PC gamers are all too familiar with products that are hyped for what seems like years before they actually arrive on store shelves.   So it might be surprising to hear that Gunman Chronicles, a new 3D action game from Sierra Studios and ReWolf Software, was announced only three weeks ago and is due for release by the end of the year.  

What makes Gunman stand out from other games due for release in the new few months?  First and foremost, it uses the Half-Life engine and is endorsed by Valve Software.   Originally started by a group of online enthusiasts as a modification for id Software’s Quake, Gunman Chronicles slowly changed into a full-blown retail product partially funded by Valve Software.  The game promises a whole new single-player experience with new art, sound, weapons, and monsters.

Despite all the new content, a simple question lingers: Can a bunch of Internet fans actually build a game that competes with the best and brightest software developers out there?  Last week, Herb Flower, project leader of Gunman, took some time out from the game’s hectic production schedule to answer our questions about Rewolf’s first game and Gunman’s unique development story.

GameSlice: My first question is straightforward: where did Gunman Chronicles come from?  I mean, how did a bunch of game fans with no commercial development experience decide to make a game?  A lot of people surely dream about doing such a thing, but to actually take the first steps to executing such a vision must be difficult.

Herb: Actually, you’ve got that backwards.  Starting up is easy, but sticking to it long enough to see it finished is difficult.  The Rewolf crew is made up of people who got so caught up in the project that we “forgot to look at the clock” and kept on going. 

Originally Gunman was going to be a MOD for Quake.  When did you decide to make the move to the Half-Life engine?  What was the Half-Life engine going to offer you over the original Quake engine?

Herb: Two years ago we were invited to use the Half-Life engine by Harry Teasley at Valve.  While working with Quake engines we were very confined and restricted with what we could do.  Valve must have noticed this, because they opened up a whole new world to mod makers by making Half-Life so flexible and friendly to modification.

I'm fascinated how this whole project started.   Did people simply e-mail you and say they were interested?  Did you recruit off the web?  I'm assuming everyone involved at the start was volunteering his or her services, right? 

Herb: That’s about it.  I let all kinds of people give it a shot.  Some of our best people had a lot to learn at first, but stuck with it and became Jedi game developers over time.

Next, Find out if anyone flaked out on the project  >