Back in 2010, Feral Interactive ported the hit PC strategy title, Rome: Total War, to the Mac OS. Even after a six-year wait -- the Windows version originally released in 2004 -- Mac users were taken with the game's large-scale battles, and Feral quickly realized the Total War series was well worth the coding effort. The next major title in the franchise, Empire: Total War -- Gold Edition, ventures to the battlefields of the 18th century, with Feral bringing the massive follow-up to Mac gamers on September 13.

What does it take to bring a massive game like Empire: Total War to Mac OS X, and what can Mac players expect from this enhanced Gold Edition? We recently spoke with Edwin Smith, Feral's executive producer, to get the lowdown on this highly anticipated real-time strategy game.

Feral has worked for a number of years to bring major PC titles to the Mac. How do you decide on which games to publish, and more specifically, why Empire: Total War?

The first question Feral staff ask before deciding to publish a game is “do we like it?” Of course, there are many other factors that influence our catalogue, some of which are business and financial-related and frankly uninteresting to the reader, but the most important one is that we like the games ourselves and we feel other Mac users will too.
 
The Total War series was held in high regard at Feral long before we had the opportunity to bring the series to the Mac platform, and when we ported the the classic Rome: Total War -- Gold Edition (to our Legends brand), we were thrilled by how popular it turned out to be with Mac gamers. This success lead to us to evaluate other games in the series with a view to bringing them to the Mac as well. We were lucky enough to be able to do that with Empire: Total War - Gold Edition.

Empire is the fifth standalone game in the Total War series, and for those who played Feral's port of Rome: Total War back in 2010, what sets this entry apart, and how does it improve on past iterations?

Between the releases of Empire and Rome (on the PC), there were five years of development in computer hardware and software. This means that Empire was originally developed with far more resources available, so it’s a large step up from Rome in every way. The most noticeable improvement for most players will be in the game’s graphics.

As well as technological improvements, Empire contains a few gameplay features that weren’t in earlier Total War games, though that’s mainly down to history rather than anything else! For example, Empire is set in the 1700s, when the use of gunpowder was widespread, so ranged weapons and artillery now play large roles. Empire is also the first game in the series to feature 3D naval battles, and some gameplay features that were quite simple in Rome (such as diplomacy, for example) have been fleshed out, allowing for more varied tactics.

It’s also worth remembering that the size of the known world was much larger in the 1700s (when Empire is set) than it was in Rome. The campaign map now stretches from the Americas all the way across to India.

While a commercial success, Empire: Total War faced its share of technical issues at release on PC, namely quirky A.I. and NVIDIA driver issues. Were those issues more or less resolved by the time Feral began work on the Mac port?

A few patches were released for the PC version of Empire game soon after the initial game shipped that fixed issues that some customers had experienced. The Mac version contains all of these fixes plus a few extra Mac-only fixes that address issues that we found during development.

Are there any features or elements to this release of Empire: Total War that are specific to the Mac version?

In terms of content, the Mac version comes with every bit of extra content (The Warpath Campaign, and four unit packs, the Special Forces Units and the Elite Units of the East, West and America) pre-installed. There are also Mac-exclusive features that we add into all our games wherever possible, such as screenshots that include metadata. We also include optional features that allow players to customize their gaming setup, for example one that automatically pauses iTunes when users start playing, and one that automatically updates users’ iChat status.

We also include an automated support system in our games. Although we don’t expect anyone to experience problems, if something does go wrong, we want their support experience to be as quick, simple, and hassle free as possible.

Sometimes there can be a considerable amount of time between a game's original PC release and the Mac version. What's the benefit to Mac gamers for waiting it out for the native OS version instead of tackling it through Boot Camp or something like Parallels?

This question is always divisive, but a native version has are several major advantages over a PC version running in Boot Camp. You don’t have to buy a Windows license, for a start! Running a native version also means you don’t need to reboot your machine to play the game, and all your other services (e-mail, iTunes sharing etc) keep working in the background as you play.

Parallels allows you to run Windows software on your Mac, and it does this well. However, it can struggle to process modern games with complex 3D graphics with the speed, graphical presentation and stability of a native port. Feral games have been developed for the Mac from the ground up, so provided users meet the minimum system requirements, they should not have these issues. Finally, unlike a PC game run using Parallels or Boot Camp, the native game is fully supported by Feral.

Were there any specific hurdles that you encountered while working on bringing Empire: Total War to Mac?

All games have their own special hurdles, and Empire’s was definitely its size! Not only does the Mac version contain all the downloadable content, but the game itself is absolutely huge. Testing all the different scenarios and campaigns was a massive task.

The engine was also drastically upgraded with a new graphics renderer between Rome and Empire, so the code wasn’t that similar between the two. Often, games in the same series have similar code, which aids the porting process if you do them both. Empire was the first game in the series that used the massively updated graphics renderer, so it took a little time to get working perfectly on the Mac.

What's it like working with the original developers of a game that you're porting? Did you find Creative Assembly, in this case, enthusiastic to assist with the port, or does the original development team have little to do with the transfer?

Creative Assembly have been extremely helpful, and have answered all the questions we asked during development for both Rome and Empire. However, all of the actual Mac coding and development is done by Feral. 

Creative Assembly hasn't stopped pumping out Total War entries, with three more standalone entries and another on the horizon since Empire's initial debut. Do you expect there will be enough interest and demand from Mac gamers to bring those over following Empire: Total War's release?

The decision is mostly in the hands of the fans. If they keep buying the Total War games, we will do our best to be involved in making them appear on the Mac. Based on the reception of Rome and the anticipation for Empire we think there should be an appetite for more games in this series in the future.