Interviews
Brett Sperry
GDC Retrospective • 2013
"We didn't sit down and say, 'Let's design a genre.' We sat down and said, 'How do we make
ordering soldiers around feel exciting?' The genre thing only became obvious later, when we
saw what Blizzard did with Warcraft."
Brett Sperry's GDC retrospective address covered the development of Dune II, the creative
process behind Command & Conquer, and the studio culture that produced both. His account
of the Dune II development process — the decision to build in real time, the constraint-driven
design choices — remains the most detailed primary source on the RTS genre's origins.
Brett Sperry
Gaming Historian Interview • 2019
"The EA acquisition was about Command & Conquer. They wanted the franchise. We knew that.
What we hoped was that they'd let us continue to make other kinds of games. That didn't happen
as much as we'd hoped."
In conversation with the Gaming Historian, Sperry addressed the 1998 EA acquisition frankly:
the commercial motivations, the initial optimism, and the gradual narrowing of what Westwood
was allowed to be under corporate ownership. The full interview is part of the Gaming Historian's
Westwood documentary series.
Louis Castle
GDC — Postmortem Talk • Various
"The voxel engine for Blade Runner was the hardest thing we ever built. The rain is on every
screen. Every single screen. We had to make it work at a time when the hardware was just barely
capable of it."
Louis Castle has given multiple GDC talks and interviews covering the technical development of
Westwood's key titles, with particular emphasis on the voxel engine behind Blade Runner and the
C&C engine architecture. These talks represent the most detailed primary documentation of
Westwood's engineering culture.
Frank Klepacki
Multiple Interviews • 1995–Present
"Hell March came out in one session. I had this vision of what it should sound like and it
just happened. The chant — that's my voice, processed and distorted. I was in the booth,
just doing it, and it worked immediately."
Frank Klepacki has given extensive interviews over the years covering his time at Westwood,
the development of the C&C soundtracks, and the C&C Remastered Collection project.
He remains active in game music composition and maintains an online presence where he discusses
his work. See Videos for interview footage.
Brett Sperry & Louis Castle
C&C Remastered Retrospective • EA • 2020
"It was strange to come back to it. The games are older than a lot of the people playing them
now. But the core of what we designed — the base building, the harassment, the resource race —
that still works. That surprised me."
In conjunction with the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection (2020), EA produced a
series of interviews with Westwood alumni including Sperry and Castle, revisiting the original
games' development. These represent some of the most recent primary source material available.
Joseph Bostic
Computer Gaming World • 1993
"The fog of war in Dune II wasn't just a gameplay decision. We needed it. On a 286, you
can't compute what you can't see. The constraint became the design. Sometimes the hardware
teaches you something."
Lead programmer Joseph Bostic's 1993 interview with Computer Gaming World remains the primary
technical account of Dune II's development. His description of the performance constraints that
shaped the game's design decisions illuminates how much of the RTS genre's founding grammar
was necessity rather than intention.