If you’ve been around combat flight sims at any point over the last decade, you’ll probably know the name Jason Williams. For the last several years and up until late October of this year, Jason was the Executive Producer for the IL-2 Sturmovik series. I’ve had him on the Stormbirds podcast, I’ve quoted him many times, and I’ve had the pleasure to work with him on some promotional trailers for the IL-2 series.

Since stepping down as Executive Producer at the end of October, we haven’t heard too much from him and I know quite a few of you wanted to know what happened and what has been going on since then. Well, I hope to be able to share some information as I have the pleasure of being able to have a conversation with Jason over the last several days and ask him some key questions about his departure, about his tenure as Executive Producer, and what the future holds.

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The questions and the answers

Stormbirds: You announced your departure from the IL-2 team as Executive Producer in late October of this year. We haven’t heard too much from you since then. How are you and how have things been going since then?

Jason: I’m good Colin. Oh, you know, it’s been a busy fall for me. Investing in crypto which can’t lose, got fired from Twitter, dated this Brazilian super model who recently got divorced, and now trading Trump NFTs. Oh, and was drafted by the Golden Knights and hit a mega jackpot at the Bellagio. Also, binged-watched a lot of Seinfeld and damn I loved Andor! Life could not be more amazing! 

That doesn’t sound completely true.

Ok, ok no, it’s not… except the Brazilian super model part. Totally true.

In late October you announced your departure from the IL-2 team and 1CGS. We haven’t heard too much from you since then. Many were confused about the departure and what it meant. What happened and what can you tell us?

I have a policy of being open and honest with the community and customers that have supported me so well the last decade and a half. I feel obligated to at least give some details of what happened. My ties to 1C are completely over now so I can speak a bit more freely.

Basically, 1C Company and its subsidiaries went through some changes and half the company in eastern Europe was sold to Tencent and then they invested in other parts. Although I was initially promised nothing would change with regards to IL-2 development, I knew it would and it eventually did. Three events would happen that affected my job. First, a high-level executive left 1CGS who was basically an ally. Second, Albert Zhiltcov was promoted to CEO of the new company. And lastly, the God-awful Russian invasion of Ukraine occurred that turned everything to crap.

As 2022 progressed, I could no longer do my job effectively. They did eventually offer me a new position that was not development related. More events transpired that caused our relationship to go sideways yet again. Basically, I got to the point where I had enough. I would love it to say more, but I can’t.

I want the IL-2 community to know that I did not abandon them or the vision I set out to create. I did everything I could to stay on and continue to improve Great Battles. However, for a product development guy like me, after that, there really is no point in sticking around. Nevertheless, Normandy and Flying Circus II were both my babies, along with the other modules and content that was being produced or already scheduled. I love them all.

The community came through when we needed it most and went above and beyond many times. I can’t thank you guys enough.

Jason Williams

I also want you to know that I asked this community for years to support us so we could make a bigger and better product. AND YOU DID! The community came through when we needed it most and went above and beyond many times. I can’t thank you guys enough.

I wanted to ride out the rest of 2022 and keep working on the Great Battles series after Normandy and make a deal with 1CGS to continue, even if the rest of the core team went on to do some other era, theater or engine. Sadly, that did not happen. Regardless of how I left the team, it’s one of the best combat flight-sims ever made and simmers should buy it even if there is new competition. I hold no ill-will toward the technical team. They are nice people and a hardworking bunch, but they really don’t know the full story and history of 1CGS and why I left. 

Many people in the sim community have had to deal with employment or health struggles over the years, so I’m not anyone special. Disappointment in life is never fun, and I was very lucky to live my dream building combat flight-sims for many years. The time flew by and it was a blast. Simulations are still my passion. I just have more time to play other ones now without any guilt.

In deference to my new partners, I won’t say anything more. My close friends in the community know what happened and were great to lean on this year. Especially after my supermodel girlfriend dumped me for losing my job! Supermodels, am I right guys… geez.

So that’s the end of that. Now you guys have a sense of why I left. Time for new adventures and likely the last time I’ll talk about my time at 1CGS.

If I were to quote Yoda, I would say “Much anger I sense in you.” 

Yes, but righteous anger can be a strong ally and motivator. Being angry over missing fries in the drive-thru is not good. 

What are you motivated to do now?

Go to war… metaphorically speaking of course. Real soldiering takes real courage. I make video games. Not the same.

Are you planning on making a new product?

At the moment I’m making a mobile arcade game of all things. LOL

Do you have a studio or are working for one? You mentioned partners.

Yes.

Do you have funding to do this game?

Yes, and other “games”.

You’ve recently posted to the IL-2 forums with a message and some videos – one with Obi Wan’s final fight with Darth Vader and then another with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator saying “I’ll be back.” You seem to be teasing some sort of return. What can you tell us? Anything combat-sim related that you can tell us about right now?

No comment at this time.

However, you must know that I’m a child of the 70’s and 80’s. My understanding of the universe begins and ends with American cinema and television of that era. I know this sounds dorky, but when life clobbers me sometimes, I have this library of movie clips in my head explaining and relating to exactly what I’m thinking or feeling.

I’ll be 50 years old in April. As you get older you look back at your childhood more, usually with fond memories, not everyone does, but for me I do. I had a great childhood and entertainment back then was so much different. I miss it. The other day I was playing around on YouTube and watched some of my favorite movie clips. Well, something other than watching Mark Felton or The Operations Room for a change. Some of the clips resonated with my current mindset and I felt like sharing them.

I have time to goof around these days so I may do more of that. I also need to go chop some lumber for the fireplace. It’s cold in Vegas during the winter believe it or not. Wait… does my house even have a fireplace?

Do you have a non-compete clause?

No, I do not.

Very interesting of course! I’m here any time you want to break some news.

Always Colin. I love Stormbirds! You do a fantastic job. I don’t know where you find the energy and time to take on such a huge undertaking. I really wish you would turn this into an e-magazine and expand it into a business with a team of writers. I know that’s not easy, but I think it would be awesome! PC Pilot could use some competition. 

With that, let’s switch to talking about the hobby and your other experiences making combat simulations. Up for a few more general questions? 

Sure, fire away.

Since your departure, what other sims have you had a chance to try out and what do you think about how they have approached their flight simulation?

Well, I always flew other sims as part of my job, although I didn’t spend hours and hours playing them for purely fun like I did with IL-2. It was usually for oppo research. Now however, I’ve recently taken much deeper dives into MSFS, X-Plane, DCS and War Thunder. All of these products can be mentioned in the same sentence as leading products, so it’s always important to fly them and understand the pluses and minuses of each one.

I love MSFS’ commitment to scenery, flexibility and SDK. I can also appreciate the DCS approach to detail and systems modeling along with the upgrades to their engine. War Thunder just has a mountain of content and interesting stuff to look at even if not super realistic in its gameplay. They are also very good at marketing.

I’m also paying close attention to Microprose’s new B-17 product that looks to be a lot of fun when it’s released. Certainly, it looks beautiful and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

And of course, I have played more Cliffs of Dover recently too because I’m happy to follow the work of Team Fusion. I know how committed and hardworking they are. I also had a hand in their deal with 1C so happy to see them continuing.

There is a lot to try and to like these days. I think every product fills a niche in the market and each of the leading products has something great to offer the community. I do have serious critiques on business models and other issues, but I’ll keep them to myself though. Never know when that might be useful.

Although I have fun with each of these titles I still look with a critical eye every time. I’ve been doing my homework on new technologies and new players on the scene and it’s been educational to say the least. I’ve also been given some privileged access to some stuff that when made public will make simmer’s toes curl.  

And of course, I have played more Cliffs of Dover recently too because I’m happy to follow the work of Team Fusion. I know how committed and hardworking they are. I also had a hand in their deal with 1C so happy to see them continuing.

Jason Williams

Looking back at your tenure as Executive Producer for IL-2, you came in around the time that IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban was announced. You made a lot of big changes to the direction of the series early on and then continued to over time. If you were to do it over again would you change anything?

On Kuban I would have made the nose position in the A-20 from the get go. I always planned to make it, but then something always got in the way. Later on, I was faced with making the A-20 nose interior or having an opportunity to make the IAR-80/81. I chose the IAR and held out hope I could still do the A-20 nose eventually. Remember I still had two years left on my contract as of January 2022. It was on my list along with a bunch of other things. 

On naming Bodenplatte I would have named it Battle of Rhineland instead to just not be controversial, but I wanted a title that was provocative and interesting to simmers. In the USA we don’t really have a name for that period like say Battle of the Bulge. We covered much more than the Bulge battle, so that calling anything Bulge related didn’t really work. Bodenplatte was a big air battle so I went with that. Some customers liked the name, some did not. You live and learn sometimes.

Speaking of Bodenplatte, one regret was not forcing the team to spend a couple more months on the map adding farms, train depots and factories. Although Zeus added several train depots and railyards at a later date. He’s a champ. I was going to do it with a third party this year, and finally put that complaint to bed. Load times had been improved too so it wouldn’t have hurt by adding them. I made the initial decision to have historically accurate airfields instead of a lot of farms etc. And those were only omitted really because work on the Tank Crew map took a big chunk of time out of the schedule.  

Knowing how things turned out this year, I would have made an AI B-17 for Bodenplatte. I should have used my own money to make it and push it through. Due to lack of internal resources, I reserved it for the next module where we could have built it inside the team or with our other Russian modeling partners. I could elaborate on this more, but it would be a very, very long answer. I also gained access to a real B-17 for this purpose.

Oh, and one final thing I would do differently. I would have made API ammo as soon as I took over. Lesson learned there. 

If I ever make a new combat flight-sim you better believe it will have bombers in the plan from its inception along with API ammo amongst other things.

Something that we may not have covered in previous interviews. Was the inclusion of a female Soviet pilot your initiative? How important are those stories?

I don’t remember if we did. I decided to pay for these ladies out of my own pocket so we could have them included. The team had no plans to do them and I felt it was an interesting and important part of Soviet WWII aviation history. Who doesn’t love the Night Witches story? I love doing smaller stuff like that sometimes.

After Battle of Kuban, you took the series to the Western Front for the next two titles. Some have suggested that you may have been sick of the Eastern Front. What are your thoughts on the decision to go in this direction?

No, it was a business decision. People forget what made the original Sturmovik such a huge hit, it wasn’t just the Eastern Front content. I simply tried to make the series more popular in the West and boost sales. The strategy worked, but I also love Soviet gear, not just American or British kit. 

I also produced Kuban, the U-2VS, Yak-9, Yak-9T and Hurricane which boosted the VVS offerings in Great Battles. I also signed a deal to make the Li-2 along with the C-47. I simply switched their order to better match up with the Normandy release. I really hope they still add the Li-2, that was always the plan and Ugra has the info needed to make it. Plus, I produced Tank Crew which took part in the Kursk Salient so I did a lot of Eastern Front content while I was in charge. 

Can you tell us what module would you have made next for Great Battles if you were still Executive Producer?

I would have also built a flyable B-25 and if time allowed make the B-26 flyable. Both would require a lot of work, but I was doing the research on them.

Jason Williams

I had settled on Sicily/Malta/Italy next (such a neglected theater), and then I wanted to go produce a late war Eastern Front module to cap off the GB series. Get the Yak-3, La-7 and late model P-39 in there finally. Those two modules would have made the GB series even more special and much more comprehensive. I told 1CGS this before I left, but I guess they are taking a pass? Bummer if true. I also hope that the “secret”, but not so secret community effort becomes reality as I was a big proponent of that. 

I would have also built a flyable B-25 and if time allowed make the B-26 flyable. Both would require a lot of work, but I was doing the research on them. Hence my trip to a museum in Michigan in 2021. I know the community wanted this as well.

This would all be going on while we staffed up and worked on a next-gen product. Remember, we had new money behind us, so all this was possible..We had already initiated the hiring drive before the changes to the company began.

I see they are making the Bf-109 G-6A/S and another plane. Always cool, I welcome all new planes, but completely new planes seem like a stretch these days without outside help. Also, I think they need to finish FC3. It really worries me that they are being so vague about it. I do see they released the Snipe yesterday. I’m very glad to see that important plane completed. I wanted new WWI content for a long time.

Did you see the stream of Albert and Daniel a few weeks ago? What do you think is coming next?

Yes, I did. No comment. But plenty of you shared your thoughts with me.

What are the things that you’re most proud of? What are some of the things that you hoped to deliver on but weren’t able to?

Oh, simply turning around the ship and making it a profitable enterprise. Of course, it was a team effort and the development team did the difficult part, but I had to make some tough calls and they played out well in the marketplace.

I was also happy to know that my experience in rescuing Rise of Flight and all my past experience selling other games in previous jobs paid off for IL-2. Essentially, my theories about the combat flight-sim market were validated. And being able to manage and develop a project 6K miles away from the core team who had a completely different culture and language for several years told me I can work with anyone and from anywhere.

Obviously, two things I was really upset not to deliver were the Air Marshal feature and the updated Fuel Systems with Drop tanks. These two features would have really boosted IL-2’s reputation and entertainment. Unfortunately, the person making the Air Marshal feature flamed out and Fuel Systems were not quite 100% complete when its creator left. I know Air Marshal will never be done now, but I feel the team should and could add Drop Tanks to the most common planes which used them. Another thing on my list for my remaining two years that didn’t happen. 

Obviously, two things I was really upset not to deliver were the Air Marshal feature and the updated Fuel Systems with Drop tanks. These two features would have really boosted IL-2’s reputation and entertainment.

Jason Williams

Being an Executive Producer of a flight sim franchise and facing the community as often as you did invites a lot of different opinions of both you and the product. What’s your view of the criticism IL-2 received and how people viewed you?

Much of the early criticism of the product was totally warranted. It was like the gates of hell opened up on us in those days. Unlocks were a lot of fun right? I worked hard to correct that from August 2016 onward. Before that, I could not force design changes. To the very end I fought to change things that customers did not like. Some solutions were quick and some were not and some were out of reach for various reasons due to budgets, technical limitations or personnel issues.  

Criticism of me personally was sometimes valid and sometimes not. There are bad apples in every bunch and as a developer you’ll never be perfect, so there is a natural friction and skepticism between the community and the developer. I made a conscious decision to lead from the trenches from day one of my involvement in ROF and IL-2. For that I have many battle scars, but more victories than defeats in the end. Criticism is never fun, but I am my own biggest critic. Trust me on that.

I also think many in the community did not understand how stuck between a rock and a hard place I was at times with 1CGS. Sometimes I let it show, but I never ignored complaints and I did my utmost to address them. I sleep well at night knowing that. I also curtailed my activity in the forum once we got over the hump product-wise and let the product speak for itself more. Some people were sick of me talking so I mostly shut up.

Making Developer Diaries was always my favorite activity though. I always made a point whenever possible to say it myself if there was a problem. Unfortunately, I was never allowed a PR team so it was just me. I also did more marketing during my tenure than ever before and it’s funny when the company tries to say I didn’t do any or didn’t believe in it. It’s laughable. The best PR though is always to make a better product.  

When you started off with the series, your intention was to ultimately take it to the Pacific War. Research and other challenges stood in the way. Are you still hopeful that a flight sim might tackle this theatre of WWII and this era of aviation or has it become too difficult to do that without additional information?

Yes, the Pacific was my ultimate goal, but I never got the support needed to make it happen. That’s another long story I won’t bore you with. I was always faced with doing something in Europe or nothing, but in the end, this made for a pretty comprehensive franchise about the air war in Europe. I still hope the GB series is not abandoned after Normandy.

About Pacific feasibility, I never stopped studying it and never stopped looking for solutions. Fairly recently I came to the conclusion that it is indeed feasible with the right team, tech, funding and attitude. There are always going to be gaps in the data for Japanese subjects, but a lot is still possible and a fantastic product is doable.

It only became somewhat impossible in my previous position. 

Where do you think combat flight sims are going next? Does World War II still hold the same kind of interest that it did 10-20 years ago or are people now more interested in other eras of aviation such as the Cold War or modern aviation?

Knowing what I know today, all eras of combat aviation are possible. WWII still holds many, many people’s imagination and is very popular. The second world war was the penultimate experience that defined what a combat pilot is in our shared culture. 

The Cold War is far too underrepresented including Vietnam and Korea. WWII Pacific is obviously the biggest gap in the market. Maybe a team somewhere will step up and fill the breach?

WWI also still holds a lot of potential and I know what users really want there, but again it takes the right team and tech to truly do it justice. ROF and FC only scratched the surface. 

But right now, I think where you’ll see the most movement is into the modern age with teams like Terasynth and their TWS product-line. What I’ve seen from them is quite impressive even if pretty early. 

Also, on the tech front, innovation in the VR space continues. Although I am not personally the biggest fan of VR at the moment (I hate wearing the goggles), I know there are advancements happening that will make it more and more acceptable as part of the sim experience for a larger segment of the community. You can thank the defense industry for that. Some of it is truly amazing. 

While lackluster and quite frankly, dumb VR experiences such as Metaverse, are tanking companies like Facebook, VR is paying huge dividends for defense companies and spurring innovation. Simming is where the money is for VR. Not the damn Metaverse. We as simmers have known this for a long time – when in doubt on how to properly apply new technology, ask a flight, race or combat simmer! 

Do you know where IL-2 is going next?

Yes, I do.

What do you think is the best way to balance a combat flight sim? We’ve seen a divergence of people split between more “hardcore” sims like IL-2 and DCS World. War Thunder is on the other side of the equation but it seems to be happily churning out new airplanes and attracting a more casual crowd. What’s the right balance here to attract those demanding details while also bringing in new players to sims?

I think IL-2 got it almost right with the combination of study vs. survey sim details and gameplay. If there was a way to blend the two even further, that would be awesome. But making everything optional or making “two sims in one” is not easy and takes a lot of work. It also takes a big budget and a talented team.

I also know there are many other facets to these products that people like beyond the level of detail presented. I’ve tried very hard to understand that over the years and make something people wanted to play. I like to think I know what sells and what doesn’t, at least that’s what I’ve strived for. I also know some things about the community’s buying habits that are interesting and useful. Sadly, I don’t think the companies involved do the critical thinking necessary to fully understand their customers. I’ll save my most detailed analysis of this question for another time. It’s another book I could write, but nobody wants to read that sucker. Lord knows my friends have heard it many times and I see their eyes glossing over at dinner or over drinks.

Is there anything else you’d like to talk about that I haven’t asked yet?

No, I don’t think so, but if you think of something feel free to ask. I appreciate your giving me a platform to say my piece before the year ends. This year was not my favorite, but life goes on and new things are happening in many different places. This hobby is not dying like so many predicted it would and I like to think my efforts helped at least a little bit. Things looked pretty bleak about 15 years ago. The hobby continues to survive and thrive.  

Oh, and thanks to everyone who wrote to me, reached out or commented on my goodbye video back in October. Meant the world to me!

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my fellow virtual pilots out there. Be safe and God bless.