I must congratulate you for this top-notch Louis Castle interview. Louis hired me to work at Westwood in 1996 and I left there in 2001. His technical and artistic knowledge runs deep, but you were keeping pace with every detail. He often got way over my head leaving me more confused than a blind lesbian on a tuna boat! Again, great interview and I tip my hat to you.
Wow, what an interview! 35:34 "Studied all the permutations of sand" - Wow, so that's the mindset made their games look incredible. Thank you Louis and your entire team at Westwood Associates/ Studios for providing me with a fantasy escape during my difficult teenage years with Dune II and the incredibly immersive Eye of the Beholder I + II games. Later, I got some relief during University with the underappreciated Nox.
Dam... I almost cried because of his face and look when he explained about the 2.5 TB studio archive being lost. Such an amazing person and one of the game developers who really moved mountains to produce these games. Hat's off to your sir! Love forever, your C&C fan!
Yeah. I noticed he laughed at the end but deep inside I know it hurts. Sometimes we just have to laugh at tragedy because the alternative is much worse.
@@perafilozof oh yeah, I had heard the story as well. Apparently the drives were on a RAID array or something and once taken out and thrown around, well, it was pretty much game over. It’s a real shame. A lot of (I assume) really cool stuff that was developed and never used for the C&C franchise (they had been working on 3 projects before their closure: Incursion (C&C3), Continuum (C&C Online) and Battlegrounds (Renegade 2)) was probably lost right then and there (I think Continuum was stopped before Earth & Beyond, though). All that work meant to guarantee the IP’s future…Just…Gone. We’re lucky some people convinced EA to continue with the IP for a few more years. C&C3/KW was really fun and RA3’s gameplay was great, as well.
This was a great production! What a ride. I grew up playing all of the C&C games and I was devastated when I found out that Westwood was no more. I still remember the glee and excitement for the release of C&C Tiberian Sun in particular... man those were truly the golden days of gaming. *sigh. Thanks for making this! All the best
He eyes are bright and full of nostalgia. It is clear that he would be happy to return to the starting point. Sometimes he can't resist telling you something new about the past. Well done, he's holding up cheerfully!
AWESOME! After seeing you on the AmigaBill stream today, (29-Dec-2024) I just HAD to watch this. I love hearing from the folks who created games that I love. I still have my ORIGINAL copy of Blade Runner that I purchased the day it was released. Thank you so much.
Thank you for this. My favorite game job ever. My first and I owe Lou a lot for giving me that experience. A good man and I’m proud to have been in that era of gaming. Lou was fun to play golf with too! 😊
I welled up a little listening to him describe the loss of all the data after the closure. I hope he knows how much his and his teams' work inspired others to create games and other creative works in gaming.
That Compaq 7600 is my primary center monitor that is on 1:05:51.. I love CRTs.. I got an OLED to the left. CRT in middle, CRT to the right and two 4K Monitors on a stand abover the CRTs. Loving this video so far! I miss Westwood Studios!
@@HumanInteract Same here! Found it on Ebay. Well mine was open box, but never used. It was exciting pulling the plastic off of it and so forth!... But for real - loved the video! I've always wonderd why Westwood disappeared after EA bought them, I legit always blamed EA (because it seemed to be everything EA bought disappeared). But when he says why, it actually makes a bit of since. I really miss W3D. They are the reason I'm into game dev now. Discovered modding during Tiberian Sun times as a kid and been doin it since. I really appreciate this video man.
First time I´ve watched a so long video, just wanted to hear the C&C part but the whole interview was just amazing. One could only wonder what could´ve happened have they gone the Microsoft way, phew. I´m one of those hating EA for what they´ve done to C&C but I guess everything he said makes totally sense, I´m speechless.
When I worked at Westwood, I talked with the video people and tried to get them to save the video in a format that could be usable in the future. I was told that no one will want to play the games in 20 years. They were wrong. Management was worried a lot about the source code getting stolen. There were rumors that Blizzard had stolen some source to make Warcraft. So the long run saving of source code was not a priority. Security was the focus.
If only they did safekeep it. In the end, the source code for TD and RA to be remastered somehow was found. I have hopes for the same thing happening to TS and RA2.
12:53 This is exactly what happened with me as well! Ironically enough, my interest in video games and game design started with Command & Conquer. Shame that WW went down under. Seemed like a great place to work at, filled with amazing and creative people. I'm so happy and thankful for WW Studios and the team behind it. If any former WW folks ever read this - Thank you, all of you!
Can't wait to watch this, Westwood Studios made one of my favorite games that not a lot of people know about: Monopoly (1995). Yes, they made a version of Monopoly and they poured all of their love into the game, elevating it to a level no iteration since ever has. The music was actually beautiful (for midi), every token had its own personality, movement style and reactions to the board, and every space had an FMV tied to it that changed depending on the state of that space but actually let you live in the world of that board space for a few seconds. Phenomenal game, absolutely standout. Oh yeah and they made Command & Conquer too I guess.
Yes the monopoly part surprised me. I played it after talking to Louis about it. And… It’s great! I can’t believe I missed it. It outsold games like quake and descent which I was definitely obsessed with at that time.
23:06 I know that's how the Command & Conquer multiplayer games were synchronised - they just synchronised the random number generators on each side and only sent through the actual user interactions with the games, and that was enough to keep them synchronised.
35:47 Oh, wow, even back then, strategy games were niche. Well, hopefully the cycle isn't strategy games going from being niche to being niche again x)
I think with League of Legends cemented the MOBS genre with over 140 million monthly active users. StarCraft 2 has over 0.5 million monthly active users. Both are large enough numbers for this genre to produce a healthy amount to employ teams.
Possibly, but We recently played C&C Remastered on our stream last week, and it was easy and fun to jump into. You just need to start the community of players yourself and be consistent if you want a game to stay alive.
Westwood wasn't the kind of studio to produce to EA AAA standards, "freedom with their exceptions" is really what it came down to be instead of full creative controll. They probably would've been better of with Microsoft (but who knows, I didn't even know MS was even in the race untill I saw this). It's sad that Virgin chose to sell in the first place, and EA didn't sell (but chose to shut Westwood down instead) in second place I guess. Tib Sun and RA2 Remasterd when ? ;)
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I must congratulate you for this top-notch Louis Castle interview. Louis hired me to work at Westwood in 1996 and I left there in 2001. His technical and artistic knowledge runs deep, but you were keeping pace with every detail. He often got way over my head leaving me more confused than a blind lesbian on a tuna boat! Again, great interview and I tip my hat to you.
Greatest boss ever!!! Lou taught me everything I still use today about building a fun and productive work culture.
I worked with him briefly too. He is a very great guy.
Hey Joe. Kearns here. Agreed. Best boss ever is right. Class act and a wonderful experience working at Westwood. Fond memories for sure.
Wow, what an interview! 35:34 "Studied all the permutations of sand" - Wow, so that's the mindset made their games look incredible. Thank you Louis and your entire team at Westwood Associates/ Studios for providing me with a fantasy escape during my difficult teenage years with Dune II and the incredibly immersive Eye of the Beholder I + II games. Later, I got some relief during University with the underappreciated Nox.
Dam... I almost cried because of his face and look when he explained about the 2.5 TB studio archive being lost. Such an amazing person and one of the game developers who really moved mountains to produce these games. Hat's off to your sir! Love forever, your C&C fan!
Yeah. I noticed he laughed at the end but deep inside I know it hurts. Sometimes we just have to laugh at tragedy because the alternative is much worse.
@@perafilozof oh yeah, I had heard the story as well. Apparently the drives were on a RAID array or something and once taken out and thrown around, well, it was pretty much game over. It’s a real shame. A lot of (I assume) really cool stuff that was developed and never used for the C&C franchise (they had been working on 3 projects before their closure: Incursion (C&C3), Continuum (C&C Online) and Battlegrounds (Renegade 2)) was probably lost right then and there (I think Continuum was stopped before Earth & Beyond, though). All that work meant to guarantee the IP’s future…Just…Gone.
We’re lucky some people convinced EA to continue with the IP for a few more years. C&C3/KW was really fun and RA3’s gameplay was great, as well.
@@Alex06CoSonic I think my soul will suffer less if I am kept in the dark about those projects. Less stuff to be sorry about.
This was a great production! What a ride. I grew up playing all of the C&C games and I was devastated when I found out that Westwood was no more. I still remember the glee and excitement for the release of C&C Tiberian Sun in particular... man those were truly the golden days of gaming. *sigh. Thanks for making this! All the best
He eyes are bright and full of nostalgia. It is clear that he would be happy to return to the starting point.
Sometimes he can't resist telling you something new about the past.
Well done, he's holding up cheerfully!
AWESOME! After seeing you on the AmigaBill stream today, (29-Dec-2024) I just HAD to watch this. I love hearing from the folks who created games that I love. I still have my ORIGINAL copy of Blade Runner that I purchased the day it was released. Thank you so much.
Thank you for this. My favorite game job ever. My first and I owe Lou a lot for giving me that experience. A good man and I’m proud to have been in that era of gaming. Lou was fun to play golf with too! 😊
This was fantastic, particularly the Blade Runner segment.
Amiga Bill sent me! Thanks for this vid...Dune II on Amiga changed my life !!!
I welled up a little listening to him describe the loss of all the data after the closure. I hope he knows how much his and his teams' work inspired others to create games and other creative works in gaming.
I will dedicate 2 hours of my life for this
That Compaq 7600 is my primary center monitor that is on 1:05:51.. I love CRTs.. I got an OLED to the left. CRT in middle, CRT to the right and two 4K Monitors on a stand abover the CRTs. Loving this video so far! I miss Westwood Studios!
I was fortunate to find this monitor as new old stock. It’s incredibly sharp and great for filming.
@@HumanInteract Same here! Found it on Ebay. Well mine was open box, but never used. It was exciting pulling the plastic off of it and so forth!... But for real - loved the video! I've always wonderd why Westwood disappeared after EA bought them, I legit always blamed EA (because it seemed to be everything EA bought disappeared). But when he says why, it actually makes a bit of since. I really miss W3D. They are the reason I'm into game dev now. Discovered modding during Tiberian Sun times as a kid and been doin it since. I really appreciate this video man.
First time I´ve watched a so long video, just wanted to hear the C&C part but the whole interview was just amazing. One could only wonder what could´ve happened have they gone the Microsoft way, phew. I´m one of those hating EA for what they´ve done to C&C but I guess everything he said makes totally sense, I´m speechless.
When I worked at Westwood, I talked with the video people and tried to get them to save the video in a format that could be usable in the future. I was told that no one will want to play the games in 20 years. They were wrong.
Management was worried a lot about the source code getting stolen. There were rumors that Blizzard had stolen some source to make Warcraft. So the long run saving of source code was not a priority. Security was the focus.
If only they did safekeep it. In the end, the source code for TD and RA to be remastered somehow was found. I have hopes for the same thing happening to TS and RA2.
I will always advocate for companies to save source files. The IP you’re building with successful games will always be valuable.
The Legend - nice interview
Thank you. I took time to make this one good.
Dune 2 was the title that changed everything for me!
Me too, because it was my first game I worked on!
What a legend i would personally back up their archive if any of it is left
12:53 This is exactly what happened with me as well! Ironically enough, my interest in video games and game design started with Command & Conquer.
Shame that WW went down under. Seemed like a great place to work at, filled with amazing and creative people. I'm so happy and thankful for WW Studios and the team behind it. If any former WW folks ever read this - Thank you, all of you!
This is the content I need.
This is such an incredible video
Brings back lots of memories. Fun to hear it from the business side.
I saw so little video game business content online I just wanted to make things I wanted to watch.
Can't wait to watch this, Westwood Studios made one of my favorite games that not a lot of people know about: Monopoly (1995). Yes, they made a version of Monopoly and they poured all of their love into the game, elevating it to a level no iteration since ever has. The music was actually beautiful (for midi), every token had its own personality, movement style and reactions to the board, and every space had an FMV tied to it that changed depending on the state of that space but actually let you live in the world of that board space for a few seconds. Phenomenal game, absolutely standout.
Oh yeah and they made Command & Conquer too I guess.
Yes the monopoly part surprised me. I played it after talking to Louis about it. And… It’s great! I can’t believe I missed it. It outsold games like quake and descent which I was definitely obsessed with at that time.
23:06 I know that's how the Command & Conquer multiplayer games were synchronised - they just synchronised the random number generators on each side and only sent through the actual user interactions with the games, and that was enough to keep them synchronised.
as a C&C fan, it also comes to play on making anything I use in my fanstories deviates from official canon even in crossovers
wonderful interview just forgot "Lands Of Lore" Franchise. One of the first FPS/dugeon crawlers the first with cd real voices
Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Dune 2000, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 , Emperor: Battle for Dune, Command & Conquer: Renegade......ALL Fantasict GAMES!
Generals and C&C3 Tiberium Wars / Kanes Wrath are good too.
@@v4skunk739 Affirmative but its EA Los Angeles games some of the people from Westwood worked there too as far as I remember
How'd you contact him to get interview
I’ve been in the industry for a while. I know a guy or two.
This was wonderful. 👍
Legend.
Please do a Kenneth Alan Lobb (ken lobb) interview! ❤
The publisher Deep Silver should outsource the Geo Mod engine to the next studio that works on a new Red Faction game if it happens.
35:47 Oh, wow, even back then, strategy games were niche.
Well, hopefully the cycle isn't strategy games going from being niche to being niche again x)
I think with League of Legends cemented the MOBS genre with over 140 million monthly active users. StarCraft 2 has over 0.5 million monthly active users. Both are large enough numbers for this genre to produce a healthy amount to employ teams.
Damn...if Microsoft got them C&C would be thriving probably now like AoE does! 😢
Possibly, but We recently played C&C Remastered on our stream last week, and it was easy and fun to jump into. You just need to start the community of players yourself and be consistent if you want a game to stay alive.
@HumanInteract EA killed the C&C franchise even if he tried not to blame anyone it is true. They do nothing with the I.P for years now. Shame
Westwood wasn't the kind of studio to produce to EA AAA standards, "freedom with their exceptions" is really what it came down to be instead of full creative controll. They probably would've been better of with Microsoft (but who knows, I didn't even know MS was even in the race untill I saw this). It's sad that Virgin chose to sell in the first place, and EA didn't sell (but chose to shut Westwood down instead) in second place I guess.
Tib Sun and RA2 Remasterd when ? ;)
Louis admitted that Microsoft would have been better in the long run but it was hard to have that kind of visibility during the sale.
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He still makes games!