Draft:Mike Philbin

1998

 * Education: Art at College
 * Joined Millennium/Sony: 1996
 * Favourite Drink: Anything not Alcoholic
 * Previous Jobs: Freelancing for graphics publications.

EXHAUSTED
'''How exhausted are you? Or are you quite calm today?''' No, I'm okay.

So what did you do before you worked here? Same thing for another company.

Who was that? Software Creations up in Manchester.

What games did you work on when you were there? Nintendo games.

'''And before that? ''' I had another life.

'''What were you doing? Something exciting?''' I worked as an independent graphic designer in the field of publishing.

'''Did you take art classes at the university? Drawing, etc.''' Yes, drawing.

Then you started as a freelancer? Yes.

And where did you start working? In St Helens.

Is that where you're from? Yes.

And do you live in Cambridge now? Yes.

How did you get into computer games, what happened? I needed a life change and I learned to use computers.

And suddenly you thought "aha". Yes.

And you left? Yes.

KINKY IDEAS
What did you do on MediEvil? All the levels alongside Nina Chritiansen. I modelled all the characters with her. Animated several characters just for a laugh. Some kinky ideas. And that's it.

'''That's it. That's quite good. What do you mean that's it?! Did you find that your characters were very much your creations or did they come from the team? How did that work?''' All the maps and character designs are done by Jason Wilson. And then we discussed how to do them as models.

'''Did you find that it put a damper on your creativity? ''' It was not a problem for this game.

'''When you say that they were done by him, do you mean that he created them? ''' Oh yes, he drew them. Then all I had to do was just turn a large curved object into a triangular one.

'''Do you like doing that kind of thing? ''' It's a kind of challenge. The trick is to discover how to make an object look nice, while you can only work with triangles.

So do you really like what you are doing or is there another more creative job you would like to do in games? I would like to have fun a little more. At the mental level.

'''I think you didn't tell us everything yet. What's the best thing that you worked on in the game?''' I enjoyed getting the best out of the few elements based on real-time polygons. It was fun.

GAME PARTS
Do you think that that is a really good part of the game Yeah, it looks really good.

And what parts did you sweat the most blood over? Some of the levels that went into the game that were quite tricky to construct. And there are a couple of characters in there that were difficult to animate.

Were there some that weren't in the game? Yeah, there were supposed to be thirty-odd levels in the game

How many levels are there? Twenty. Or so. So there's all that work and there are some characters too. . .

So is that a negative No, it's better in the sense that you could have thirty sprawling levels that make no sense or twenty nice, tight levels that will make a good game. So that didn't hurt me at all.

Are you sure? Yeah. I just sound sarcastic all the time. Sorry.

'''Is it a natural sarcasm? ''' Absolutely.

'''What software do you use? ''' All the software we use are SGO.

'''And how do you get along with Unix? ''' All right. I have a couple of commands up my sleeve.

NO MUCKING ABOUT
What time do you get up in the morning? I'm in work for 9 o'clock. About half eight, 9 o'clock. I get home before 6. I like to be on time and on schedule basically.

So you just like to come in and do your work? No mucking about. . .

What time is your lunch break? Between 12 and half twelve. . .

Do you work weekends? If I have to, yeah.

'''You don't like to do it? ''' It is not a matter of my liking, but that it must be done.

'''Is it because you are very disciplined? ''' I like to be disciplined.

'''Do you think it is frustrating that others are not disciplined? ''' Huh . . no comment.

'''Ok, enough. Is it a nightmare to work with you? ''' Jesus!

'''Is it a nightmare to work with you? ''' Absolutely!! I can speak for myself, right? Because in that case, no. Just kidding.

'''Are you one of those people who arrives at 9 and thinks "Why isn't everyone in at 9?"? Are you like that?''' Yes, if I need to do something.

BOOZE WISE
Do you drink? Do I drink?

Yeah, what's your favourite drink? Umm, booze wise? Well, I don't really drink.

'''No?? What's got into people?''' Is that worrying or what?

It always amazes me that people don't drink anything! Ermm. . . no, not really.

'''Not at all? Not on special occasions?''' I certainly drink on special occasions, yeah.

What do you drink? Erm, something that I'm not allergic to.

'''Oh really, have you got quite a lot of allergies? ''' Possibly. Certain things set me off so I avoid them…

'''Like what? ''' Like the classic lager. . . I think it's Kronenburg. . . does me in.

'''Really? I have a problem with Labbatts Ice. It makes me really sick. I just drink one and. . . ''' Yes.

'''It's horrible: everyone thinks I have a hangover. Absolutely awful. ''' And in the morning, we do not really feel well.

'''Yeah and just with a single drink. It's not because I'm drunk, of course! It's the same kind of reaction when you're about to sneeze and you do not really feel good at all. ''' Yeah, all that.

Sneeze? It is awful. If the drink feels bad for you, it's scary.

ON THE RECORD
Do you feel pleased with MediEvil? I'm pleased with my contribution towards it.

Yeah, that's what I mean . . . Oh that's good. . . You can put that on the record if you want.

'''No, we'll put that in. . . so you won't be like 'oh my god, I said that' but you haven't really said much so we won't be able to say anything about you anyway.''' Really? I thought I was going to be out of work today.

You did? No

'''Ok. Alright. . . Thank you very much.'''