Jon Hare/Sensible Soccer interview

Nowadays a lot of games designers come from QA and don't get the exposure to the wider areas in the business. There is a huge dearth of games design companies because they haven't been given enough respect or power. The best companies are now starting to use a creative director and producer who can manage the project effectively. It's been an interesting experience working on this first one and the main aim has been to get Sensible Soccer back out there. When we do the second one we will add in what people want. I know what people want. They want handheld, online, SWOS style management with all the teams in the world. So do I. But we can't do all this in one hit. We have to do it bit by bit. It will probably take two or three iterations before we get everything we want. Whether this happens or whether I'm involved with it, I can't control, but hopefully the sales and feedback will make it happen.

Assuming Sensi is your pride and joy which other of your games are you most proud of and why?
In terms of respect from the industry and creating something that lots of people enjoyed then yes, Sensible Soccer is the game. Sensible Soccer is an iconic game and it is my legacy. But at heart I'm an artist so games like Wizkid, Wizball and Mega-lo-mania are ones I'm very proud of. These are what I call the out there games. In the last ten years these kind of out-there games have stopped being made. I'm waiting and hoping that these kinds of games will be made again.

What are the possibilities of a "Retro Sensible" compilation release? SWOS, Cannon Fodder + Mega Lo Mania altogether on 1 disc?
The recent compilation "toy" that bundled some games was fantastic. I thought those guys did a great job. But as for getting these on mainstream games formats - it's all up to Codemasters. I hope they realise the potential that these titles have.

I'd also I'd like to see the C64 stuff given a re-release. Some of the stuff we did on the Commodore - Wizball, Micropose Soccer - were groundbreaking products that have been lost in time. Can we please have a DS version of Cannon Fodder? The answer to any "can we have" question is ask Codemasters I would like to know why, with the lone exception of Sensible Soccer, he made games that were so difficult and virtually uncompleteable? I'm thinking the final level Mega-Lo-Mania, the skidoo levels of Cannon Fodder (I still cringe at the memory), the second half of Cannon Fodder 2, and the great bane of my childhood, Parallax, which despite my love for it was blighted by an insane level of difficulty.
We never set out to intentionally make difficult games. We always tried to judge the learning curve and add new features. The last 5 or 10% of a game you would always have to be pretty good, but that is fairly standard. Last level of Mega-lo-mania? It's easy, annoyingly easy. Cannon Fodder, to be fair, did get quite difficult. And as for Cannon Fodder 2, that was the one game I was hands off with. In hindsight I should have been more hands-on as it did get out of hand with difficulty. Parallax was our first game and we learning how to make them. It was bloody difficult to make and we still learning.

Have Codemasters given you a clear indication of how many units have to be sold to get a decent development budget to give this latest incarnation the full swos career treatment and how are sales going?
Codemasters haven't given us any clear indication of how many units we need to sell. It will be reviewed in a couple of months to see how it does. If Codies make the decision to go for it they will go for it. It looks like the signs are good though.