I’ve been following the extremely slow progress of Walker Boys Studio’s Civil War: War Between the States with interest for quite some time now. I hadn’t been paying attention lately, believing the game to be abandonware, but fortunately that is not the case. Thanks again to the ever-scanning eyes of Eddy Sterckx over on the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical Usenet group, I’ve been made aware of an interesting tidbit on the game. At their newly opened forum, Walker Boys Studio has posted a “Roadmap” for the completion of their game. In it, the boys have this to say:
The past, present and future of War Between the States.
“So, what’s been happening with WBTS?”
Let’s do a little recap here so that everyone will know what has occured in the past four years.
The Past:
Beginning in late 2001, WBS decided to create a new RTS game called Civil War: War Between the States.
Having funding from several publishers, WBS was able to financially support a team of artists and programmers. During the first year of production WBS had completed 98% of the artwork for the project. Unfortunately, the programming team fell very short. A team of programmers hired on by Walker Boys Studio could not complete the tasks, which after another 8 months had to be let go due to lack of ability.
That takes us well in to 2003. Money from publishers began to stop since our Milestones were not complete. We began looking for more programmers with the ability to take on the tasks and finish the project. WBS hired another group that was thought to be capable and unfortunately fell short and nearly went in to messy legal battles.
The Present:
That puts us in to mid 2004. During ’04 and most of ’05 WBS has been working at getting reliable programmers willing to see the project from beginning to end. Just recently, they have found a group but due to scheduling the programming team won’t be able to start on the project this year.
The Future:
As we approach 2006, the future is looking ever so bright. We have about six months of development time left for programming, but that six months doesn’t start until the programming team gets going. To this, I would like to say if you are a programmer, you love the Civil War and would like to work / assist in the development, let me know: (email address excised, go to the forum for this)
Are we going to throw in the towel, quit, stop? Of course not. Smile The Civil War is one of the greatest eras in our worlds history. WBS has been committed to seeing this project through till it gets in your hands and we can all enjoy re-living/playing the history that is America.
I for one hope these guys find a talented programmer that finally suits their needs. If you are a programmer and love the Civil War, this might be an opportunity to lend a helping hand and make some extra cash.
Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!
Read many Civil War Book Reviews here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog!
Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online for the latest on the Siege of Petersburg!
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