National Video Games Examiner Patrick Hickey chats with Excalibur Games’ Sharon Stallibrass about the company’s newest Steam title, “World Ship Simulator.†Discussing the inspiration behind the game and the goals for it moving forward, Stallibrass lets us know what makes the game a unique blend of simulation and open-world gameplay.
About the Game:
Dynamic new water physics brings the game to a greater realism than ever before. Using Unity 5, the new development team has brought together a number of features, including a new career mode with complete missions.
The open-world environment allows for sailing between three ports that are available with this Early Access version. Further development will expand the ability to sail from more ports in a truly open-world.
Patrick Hickey Jr.: What was the development process for this game like?
Sharon Stallibrass: Having gone through the development of European Ship Simulator we knew what to do and more importantly, what not to do. European Ship Simulator was released on Early Access and had outstanding acclaim so we knew we were on the right track but we shouldn’t have released it as a full product so soon. World Ship Simulator takes the best from European Ship but with a new development team that has focused on what is important to players who enjoy simulation products. The water physics is key and we have waited for a new water physics engine to become available so that the handling of the vessels has a feeling of realism. How the current and the weather affects the ability to dock a ship or for a port boat to grapple with towing an ocean-going cruise ship is the most difficult thing to get right but the sense of realism is what makes a good simulation. Microsoft’s Flight Simulator is benchmark but even that has been developed and improved upon over 30 years – whilst I am not sure World Ship Sim will be around in 30 years this process of enhancement and improvement on an ongoing basis is our aim.
Continue Reading This Article From Review Fix Editor-In-Chief Patrick Hickey Jr. on Examiner.com
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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