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I was lucky enough to catch an interview with Jeff Rosen, from Wolfire Games, and he was kind enough to answer these questions. Wolfire Games is making a game called OverGrowth, and it looks awesome. Also, preorders will receive the beta when 500 fans sign up on their FaceBook Page. Interview after the jump!

JustPressPlay: Hey, Jeff. Thanks for taking the time out of your work to answer these questions, and hopefully we'll be able to extract some juicy info from you. So what inspired you to make games?

Jeff Rosen: I've never really thought about what inspires me. It's just been a goal for me as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of playing video games and trying to make them in Hypercard and studying the FutureBASIC manual to try to figure out how to make them. So to answer your question, I don't know what it is exactly, but I am extremely excited to be making video games.

What is your role in the development of Overgrowth?

Well, I am the cofounder and president of Wolfire. More specifically, I'm a programmer. The stuff that I'm in charge of is all web-stuff, the UI, and the scripting engine. Linear algebra is not really my favorite thing, so I try to leave that to David, who has an incredible brain. He has been making complicated 3d games since elementary school, for some reference. Phillip is our other graphics programmer who is extremely talented as well. I am really excited with how well rounded and skilled our team is, despite being so young.

What do you plan to achieve with Overgrowth?

We want to make an awesome game that everyone knows about. We are pretty ambitious and hope to make a huge splash in the video game world.

And how long have you been in the development process for Overgrowth?

That's hard to answer because the team has been fluctuating so much. It has been on and off (mostly off) since David finished Lugaru several years ago. However, development seriously started two months ago when Wolfire was officially formed and we started working on it full time with a team of five guys. We are working pretty fast.

Ah, I see. How long do you expect it to take?

We are going to release it early 2009.

Now I know a lot of people are concerned about the requirements for the game. Do you have a guess as to what specs players will need as a minimum?

It's really hard to say at this point. It will fall somewhere between Lugaru and Crysis.

How much does Overgrowth cost? If someone were to preorder, would they get any extras?

It costs $29.95 to preorder Overgrowth. When Overgrowth is released, it may be more, but if you preorder, you will be locked in for the low preorder price. We are talking to a lot of publishers and distributors, so it is hard to predict the final price. Most importantly, if you preorder, you will get access to the secret preorder forum and you will be able to beta test the game early on and get access to the mod building tools. Hopefully you will be able to get your mod shipped with the game.

How extensive is this mod maker? Can users create all kinds of crazy weapons? Moreover, how difficult is the modding language?

The mod system is, in my opinion, the most revolutionary aspect of the game. We are making it as easy as possible to add new content to the game. The modding language is Javascript. Mod makers will have control over all sorts of aspects of the game.

What kind of support are you planning to offer? Will there be patches?

We are not expecting to release a perfect game, so there will be patches for compatibility and other enhancements. What's more exciting though, is that with our built-in mod browser, you will be able to easily play community created campaigns and maps. We are just a small team of 5 guys, but the Wolfire community is huge and thanks to that, there will always be something new in Overgrowth.

I heard there would be multiplayer. Care to elaborate for us?

Yes - we are working on cooperative multiplayer so you can play challenge levels and the campaign with your buddies. Depending on how latency and other factors affect Overgrowth, we are also looking into a PvP mode too. Cooperative play is the first priority though.

In Lugaru, there was a map editor, though it did lack luster. Will the map editor be better in Overgrowth, if there is one? If so, could you elaborate?

The map editor in Overgrowth is great. Phillip has done a great job on it and it really will make map editing a joy. It is very easy to use, and it is extremely powerful at the same time.

What kind of weapons do you plan to include?

There will be quite a variety. We think character customization is really important, so we want to give the user a lot of options.

And finally, do you have anything else you'd like to share? Any pictures or tidbits of information?

Overgrowth is shaping up to be an awesome game. Make sure to subscribe to our blog for the latest updates.

Again, thanks a ton for taking the time to answer these questions. If anyone still has questions, you can catch them at their Blog.

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