- Was "Globulos" the first multiplayer game you ever created ?

No the first one was http://www.hypraspeed.com/ then we did http://www.cubicolor.com/ then a multiplayer car game for Renault then hypraspeed V2 then http://www.trackwars.com/ and finally
http://www.globulos.com/

- Where did you take inspiration for the game ?

Olivier had made an experiment with some round objects with funny dynamics (like the one in Globulos right now). Then Fabien invented the "Arena" game concept, then Olivier added the "ball" game concept, then I (Alex) added the "Croquet" game concept, then Fabien did all the programming and Laurent did all the wonderful graphics of the game It is really a team work effort.

- Did you develop it for a client ?

Not at all. We developed it for ourselves during the spare time left between client work.

- Can you introduce the team members ?

Olive and I started the company at the end of 1999. He is the guy who did the famous "Dancer" interactive Flash 3 (!!!) animation [http://www.globz.net/index.php3?id=dancer].
He is a game designer/developer.
Fabien is a game developper also and he is the one who handles all the server side.
Laurent is a game designer/developper. I (Alex) am the one who takes care about all the rest

- How much time did it take to finish and launch it ?

The whole project lasted more than a year. The development took one month and the graphic design took another month.

- I'd like to go a little bit more into technical details.
Did you develop the multiplayer server technology ?

Yes we have developed our own Java Socket Server, we call it "GlobX". It works just fine but our whole dedicated server is suffering a lot from all the connections in all the games. We host all our games on this machine and it is not very fast. Anyway we are switching to a new machine and to Flash
Communication Server really soon.

- How many concurrent clients can this technology handle ?

We have had around 200 players at the same time. The problem is more that some clients (Flash players) can cause "some" connection problems "sometimes".
We never could identify this precisely though.

- How much bandwidth is necessary to keep the clients gameplay smooth ?

Not much. Once the game swf loaded the players only exchange small informations.
Our server has a limited bandwith of 1Mbps. If you have 100 players it takes approx. less than 100 kbs of bandwith.

- What were the main difficulties that you had to overcome during the development ?

The server overloads ! We solved the multiplayer difficulties before with all the previous games we developed. But since Globulos has started, the whole server (machine) started to be so slow... And it is really difficult to make the games stable in these conditions. Again, this will change soon hopefully.

- What version of flash did you use for developing the game ?

Flash MX. We export it in the Flash 5 format even if there is some MX code for storing the user name/password in a local Shared Object. We will export it as a Flash 6 version soon with the use of FCS.

- GlobZ is a very well known company in the entertainment/gaming field for it's creativity and quality of its productions. Can you tell us a bit about when it all started ?

Olive started it all in the end of 1998 with the "Dancer". I (Alex) met in 1999 and we worked a little together as freelance workers. Then we decided to start GlobZ as a company. Fabien arrived at the end of 2000, Laurent at the beginning of 2001.

- You seem to use Flash as the main tool for your productions, have you ever been thinking about using alternative technologies such as Shockwave or Java applets ?

Never, at least for the web. We believe Flash makes all the difference because everyone has it. Java is interesting for the server side or for mobile phones (J2Me)... Shockwave might be interesting for downloadable 3d games... Virtools is interesting also for that.

- Is Globz focused on web games or do you also develop standalone games ?

Until very recently we focused only on web games. The main problem is that it is very difficult to earn something from web games. Recently we met several people that sell downloadable games that were interested in some of our game concepts. For example, we are working on a version 2 of Viral Pursuit with more than 100 levels. It should take several hours to finish the game. For the moment we keep using Flash for those games too.

- Today, the gaming market seems to expand as new, integrated devices are hitting the scenes (mobile phones, palmtops etc...) What do you see in the future of Flash gaming / entertainment ?

Macromedia is pushing Flash on every platform which is great. Flash on mobile is really limited right now ("Flash Lite") but the hardware changes so rapidly this is going to be interesting really soon.

- How do you see the web gaming/entertainment market today ? Did it change since you started ? Is it moving towards new directions ?

It changed a lot several times ! There are less and less marketingbranded games. Downloadable games are a big trend. Multiplayer games based on subscriptions also, even if I haven't seen one made in Flash yet.

- The new FlashMX 2004 is going to be released soon and a number of new features have been announced by Macromedia. What do you expect from this new version ? Any wishlist ?

We haven't had the chance to really dig into it yet. From what we've seen there are a lot of improvements in the authoring Flash software which is always good news when you work everyday with it.

- Can you tell us about new Globz projects, if any ?

Viral Pursuit 2 as mentioned before, an action/adventure game with a fake 3d environement, plenty of new games for the Globulos.com site and several puzzle-games that are very very addictive ! We already have projects until mid 2004 !