Now of course, we couldn’t use those exact terms! (laughs) But that was kind of the idea, and everything grew out of that distinction in a way that was very organic. Both were very different – Luke would jet off in his X-Wing and go be a cool guy, and Han would be much more interested in making a profit. We’d say that Wing Commander was Luke Skywalker and Privateer was Han Solo. I can’t remember a specific conversation, but we would talk about Wing Commander and Privateer in terms of maintaining the vision for the team but also in terms of trying to communicate to the player what they were getting into. Joel: Yeah, it really was what we were trying to go for. You mentioned Firefly and I think that reference is pretty spot on – I mean, it didn’t exist at the time but I think that world and the vibe of Malcom Reynolds were found in Privateer, years ahead of Firefly. Your docked Centurion – not the largest cargo hold, but great in a fight. It was a radical departure from the structured mission/movie experience of Wing Commander, but the more the team worked on the design, the more we owned that difference as the heart of the game: give the player the experience he can’t get in Wing Commander. Faction wars, reputation, ship customization, random missions, exploration. And an open universe led to everything else. Smuggling/trading meant being able to go anywhere, anywhen, so that naturally led to an open universe. So, we started from that… life on the seamy side of the Wing Commander universe. If Firefly had existed, we would have also said a Malcolm Reynolds persona. Chris and I thought it would be much more fun to take on a Han Solo persona, and focus on a smuggler’s life. They had an idea that it would be fun to have a proper trading game, but it didn’t have any of the space flight or frontier missions… just trading. The game started life as something called ‘Trade Commander’, which was being pushed by the marketing department. So, when Chris needed to put a small team together to investigate what would become Privateer, I was either the perfect choice or the one guy he could do without on Strike Commander. I got to start designing on Wing Commander I and II, making missions and AI scripts, and then had the same role on Strike Commander. Joel: My path was pretty straight-forward, really. So how did you go from QA work through to being Lead Designer on Privateer ? As part of that, please describe how the idea for Privateer came about in the first place. I wish I had gotten to work more on the Ultimas, but I was firmly on the Wing Commander side of Origin for most of my time there, and I didn't mind that at all. And, of course, it all had to respond to where you were in the story. Richard was big on making sure the NPCs actually lead proper lives, such as fetching water in the morning before baking bread to sell in their shops. Joel: Let’s see – I think 6 was QA? Or was that 5? Both? By the time 7 was in development I did some design grunt work on villager routines. What an awesome break! I see you also did some work on Ultima - care to mention what that was? It was Wing Commander, but not as we knew it. Most importantly, it got me in the door, and I was there when they needed folks for some entry-level design work.
That summer I got to QA Space Rogue (yes, that was such a cool game… shout-out to Paul Neurath, one of the all-time greats in this industry), plus a half-dozen others. Maybe Amiga? Commodore? I don’t remember. I played Ultima 3 forever, and loved it, and was playing a game called Times of Lore, which Origin had published for Chris Roberts, who I knew slightly as my parents and his know each other, so I got a gig QA-ing it on one of the smaller platforms. Please start off by describing how did you get started at Origin - I see you worked on another of my absolute favorite games: Space Rogue ?
Join me as I talk to Privateer’s Lead Designer, Joel Manners, on the making of this classic title. Privateer brought Elite-style freeform exploration and adventure to a new part of a familiar universe, and gamers the world over were instantly hooked as they made their way through Gemini Sector, seeking fortune and uncovering secrets. Back in 1993, Origin Systems released a space combat and trading game set in its highly successful Wing Commander universe.