Greg Gregory Fulton
Fanstratics Game Director & Designer
 ***** Heroes of Might and Magic III ***** 1. What do you think is the best element/part of Heroes 3 which put it on the strategy classic status? Everything in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (HoMM3) works in concert (design, programming, art, sound, and music), and because it works in concert, it’s impossible to select a ‘best’ element. I can however, pick a personal favorite... Battlefield Combat. Almost everything in the game distills down to Battlefield Combat, and if Battlefield Combat wasn’t fun and engaging... the game would falter. 2. What was the hardest part of developing Heroes 3? As a Lead Game Designer, you have your fingers in everyone’s respective pie: production, programming, art, sound, and marketing. You must render your own work, then clarify it for others who want or need something from you... almost every day. If you can’t responsibly handle the daily onslaught of required multitasking, you will be overwhelmed and probably replaced. 3. Do you think that Heroes 1-2-3 was an evolution of the same type of gameplay? Heroes 1 was the start and 3 was the refined, upgraded, enhanced version of that gameplay? Absolutely. HoMM2 was an evolution of HoMM1, as HoMM3 was an evolution of HoMM2. 4. Concerning balance issues on Units, or between the factions power and strength, between the creatures. Do you think is there any balance issue still in H3? As for HoMM3, in its current state, does it have any balance issues? Of course. As to curbing any balance issues... it would be incredibly difficult to do at this stage. For ten years, StarCraft 2 dedicated a full team to game balance. Despite continual adjustments derived from testing unit stats, map balance, and analytics gleaned ongoing amateur and professional multiplayer games... players still complain about game balance. Game balance is difficult, and for the game developer, it’s really a ‘no win situation’. In the end, you simply do the best you can. Thankfully, and what is interesting to me, is how HoMM3 online players have naturally adapted their overall competitive play to cope with these imbalances 5. After Heroes 3 there were many failing Heroes game. But what features would you use from them in a similar Heroes-like game and what you would erase? I’m going to politely decline to answer this question. Addressing this subject is effectively discussing Fanstratics (FST), and there are specifics I would like to avoid until much later. 6a. What is your opinion about the bankruptcy of 3DO? Why was it that happened? Overall, 3DO went into bankruptcy because it was poorly managed. Specifically, 3DO went into bankruptcy because it created a lot of low quality games no one wanted to buy. 3DO thought all you had to do was create product, put it on the retail shelf, advertise it, and enough of it would sell. Giving the customer a good reason to buy the product, never seemed to be part of the formula. Not once did I ever hear any 3DO executive talk about making ‘fun’ games. Not once did I encounter any 3DO executive who asked, “What have you been playing?” All the people in 3DO upper management were not gamers. They were all widget salesmen who thought ‘franchise’ was the same thing as ‘fun’. Don’t misunderstand me, you don’t need to be a gamer to create and run a successful video game company, but you do need to understand when you are not a gamer... and staff accordingly. 6b. How did the 3DO bankruptcy affect Heroes 4 development? It is my understanding, what happened with 3DO did not directly affect HoMM4, but keep this in mind, my knowledge of HoMM4’s development is second hand at best. Aside from the team losing three of the HoMM3 leads (myself, John Bolton, and Phelan Sykes), I have heard through the grapevine, the team did not get much needed resources, and there was persistent in fighting regarding a number of subjects. How 3DO indirectly damaged HoMM, was in how it directly damaged New World Computing (NWC). Soon after acquiring NWC, 3DO began pushing a ‘franchise’ model of game development. This should not be a surprise to many, as most of 3DO was composed of former Electronic Arts (EA) personnel. EA, under Tripp Hawkins, created the ‘Madden model’. For those who don’t know, to this day, EA makes most of its money from yearly sports games. This all started when EA began making yearly Madden football games for consoles. For sports games, the Madden model makes sense. For non-sports games, the Madden model can quickly lead to franchise fatigue, and an emphasis on quantity over quality. 7. There were some concept arts about NWC’s Heroes 5 in 2003. Can you tell us something about it? (There were also a Nival Heroes 6 but it was stopped in 2008) Unfortunately, I know nothing about New World Computing’s attempt at making HoMM5. 8. What is your opinion and experience about Heroes 3 HOTA mod? It’s wonderful. HotA and the HD Mod effectively introduced HoMM3 to several new generations of gamers.  ***** FANSTRATICS ***** 9. What are the main differences in general, and what are the main similarities, with Heroes series (or with H3)? This is a big question, on a very broad topic. To properly answer it would require three or four pages of brief descriptions and bullet points. In general, I would say this... On the fundamental details, Fanstratics (FST) and HoMM3 are very similar; Adventure Map, Cityscape, Battlefield, etc. On the surface details, FST and HoMM3 are very different; lore, art, sound, music, etc. A spiritual successor takes inspiration from... while taking the place of... a predecessor. Hopefully, if a careful balance of the major and minor elements is accomplished, a true ‘spiritual successor’ will be born. 10. Will there be many kind and type of creatures, heroes, skills, etc. in this new game? As FST is a ‘spiritual successor’ to HoMM3, many of the Heroes, Troops, Skills, etc., are mirrored in one form or another. This being said, I have also made many evolutionary changes. I many respects, FST is as much a ‘spiritual sequel’ as it is a spiritual successor. 11. Will the Heroes would fight on battlefield or no or perhaps something new mechanic can use on the battlefields? Heroes will not fight on the battlefield. 12. How you will use the new 3D engine that can cause the map a 2D look alike? As similar it was looked in Heroes 6 or else way? To match HoMM3 proportions on the Adventure Map, Cityscape, and Battlefield, we are stretching the camera perspective. Consequently, this approach requires we ‘stretch, squish, and flatten’ the various game models for everything to look proper. In the end, we have a 3D game, with 2D interactions, which should be very familiar to anyone who has played HoMM3. 13a. Can you talk something about the town screen designs in general? In FST, ‘Cityscapes’ will be very, very similar to the Town Screens from HoMM3. There will be a build tree, structures will be added to a full screen landscape, clicking on various structures will open various windows, etc. 13b. Can we see the differences in a town, on the map, when we build something? On the Adventure Map, each city type will have three variations: barren, un-walled, and walled. 13c. Will the town screens will be in 2D? Cityscapes will be fully rendered in 3D, but player interaction will be strictly 2D. Previously, for a conceptual example of what we have planned, I have pointed to Ori and the Blind Forest, which is a fully rendered 3D world, with a 3D environment, and 3D characters, but with player interaction strictly 2D. 14a. Will Paul Romero and Rob King do the music for this game? I have been in touch with Rob King about he and Paul Romero handling the music. Provided FST reaches critical mass, I see no reason why they wouldn’t contribute. 14b. Maybe Karin Mushegain and other musicians and opera singers can return with them too? Personally, I like opera and choir music, and would like to see it return in one form or another. For those fans who have a contrary opinion, we may offer a choice similar to HoMM2, where you can have the music with or without the vocals. 15. Will there an underground level too? Absolutely. Lore for one of the faction’s requires it. 16. Can you tell us something about localizations? Subtitles , voices etc. Because HoMM3 became an international game, for FST we plan to support a number of foreign languages: Russian, Polish, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, etc. I strongly doubt there will be any voice work, as story elements will be handled in comic book fashion with word balloons. 17. Can you tell us an approximate release date for the game? Which year perhaps? I essentially began solo design work on FST in 2018, and estimated it would take at least three to five years before some sort of release. At this point, it’s looking like five is about right. As we approach 2021, I expect there will be continued work on game infrastructure. Hopefully, we would Crowd Fund sometime in 2022. Assuming FST is successfully funded, I would aim for an Early Access release, sometime in 2023.  |
