Interview Cyberkiller
Posted by Administrator on March 10 2011 16:59:15
Location: VC interrogation bunker somewhere in the Vietnamese jungles
People: US Marine (unknown rank) and 3 NVA Officers
After the US Marine was captured, while sneaking into an NVA camp, the following questioning was put into the NVA Top Secret records:
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
Identify yourself!
US Marine:
My name is Christian Konieczka (some people may know me as CyberKiller). I am the webmaster of the official PTERODON web site.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
Give us some information about yourself; where do you live, what about your family, what are your current goals?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
I currently live in Denmark with my loving and caring family consisting of my father, my mother, my older sister, and her boyfriend. My current goals are to finish my studies and become involved in character art or other forms of graphics in the game industry. I wish to keep improving and developing throughout life whenever and wherever I can. When possible, I would like to help other people achieve their personal goals as well. For me, it is very important to give my entire heart and soul into what I am doing. This goes for game and character development as well. It is about the journey, and not the destination.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
What was your first gaming console? What was your favourite game?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
I received my first video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), at a relatively young age. Even though this was far from the newest video game console at that time, I used to rush home to play such games as Contra (it seems that jungle themed games already appealed to me at a very young age), Robocop 3, and Super Mario Bros. I did not have specific preferences at that time, as I remember enjoying all of the games I had at my disposal. Since then, I adapted and became very much fond of developing games, which I still am to this day.
2nd NVA Officer (Chavez_US):
What kind of games do you play now?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
Whenever I have time to play games, I usually spend time enjoying any of the games in the Vietcong franchise, Call of Juarez, or Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas.
2nd NVA Officer (Chavez_US):
What type of computer do you use while playing games? (System specs):
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
My system specifications consist of the following:
Motherboard: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 FX-60
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT
Soundcard: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
RAM: 2 GB Corsair XMS 3200 Ram
3rd NVA Officer (unknown VC Intel Officer):
Do you have a personal message to the players and fans of Vietcong?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
The entire team developed the Vietcong franchise with a great passion for their work. Despite some problems that occurred during the development of Vietcong 2, we never lost faith in the project. It may not seem so apparent, but we used the full capacity of our sane minds on this project. I personally hope that you fans will continue playing and enjoying what we developed for you.
When you have a chance to, do indeed talk about your playing experiences with Vietcong 2 on gaming related forums. This may interest people and make them open their eyes towards the game. Lastly, with the release of the Vietcong 2 editor, I hope that the number of user-created maps will rise and make you fans enjoy the game anew, and gather new and enjoyable experiences while playing.
3rd NVA Officer (unknown VC Intel Officer):
What do you think of the numerous Vietcong fan sites?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
It is an honour to see people devote so much of their time in creating fan sites specifically for the Vietcong franchise. Even though there has not been much official news for some time now, these fan sites continue making progress every day with new content, such as competitions and wars between different clans. Sometimes, new fan sites still appear and give the Vietcong franchise a new push towards a completely new dimension. It is absolutely amazing to see such devotion for our games.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
How did you become involved with such a great company in the development of Vietcong?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
I started working for PTERODON while Vietcong Fist Alpha, the official add-on for Vietcong, was under development. I had previous experience with beta testing new content for Vietcong, and after several conversations with Jarek Kolar, Michal Janacek, and Filip Oscadal, we decided to create a new initiative; to keep the official PTERODON web site live and updated. My job was to take care of the web site by writing news updates, articles, and generally release new content for all Vietcong fans. This was the start of a wonderful journey for me.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
Since the release of Vietcong, how do you feel the game has progressed?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
Vietcong as a game franchise has progressed immensely throughout the years. As a team, we managed to support the original game with new content through patches, add-ons, official multiplayer maps, editing tools, and a successor to the game, not to mention the efforts we made with our web site to support the fans of the franchise. Since then, the community has expanded and started creating self-made content for the games through several modifications and many user-created multiplayer maps.
It is also important to mention how the “cooperative (COOP)” community grew over time by expanding the rules of this game type to their personal likings, and thereby promoting a group of players that play our games under very realistic conditions (this group of people has come to be known as the Team Respawn Co-Op).
3rd NVA Officer (unknown VC Intel Officer):
How long have you been working with PTERODON? What was your motivation while there?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
I have been working for PTERODON since 2003. I had many different motivations; having the opportunity to work with such talented, passionate, and friendly people was definitely one of the main incentives I had. After working for many hours, days, weeks, or even months on specific tasks, it was very exhilarating to stop up sometimes and just watch how the development of the projects had grown in each department by the artistic work of each team member. The entire Vietcong community was a big part of the motivation and optimism as well.
2nd NVA Officer (Chavez_US):
What specific tasks/duties have you performed with PTERODON while making VC1 and VC2?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
With the original Vietcong, I was beta testing the new content, such as patches and multiplayer maps. This quickly changed with my job as webmaster for the official PTERODON web site, which enabled me to do much more for the company. Originally, my task was to keep the web site updated with new content, and to administrate everything that had to do with the web site with the help of Filip Oscadal and Jarek Kolar.
My working routines varied for each day, as I would one day see myself preparing articles for our web site, and the second day helping people at our PTERODON Help Desk and forum. When we started developing Vietcong Red Dawn, I was assigned the task to lead our external beta testers by arranging beta test dates, sending bug reports, et cetera.
During the development of Vietcong 2, I had many different tasks. These included collecting ideas for the project, testing the different game play mechanics of the game both internally and externally, designing some parts of the multiplayer mode, creating the graphical interface for the Vietcong 2 Statistics (which, unfortunately, did not see the light of day), among other things. This was all while keeping the web site and community updated with information regarding our project. I also developed a multiplayer level for indiGLOW after the release of the game.
2nd NVA Officer (Chavez_US):
Are you playing VC1 and VC2 anymore? What game type was your favorite?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
Yes, I am still playing both Vietcong and Vietcong 2 whenever I have some spare time. In fact, just recently, I started replaying the single player campaign of the original Vietcong. I do not have specific preferences to game types, as I enjoy both playing the more fast-paced “capture the flag (CTF)” as much as playing the more stealthy and tactically oriented “cooperative (COOP)”. Occasionally, I have even had the pleasure of playing together with the Team Respawn Co-Op group, which was a very interesting experience every time.
3rd NVA Officer (unknown VC Intel Officer):
Was the success of Vietcong a surprise to you? In your opinion, do you feel VC2 was a success?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
As a game developer, you can never know whether your project will succeed in the global market, as you are working intensively on a game for quite a long development cycle. It also depends on the actual word “success”, whether this be in terms of financial success or success in terms of people who have actually played and enjoyed the product that you have created. While I was not a part of the development of the original Vietcong (I only started beta testing for this project after it was released), I had no doubt in my mind that with the right marketing, it would become a very successful and industry-changing title.
Vietcong 2 was a great success in that we managed to finish the project in the short time we had to develop it. I think I can speak for most of the team when I say that we are immensely proud of achieving a level of realism and historical accuracy for this project like never before seen in any other Vietnam War game. Looking in the history of PTERODON, we have developed very much as a team and company. Starting with pure 2D graphical games, we managed later on to develop 3D graphics accelerated action games and advance from there to new heights and levels of entertainment and realism.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
Is there a contact person, other than you, for PTERODON?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
Even though we have now joined forces with Illusion Softworks, it is still possible to reach PTERODON employees by using our PTERODON Help Desk.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
Is a Vietcong 3 planned? Will you be a part of those plans? Will you revert back to the successful Fist Alpha format?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
Currently, we are fully focused on working alongside Illusion Softworks to develop a new next-generation IP. If we decide to develop another Vietcong sequel in the future, and will have the support from both Illusion Softworks and our publisher, I would still not expect to see such a title any time soon.
2nd NVA Officer (Chavez_US):
Since PTERODON no longer exists, cheating is running rampant in VC1. Will HradBa be updated again? Will the person responsible for HradBa be interested in making another update for VC1? Will there be any more add-ons by PTERODON for either VC1 or VC2?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
Most of the team is very busy working on the next-generation project with Illusion Softworks, which is our biggest constraint in terms of developing and releasing an update for the HradBa anti-cheat system. The same goes for any such support regarding the Vietcong franchise. Even though we are very much interested in supporting the community of our games further, we do not have the resources to do so.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
If PTERODON can no longer support or update Vietcong, will Illusion Softworks be able to help with any updates for HradBa?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
There are no programming resources available in Illusion Softworks to develop an update for HradBa.
3rd NVA Officer (unknown VC Intel Officer):
Will the open source eventually be released for VC1?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
This is up to Take-Two Interactive and Illusion Softworks, as they currently hold the publishing rights for the Vietcong franchise.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
Are you aware that HradBa does not work with Microsoft’s Windows Vista? Does Vista mean the final curtain for Vietcong or is there a chance for further support?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
We are aware of the compatibility issues between Vietcong and the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. However, currently, we cannot look into and correct the problem due to our development plans with Illusion Softworks.
2nd NVA Officer (Chavez_US):
Why is the PTERODON public server no longer online? Does this mean the PTERODON forum will go soon as well? Do you still visit and read threads in the PTERODON forum?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
We decided to shut down the official PTERODON game server due to lack of resources to control the administrative sides of this service. This does not have anything to do with our web site services, such as the PTERODON Help Desk, Web Site Administration, or our official forum. We do not plan to close any of these services or the official PTERODON web site.
Even though I do not always have much time to give proper replies at our official forum, I visit it every day to administrate and read each post located there.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
There are still some bugs in VC2. Is this out of your hands at this point?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
We are aware of the bugs in Vietcong 2 reported by the community. However, it is up to Take-Two Interactive and Illusion Softworks to give us the resources to develop and release a patch for the game addressing such issues.
2nd NVA Officer (Chavez_US):
What is your opinion on the work of indiGLOW? What’s your personal impression of indiGLOW’s development of Fist Bravo?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
The team of indiGLOW worked very hard on developing quality content for the entire Vietcong franchise. Their latest developments in Vietcong 2 were achieved very well. They managed to develop and release a new add-on for Vietcong 2 as well as an editor for the game, which consequently increased the community activity for the game.
I was very impressed and honoured to see the hard work that this team put into our game.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
Will the player statistics/results feature for VC2 be activated? If so, when will they be activated?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
We worked very hard to develop a comprehensive statistics system for Vietcong 2. However, due to some internal communication problems within 2K Games, these are not very likely to be activated or released.
3rd NVA Officer (unknown VC Intel Officer):
It appears the community will not go away from Vietcong. This may be due to the amount of maps made with the Ptero-Engine editors available. Do you have any tips for the custom mapmakers of VC1 or VC2?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
User-created multiplayer maps for both Vietcong and Vietcong 2 have had a great impact on the community in terms of numbers of players. For beginners, it is important to learn the basics of either of the editors by reading the enclosed help documents, as well as reading the comprehensive list of tutorials and help guides created by the community. Try to create something very basic for your first level. Creating a simple “capture the flag (CTF)” multiplayer map should be ideal in terms of simplicity.
For more experienced users, utilize the many resources around the Internet to read about level design in general. It is very important to distinguish between single player and multiplayer level design and to adjust your level to the given pace and gameplay of the game. Use the strengths of the gameplay and the engine to create something unique. Researching various pictures and creating production sketches can be a very good idea before starting the actual work in the editor.
The Vietcong 2 editor has a vast list of new features. Therefore, remember to use the indiWIKI to gain knowledge about the different subjects covered at this comprehensive knowledgebase. Lastly, an “Editor” section is also available at our official forum, which should be used for any questions you may have relating to this subject.
3rd NVA Officer (unknown VC Intel Officer):
What are your future plans related to FPS and online gaming?
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
I am looking forward to seeing the advancement of games and their technology in this next-generation era and what significant impacts these will make in terms of gameplay. My plans for the future in terms of these fields are to enjoy the new level of entertainment and realism brought in upcoming games developed by many different companies.
NVA Officer (Silent Bob):
Your cooperation in answering the questions will have a positive effect on your imprisonment. Thank you, Christian, for answering questions from many of the supporting fans of Vietcong and Vietcong 2.
US Marine (Christian Konieczka):
Thank you for keeping yourselves involved with our games and for your immense support. These are one of our biggest rewards when it comes to game development.
End of interrogation
