Interviews by an Optimist # 46 -
Peter Olotka
Creative Consultants has extensive design experience having created over 50 award-winning games and projects. Peter, together with his son Greg, as Future Pastimes and Creative Consultants, have designed products in virtually every form of media including: museum kiosk, computer, Internet, board, card, kit, large group experience, VCR, CD-ROM, laser disc, interactive cable, interactive movie, TV game show, and radio. They have worked as game and exhibit designers and consultants to dozens of companies including AT&T, Disney, CBS, Children's Television Workshop, Boston Museum of Science, National Inventor's Hall of Fame, Discovery Networks, Electronic Arts, Ford, IBM, Lucas Arts, Scholastic, Sundance, WGBH TV and WNET TV. Peter has a Masters Degree from Emerson College in Mass Communications. Greg has extensive experience in prototype and layout design, Flash, Website design and is pursuing an MIS degree at Northeastern University.
Current Project
Cosmic Encounter Online, an online multiplayer science fiction game where players become aliens each with a unique power to break one rule of the game
Science Fiction Work
Cosmic Encounter Online / Cosmic Encounter Board Game
Frank Herbert’s DUNE board game for Avalon Hill
Marion Zimmer’s DARKOVER board game for Eon Products
StarTrek, the Enterprise Encounter, board game for West End games
Star Trek, Discover Extremes at Starfleet Academy, internet game for TryScience & Paramount
Isaac Asimov’s Robots, VCR game for Kodak
Argos Expedition, Computer game for Children’s Television Workshop & CBS
Weather Tamers, Computer game for Children’s Television Workshop & CBS
TV
Beast From Loch Ness (NOVA, broadcast 1999)– Expedition Manager, Peter Olotka
Recent Work
NBA CourtSide Live a Flash internet application that handles statistics, play by play for all live NBA basketball games.
EPCOT IBM Innoventions – design for 16 person public space interactive racing game
WNBA Flash, an internet Flash application for the WNBA for all live
WNBA games
eGames, Consulting for WGBH TV , Boston on engineering game show for kids
Sparks, a ‘booklet’ game for WGBH TV in Boston in conjunction with a NOVA program on Wildfires. The game is to be distributed by the National Park Service.
Consulting for Lucas Learning on the development of their website.
Video Periscope for California Science Center & Getty Art Museum - Nominated for the 1999 new England MIMC Award - best entertainment
Design Your Own Car for Spirit of Ford - Winner of the 2000 New England MIMC Award - best entertainment
Discover Extremes at Starfleet Academy - for TryScience.org and Paramount
A science fiction board game, Cosmic Encounter published by Hasbro – inducted into the Adventure Gaming hall of Fame
Tom Vasel: Peter, what do you think when you see, all across the internet, many people claiming that Cosmic Encounter was the first step into their plunging into the wonderful world of board games?
Peter Olotka: Well, the demographics of players who come to Cosmic Encounter Online are interesting. A majority of our players have never heard of the board game. When they play online, it doesn't occur to them that there even is a board game.
As we get further into the online design, it seems to us that this is the true medium for Cosmic Encounter. For me it is a certainty that if there had been an internet in 1972, when we first dreamed up Cosmic, that the game would have been designed for online play. My contention is that players would have thought us crazy if we then decided to make it into a board game. Think of the clunky distribution of tokens, the difficulty in seeing the game status in a glance, doing all the math for the "numbers" aliens in your head. Tracking experience points on paper for the warrior, knowing precisely when to use your power or play an artifact (instead of hollering “wait wait" while you read through
the fine points of a card).
I think that it is more the case that we get die hard board gamers playing their first online game, than the other way around. The elegant thing about cosmic online is that with other players in the game (not just bots) there is a highly social experience taking place. To us this is what Cosmic Online does best. There is no quibble with the concept that online is a very vibrant social environment, and that Cosmic is one of the all time social games.
Tom Vasel: Of the board games, which version of Cosmic Encounter do you prefer? And who currently has the license for the game?
Peter Olotka: A no brainer. I prefer our original Eon Products version. I think it is always hard for designers to like other peoples' interpretations of their work. There are some items in other versions that I like such as the Hasbro game board, which (counter-intuitively) is designed to allow a 5th and 6th player. Versions published: Japan, Denmark, Sweden, England, Germany (2), France, Brazil (pirate).
The license is held by Eon Products. Hasbro's term expired in October '04. They are still selling the remainders. We are open to companies interested in republishing the game. We want to have a publisher who will work with us to tie it into the online experience.
Tom Vasel: What is your preferred method of playing Cosmic Encounter? (number of players, moons, etc.)?
Peter Olotka: When playing the board game, I like five players. It’s better than four, because there is a swing element, and better than six, because you don't have to wait as long for a turn. I like the moons, because they add an element of whimsy, and because it increases the strategic options.
When playing online, some of the best games were 4 player tournament play members-only with only solo wins allowed.
Tom Vasel: You are most well known for Cosmic Encounter, but your design team made several other games. Do you think any of these games are superior to Cosmic Encounter, or at the least under-appreciated?
Peter Olotka: For Eon Products we made Runes, a clever word game, QUiRKS an evolution game, Borderlands (also published as Lords of Conquest for EA), Darkover based on Mario Zimmer Bradley's books and HOAX - the game of imposters. We also designed DUNE based of Frank Herbert's series for Avalon Hill. At one point we had designed only 7 games and 6 of them were on Games Magazine's Games 100. In each game we designed in features that no other game had.
Overall, I have designed dozens and dozens of games many of which are embedded in museum kiosks, booklets, tv shows and events. But of all the body of work I think that our DUNE game is at times more of a favorite than Cosmic. Its more strategic and less luck based. But we did borrow heavily from Cosmic for the concept of different powers
being assigned to each player.
Tom Vasel: Many people were pleased that Avalon Hill produced a new version of Cosmic Encounter but were disappointed about a lack of expansion(s). Will we see more from Avalon Hill, or some other company? Cosmic Encounter is at its best when the options are huge.
Peter Olotka: We worked with Hasbro to try and influence them to make expansion sets for Cosmic Encounter, but they were not interested. When the Avalon Hill line was moved to Wizards of the Coast (another Hasbro company), we hoped that they would promote Cosmic to their vast Magic the Gathering audience. WOTC was specifically NOT interested in doing so. We never figured out why they were not interested in selling Cosmic, but in the numerous communications I had with them they reiterated in writing that they would never cross promote Cosmic Encounter to the Magic audience. We even laid out a specific strategy to appeal to Magic players. The contract with them has expired, and they are simply selling off remaining stock. We (Eon Products) will seek another publisher, who is interested in a) doing expansion sets and b) is interested in
cross promotion with Cosmic Encounter Online.
Tom Vasel: Well, hopefully another publisher will be found (anyone reading this should TAKE NOTE!). Are there any games that you guys designed that you think should be republished as well?
Peter Olotka: Gee, how do I come up with an unbiased answer? All of them of course!
But if I had to pick here would be my order:
1) DUNE and the 2 Expansion Sets to DUNE
2) QUiRKS
3) Borderlands
4) RUNES
5) HOAX
6) Darkover
Tom Vasel: With most (all if I'm not mistaken) of your games, you worked with a team of two other designers. What was that like?
Peter Olotka: When designing something that's a group experience, it seems like a good idea to have other people involved. For the Eon games there were different combinations of: Jack Kittredge, Bill Eberle, Bill Norton, Ned Horn and me. But Bill Eberle, Jack and I were the core of the designers. We billed ourselves as Future Pastimes. On some projects I worked with just one of the others. After we stopped designing as Eon, I worked on my own as Creative Consultants. And later worked with my son Greg in that business. A lot of our design work for museums or corporate clients involved large teams of people from around the country.
I resurrected the Future Pastimes name to create a limited liability company to develop and produce Cosmic Encounter Online. Future Pastimes now consists of Greg, Bill Eberle and myself. We license the rights to Cosmic from Eon Products.
Team design has its good and weak points. Most of us need others to filter and enhance ideas. On the other hand most of us don't want the hassle of getting consensus - especially when it has to come from an outside force (like a corporate marketer for example). So it’s always a balancing act. Within the Eon and Future Pastimes designers we had a pretty successful collaboration process. People would dig in on issues that were important to them and let other things slide. Total breakdowns were somewhat rare, and most of the time we all felt that our contributions made it into the game.
Tom Vasel: Why haven't we seen a new board game from you guys in the past several years?
Peter Olotka: You use the term "several" years loosely. It's more like several decades.
When we were running Eon Products, we were a soup to nuts board game company. We did everything including sweeping the warehouse at times. We created Eon Software along the way and designed Lords of Conquest for EA. C64, Atari and PC versions. We also started the very first Cosmic Encounter Online for the Apple 2GS - with Mediagenics aka Activision. Steve Case, yes THE Steve Case pre AOL was a play tester.
The board game business, despite our critical successes, was not a financial winner. So we licensed off the rights to our games to West End games and went into software. After a while we just got out of the business as a team all together.
After that there were a couple of VCR games that I did with Jack Kittredge, outside of the Eon realm. Isaac Asimov’s ROBOTS for KODAK and two Mystery games for Spinnaker, Agatha Christie’s Behind the Screen and Ellery Queen’s Operation Murder. Bill and I did a Star Trek board game for West End. That was our last published game. I stayed in the design business. And team-wise Greg, Bill and I continue the legacy with our work on Cosmic Encounter Online.
Here is the critical acclaim list:
Peter Olotka
GAME DESIGN AWARDS
Current
WGBH: Wildfire: A Family Activity Book
APEX Award for Publication Excellence 2003
Distinguished Achievement the Association of Educational Publishers 2002
FORD: Design Your Own Car
MIMC Award for Best Entertainment Product 1999
California Science Center & Getty Video Periscope
Nominated: MIMC Award for Best Communications Software 1998
COSMIC ENCOUNTER (also published Japan, England, Germany, France, Sweden, Finland)
Inducted: Adventure Gaming hall of Fame: 1997
Selected: Games 200 Games Magazine 1996 called "one of the most original games of modern times"
Voted: Best Science Fiction Board Game 1992 Origins Awards
Voted: Best Science Fiction Board Game 1982 Games Day, London, England
Voted: Best Science Fiction Board Game 1980, 1981 Space Gamer Magazine
Voted: 2nd Best Family Game (after Monopoly) 1980, 1981 Games Day, London
Selected: Games 100 Games Magazine's "Best Games" 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1993
Selected: Honorable Mention "Top Ten Games" 1980 Omni Magazine
BUZZLE
Nominated: Game of the Year Germany 1995 Available for US license
DISCOVERY TRAILS at LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER
Selected: for the Synergy Project, an Annenberg/PBS math & science initiative 1994
DUNE (also published in France 1993)
Selected: Golden Ace Award Cannes International Games Festival, France 1993
Selected: Games 100 "Best Games" 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 Games Magazine
Voted: (Top 2) Science Fiction Board Games 1980 Space Gamer Magazine
Voted: (Top 4) Science Fiction Board Games 1982 Space Gamer Magazine
3-2-1 CONTACT: WILD THINGS! for the Children’s Television Workshop
Selected: Software Award of Excellence, Technology & Learning, 1991
Selected: Software Honors, Parents' Choice; Media & Methods, 1991
ISAAC ASIMOV'S ROBOTS VCR MYSTERY for Kodak
Nominated: American Film Institute Video Awards, Games & Magic 1988
LORDS OF CONQUEST (also published in England)
Selected: CES Software Showcase Award 1986
Selected: Critics Choice Award Political Game of the Year 1986, Family Computing
Selected: 10 Best Strategy Games 1986, Ahoy Magazine
PATHWORDS
Selected: Best Computer Word Games 1984 Games 100 "Best Games", Games
Magazine
QUiRKS (also published in Japan, England) Available for license
Selected: "Ten Best Games" 1981 Omni Magazine
Selected: Games 100 "Best Games" 1981, 1982 Games Magazine
Voted: (Top 3) Most Popular Family Games 1982 Games Day, London,
England
Voted: (Top 4) Best Science Fiction Board Games Space Gamer Magazine
Voted: (Top 5) Best New Game 1982 Games Day, London, England
DARKOVER
Selected: Games 100 "Best Games" 1982 Games Magazine
Selected: Honorable Mention "Ten Best Games" 1982 Omni Magazine
RUNES (also published in Germany)
Selected: Games 100 "Best Games -word games" 1982 Games Magazine
BORDERLANDS (two editions published in Germany)
Selected: Games 100 "Best Games" 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 Games Magazine
DISCOVERY TRAILS at Liberty Science Center
Selected: Synergy Project, an Annenberg/PBS math & science initiative 1994
3-2-1 CONTACT: WILD THINGS! for the Children’s Television Workshop
Selected: Software Award of Excellence, Technology & Learning, 1991
Selected: Software Honors, Parents' Choice; Media & Methods, 1991
Tom Vasel: Is Cosmic Encounter Online a hobby of yours, or a viable business?
Peter Olotka: Well, it’s currently my only business. And it has always been a hobby as well.
Tom Vasel: When you look over the crowd of people who are currently playing Cosmic Encounter, and as you play in games yourself, are there any things you notice? Like are they die-hard board gamers, etc.?
Peter Olotka: Virtually all of the games I play now are online. The gamers could not be more differentiated from one another. Perhaps 40% have played the board game, and 60% are new. There are a fair amount of women female players. The age range goes from around 12 to 60. When I ask what else players play, the responses are as divergent as the players...it could be Warcraft, Doom, Poker, Bridge, Magic. The commonality among players is that they are smart and have a sense of humor.
Tom Vasel: How do most of them find their way to the site?
Peter Olotka: When players google for online multiplayer games, Cosmic Encounter Online is always in the top 10.
Tom Vasel: Why did you change the numbers on the online Cosmic Encounter - numbers of planets, number of planets needed to win, etc.? Was it to make the computer version go faster, or is it the optimal way to play - even with the board game?
Peter Olotka: We changed from 5 planets to 4 to save on screen area estate. And we changed from 20 ships to 16 and 4 colonies to win to shorten the game. I think that it’s better for online, since it makes for a faster game. I think that for the board game, the current configurations are OK> But one could opt for a quicker game by cutting down the various numbers. I like shorter games, because I am always interested in the different combinations of aliens and how they interact. Shorter games mean more combinations. With 75 aliens there are 1.4 million different alien combinations. That’s a lot of gaming hours
Tom Vasel: What aliens are your favorites?
Peter Olotka: Usually I go with Philanthropist. Consider:
1) It can give away all the junk - forcing other players to use bad pods.
2) It gets a new set of pods... running out frequently during the game
3) It can use its power as Offense, Defense and ally
4) As an ally it can give a GOOD POD to its ally - a huge advantage often not used by players
5) I think that it is generally under rated. That is an advantage, because it is Rarely zapped.
6) It is very strategic over all.
As we do more online aliens, I hope to find a favorite that works only online.
Tom Vasel: What games by other designers do you enjoy playing?
Peter Olotka: OK - guess I have to answer - I don't really play any. Which is not to say that I would not enjoy games by other designers. But since my real gaming time is limited, I usually wind up playing our own games. After all, we made them because we didn't want to play other people’s games.
Tom Vasel: I'm surprised that you don't play many games, especially when many designers, Richard Garfield for example, claim Cosmic Encounter as the inspiration for some of their games. Can you tell us the story of how Cosmic Encounter came into being?
Peter Olotka: Sure. In the early 70's I had sort of gotten into playing a lot of RISK with friends. The games took hours, and players were often eliminated way before the game ended, and others were still in but knew that they could never win. And the tedium of rolling dice was wearing us down.
At the time I was not working and was thinking about looking for creative work of some kind. I saw an article in the paper about a couple of guys who made the Godfather game. And thought that I could do something like that.
So the initial impetus for Cosmic was to be NOT RISK. I was also reading a lot of science fiction, and there were no science fiction games in existence. I asked Bill Eberle to help think about it with me. We came up with a list of principles for our game.
It would be science fiction.
It would be different each time you played.
Players would be able to win together.
There would be a balance of compromise and attack.
There would be no dice.
Players would not be eliminated before the game ended.
We built a prototype...
Along the way we took on 2 more partners Jack Kittredge and Bill Norton. Norton sold his share back to us early on.
We got Parker Brothers to license the game in the mid seventies. But the deal fell through, and we formed Eon Products and did it ourselves.
Tom Vasel: Probably the biggest thing about Cosmic Encounter is the alien powers. How did these find their way into the design, or were they a big part of it to begin with?
Peter Olotka: The alien powers were there from the start as part of the requirement that you would always be "different" from the other players. But for several years we only had six aliens. When the game was licensed to Parker Brothers, there were only six. Then when we made our own game as Eon, we "discovered" that aliens could be unlimited. Looking back, all I can say is that we were a bit slow on "getting" the expandability of the game. The aliens were part of the design from day one. In fact we simply began to speculate about how much fun it would be for all of these strange beings to run into one another. Our sense was that to be successful, the aliens would have to feel very different. With that in mind I still feel embarrassed that it took us years to imagine more than six aliens.
Tom Vasel: So what new features can we expect to see at Cosmic Encounter Online in the future?
Peter Olotka: For Cosmic Online we will be adding more aliens and features. We are going to create new aliens that can only function online and blend in as many of the existing board game aliens as we can.
Last week we added the BRAT, which jumps the game ahead to the next game state when it throws a 'fit'. We will add the DORK after that and then perhaps the Dictator - from the board game. It chooses what alien the other players must encounter.
Other features planned for online are:
Joining games in progress,
multiple powers,
Flares
More Artifacts (edicts to boardgamers)
Five player games.
Lucre - tied into the m-ric system in some way
Moon if we can bear it
Tom Vasel: Peter, thanks so much for your input and thanks for your contributions to gaming! Do you have any final comments for our readers?
Peter Olotka: Well, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to talk about our work. And thanks to all the gamers out there who play our games. One of the great surprises of Cosmic Encounter is that it has survived 3 decades, and it still qualifies as one of the best games on many gamers' lists. We are very appreciative of their kind words. We would not have predicted the dazzling number of cosmic variants, homespun powers, player 'improvements' to our rules that have sprung up around the cosmic universe.
In the last few years, we have sunk heart, soul and fortune into bringing Cosmic into today's online world and would love to meet more board gamers online. I am online playing virtually every day; and when the Cosmic 'elite' show up, I appreciate the chance to chat about the game, get advice about features that players would like to see, compare
board game play to online and see how we can meet the needs of the Cosmic board game community. Many CE gamers who came and tried CE online two years ago felt that it wasn't complex enough to suit their gaming needs and did not return. At the time we had 19 aliens and 3,876 aliens and fewer artifacts. We will have 31 aliens fairly soon with
31,465 alien combinations. When we launched, the bots only had 'baby' AI, and there were a host of audio and animation features that we have upgraded. Today when a player has to leave and a bot comes in, the Bot has a good chance at beating the humans.
It's a pretty simple equation. The more CE board gamers can support us, the more features we can add. So we would like to re-invite the CE board gaming crowd to cosmic online. We need your support and would love to have you in League Play. Additionally, we would like to chat with gamers about the next version of the CE board game now that the AH contract has expired. We want to tie it in to the Online with cross promotion. We need a quality board game publisher to take on the task. Any ideas out there?
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
June 13th, 2005