This is an English translation of an interview with us, origionally published on gamer.no.

The origional article can be found here.

Gamer.no Interview with Introversion Software

> 1. What are your own experiences with hacking?

Not as much as you might think. We messed around a little in University, but never anything illegal. In all honesty, hacking isn't a particularly interesting thing to do. Making games is much more fun.

> 2. What were the biggest problems you encountered during the development
> of Uplink"

Figuring out how to prevent the game from being crushingly boring. The origional versions of the game are on our bonus disk, and the "gameplay" in them can be pretty tedious. That was easily the biggest challenge, and it lasted throughout the whole project lifetime.

> 3. Did you conduct exstensive research before release?

No, not really. I read a lot of books about hacking and watched lots of films during the production of the game, but there wasn't very much planning of that sort at any time. It was just something I was interested in.

> 4. We've heard talk of a Uplink: Online some day. What are your plans for
> the future?

We're totally undecided, and we aren't rushing ourselves either. It all depends on what happens with Uplink. At the moment we're concentrating hard on a couple of patches for the game to add some new gameplay and fix a few bugs, and we haven't thought much longer term than that. Uplink:Online is a possible next game, and we have another idea that we're toying with as well. Who knows.

> 5. To what extent is the game based on real-life?

Very little. Real life is boring ;)

> 6. What did you expect when you released Uplink?

I expected a hard core to gather around it, but certainly nothing on the scale of what has happened. I never imagined a game about hacking would interest so many people.

> 7. How would you describe Uplink to someone who has never heard of it?

"It's like Sneakers the movie - you get to hack into computers. It's a thinking man's game."

> 8. Can you become a hacker by playing Uplink?

No. I seriously doubt it. Uplink is too abstracted from the real world to give you any real hacking knowledge.

> 9. Do you have any plans for selling Uplink through regular retailers?

Again, we aren't decided. We can't rule anything out at this stage.

> 10. Why did you choose OpenGL for Uplink, instead of plain software
> rendering or DirectX?

OpenGL is a very nice system to work in - it's very elegent and well designed. And it works under Linux, and we really wanted a Linux version.

> 11. Why are there no females in the game?

Just wanted to reflect the reality of the situation ;)

> 12. How long has Uplink been in development?

Well over two years now. I started it in May 1999. That's a long time.

> 13. You call yourself "the last of the bedroom programmers", how much of
> the game was programmed in an actual bedroom?

Probably 95% of it was done by me, sitting in my bedroom. In fact, since I was living in London, my bedroom was basically my entire house since the rent is so expensive. So yeah, it's definately a bedroom programmers game ;)

> 14. Did you work for Introversion full-time while developing Uplink, or
> was it merely a side-project?

Introversion Software didn't even exist until Uplink was nearly finished. It was just an idea in our heads - something that we thought would be a lot of fun. I was just working on Uplink because it seemed like a cool project.