We’ve spoken with one of the co-founders of British game developer legends Sensible Software.
Sensible Software remains one of the most iconic names in gaming history, celebrated for its innovative designs, sharp humor, and a catalogue of unforgettable titles. From Sensible Soccer to Cannon Fodder and Wizball, the studio helped define an era with games that were as diverse in concept as they were groundbreaking in execution.
We had the honor of connecting with Jon Hare, co-founder of Sensible Software, to delve into the stories behind the games. Read on for our interview:
How did Sensible Software come to be?
Sensible Software was formed by myself and my school friend Chris Yates in 1986, we played in a band together for five years before forming a games company.
What was the culture among British game developers like in the early nineties? Were you friendly with The Bitmap Brothers, Graftgold, etc.?
We were very friendly with many British developers, including Bitmap Brothers and Graftgold. However there was a time before we got to know them when we were a bit jealous of the Bitmap’s fame and in our work phone book we had them down as ‘The Bitmap Wankers’
What do you think is the reason for the variety in the games you created, both in terms of themes and gameplay mechanics?
Back in the 1980s we were very influenced by arcade machines, so we mostly made space and sport themed games, as we hit the 16 bit era and we could do more with the machines we started to make more ambitious games such as Mega-lo Mania, an early god game and the first ever game with a tech tree, Cannon Fodder, one of the first RTS games and Sensible World of Soccer the first extremely detailed global soccer game. We also made crazier games like Wizball and Wizkid. We liked to balance solid sellers that would earn us money, such as football games, with out there experimental games
Microprose Soccer is perhaps the best football game on the C64, can you tell a bit about where the ideas for that game came from, and how it became «Microprose» Soccer?
Microprose Soccer was heavily influenced by the arcade machine Tehkan World Cup. We added indoor 6 a side football, real weather, banana shots and action replays, for the first time ever.
We wanted to call the game Sensible Soccer, but Microprose offered us enough money to persuade us to change the name.
And how much of Microprose Soccer’s DNA do you feel remains in Sensible Soccer?
Sensible Soccer was written by a different lead programmer (Chris Chapman), compared to Microprose Soccer (Chris Yates). I think the main similarity is the top down (ish) view and the semi-arcadey approach to the action. Sensible Soccer is certainly leaps and bounds above Microprose Soccer, although they were both number one games.
What aspects of Sensible (World of) Soccer do you feel were instrumental in making it such a huge hit?
Gameplay of course, also the huge depth of leagues teams and players form all over the world, plus the ability to both play with and manage your team, no-one had really done it before to that depth.
Are there any Easter eggs in your games that have not yet been discovered?
Hmm… that is a tricky question, I honestly don’t remember.
Tell us a bit about how you came up with the concepts for these fantastic games: Wizball, Insects in Space, and Sensible Train Spotting.
Wizball is our best C64 game, I came to Chris Yates’ house on day where we were working and he had knocked up a strange revolving ball control system. I drew a silly green pea face on it, then we added the flying controls and the special weapons (like Nemesis), then we added the colouring in of the landscape, then we added the cat and wizard and their laboratory, then we added the filth raid etc… the game just grew out of our imaginations on the fly.
Insects in Space was a quality Defender clone (Chris loved Defender). He also added the up and down ground zones. For some reason I themed the graphics around the German Rhineland (which is where my mother is from), I then added babies and big boobed Angels.. pretty sure Sigmund Freud would have a field day with that one.
Sensible Train Spotting was a silly idea I knocked up with Chris Chapman. We made the cover disks and budget games in two week breathers after bigger projects. We had a train platform right outside our office and probably spotted a guy out there one day with his Anorak and lunch box, writing down train numbers and decided to dedicate a game to him…. I like it for a throwaway idea.
Why isn’t Cannon Fodder called Sensible Soldiers?
Actually it was called ‘Lemmings with Weapons’ in our office for about a year before we came up with the name Cannon Fodder…. The name Cannon Fodder particularly resonates about needless death in war and is very strong and moving for English speakers, Sensible Soldiers sounds a lot more silly!
How much fun was it to make the intro music/video for Cannon Fodder?
Making that video was amazing…. And the whole thing cost us £80. I wrote the tune one day on my guitar and went to Richard Joseph’s house to record my basic idea of guitar, bass and vocal. Richard then with his usual magic added horns, keyboards and great arrangement that could fit on the Amiga. We then recorded a real version in a studio and set about making the video for the CD32 edition of the game. It was a great day out for the whole team, dressing up in silly costumes and acting out to the script I had written. One of the best days I can remember from the whole Sensible Software experience. We also used an armoured vehicle driver, Cameraman and editor to make a great and very memorable and, ground breaking at the time, little movie.
Sociable Soccer is sort of an homage to SWOS – if you had the budget, would there be any other Sensible Software games you would like to «remake» for modern audiences?
I did start to work on a new Cannon Fodder in 1999 with Codemasters, but it was never released. I think the one Sensible game I would like to redo given the chance would be Mega-lo-Mania online.
Did you ever consider making Sensible Hockey?
No, we didn’t.
We’d like to thank Jon Hare for his time. Let’s end with the intro video for Cannon Fodder on the CD32:
While Spillhistorie.no is a Norwegian site, we have a number of articles in English. These include features on classic games and interviews with various people from gaming. A couple of examples:
- Interview with Rob Anderson, the creator of Moonstone
- The story of Ports of Call with Rolf-Dieter Klein and Jim Sachs
- Q&A with Infocom veteran Steve Meretzky
- The story of Rogue with Glenn Wichman
Article by Retrogamingpappa with help from Joachim Froholt.
The featured image (top) uses screenshots from Mobygames.