Making the Game - Part 30

Here's an interesting update on the document from yesterday - it adds a list of characters, a basic plot synopsis, a list of sets and some 'reasoning' for the development of the game. Check out the story at this point -- the main character is rookie "Tom Dane", Blair is the Academy commandant, Maestro is tortured by the aliens and there's a bartender character named Roberts!

Product Review Download (8.5 MB) Date: September 11, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 19

Making the Game - Part 28

"Who is leaving to work with Chris??" asks the September 6, 1996 Component Manager Meeting agenda -- and that question is going to occupy the team, or what's left of it, for time. Several highly qualified veteran developers are about to leave to work for Digital Anvil and that is going to change what happens to Prophecy. This update is full of other news, too: there's a working testbed of the game, the Wasp is being built and WCIVPSX will not ship in time for Christmas, for example. There's even a mention of running Prophecy on a Mac...

Story Concept Document Download (3.7 MB) Date: September 6, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 8

Making the Game - Part 27

Wham, we just lost nearly a month - the next Component Manager Meeting agenda is dated August 30, 1996. The artists are finally working on alien concepts, Syd Mead has been confirmed... and there's no talk of other projects. Is this when Maniac, WCA Game, etc. died? We'll have to keep reading to find out...

Story Concept Document Download (2.5 MB) Date: August 30, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 5

Making the Game - Part 26

August 2, 1996 - development of the Tigershark begins! I sure wish we knew more about the Maniac project - we can see here that a basic story was developed... but I've never come across a single document. There's lots of interesting talk about the cartoon here, too - EA UK is still working on a Wing Commander Academy game project and Origin is in preliminary talks with Film Roman to do an Ultima animated series! Everything seemed so possible in 1996...

Story Concept Document Download (3.4 MB) Date: August 2, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 5

Making the Game - Part 25

The July 26 Component Manager Meeting agenda shows less progress than other updates but still features some interesting points. One is a reference to the "Maniac code," suggesting that more work was done on Maniac Missions than even these documents had yet implied. The other is the continuing relationship between Richard Hilleman, an EA executive once charged with saving the team after Roberts' departure, and the rest of the group.

Story Concept Document Download (2.1 MB) Date: July 26, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 5

Making the Game - Part 24

We're seeing some familiar specifics in the July 19, 1996 Component Manager Meeting agenda document -- for instance, we can see the art team going from one known ship to another... in this case, working on the Panther and then the Vampire. The team is bringing Robert Foshko, an important film professor at the University of Texas, on to teach a class in cinematics. Is he related to Adam Foshko, the Maverick veteran who will eventually direct Prophecy's film shoot?

Story Concept Document Download (1.9 MB) Date: July 19, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 5

Making the Game - Part 23

Today we begin several days of Component Manager Meeting agendas which will bring the project into early September 1996. The varied amount of audio work being done this week (July 12th) interests me - especially the notes about the Kilrathi Saga soundtrack. As you all know, Kilrathi Saga featured reworked versions of the original songs - but there was also an extensive legal component to the project, as the music for the original game was done on a contract basis rather than by an employee of Origin in 1990.

Story Concept Document Download (2.6 MB) Date: July 12, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 5

Making the Game - Part 22

This Wing Commander V Project Update is a more generalized version of the Component Manager Meeting agendas -- it includes status reports, important questions and other information on the state of the project as of July 2, 1996. It still sounds like the art department is having the most fun... although the audio guys seem very excited.

Story Concept Document Download (3.0 MB) Date: July 2, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 5

Making the Game - Part 21

Now this is beginning to feel more like home! Today we offer the Wing Commander V Mission Series Overview from July 2, 1996. This is similar to the plot concepts offered earlier in this series, except that it is the result of the team's three months of work. You'll find that it's very similar to the finished script in structure. Key differences include opening with a training series in which the player fights Kilrathi renegades and including a second character who is kidnapped and ultimately lost with Blair.

Mission Series Overview Download (5.0 MB) Date: July 2, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 6

Making the Game - Part 19

The early development continues in the June 28, 1996 Component Manager Meeting agenda. One thing that strikes me as interesting is the continual appearance of issues with EA legal over signing a screenwriter for Prophecy. Why is this? Is EA holding back the budget, are they worried about even developing the game or is there simply no standard for payment on an interactive script at this time?

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (4.0 MB) Date: June 28, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 8

Making the Game - Part 18

The June 21, 1996 Component Manager Meeting agenda starts off with an interesting list of issues that really helps get a feel for this exact point in the Maverick Team's history - what the problems where, where the future of the series was to go and so forth. One line sums it up best: "We need to show Origin/EA that we can do this without CR." Other than that: monkeys have been ruled out for the Maniac Missions story (darn!), Captain Johnny is now in England and Billy Cain is a WINNER!

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (3.8 MB) Date: June 21, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 6

Making the Game - Part 17

Two things stick out in the June 14, 1996 Wing Commander Prophecy Component Manager Meeting agenda. First is the arrival of the new Playstation Analog Joystick at Origin - a massive flight stick which makes playing Wing Commander IV PSX a breeze. Note the amount of work that's going into getting the PSX controls just right - the team must understand that Wing Commander IV will set the stage for Wing Commander Prophecy PSX and so it must work to correct the generally awkward controls from the WC3 port. The finished game will, in fact, ship with a host of optional configurations for all sorts of players. The other is that Jason Hughes is cleaning up Wing Commander 2 code for The Kilrathi Saga... if Origin was able to recover WC2 source code in 1996 then perhaps it is archived with the material at EA Mythic? We'll soon find out!

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (3.3 MB) Date: June 14, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 8

Making the Game - Part 16

The Component Manager Meeting agenda for June 7, 1996 is, as always, an interesting read. One thing that caught my eye was that assets from MCA (including fonts and other artwork) were being sent to EAUK. In more plain English, this means that material created externally for the Wing Commander Academy TV show was being sent to Erin Robert's group in England -- the people who developed Privateer 2 (and later StarLancer). How much work went into an Academy game concept? We know from the Point of Origin scans that EA's separate 'Darklight Conflict' game was also almost converted into one.

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (5.3 MB) Date: June 7, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 11

Making the Game - Part 14

The plot thickens! On May 31, 1996 the project is in the very earliest stages of development and plans are focusing on things like the makeup of the team, sharing resources with other projects and who will be contracted to write and direct the game's story elements.

There's a lot to read here - it confirms, for instance, that "Maniac Missions" was still a serious project with a planned development team at this point, and that Origin had some involvement in the Wing Commander Academy animated series. There is also a timeline attached, which shows individual deadlines for each element of the project's development. The most surprising thing is that final testing is, at this early date, scheduled to go until April 28, 1998 - some five months after the game ultimately shipped.

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (4.3 MB) Date: May 31, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 9

Making the Game - Part 13

The May 24, 1996 Component Manager Meeting agenda has an interesting list of writers considered for Wing Commander V. The choices are interesting - several are unknown and several others are best known for writing in animation: Larry Ditillio (He-Man and Babylon 5), David Carren & Larry Carroll (G.I. Joe, Ninja Turtles), Christy Marx (G.I. Joe). Marx may have an earlier connection to Origin (or Ellen Guon) - she made a cameo appearance in both Secret Missions 2 and Freedom Flight as as Confederation marine. Now, can anyone say without looking it up: who wrote the finished script?

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (4.3 MB) Date: May 24, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 7

Making the Game - Part 12

We're introduced to an interesting point in this May 7, 1996 Component Manager Meeting agenda: will Wing Commander Prophecy have an 18 or a 24 month development cycle? Corporate, of course, will ultimately win and enforce the shorter timeline... but it's very interesting to see the game being planned in the hopes of having an additional six months of development. Also: who is the Production Designer at this point? Because he seems to be having all the fun - building new destroyers and drawing a ship for Maniac Missions? I'd give my left eye to see these things.

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (4.1 MB) Date: May 17, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 8

Making the Game - Part 11

We are going to round out May, 1996 with four more Component Manager Meeting agendas. This one is May 10th. I'd love to know more about the Confederation destroyer 'test' the Production Designer has been working on through several of these reports - especially since the finished game had no human warships other than the Midway. Another interesting fact? An early title for the 'Kilrathi Saga' project was 'Kilrathi Wars'...

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (3.6 MB) Date: May 10, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 7

Making the Game - Part 9

Today we have the May 3rd, 1996 Component Manager Meeting Agenda, with comments and status updates from all the groups working on the game. What interests me the most here is the amount of control this group seems to have over the entire Wing Commander property - they're monitoring the big titles in development, Wing Commander V and Maniac Missions, but also keeping tabs on Wing Commander IV Playstation, The Darkening and even sending representatives to LA to make sure that MCA/Universal is not "fucking up the property" on Wing Commander Academy TV. I also think everyone can take something different away from these -- for example, I imagine some 3D artists probably understand what it means that the art team is all learning Alias better than I do.

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (4.2 MB) Date: May 3, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 9

Making the Game - Part 8

The organization of the game continues! Today we see a collection of documents laying out the goals and organization for the Wing Commander V Playstation team. The project was headed by Billy Cain... and it shows! Just check out the mission statement: "Our mission is to make Wing Commander 5 PSX the #1 selling version of Wing Commander, ever, on any platform (not including WC5 PC, because we would hurt their feelings)." The plans for Prophecy PSX were unique - it was to be the first time that a console version of a Wing title was developed alongside the PC project.

Wing Commander V Playstation Bible Download (4.8 MB) Date: April 30, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 11

Making the Game - Part 7

Today's document is the April 30, 1996 version of the Wing Commander V/Prophecy org chart, along with job descriptions (dated May 7, 1996) for the various leadership roles. They don't sound too bad - I could have been a Producer! How does it all stack up compared to the team that finished the project? The obvious change is Richard Hilleman as Executive Producer. Those who followed our Point of Origin series will remember that Mr. Hilleman took over the Maverick Team on a temporary basis after Chris Roberts left - Rod Nakamoto was later brought in to run the project. Hirings at the newly formed Digital Anvil will soon disrupt this chart, too - Billy Cain (presently in charge of the PSX version and not listed here) will replace Phil Wattenbarger as Lead Designer and several of the artists will also move on (including Chris Douglas and Dean McCall).

Wing Commander V Organization Chart Download (5.0 MB) Date: April 30, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 11