Interviews

Fury: Interview with Tony Hilliam and Adam Carpenter

WarCry: According to reports out of Australia, the game sold over 100,000 units. For many MMOs, that would be a runaway hit. What were your targets for Fury that made that number force your hand in regards to personnel?

Auran: Fury's sales in Australia have exceeded sales in North America. This is quite impressive given that the North American population is over 10X the size of the Australian population. However, 100k overstates the figures by quite a bit.

WarCry: From a design perspective, what was in your opinion, the single biggest thing that held Fury back from commercial success and if you had a do-over, what would you change?

Auran: There are really two things here and the both contributed equally. First was the lack of advanced planning and design. We didn't have a proper prototype or pre-production phase where the game itself was planned out and we didn't have enough funding to finish the game. As such, only short term planning was done and it was very difficult to develop effective designs in the absence of knowledge that they would be implemented.

The second issue was the difficulty in developing a business model that would support our target market and then when doubts about the profitability in that market began having the strength of conviction to stick that target market. These uncertainties led to often changing decisions after they had been made and a great deal of rework.

WarCry: During a pre-launch interview with us, CEO Tony Hilliam said the game needs roughly 10,000 concurrent players to run at peak efficiency in terms of matchmaking. Unless we are mistaken, this goal has not been achieved. How have you adapted to make sure those that are playing have an enjoyable experience?

Auran: We've pushed back some of our larger plans and instead focused on smaller game types which can generate higher rates of player throughput. In addition, we've made changes to matchmaking which makes groups and team less homogenous while increasing the likelihood that a team's average skill ratings will be more equal.

WarCry: Some of your more vocal players have been disappointed by the changes, which they feel dumb the game down somewhat. What is your reaction to these kinds of assertions?

Auran: Most of the changes we've made have been targeted at making Fury more accessible to a wider spread of players. Fury is a very extreme game with significant amounts of depth. However, the learning curve is quite steep and most people drop out before they are able to understand what the game is. In order to get more player in, the game needs to be made more accessible. Somewhat understandably, the most hardcore players have reacted very poorly and in turn this has generated a lot of press. While a portion of the reaction is due to the changes themselves, another is due to the changes not being explained fully in game as well as an absence of counters within the game. Providing additional feedback and explanations to players, as well as providing additional game play counters are one of our current goals.

WarCry: During the chaos at the time of the layoffs, various reports conflicted on the nature of the compensation those former employees would receive. Can you clarify what actually happened?

Auran: Last Thursday, one of the Auran divisions, Auran Developments Pty. brought in a bankruptcy Administrator as the division was now insolvent and did not have the capital to meet its financial obligations. The Administrator terminated the employment of everyone at the company. All former employees of the company are eligible for Australian government's Geers program which will pay back wages and other unpaid compensation to individuals when the company itself is under Administration and unable to pay them. For anyone who is interested in what the benefits of gears are, the best thing they can do is look as the actual Australian Government's website.

In brief (and copied from the government website) the compensation everyone will receive is:

• unpaid and underpaid wages in the three month period prior to the appointment of the insolvency practitioner
• unpaid annual leave
• unpaid long service leave
• unpaid pay in lieu of notice
• unpaid capped redundancy pay