From looking at the trailer and the micro-site, two questions occur:

1. Is the new Powerdrome going to be a 2D affair in motion terms, like WipEout (you won't be able to move up and down, just side to side)?

Up and down was looked at in some detail, and implemented in the game, but with the typical console gamepads, it's very difficult to have control of up, down, left and right, as well as looking left and right and handling additional boost and tactical moves. Character gesturing is also triggered by the player, so there was an awful lot to control in one go. It seemed to be more detrimental to solid game play and controllability to have up and down, as with left and right control only the racing is already very close and intense!

2. Did you get inspiration for one of the Blades from the Messerschmitt ME-262? :)

The concept artists who designed the Blades (Rich Wright & Steve Tappin) had a huge array of reference material, including a significant array of books, as well as aviation photographs collected from the internet. Numerous elements seen in a variety of planes (modern and not so modern) combined to create these high power, hi-tech racing machines, and while some are very modern and streamlined, others have a distinctly retro feel to them.

When is the release of Powerdrome planned?

Powerdrome is still scheduled for release in early 2004, and any updates to that will become apparent at www.argonaut.com (follow the Powerdrome link to the micro site).

What have you got for our readers?

I've elected to give away my Thunderbolt Babylon 5 model, and I'm going to give a preset or two from the Powerdrome blade renders. Hope these are fine.

Windows	Macintosh (OS X only)
Zip	StuffIt
5.64 MB	17.3 MB
For non-commercial use only

More than fine thanks Craig! This is lovely work, thank you!

Any final words for our readers?

Mmm, well, I guess the only words of wisdom I'd offer are to people aiming towards a job in the CG/Games industry. Do as much work as you can to show your talent. So many places are interested more in talent than paper/academic qualifications. Although I have done CG for many years, until two and a half years ago I was a software support analyst and had no commercial experience... but Argonaut Sheffield (Particle Systems as they used to be at the time) had faith in my ability. And I can say with experience, having seen some of the huge number of extremely shoddy showreels sent in by hopeful applicants (and agencies!) if you have talent, and can put together a smartly presented showreel, you have every chance of getting to where you want to be. Oh, and for CD-R/DVD-R-based showreels, always, always, ALWAYS test the CD in a computer other than the one you made the disc in - it's incredible how many CDs you can receive that no computer in the building can read! Make your first impression count!

Thanks for these words of wisdom as well Craig, I look forward to playing Powerdrome again! You can see more of Craig's work at his website.