Draft:Julian Rex
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Biography (MediEvil 2)
Julian Rex (28) – Lead Programmer
I'm there to make sure that all programmers are working towards the same common goal. With a diverse style of game such as Medievil, that entails co-ordinating the programming standards of a large (up to 11) group of programmers, who are motivated by crisps, coke and curry.
Short personal biography: I started in the tools and technology group, working on animation and API technology for past and present PC and PSX titles. My first job was working on porting Defcon5 to PC back in 1995…please forgive me.
Interviews
May 12, 2013[1]
1) Someone has found mention of a file called "Parliament" within MediEvil 2. Was this intended to be a level in the game? If so, what would it have been like?
JR - Yes, though from memory it never went passed the design phase (and early test levels). I can't remember the content, or the main characters unfortunately. I think they may have been a Prime Minister/Queen Victoria section, which may be where the character below comes from.
2) We've seen that some characters were scrapped during the development of Medievil 2, such as a demonic version of Queen Victoria serving as the games final boss and human slaves set in the Wulfrum Hall vampire level;
- QueenVictoria.png
- RENFIELD.png
How far into development did these characters get?
JR - Not past design as far as I remember.
3) We've heard from Art Director Jason Wilson that the original story idea for MediEvil 2 involved Zarok being kept prisoner in the Tower of London and Dan had to free him. The two of them then had to work together in an uneasy alliance, but in the final game it was just Zarok's spellbook. Is there anything you can add about this concept?
JR - I don't remember that, but I joined the project a little after design had started. For design questions Jason Wilson and James Shepherd would be the main people to ask.
4) Was two player co-op ever considered for Ghosthunter?
JR - Not for Ghosthunter, but we definitely talked about it if we were to ever work on a Ghosthunter 2. Personally I think it would have been fantastic.
5) This is just a bit more for fun; Ghosthunter features a character named Colonel Fortesque, who even states that "there's a Fortesque family-member on every battlefield". It also revolves around the undead and contains several medieval scenarios, as well as a 13th century undead knight as the antagonist. With these connections in mind, are MediEvil and Ghosthunter canonically set in the same universe?
JR - Not really, but ...
Also, did MediEvil play a role in influencing the design of Ghosthunter?
JR - ... given that a lot of the team from MediEvil 2 moved straight on to Ghosthunter (and had worked on MediEvil1), there's definitely a spiritual connection. The Colonel Fortesque character was a very deliberate connection to Sir Dan for the MediEvil fans :)
Similarly, you can think of Primal as being a descendent of MediEvil1 (Chris Sorrell was the creator of MediEvil, and was the creative director on Primal). Ghosthunter and Primal were like siblings, and the two teams worked closely together, sharing technology back and forth.
I hope this helps - I'm afraid MediEvil 2 was a long time ago now!