I got a chance to fire some questions to Arend Stührmann, Associate Producer of EVE Online, earlier this year. EVE Online was released last year for the Mac and Linux platforms using Transgaming’s Cider technology.
EVE Online is a gigantic, space faring multiplayer with its own economy, intergalactic battles and even player espionage. If size or complexity intimidates you, stick to Scrabble.
TMG: What has the response from the community been regarding the Mac and Linux releases? Have subscriptions or trial usage increased significantly since the release?
Arend: The response from the community has been extremely positive. Subscriptions and trials increased significantly following the release of the Mac and Linux clients in November, with the largest increase being from the Mac OS. A lot of people were waiting in the wings for us to release a client that would run on the Mac without too much hassle. There was also a fair number of existing players who switched to the Mac client. We are getting good feedback from both the Mac and Linux communities about some of the performance issues and this is helping us continue our efforts with TransGaming to improve the quality of the game experience for these players. As always, we appreciate all input we get from the player and take it into careful consideration. We want the gaming experience to be smooth and enjoyable for all of our players regardless of their operating system of choice, and feedback is an important complement to our quality assurance and development processes.
TMG: How long was development for the Mac version?
Arend: Development began in early 2007. The fact that we were able to announce the release of the Mac and Linux clients at Fanfest in November 2007 is a credit to the developers who worked on the project, both at CCP and our partners at TransGaming. We have had a great working relationship with TransGaming since the beginning of the project and this positive cooperation continues now as we identify and address the few remaining issues as well as making preparations to introduce the premium graphics content for Mac and Linux.
TMG: Was developing for the Mac easier than for the PC? Any benefits or positives? Any difficulties developing the game for the Mac?
Arend: Because all the core “logic” of EVE is written in Python, which is platform independent, there was very little change needed for our original code base. Keeping our Python code platform independent means simpler code and easier debugging. So there are actually very few separate code paths for the platforms we support, and in fact where issues were identified the solutions often also benefitted the Windows platform. TransGaming’s Cider technology made the transition from DirectX to the Mac OS a lot smoother, which is why we decided to work with them and use their formidable expertise in delivering non-Mac programs to the Mac platform. This lets CCP remain focused on game design and the functionality of the core EVE client while leaving the interface with the OS to TransGaming. Of course, we still made sure that we had the necessary knowledge and hardware in-house to perform quality control and testing, and we are also very thankful to the players who volunteered their time during the beta of the Mac client to help test it prior to release.
TMG: What sort of hardware would you like to see come out of Apple?
Arend: Better graphics hardware in the basic Macbooks would be good; currently if you want EVE Online on the move you need a Macbook Pro. In the long run we are still working on enabling DirectX 10 for EVE Online’s graphics, and some of the hardware Apple already uses supports that in principle, given the right driver and OS support. Other than that, we’re simply looking forward to seeing EVE continue to appear on more Mac screens as the year goes by.
TMG: Where do you see EVE in five years?
Arend: Still going strong and with a larger number of players connecting from a Mac, of course! EVE Online entered the new year by passing the 220,000 subscriber mark, meaning that we’re well on track to have more subscribers than Iceland has inhabitants. We’re constantly working on ways to improve the game and will continue to seek feedback from our player community regarding the kind of things they would like to see. Of course, not every suggestion can be implemented, but we try to make EVE Online the game our players want to play the most, and our continuing growth seems to bear witness to the success of this strategy. At Fanfest, we announced that we are going to start working on building a supercomputer on which to host the game server, so the single, persistent universe will remain core to EVE Online and continue to be the most intricate, breathtaking and ruthless game universe out there.
Thanks to Arend Stührmann from CCP.
