CarloFabricatore
From AdelphaChronicles
Open letter by Carlo Fabricatore
First of all, sorry guys, but this must be done in English, since my German isn't good at all... Second, the answer to the question posted by Anton is yes, I don't work for Appeal anymore. But that's not quite recent news. I mean, after all, I stopped working for Appeal in February.
Now, my departure was a sad thing for me, because it left a lot of work uncompleted, although the plot of the game was finished indeed, and I think that Outcast 1 fans would have enjoyed it, just like they would have enjoyed the gameplay of Outcast 2 the way we were creating it, in spite of the fact that we were making a PC-PS2 game (something that, apparently, many players feared).
So, what happened? I guess that many of you must have been wondering... As far as I'm concerned, I'm working on a new project. New project, new company, but some old friends, since I work with part of the crew who was creating Outcast 2. Anyway, for the moment I can't anticipate anything about this, although you will hear more about it as soon as possible.
As for Appeal, I saw that there has been a lot of commotion around lately. Well, in first place, after my departure, many people left as well (not just one programmer). Then, the shape of the Outcast 2 project was changed radically. In fact, this "revolution" was one of the main reasons for my departure. Inside Appeal, there were strong divergences regarding what Outcast 2 should have been. Let's just say that I was not in favor of making a too arcade-styled game, something too distant from Outcast 1. Anyway, I was not the one who could make the final decisions, and I prefer not to talk about this any more, because it would make me even more sad.
But then, this lasted only one month, more or less, after which came the "undefined suspension" of the Outcast 2 project. I guess you read a lot about this, and that some of you drew their own conclusion. For those who didn't, know that nowadays Appeal doesn't exist anymore. To be more precise, it exists, but only for as long as it is required by the closure of the bankruptcy process. No rumors, no speculations. Just plain info that everyone can verify. So, I hope that this brief message of mine helps in avoiding misunderstandings and making things clearer to everybody.
To conclude, I'm really sorry for what happened to the Outcast 2 project, and for the fact that nobody will ever know the work that we've done for the 2 years during which I directed the Outcast 2 project. But that's life, and now it's time to move on, to try to make new things capable of satisfying enthusiast players and fans like you. I thank you all for the support and the sympathy that you showed in the past.
Yours,
Carlo Fabricatore
from : http://forum.hardware.fr/hardwarefr/JeuxVideo/Appeal-Outcast-bien-fini-sujet-42118-1.htm on August 17, 2002
source : http://www.outcast2.net/?show=show&id=544
Interview with Carlo Fabricatore - Feb 2001
NB : Carlo Fabricatore is the leader of Appeal design team.
outcastii.net : You have worked on a project about designing self-regulated games in hand-held machines (note from outcastii.net : thoses games are used to teach children the basics in maths and spanish). How did Appeal contact you?
C.F. : Visiting Appeal's web-page I was very positively impressed by the amount of research and technology that they did, but I was also surprised by the fact that there was no R&D in the field of game design. Having spent 4 years doing academic research regarding game design (my Ph.D. dissertation was focused on playability in action games), I decided to contact Appeal. Then I had an e-mail conversation with Yves Grolet, who, after asking me to send him my Thesis and some other writings of mine, made me an offer to take part to the Outcast 2 project. And that's how I become Outcast 2's lead designer and project manager.
outcastii.net : Are there any essential aspects which motivated you to participate into the design of a much wider audience game like Outcast?
C.F. : In first place, I've always been a big fan of adventure games. In second place I think that there are a lot of possibilities to make the genre evolve, by incorporating elements typically belonging to other genres (for instance, strategic thinking and stealth action). In third place, the wide audiences mean a lot of feedback on your design, which is an excellent way to evolve and improve as a game designer. Finally, I was thrilled by the gameplay possibilities offered by the richness of an universe like the one that you're going to see in Outcast 2...
outcastii.net : Are there any influences from you previous project that you will apply to Outcast 2?
C.F. : Certainly! Developing Gameboy games for almost 4 years (that was the target platform of the self-regulated games), I learned to focus on the essential gameplay, without counting on fancy arts, sound and GFXs. When you design a Gameboy game, to be sure that you're on the right way you should be able to play the game in your head, without relying on any external means, and still find the mechanics cool and fun. When you manage to do it, if you can then add to it some cool arts and sounds, you might finally be very well coming up with something quite interesting. And that is the basic approach that my team is following to create Outcast 2's gameplay: focus on simplicity to achieve richness, and create gameplay solutions that are good because of their own essence, and not because of external embellishments.
outcastii.net :The Design departement in Appeal is new. Could you tell us what are its missions and resources (human, material)?
C.F. : Our design team has five members, including myself. Besides me working as lead designer, I've the luck to work with three very skilled game designers (Fabrice Diez, Fabrizio Fabricatore and Samuel Jacques) who are focused on the design of the gameplay and the gameflow. Plus, we have the luck to count on a talented writer (Mathieu Gaborit) who's in charge of the Outcast background and storyline, and of all those details in the setting that are fundamental to create the richness of the adelphian world and the Talan civilization.
Our basic mission is to exploit the richness of the universe of Adelpha in order to create a good gaming experience, in which the player will interact with a living environment, exploring it to learn about it and use it in order to overcome his opposition in very high-pressure survival situations. All of this in order to allow the gamer to play a central role in a deep and dramatic story, determining it's final outcome.
outcastii.net : What impact will it have on the development of Outcast 2?
C.F. : The expertise and the size of the design time allow us to conduct Outcast 2 as a design-driven project. Rather then designing a concept and then merely leave it's implementation to the arts and tech teams, we are going to make the concept grow and evolve gradually until the very end of the project. That means that we really want to take care of the details as much as possible, come up with mature ideas, and exploit all the means made available by the arts and tech teams in order to add more and more richness to the game, yet taking care of the feasibility of the product. We know that good ideas can be implemented in different ways, and we don't want good ideas to be discarded because of implementation issues. That's why we're going to refine and improve the design of the game until it's mature enough to debut, closely following Outcast 2 just as if we were nurturing a baby.
outcastii.net : How do you find Europe and working with Appeal?
C.F. : Well, Belgium is certainly different compared to both Chile (where I lived during the last ten years), and Italy (where I was born and bread). I think it's a very lovely country, with very nice people, even though I must say that the weather around here is very, VERY rainy! About Appeal, well, what can I say. I feel very lucky to be here. The poeple around is great, and I think that we have all that is needed to make something good, really good.
source : http://outcastii.free.fr/www/eng/index_eng.php?url=interview1.html on February 2001
