1- First of all, could you present youself and maybe add some background on yourself?

Well my name is Frank and i'm from Amsterdam - Holland, i started playing Populous: The Beginning about 15 years ago, when Hepple found a way to edit maps and provided me with an editor i decided to start a service called New Worlds (http://cdcy.free.fr/).
At first all the stuff we created was very buggy and even the editor was only like 25% functional, so we still had to do alot of the  editing with Hex editors, but eventually we managed to create some functional stuff and after a while the service became more popular. So i decided to expand our service and invited 1/4lb to manage a website with forums and more functionality than the first New Worlds website,  this is when Populous: Reincarnated started.
When EA announced to pull the plug on their service, i invited more programmers to the team in order to create our own  matchmaking service, the first PopRe MM was made by Servant, but it didnt live for long, the second one which is still used today, was made by Alacn. Currently we are working on a completely new service which will have a updated version of the game, we already managed to fix alot of  glitches and bugs and we are now at a point to convert the complete game to make it run in DirectX11 and openGL, this way it will be compatible with almost 
all new operating systems and software mode will be history, in short we wanna make it more like a recently released game with more compatibility,  higher graphics and better stability.

2- What is so special about Populous, that other games don't have?

To be honest i was never a fan of strategy games, before i got Populous i was more of a console platform and RPG gamer (on nintendo and sega),
then when my brother got a PC and he got this game from one of his friends, i started playing it because i was bored of consoles and i actually  really liked it because it wasnt like any other strategy game i played before, since populous had a shaman which could cast spells and modify land and stuff, 
i got instantly hooked.

3- What do you think about people wanting a Populous remake or even a Populous 4? And why?

It's logical, people who like Batman movies will always want a new movie after they seen the last one, this is exactly the same with games and dedicated players.

4- What would you say to a newcomer that is just starting to play Populous in 2015?

lol, i guess i would say the same thing as i would say to any other newcomer, "welcome", but its hard to keep up and say "welcome" to every new player, so we just put an automatic messege in our service that welcomes every new player for us :D

5- How hard is it to be a major admin of popre? What is the hardest thing overal?

The hardest thing is earning respect, some people cant imagine howmuch time and work some of us have put into all of this, and its really sad that some
people do anything to make you look bad by telling lies about you, even though youre doing everything to make everyone happy, but thats life, theres good and  bad everywhere, even in populous, after a few years you will get used to it though.

6- What happened to make you start a second PopRe with your crew, in 2015?

Well, as a leader of a team, you are the person who makes decisions on what happens in your service, due to some problems i had in real life one of the people in our team decided to take control of the service and change certain stuff in it, without my consent.
So me and that person had a few arguements when i returned, but that person ignored me and decided to remove me from my own creation and take all my privilleges  so that i could not access my own service anymore. After some of my posts on the forums got edited and some even got deleted, i made a mistake by posting something on facebook out of frustration, ofcourse i didnt mean all the things i said there but it only made things worse. Because i want to continue working on this project, and because i dont have access to my old service, i have no other choice than restarting it elsewhere.
Its either a new service with an improoved populous or nothing changes at all, i prefer the first option.

7- How important is an admin or a moderator to a community?

Probably the most important persons in the community, afterall theyre the ones in control of the service thats provided to the community, without admins or moderators there will only be chaos, its like sports without a referee.

8- What can we expect from the new service that is coming up?

I cant say much other than the things i already mentioned in my first answer, but i can say that it will be awesome!

9- How important is using the forums?

It keeps track of history and holds alot of info and such, so using forums is a good thing if you ask me.

10- What do you think is missing in Populous online?

Server based hosting, a way to make all players have the same latency, this way the game becomes abit more fair, lag can be a real killer..
But, we may find ways to realize this in the new service :)

11- What are the best ways of reaching a bigger community? How can Populous be promoted?

I have tried several ways to promote the game, we are still promoting the game on facebook and i am in contact with several game websites that have blogs and news feeds and stuff like that, i am currently working on a promotion with Origin (EA) and GoG, when the new version of the game is released they may also link our new service on their websites, on the pages where people can buy the game online.

12- How important is streaming for this community, or even for the promotion of Populous?

It depends on what people stream to be honest, theres nothing wrong with streaming games to show how much fun the game is, but streaming games in order
to teach other players how to abuse glitches and allow cheats in the game is a different story imo...

13- Along with a new matchmaker and site, can we expect a "new Populous" game, with new features, units, buildings, rather than just a Populous fixed game?

Our plan is to keep the basics of the game exactly as they always were in the new version, the only changes will be graphics, compatibility,  stability and bugfixes.
Once thats done, we will experiment with other features, one of them will be to add 4 new tribes, but this will be part of an "expansion" and not
added to the classic version, so the answer will be yes, you can expect a new populous "expansion" in the near future.
The expansion will be called "Populous: Reincarnated", and we also have plans to release DLC's / patches with new content every few months.

14- How many time was invested and how much fun was to create all those New Worlds, back then?

i really dont know the actual time it took me, but i can say it took alot, making maps without a fully functional editor and having to figure out 1000's 
of codes in hex to see what they do by starting the game and checking the map after every change is very time consuming.
When i finally had a functional editor it saved me alot of stress though :)

15- What keeps you engaged after all this years to this old game?

I'm a huge fan of the game myself, and seeing other people still playing the game after all these years, is what keeps me going. 

16- Anything you would like to say about other services (like wildman productions MM, or the other PopRe, etc)?

I wish both of them good luck ;)

17- Now other kind of questions. We understand you are not the most active player, but:
Top 5 or 10 best Populous players of all time (ordered or not)?

I have my reasons for not being active, but soon i can be active again, from my experience when i was still active, i think the best 5 players were:
Arnie
Sunama
Lordmaul
The_King_DBM
Yoda

18- Top 5 or 10 best Populous players in 2015 (ordered or not)?

I cant judge this, besides the fact that alot of players use glitches to their advantage nowadays, and thats not real skill if you ask me.

19- Why should a Populous player join your service instead of the old PopRe? What are the pros and cons?

I leave this to the people who will use it, i never judge my own work, besides both services are my own designs, just beause someone  else "put the puzzle together", doesnt mean he's "the designer of the puzzle".

20- What are your worst 5 online levels?

in my opinion theres only 1 worst online level: Sessblahblah Palace, even Dead Sea is better imo.

21- What are your best 5 or online levels?

I really love craters, its probably the map i like most of all but i dont have real favor in other maps, i think face off and PP are both good aswell.
And again i dont judge my own work, although usually my latest maps are my favorites, like "New Worlds 2014" and "constant worlds", you should try them! ;)

22- What is your favourite spell, favourite unit and favourite tribe?

I dont really have any favorite spells, i just use the ones i need, if its about fun i guess swarm and firestorm are the funniest because of the  hilarious "running aorund" that they cause.

Favorite unit is probably the one everyone else also favors most, the shaman, i mean, who doesnt love a woman that can do all the stuff she can do?
I bet she can clean your house unlike any other woman, Shinak indoors with all windows opened, need i say more?

Favorite tribe is green, probably because i love certain green plants :D

23- What are your top 5 clans of all time? (either best, more friendly, or just your favourite ones)

I never really focused on clans, so i cant answer this.

24- When you play, who are your favourite allies?

I really dont care who i ally, aslong as theyre friendly, nobody likes it when their ally calls them names or things like that.
I dont care how good a player is, aslong as everyone has a good time im happy.

25- What was the hardest single player level when you started Populous?

I really dont remember this lol, its been so long ago since i played the singleplayer levels, more than 12 years ago, i mainly focused on multiplayer,
as you may have noticed i never made any singleplayer maps myself either, only multiplayer maps..

26- What you really hated people doing in the match maker?

People who dont behave and people who dont respect rules, in other words troublemakers, nobody likes troublemakers...

27- Who are your best Populous related friends, and, for you, who are the 5 most hated guys and why?
(maybe because they are always disturbing, or quitting, or annoying you, etc)

Well, the people i respect most are Stuart Whyte, Gary Stead and everyone else that was involved in creating this wonderfull game.
Everyone in the popre team deserves equal respect, ofcourse i dont have to mention this :)
Other than that, i respect anyone who respects me.

28- Do you recommend Populous? Why?

Its simply the best RTS / God-game of all time, period.

29- The Populous Bible was released few days ago. Any thoughts about this Populous site?

its always good to have more fan based populous sites, the more the merrier!

30- Thank you for this interview. Anything you want to add? (:

Youre welcome, keep up the good work and hope to see you soon in the new service!

 

 

(01-09-2015)