Conquest: Frontier Wars on GOG

Need something to play before Star Citizen ships? You’re in luck: Good Old Games has today made a piece of Cloud Imperium history available once again! Conquest: Frontier Wars, developed at Chris Roberts’ Digital Anvil studio and helmed by our own Eric “Wingman” Peterson is now available as a digital download for just $5.99. You can pick up your copy here.



In honor of this release, we asked Wingman a few questions about making the game:

What’s your best memory of developing Conquest?

By far the team, we had an amazing team working on the game, Chris Roberts, Sergio Rosas, Tom Mauer, Arvee Gardee, Jamie Wiggs, Jason Yenawine, Sean Barton, Martin Galway – just amazing people and most of them still in the industry. I loved working every single minute with them. I had just shipped Starlancer and was asked to come on board and produce/design Conquest, and we put that team through the paces, and got that game singing, so much depth of game play and you can still play it today, even as a single player skirmish experience it is amazing fun.

Conquest began life at Digital Anvil, but was finished at Fever Pitch. What happened?

When Microsoft was in negotiations to purchase Digital Anvil, they had decided that they were going to put their emphasis on the RTS side of things towards Age of Empires, and thus were not interested in another high quality RTS. So, we negotiated the rights to transfer to the founders of Digital Anvil (Chris, myself, Erin, etc..etc) and then I started Fever Pitch Studios with Tom Mauer to finish the game.

When Microsoft was our publisher they were pushing us to cut tons of features because it would have added to the testing time of the project. The team disagreed and Tom and I added all of them back into the game, which in our opinion added so much more depth to the project. Things like Fleet Admirals, and varied debris types, all crucial to a large game where you could have your attentions focused elsewhere and needed those features to help you play the game as designed.

What sets Conquest apart from other RTS games?

Where to start? First, you had the ability to fight on up to 16 maps at one time, and you could group your fleets of ships in ways in which it suited your play style, hit and run, slug it out, fight from a distance, we had it all covered, and each individual could play the game their own way. Then we were one of, if not the, first to have supplies and supply lines which meant you had much more strategy involved in how you played the game. We used to say we put the strategy in RTS.

Have you stayed in touch with the Conquest community? Are they still active today?

I have indeed, they are still active in modding the game some 10ish years later. It is their dedication that has kept Conquest alive all these years. In fact we are looking at releasing the source code from the original to allow them to continue modifying and making versions of a game we all love so dearly.

You still own the rights to Conquest. Could we see the source code someday? Or a sequel?

Source – yes, as mentioned above, we want to release it, just got to get all the legalese sorted out on our end. As for the sequel, we actually have it about 60% done, we have added a 4th race, put in special weapons to destroy planets, and of course if you allow that to terraform them as well. We have created hybrid units where if you have technology from multiple races it will unlock unique units. But, alas, the team is scattered, and I am busy making Star Citizen be the best Space Sim ever. So it is on hold, unless maybe the community decides it wants to take up that challenge, and then maybe just maybe, we can find a way to make that work….what do you say everyone…you up for it?

Brauchst du etwas zu spielen, bevor Star Citizen Schiffe fährt? Sie haben Glück: Good Old Games hat heute ein Stück Cloud Imperium-Geschichte wieder verfügbar gemacht! Eroberung: Frontier Wars, entwickelt im Chris Roberts' Digital Anvil Studio und geleitet von unserem eigenen Eric "Wingman" Peterson, ist jetzt als digitaler Download für nur 5,99 $ erhältlich. Sie können Ihr Exemplar hier abholen.



Zu Ehren dieser Veröffentlichung haben wir Wingman ein paar Fragen zur Entwicklung des Spiels gestellt:



Was ist deine beste Erinnerung an die Entwicklung von Conquest?

Bei weitem das Team, wir hatten ein erstaunliches Team, das an dem Spiel arbeitete, Chris Roberts, Sergio Rosas, Tom Mauer, Arvee Gardee, Jamie Wiggs, Jason Yenawine, Sean Barton, Martin Galway - einfach erstaunliche Leute und die meisten von ihnen noch in der Branche. Ich liebte es, jede einzelne Minute mit ihnen zu arbeiten. Ich hatte gerade Starlancer verschickt und wurde gebeten, an Bord zu kommen und Conquest zu produzieren/entwickeln, und wir haben dieses Team auf Herz und Nieren geprüft und dieses Spiel gesungen, so viel Tiefe des Gameplays und man kann es noch heute spielen, selbst als Einzelspieler-Scharmützel macht es erstaunlichen Spaß.



Conquest begann sein Leben bei Digital Anvil, wurde aber bei Fever Pitch beendet. Was ist passiert?

Als Microsoft in Verhandlungen über den Kauf von Digital Anvil war, hatten sie beschlossen, dass sie ihren Schwerpunkt auf die RTS-Seite der Dinge in Richtung Age of Empires legen würden, und waren daher nicht an einem anderen hochwertigen RTS interessiert. Also haben wir die Rechte zur Übertragung auf die Gründer von Digital Anvil (Chris, mich selbst, Erin, etc..etc.) ausgehandelt und dann habe ich mit Tom Mauer Fever Pitch Studios gegründet, um das Spiel zu beenden.

Als Microsoft unser Publisher war, drängten sie uns, Tonnen von Features zu reduzieren, weil es die Testzeit des Projekts verlängert hätte. Das Team war anderer Meinung und Tom und ich haben sie alle wieder in das Spiel aufgenommen, was unserer Meinung nach dem Projekt viel mehr Tiefe verliehen hat. Dinge wie Flottenadmirale und verschiedene Trümmertypen, die alle entscheidend für ein großes Spiel sind, bei dem Sie Ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf andere Bereiche konzentrieren können und die Ihnen helfen sollten, das Spiel wie geplant zu spielen.



Was unterscheidet Conquest von anderen RTS-Spielen?

Wo soll man anfangen? Erstens hatten Sie die Möglichkeit, auf bis zu 16 Karten gleichzeitig zu kämpfen, und Sie konnten Ihre Schiffsflotten so gruppieren, wie es Ihrem Spielstil entsprach, schlagen und laufen, schlagen, kämpfen, aus der Ferne kämpfen, wir hatten alles abgedeckt, und jeder Einzelne konnte das Spiel auf seine eigene Weise spielen. Dann waren wir einer von, wenn nicht der erste, der Vorräte und Versorgungsleitungen hatte, was bedeutete, dass Sie viel mehr Strategie hatten, wie Sie das Spiel gespielt haben. Wir haben immer gesagt, dass wir die Strategie in RTS umgesetzt haben.



Bist du in Kontakt mit der Conquest Community geblieben? Sind sie heute noch aktiv?

Ich habe in der Tat, sie sind immer noch aktiv bei der Modifikation des Spiels einige 10ish Jahre später. Es ist ihre Hingabe, die die Eroberung all die Jahre am Leben erhalten hat. Tatsächlich prüfen wir, ob wir den Quellcode aus dem Original freigeben wollen, damit sie weiterhin Versionen eines Spiels modifizieren und erstellen können, das wir alle so sehr lieben.



Du besitzt immer noch die Rechte an der Eroberung. Können wir den Quellcode eines Tages sehen? Oder eine Fortsetzung?

Quelle - ja, wie oben erwähnt, wollen wir es veröffentlichen, wir müssen nur alle Rechtsbegriffe auf unserer Seite klären. Was die Fortsetzung betrifft, so haben wir es eigentlich zu 60% geschafft, wir haben ein viertes Rennen hinzugefügt, spezielle Waffen eingesetzt, um Planeten zu zerstören, und natürlich, wenn man das erlaubt, auch sie zu terraformen. Wir haben Hybrid-Einheiten geschaffen, bei denen, wenn du Technologie aus mehreren Rassen hast, einzigartige Einheiten freischalten kannst. Aber leider ist das Team verstreut, und ich bin damit beschäftigt, Star Citizen zur besten Space Sim aller Zeiten zu machen. Es ist also auf Eis gelegt, es sei denn, die Gemeinschaft beschließt, diese Herausforderung anzunehmen, und dann vielleicht nur vielleicht, können wir einen Weg finden, um das zum Laufen zu bringen....was sagt man dazu...du bist dafür bereit?

Need something to play before Star Citizen ships? You’re in luck: Good Old Games has today made a piece of Cloud Imperium history available once again! Conquest: Frontier Wars, developed at Chris Roberts’ Digital Anvil studio and helmed by our own Eric “Wingman” Peterson is now available as a digital download for just $5.99. You can pick up your copy here.



In honor of this release, we asked Wingman a few questions about making the game:

What’s your best memory of developing Conquest?

By far the team, we had an amazing team working on the game, Chris Roberts, Sergio Rosas, Tom Mauer, Arvee Gardee, Jamie Wiggs, Jason Yenawine, Sean Barton, Martin Galway – just amazing people and most of them still in the industry. I loved working every single minute with them. I had just shipped Starlancer and was asked to come on board and produce/design Conquest, and we put that team through the paces, and got that game singing, so much depth of game play and you can still play it today, even as a single player skirmish experience it is amazing fun.

Conquest began life at Digital Anvil, but was finished at Fever Pitch. What happened?

When Microsoft was in negotiations to purchase Digital Anvil, they had decided that they were going to put their emphasis on the RTS side of things towards Age of Empires, and thus were not interested in another high quality RTS. So, we negotiated the rights to transfer to the founders of Digital Anvil (Chris, myself, Erin, etc..etc) and then I started Fever Pitch Studios with Tom Mauer to finish the game.

When Microsoft was our publisher they were pushing us to cut tons of features because it would have added to the testing time of the project. The team disagreed and Tom and I added all of them back into the game, which in our opinion added so much more depth to the project. Things like Fleet Admirals, and varied debris types, all crucial to a large game where you could have your attentions focused elsewhere and needed those features to help you play the game as designed.

What sets Conquest apart from other RTS games?

Where to start? First, you had the ability to fight on up to 16 maps at one time, and you could group your fleets of ships in ways in which it suited your play style, hit and run, slug it out, fight from a distance, we had it all covered, and each individual could play the game their own way. Then we were one of, if not the, first to have supplies and supply lines which meant you had much more strategy involved in how you played the game. We used to say we put the strategy in RTS.

Have you stayed in touch with the Conquest community? Are they still active today?

I have indeed, they are still active in modding the game some 10ish years later. It is their dedication that has kept Conquest alive all these years. In fact we are looking at releasing the source code from the original to allow them to continue modifying and making versions of a game we all love so dearly.

You still own the rights to Conquest. Could we see the source code someday? Or a sequel?

Source – yes, as mentioned above, we want to release it, just got to get all the legalese sorted out on our end. As for the sequel, we actually have it about 60% done, we have added a 4th race, put in special weapons to destroy planets, and of course if you allow that to terraform them as well. We have created hybrid units where if you have technology from multiple races it will unlock unique units. But, alas, the team is scattered, and I am busy making Star Citizen be the best Space Sim ever. So it is on hold, unless maybe the community decides it wants to take up that challenge, and then maybe just maybe, we can find a way to make that work….what do you say everyone…you up for it?