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It's middle of the summer vacations, so the pace has slowed down a bit. Well, looking at all the promos we're running and the recent releases you can't really say it's "silly season" at GOG.com, but you know what we mean. We decided to take a more in-depth look at the games we've released, especially the ones from Electronic Arts, and chat with some of the developers that made those classics.

Thanks to our own Silencer - Vagabond - we got in touch with Tony Zurovec, the lead designer of Crusader games, and asked him some questions about these awesome classics. As we love getting you involved in pretty much everything we do, we'd like you to ask your questions about Crusader: No Remorse to Tony. We'll pick 5 most interesting ones and forward them to him to get the answers, while the authors of those questions will receive a GOG.com game of their choice(this includes the awesome The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings!). Post your questions in the comments section until end of Sunday, July 24th.
1. What did you learn from the No Remorse development process? How did that carry over to No Regret?

2. Despite the graphic violence, No Remorse's art has a bright, comic-book style look. What went into that decision?

3. Was it difficult to buck the first-person trend that was so strong in the 90s?
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Kaidane: If I copy HELP3.DAT from the Crusader CD and rename it to HELP3.BMP, I get this image. Who the hell is this?
I have never, ever seen this picture.
Hi Tony,

1. Three part question here, what is your favorite story in a game, in a novel and in a movie?

2. You're on a desert island with a PC, and you can have 5 games of your choosing. What are they?

3. What do think makes a game a success? What makes one a failure?
Post edited July 20, 2011 by mhufsmith
I may be dating myself here, but I remember when Crusader: No Remorse was featured in Electronic Gaming Magazine back in the 90s, and I also remember when concept art was presented for the ultimately cancelled Crusader 2.

Was the story for Crusader 2 fully planned out before cancellation, and if so, what did the story entail? Did it flesh out the cloning side story, did it flesh out the Silencers, etc.

Thank you for your time.
Do you kind of regret (no pun intended ;)) that the clear cult the Crusader games achieved fix people's perception on seeing you as the creator of Crusader and thus likely providing you with a hard time to settle with different projects, like it often happens to actors when they are tied to one single role?
Crusader was built upon the Ultima 8: Pagan engine for DOS. This click-heavy game was often criticized for its poor platforming elements. Yet the gamepad-based movement system in Crusader was highly praised, despite its complexity. What was the biggest challenge the team faced regarding the controls and user interface?
As my brother is a big fan of the series. And seeing Oddworld just released another sequel. Have you considered rebooting (thats the term now don't like it) the Crusader series?
Is it true that the Crusader series shared the same universe with the System Shock and Wing Commander series?

If so, could you elaborate on whether or not there was ever any expressed intentions to one day "make it obvious" that the universe was shared by releasing a title whereby the three series were well blended together, such as by having Silencer end up on a Shodan-infected Kilrathi capital ship, such as a Kamekh or other Wing Commander related space stations/capital ships?

It's hard not to start drooling thinking about all of the possibilities, having to encounter cyborgified Kilrathi in the midst of an ever evolving capital ship, and one's own equipment and capabilities getting enhanced as well...

Also, are there any subtle details that would help us see the connections more clearly?

I'm now badly itching to see if anyone's ever released a good mod for System Shock II that touches upon such an obviously integrated universe. Such a rich playground!

Thank you
Tony for all of your hard work on creating such classic titles. And thank you, GOG, for making them available to us once again.

Yours!
The subtitle says "No Remorse", but I am curious if, after the game was released, you had any remorse? Was there anything about the game you would have changed or improved? How satisfied were you with the final product?
Hi tony, first off thanks for such excellent games.
My question would be, Crusader: No Mercy was (apparently) to include multiplayer. How was the multiplayer going to work? Was it just deathmatch and other arena based multiplayer or was the campaign going to have multiplayer features as well? The project was also in development around the same time as Ultima Online. Did the possibility of having a Crusader Online ever come into consideration?
Again, many thanks for many hours of awesome gameplay. All the best for whatever exciting projects you have for the future :).
I guess my question checking gamespot is being that gamespot has been around such a long time (actually plugged gog on that site) is that both No Remorse and No Regret were well received. Compared to say Myst vs Riven where Myst was a big deal and Riven went down the tank (according to gamespot) But your two releases for Crusader stayed about the same. 8.7 to 8.9 , that the sequel went up. Did you consider No Regret a sequel? Some here seem to be waiting for number 2. Is this more like Serious Sam first and second encounter?
Do you know why the No Pity was cancelled?
One of my favourite aspects of the Crusader series is how much effort went into the full motion videos -- especially the imaginative costume design. Could you tell us a little about how the costumes were designed and made?

Secondly, what were some of your inspirations for creating the 'Crusader' world? Robocop seems a very obvious one.

Finally, was there anything interesting that was cut from the games that you could tell us about?
Dear Tony,
Crusader: No Remorse was released on the Sega Saturn and Playstation. Did you put any goodies into the console versions that didn't make the DOS version, or vice versa, such as console-specific inter-game references? If the platform had survived, would you have developed the game for the Amiga CD32?
Post edited July 20, 2011 by predcon
which do you think was more challenging to design: areas intended to be completely destructible (crusader) or areas intended to be completely interactive (Ultima)?

&

do you think the world will ever see a level editor for Crusader?