I gasp for air from the bottom of insurmountable piles of documentation. Seriously though, my main responsibilities include running our Content Development team, driving our content design and working in conjunction with our Art, Systems Design and Programming teams on a daily basis. If you were to follow me around for a day you'd find that most of my time involves reading. Currently, we are producing hundreds of pages per day of design and implementation documents that require constant attention.
From an in-game perspective, my team is responsible for all of the content-related things that players can interact with. This includes quests, encounters, zone design and creation, monster population, dungeon building and so on.
What was your "welcome to the game industry" moment when it hit you that you were really making games for a living?
Launch day for Dark Age of Camelot back in 2001 was the defining moment for me. I was able to experience the
excitement of working for a game company on the launch day of their MMO. I desperately wanted to play the game on launch
day with everyone else, but I had too much darn work in front of me to be able to play it! Being surrounded by "candy"
but rarely having time to "eat" it is the quintessential game industry experience.
Do you collect Warhammer figures? What army do you play?
Over the past few years I've slowly morphed into a Greenskin fanatic of sorts. (Though not the type
with a ball and chain. Well, I have a ball and chain but she's not green....never mind.) I've got around
3,000 points of Orcs and Gobbos built, but I'm lagging far behind in the painting department.
Next up for me, in fact the order is on its way now, is a nice juicy Ogre army. I'm looking for an army that plays entirely different than Greenskins as well as one that's a bit less unwieldy, and I think the Ogres will fit the bill. So yes, I suppose I'm a collector, though mostly for play rather than for show.
Does your wife let you display them when friends come over for dinner?
While I was successful in dragging my wife into the MMO hobby, I've not managed to convert her to tabletop gaming just
yet. Wait until the entire house is surrounded with "source material" though. That ought to do the trick!
What are your goals for the game?
My primary goals are to ensure that the game is great fun, unique to play, and true to the Warhammer world.
Basically, I've set out to help create a game that I'd want to play.
What is the status of the game? What are you currently working on?
Currently I'm wrapping up a trip out to Games Workshop headquarters in Nottingham. Today we spent a great deal of time
talking about monsters, ogling over the best painted models on earth, and showing off our Snotling animations!
Is Games Workshop working closely with you on the game?
Well, as I am visiting Games Workshop in Nottingham I can safely say extremely close. We could not ask for a friendlier
and genuinely enthusiastic group of people to work with on such a project. Regularly scheduled trips, a dedicated
in-house Games Workshop representative, and daily correspondence helps us ensure the authenticity of our game with regards
to the Warhammer mythos. We are extremely grateful for the high level of cooperation from Games Workshop and, due
to this; Warhammer fans will undoubtedly recognize their influence in all aspects of our final product.
What are your favorite video/computer games of all time? What games are you playing right now? What game should the
reader be playing if he's not?
Favorite games of all time? Would you like them alphabetically or sorted by release date? In a loose order of preference
they are:
Mafia
Deus Ex
Dragon Warrior
Pirates
Mario 64
Zelda
Quake
Most MMO's
Currently I'm playing Gun and Civ 4. I recently bought The Movies, but I haven't had a chance to fire it up yet.
What music are you listening to right now?
Coldplay - seems to be playing in every cab that I've hopped into the past week.
Is there a recent movie you've seen or book/comic you read that you'd recommend to others?
I really enjoyed Weatherman recently. As for books, I've been buried under Warhammer publications
for so many months now that I've forgotten other books exist. Currently, I'm reading Skavenslayer and
find it to be a whole lot of fun.
Anything else you want to add?
My new favorite quote, "You look like a sporting man..." Erik Mogensen, Licensing Manager for Games Workshop
