmark game. Released at a time when Quake engine games were all the rage and the Build engine-spawned games were all but dead, Unreal showed that there could be a successful alternative to the Big Q. With its standard-setting graphics, the game added some color, but more importantly, competition, to the FPS landscape. Unreal also helped Epic make the transition from a small (but successful) developer of shareware games to a major player in the gaming industry. However, what's not widely known is that just out of the limelight has been the company that originally conceived of the game - Digital Extremes. Having played a major role in the development of Unreal and just coming off the recent release of Unreal Tournament, the future looks bright for this independent Canadian developer. Action editor Jeff Kang speaks with James Schmalz, president of Digital Extremes about his company's - where it's come from, and where it's headed.

GDR: Take us back to the beginning - how did Digital Extremes come about?

James: Well, I had always been into games and all through high school I was programming simple games in my spare time. In university I created some more elaborate games that were published by a small publisher. Then in my final year of university I created my most complex game up to that point, Solar Winds. It was published by Epic MegaGames and was successful enough for me to develop games full time. The next game was Epic Pinball, and it was a huge hit. We estimate that it was the 3rd most successful shareware game ever created. Epic Pinball basically funded the startup of Digital Extremes as well as funding a lot of the development of Unreal.

GDR: What do you consider to be your big break? At what point did you realize that you had truly "made it" in the industry?

James: There were two big points. One was finishing Epic Pinball. I was living off of the proceeds of Solar Winds and barely getting by. By government standards I was living in poverty :) Epic Pinball was way more successful than anyone imagined it could be. I went from earning $1200 a month to earning at times almost a hundred times that. It was pretty shocking.

The second point was finishing Unreal, which was my first huge project. We were then competing with the best in the industry and succeeding. At that point you know you have what it takes.

GDR: What is it like being a developer in Canada? With the US, seemingly, the hotbed for FPS development, are there any disadvantages or advantages to be based north of the border?

James: The great thing is the currency exchange rate. When you factor that in, the cost of running a business is significantly less in Canada. Another advantage is that there is a lot of great talent in Canada. On the flip side a lot of that talent is drawn down to the states. In software development, there are not a lot big companies in Canada. Generally, if you are talented, you go to the states. We need good strong software companies here in Canada who can pay the proper salaries to keep people at home.

GDR: Beginning with Solar Winds and Epic Pinball, you have consistently partnered yourself with Epic Games - what is your relationship with them? Do you ever feel that you're working in Epic's shadow?

James: We never had a PR person before and it never concerned us. But now we are starting to see just how little people know about us. No doubt we have greatly assisted in making Epic a big name in the industry. Digital Extremes games account for the top 3 most successful games Epic has been involved in (assuming Unreal Tournament is going to be one of those games). So, we are looking for a PR person to help get the word out about DE and our accomplishments as well as assist in making a big splash with our new game once we are ready to show it.

I'm sure we will still work closely with Epic, but they will be focused on their new technology and we will be focused on our new game.

GDR: You are probably best known for your work on Unreal, what was your role in the development of that game?

James: Well, once I finished Epic Pinball, I wanted to get into 3d programming, so I did a lot of research and began creating what eventually turned into Unreal. So, in the beginning I was doing all coding, much of it in assembly language for speed. Then as Tim [Sweeney] began work on the editor, I focused more on content creation and design. In the end I probably did equal amounts of coding, art and design.

GDR: How about Unreal Tournament?

James: On UT we had more coders, so I did less programming and more work on content. Weapons, characters, effects, skins, design, etc. Since I code and create content, my strength lies in the fact that I can come up with a concept, say the Flak Cannon for example, model it, texture it, animate it, put it in the game, get it working and create the effects for it. It's a very efficient process when one person can do all this.

GDR: For a few years, it seemed that if you looked up "vaporware" in a gamer's dictionary, you'd see Unreal listed under the definition - did you at any point in the game's development lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel?

James: We didn't really lose sight, but it was just a very long tunnel. The last year of development was brutal. It was literally 90 hour work weeks for a year. As for the vaporware title, well it did take a long time to develop, but 1 year of the 4 years of development was me by myself. Another year of it was with a team of 3-4 people. It wasn't until the last year and a half that we had anything close to a full team.

GDR: As a developer, how did you remain focused during a long project like that?

James: It wasn't really hard. There wasn't really a time when we were not excited about the project. There was always new cool stuff happening in the engine and game. Other than the incredibly long work weeks, it was pretty fun although at the end of the project a lot of the guys were really burnt out.

GDR: How different of an experience was UT's short development cycle?

James: It was much better. We had a finished engine (other than the net code) to start from, so we had the game up and running very quickly and there was nothing holding us back from making cool content. This is a much preferred development cycle because (obviously) results happen faster. Even though we were working very hard to finished the game, it wasn't as brutal as the crunch period for Unreal. We were working only 80 hour weeks this time :)

GDR: Who came up with the concept of Unreal Tournament? Was the anouncement of Quake 3: Arena by id a factor at all in this?

James: I swear that we came up with our idea before Q3 was announced. It was originally going to be an addon pack with fixed internet play and support for team bots. Steve Polge came up with the idea for the different modes of play. As we progressed, we decided that the game was so cool we should expand it into a full product. So we took an extra year and made it into UT. I guess that is where some of the confusion on UT being 'late' arose from. We never gave a release date, but we expected it to come out sooner since we originally thought it was going to be an addon.

GDR: Now that Unreal Tournament is out the door, what's next for DE?

James: We are now into full development on our 'Next Big Thing'. It will be by far our most ambitious product. We have a large team of veteran developers, we have the money we need to get the equipment and software we need, and we have planned for 2 years of development. We have everything we need to make a fantastic game.

GDR: Were you surprised that Epic chose Legend to develop Unreal 2?

James: Nope. I was in on the decision to do this. They have a great team put together for this project and with Cliff Bleszinski as Epic's executive producer on the project, you know it's going to kick ass. Cliff has come a long way in the last few years and he knows his stuff. Expect some amazing games to come out of him in the years to come.

GDR: How do you feel about this since Unreal is really your brainchild?

James: The team is good and as long as Cliff keeps on top of it, I know it will be good. I'd be really disappointed to see the Unreal franchise turn into a series of lame sequels.

GDR: What can you tell us about your "Next Big Thing"? Unreal 2 engine perhaps?

James: It will be a First Person Action game, but with very different gameplay than we have created before. For now, 3d Action games are what we love the most but in the future, after our next game, we may shift focus to something else. Certainly at this point, 3d action is where our skills and interests lie.

As for the engine, Epic is highly enhancing the current engine even beyond that is in UT. This is great for licensees who need the engine to remain current and cutting edge in the coming year. It's got some seriously cool features that are being added that we are very excited about.