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A propos d'Obligement
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David Brunet
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Interview with Edivision
(Interview conducted by Lionel X and excerpt from Obligement 31 - January 2002)
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 Could you introduce yourself, and the two other founders of Edivision?
PR: My name is Patrick Roberts and I'm 33. My most famous achievement is surviving making Disney's Dinosaur, were I was
an effects supervisor.
SH: Steven Haun, 35 and my most famous achievement is being able to survive Hollywood so far.
JE: Jeremy Engleman, 29 and I suppose that would have to be working on Riven: The Sequel to Myst.
How did you discovered Amiga computer
and why are you still interested in Amiga Community?
PR: The first Amiga I had was a 500 (couldn't afford a 1000 so I just had to drool over friends'). It was the natural
progression for me as before I had a C64, Vic20, and (at work) a PET. The Amiga community created software far
ahead of its time. Even now many of the best applications and games on other platforms come from former Amiga
developers. I like the Amiga community because the people who make it up were able to recognized and chose the
superiority of the Amiga platform compared to competitors who had better marketing. That spirit still exists
today in the community... we all know how messed up mainstream computing is now and know it could be better.
JE: A 500 as well. Amigas were certainly ahead of their time.
Are you still using an Amiga, and in
this case, what is your current configuration?
PR: Due to space limitations I had to loan my last Amiga to a friend. It was an A3000/040-25/CyberGFX.
JE: I still have a 1200 actually, but do not use it at all-more of a museum piece really.
Where does the name Edivision come from?
PR: Edivision is a parent LLC for our development labels, the first of which is called "Lower Mars".
Why did you settled on founding Edivision?
PR: We had been negotiating with some console publishers and got tired of the politics so we decided to create a
company we could control ourselves.
SH: We knew we wanted to create a software company. We were looking into console games. Though when we got the
opportunity to jump into something new, like the Amiga DE, we couldn't resist.
How many people are currently working at
Edivision (full time or/and contractors)?
PR: There are currently only 3 of us part-time. (We all have to keep our day jobs until the DE makes us millionaires :P )
Although many (long) weeks we all put in more time after-hours on Edivision projects than we do at our current day jobs.
Where are you located?
PR: Studio City, CA. (Part of Los Angeles County/the greater Los Angeles area).
Could you describe the "atmosphere" at Edivision?
PR: Virtual :P (we don't have offices yet).
SH: Curious. We wait to see what will happen in the AmigaDE world.
JE: Hopeful. That the platforms can support and facilitate the kinds of things we would like to do.
You were planning to create 3 development
labels. Could you talk about those labels? What is currently developed for each ones?
PR: We still plan to create 3 labels. As we grow and bring on staff it will help organize development. "Jackpot!"
is being developed under "Lower Mars" which will primarily create first-rate original entertainment titles. We have
a utility label which will come next- that project is currently in R&D phases and looks to be very exciting. Finally
we will put any games we license under a third label.
Could you talk especially about the slot
game you released screenshots few weeks ago on amiga.org?
PR: Jackpot! is our first title. It's a electronic casino simulator featuring slot machines, video cards, and video
slots. There will be a total of 10 different games in the virtual casino. We have some really really fun game designs
and Jeremy has created fantastic graphics for the machines. Our design goal was to create a casino game that would
be entertaining for both gamers and non-gamers, and I think we've done a good job to that end. Virtual casinos are
among the most popular titles on PDAs and we think ours will be better than any of current crop.
When will we see first Edivision products?
SH: We have to wait until AmigaDE PDA hardware is available to the public, which should be Q1/Q2 2002. Jackpot! will be
released at roughly the same time.
Are you currently looking for game developers?
PR: Not right now. We are currently negotiating with a couple of companies to license titles. When that happens we will
start outside staffing. At some point in the future we also want to be able to serve as an incubator for garage developers.
What are the kind of games suited for PDA market,
which seems to be really peculiar?
PR: PDA owners buy games that are commonly familiar (don't need a lot of instructions) and can be played in short spurts.
Current golf and casino titles are among the most popular for these reasons.
What is your foresight for the development of the PDA market?
PR: As the machines become more powerful and cheaper I think they will be what Gameboy fans move up to when they get older.
What do you think about other development platform,
for instance Linux on SL-5000?
PR: As opposed to the AmigaDE, they lock you in to a platform. With the DE we can create a title that will run on not only
the most popular current platforms, but also any capable platform in the future. This gives us a tremendous market
advantage over competitors who would need to port their titles for new platforms. The Amiga DE is also much less expensive
than most commercial middleware licenses, which provide only some of the cross-platform benefits of the AmigaDE.
Are you planning to advertise for your products
in a near future?
PR: Yes. We will be marketing Jackpot! when Sharp releases their PDA.
Are you planning to release games adapted for
other platforms that PDA?
PR: Possibly in the future, but for now we're just concentrating on PDA titles.
Could you talk about your co-operation with Amiga Inc?
PR: Amiga has been great providing us with support. As for our part back, we'll be giving Amiga license to distribute
many of the tools and libraries we create as open-source and free for commercial development. We also look to grow
this relationship even more in the future.
"Three people from Disney" made some concept
design of hardware for Amiga Inc, some months ago. Are you those people?
PR: I was one of them. Michael Daugherty and Archie Agote were the other two.
Do you have interest in other Amiga related
project (AmigaOne, OS4, and also MorphOS/Pegasos)?
SH: Due to limited resources, right now we're focused just on AmigaDE and even only AmigaDE PDA. In the future if
resources are available and it makes financial sense we would.
A message for our readers?
SH: Stayed tuned !
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