RPS: What prompted your latest direction shift - the formation of John Tiller Software? John Rushing of the University of Alabama at Huntsville and I worked on that and the result is really impressive I think. And I'm particularly proud of the Artificial Intelligence in the Midway Naval Campaigns game. I like the detail of the Squad Battles series, fighting tactical battles in Vietnam and Stalingrad is just really fascinating.
#JOHN TILLER SOFTWARE SERIES#
And the number of releases in that series vouches for that. Like I said the overall design of the Panzer Campaigns series is just really special. RPS: Of the HPS titles, which are you most proud of? Sturm and I bounced ideas back and forth on the design of the new Panzer Campaigns series and the result was another of those amazing designs that result from that kind of teamwork. And my relationship with Greg "Sturm" Smith was another one of those magical collaborations like before at TalonSoft. John: Oh yes, I started talking with Scott Hamilton and we hit it off right away. RPS: Was hitching your wagon to HPS Simulations an easy decision? Wargames were getting squeezed out of the big stores like a lot of other games and so it was necessary to either get bigger or smaller about that time. John: No, TalonSoft was a mid-sized wargame company and with the tech crash in 2000 it wasn't possible to sustain that business size. RPS: Did the studio's demise come as a surprise? With a lot of extreme effort on our part we were able to make the Battleground series high quality and produce new releases on a regular basis. John: The schedule was intense! I don't think anyone realized that quality wargames could be produced at the rate we did. RPS: What are your most vivid memories of the TalonSoft years? Charlie, Bob, the graphics team, and I worked our ideas within the overall framework he established. John: Jim Rose was Chief Creative Officer so everything had to go through him. RPS: How much creative freedom was there at TalonSoft? We each brought some really good ideas to the development and things just clicked.
John: There was an amazing creative process that resulted in those games involving Charlie Kibler, Bob McNamara, and myself.
Looking back at those titles now, what do you see as the keys to their success?
#JOHN TILLER SOFTWARE PC#
RPS: The Battle ground and Campaign series came to define PC wargaming during the Nineties. He saw potential in what I had sent him and saw that the two games I had been working on, one Civil War and the other World War II, would be great for his new company.
John: I just sent a proposal to Jim Rose who was just then thinking about starting TalonSoft. RPS: How did you end up working at TalonSoft?
And games like PanzerBlitz stick out in my mind as being step up experiences in board wargaming. John: Oh yes, it was the original Avalon Hill D-Day game. RPS: Do you remember your first wargaming experience? I've done about 10 main releases with TalonSoft, with several add-ons, and more than 70 main games since then with a number of app releases thrown in. RPS: Do you know how many wargames you've had a hand in creating during your career? Read on to discover just how accurate my mental picture is for pithy personal reflections from one of wargaming's most popular and prolific designers. He never drives anywhere without first checking which hexes are visible from his destination, and setting aside sufficient Action Points for unloading. In my imagination, the legendary John Tiller lives in a hexagonal mansion/pillbox atop a hexagonal hill in Hexham, Northumberland. Today in FP I question a man who has been testing, besting, and interesting PC wargamers for nigh-on twenty years.
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