ClearWater Interactive, formerly known as Crystal Software,
provides the Amiga community with high quality AGA software
gametitles. When and where was ClearWater Interactive (Crystal Software)
founded? Where are you located currently and how many people are
working at CWI? Crystal Interactive Software was founded back in February 1998,
and was merged with another company based in the same town,
ClearWater Interactive Limited in October 2000. We are based in a town called Hertford, in Hertfordshire England. We have ten people working here. What was the reason for choosing "Crystal Software" as the
companys name at that time? I had been fed up with the quality of Amiga games being offered
around the time we started and I had developed a moto "putting
the sparkle back into Amiga computer games". I sat around trying
to thing of a name related to the moto, and Crystals sparkle so
hence Crystal was used. Who were the main founders of Crystal Software and are they still
working at the company? I was the main founder, then I was luck enough to meet someone
who shared my dream and invested a sum of money to help the
company stay around. Both of us are still in the new company. What was the first game ever released by Crystal Software? The first game was Bubble Heroes by the very talented Italia team
ArcadiA, lead by Andrea Morolli Crystal Software morphed into ClearWater Interactive this year.
What was the reason for this decision? Several reasons really, all playing a decisive factor. The Amiga
games market was dead, with sales of Bubble Heroes selling a few
hundred copies worldwide. We had to make a decision quit or
expand to new horizons. We still had the PC development of
Gilbert Goodmate nearing completion and we didn't want to quit
and loose all that we invested in that game. At the same time another company called Crystal Interactive Inc
was doing some bad things to PC developers and the developers and
public alike were thinking we were the same company, and then
another company started in the Amiga market called Crystal
Software & Electronics (CS&E) and the whole name issue just
became too confusing and we were being accused of other companies
wrong doings. So with all these factors we met up with another local company
called ClearWater Design, who had skills that could help us with
Gilbert and were also looking at moving into multimedia and
interactive software. We merged our skill base and here we are
today. Your latest games are "Bubble Heroes" and "Land of Genesis", both
for AGA and/or RTG Amigas. What was the reason why you decided to
publish these game-titles? Bubble Heroes, was and still is a brilliant game, and should have
sold many many more copies than it did. If we were publishers in
the early 90's this game would have sold thousands and given
ArcadiA the financial reward the so rightly deserve. Land Of Genesis. This was a funny one as we had decided to make
Bubble Heroes our last game for the Amiga, and whilst in Italy
visiting ArcadiA. The author of L.o.G. travelled on a train over
ten hours from Sicily to Rimini just to meet with us and show his
game. When we saw it, I thought it showed promise and I
personally like the platform shoot-em-up's and this one had an R-
Type style levels as well. So after explaining that the Amiga market was dying and sales
wouldn't be so good, I offered the author the option of
publishing it. Unfortunately my prediction on the sales was right. You are also publishing software titles for PC, PlayStation 1 and
2 and also for GameBoy. Since when are you in the business of
"multi-platforms"? We are not publishing on any platform now, just developing. It
was easier to publish for the Amiga as the costs were lower. But
there is no way we could afford to publish any game on any other
platform. So we stick to developing. We are developing for PC and
AGB at the moment. Can you name us some upcoming titles for the consoles above? No sorry as they are under NDA's due to them being Licensed games. Do you plan to publish more Amiga game-titles in the future, or
will you specify yourself more on AmigaOne or PPC software? No, not likely - the thing that realy upset us was the amount of
Piracy, I think there are a lot more than 300 people out there
who have a copy of Bubble Heroes, and the same for L.O.G. Piracy
is on every platform and we will never beat it, trouble is the
other platforms can afford to cope with pirates due to the large
volume of sales. The Amiga can't. I think we will leave the Amiga platform for now - we did have an
oportunity to develop for Elate, but the expense of development
was all ours from start to finish, with no advances from the
publisher, so the risk of if the game would sell on an unprooven
platform was ours and not the publishers. We are fed up with taking all the risks - we have lost too much
money since the day we started, on taking risks. If yes, are there any work-in-progress titles which you can tell
us from? No What was the most famous (most sold) game you published? Bubble Heroes, as a publisher. As a co developer it has to be
Gilbert Goodmate. What do you think of the Amigas current position on the
computermarket? What position? The Amiga doesn't have any position at the moment.
No one in the main stream computer / console gaming industry
think about the Amiga and anything but a platform of the past,
and quite openly laughed at us when we told them about our
thoughts of continuing to support it. For the Amiga to gain a market position Amiga Inc would have to
spend millions on Marketing. I don't thing they will do that
somehow. What are your expections for the new AmigaOS 4.0, AmigaDE and the
AmigaOne? I have none. Anything else you want to tell our community? :) Don't missunderstand me, I love the Amiga - what it stands for
and for it userbilty. I still have mine at home and I still buy
games such as Shogo and HereticII. Unfortunately the Amiga on its
own will not keep a company in business - and untill people who
are making or publishing for the new Amiga are willing to show
(non bedroom) developers that they believe in the platform by
paying advances or paying for development rather than offering
just a small royalty on each game sold then companies like ours,
who need to pay wages will not be able to make games for it.
Sorry. Regards and best intentions Andrew Reed Project Development Director ClearWater Interactive
Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1992 583223 Fax: +44 (0) 1992 583224 Email:
andy@cwdc.co.uk WWW: http://www.cw-i.com WWW: http://www.clearwater-uk.com
