Weathermine

New boys WeatherMine Software have proved they know a thing or two with their first game XP8. Andy Smith wondered what was in the pipeline for the future...

Four years ago the Amiga market was very healthy. Big games were selling in their hundreds of thousands (well, the really, really big ones were if you counted the whole of Europe together) and the summers were really long and hot too. Two young men had just finished their university educations and, armed with a copy of DevPac and a book on Assembler, began tinkering around with an A500. WeatherMine software was born.

Matt Waters and Anthony Fenton-Jones are WeatherMine and XP8 is the first game of theirs to actually see some kind of, mail-order only, commercial release (Reviewed in AF85, 85%).

Matt was the chap with the books and software tools and the idea for a wacky platform game called Bubble Gun. What he needed was someone with an artistic flair to design the sprites and backgrounds for the game - which is where Anthony's cartoonist brother came in. But, as often seems to be the case with brothers, Anthony's managed to design about
one sprite before becoming horribly distracted (probably by girls or something) and Anthony somehow found himself taking over the graphic responsibilities.

In 1994 Bubble Gun came close to becoming a commercial release, but not close enough. Matt explains: "It occurred to me that no-one had done a platform game with a four legged character as the main sprite, and now I know why".

1995 came round and work started on XP8.
"XP8 has changed a lot since we first designed it", says Anthony." We wanted it to be like Swiv really, continually scrolling, a didn't stop - ever, game. We had a version that went through space, over land, whatever."

The pair admit that they had to make changes to their original design. "We wanted it to be just one level, but really long, but we found that designing just one level proved to be very difficult." Anthony explained.

During beta-testing they decided to split the game up into different levels rather than one long one. "People told us it was just too long". Anthony continued. The pair also confess to some dubious working habits. "Most of the design happened down the pub", Matt admitted.

The release of Super Stardust gave the team some inspiration. "Just the general look, because we couldn't work out how to do ships like theirs so we had to make up our own".

Now XP8's out there and selling, the guys are ploughing the profits back into development and they're currently working on a cut-down version for the A500.

"When we first started" said Anthony, "I asked Matt if we were planning on an A500 version and he basically said 'forget it'. Well, now things have changed and we think we can do a good 500 version".

And what's been the biggest problem? "Piracy", said Matt. "We've been hit quite hard by that. We didn't put much protection on the game because it would only take a determined cracker a couple of hours to get round it whatever, so we just didn't bother too much."

"And the game's on four disks, so I wanted to make it hard disk installable, which again makes it a bit easier for the pirates", added Matt.

"But it really has hit us", Anthony agreed. "Other people have been hit too, of course, but we're only selling a fraction of what we should be selling because of the pirates, who are just helping to kill the market".

So what's in the pipeline after the A500 versi on? "We've got plans to do a sort of UFO meets Cannon Fodder type game", Anthony replies. "But real-time, it might be a two-player, split screen thing, where you can hide behind walls and be able to get into anything you see on-screen. Spaceships, vehicles, whatever."

"We are really keen to do another Amiga game", Matt admits. "We're big fans of it. But you have to consider the number of sales you're going to make and then ask yourself whether that number justifies spending another year working on a game."

Everyone at Amiga Format is eagerly awaiting the A500 version of XP8 and we'll keep you up to date with any developments on the WeatherMine front, but in the meantime if you wish to get your hands on a copy of XP8 send a cheque/PO for 19.99 to: WeatherMine Software, 50, Taleforth Road, Ashtead, Surrey, KT21 2PY