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by
Stuart Denman
Gamasutra
April 18, 2000
This
article originally appeared in the
March 2000 issue of:
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 Features
Onward to the Next Projects
Drakan’s
development was a bumpy ride, but it went suitably well considering
it was the first game developed by an inexperienced team. Even with
some of the schedule slips that occurred, the great design, art, and
programming kept the project going strong. Drakan has been a
great learning experience for the team, and the careful evaluation of
our past mistakes has helped us in the development of our current projects.
Drakan was recently named PC Game of the Year by several popular
magazines, and it has sold very well. If Drakan showcases what
this team is capable of in our first project, it will be very exciting
to see what we are capable of in the future.
Stuart
Denman was the lead programmer on Drakan and is a co-founder
of Surreal Software. This was his first “real” job following four years
as a student of computer engineering at the University of Washington.
After scouting around Europe on a post-Drakan vacation, he is
currently back at work developing Surreal’s next 3D engine technology.
He can be reached at stu (at) surreal (dot) com.
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The
Drakan team: Front row, from left to right: Satish Bhatti (network
programmer), Tim Ebling (programmer), Todd Andersen (designer),
Susan Jessup (artist), Louise Smith (artist/animator), Andre Maguire
(designer), Mel Guymon (lead animator), Tom Vykruta (programmer).
Middle
row: Shaun Leach (programmer), Armen Levonian (programmer), John
Whitmore (designer), Greg Alt (programmer), Heron Prior (animator),
Tom Byrne (artist).
Back
row: Stuart Denman (lead programmer), Scott Cummings (animator),
Boyd Post (sound engineer), Alan Patmore (lead designer), Hugh
Jamieson (character artist), Mike Nichols (lead artist), Hans
Piwenitzky (artist), John McWilliams (designer), Nick Radovich
(business/sound).
Not
pictured: Joe Olson (artist), Duncan (designer), Isaac Barry (designer),
Ben Olson (artist).
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Draken:
Order of the Flame
Surreal
Software Inc.
Seattle, Wash.
(206) 587-0505
http://www.surreal.com
Release
date: August 1999
Intended
platform: Windows 95/98
Project
budget: $2.5 million
Project
length: 28 months
Team
size: 23 full-time developers, 2 sound and music contractors
Critical
development hardware: Pentium II and AMD K6-2 (3DNow!), 200
to 450MHz, 128MB RAM with Nvidia Riva 128 and TNT, 3dfx Voodoo
2 3D hardware. Artist workstations: Wacom tablets.
Critical
development software: Windows software, Programming software:
Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 and 6.0, Visual SourceSafe 5.0, Intel
VTune 2.5, InstallShield International 5.0. Art and animation
software: Softimage, 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photoshop, In-house
modeling and texturing tools. Sound and music: Sonic Foundry Soundforge,
Emagic Logic Audio
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