Draft:MediEvil EU site/Sorcerers: Difference between revisions

==[[Katie Lea]] - Level Mapper==

==[[Jason Riley]] - FMV Artist==

==[[Matt Johnson]] - Programmer==

==[[Nina Kristensen]] - Artist==

==[[Mike Philbin]] - Artist==

'''How exhausted are you? Or are you quite calm today?'''<br />No, I'm okay.

'''And before that? '''<br />I had another life.

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

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

'''Then you started as a freelancer?'''<br />Yes.

'''And where did you start working?'''<br />In St Helens.

'''Is that where you're from?'''<br />Yes.

'''And do you live in Cambridge now?'''<br />Yes.

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

'''What did you do on ''MediEvil''?'''<br />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.

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

'''When you say that they were done by him, do you mean that he created them? '''<br />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? '''<br />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?'''<br />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?'''<br />I enjoyed getting the best out of the few elements based on real-time polygons. It was fun.

'''Do you think that that is a really good part of the game'''<br />Yeah, it looks really good.

'''Is it a natural sarcasm? '''<br />Absolutely.

'''What software do you use? '''<br />All the software we use are SGO.

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

'''What time do you get up in the morning?'''<br />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.

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

'''Is it because you are very disciplined? '''<br />I like to be disciplined.

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

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

'''Is it a nightmare to work with you? '''<br />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?'''<br />Yes, if I need to do something.

'''Do you drink?'''<br />Do I drink?

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

'''Like what? '''<br />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. . . '''<br />Yes.

'''It's horrible: everyone thinks I have a hangover. Absolutely awful. '''<br />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. '''<br />Yeah, all that.

==[[Chris Sorrell]] - Producer (also programmer and designer)==

'''What do you do?'''<br />On MediEvil my official title is producer, but I was also responsible for the initial design concept. As the project progressed I became increasingly involved in its programming side too. By the end of the project this was the main thing occupying my time.

'''How old were you when you started making games?'''<br />From the time I was given my first computer (an Atari 400) when I was 11, I knew that I wanted to make games. Atari BASIC wasn't great for this however, so I moved on from the Atari to a Commodore 64. I taught myself assembly language, and spend all my spare time writing pieces of game and demo code (and creating fonts and sprites to use in these). By the time I had done my GCSEs and had by this time moved on to the Amiga, I took the first opportunity to leave school and take some practical steps towards my goal!

'''What games do you like to Play?'''<br />My favourite genres are action adventures, platform games, and action RPGs. There are some great examples of these genres on PlayStation - my favourites would certainly include Resident Evil 1 and 2. I also have a lot of admiration for the Crash Bandicoot games - they set a standard in polish and graphical quality that's quite remarkable.

'''At present, is it pretty much how you envisaged it?'''<br />Visually, it's certainly all I hoped it would be. On the design front, things have shifted away from the simple arcade feel to offer a more involved, quest based structure containing a real mix of gameplay styles, and certainly greater diversity in play than I had initially anticipated… It's certainly a more complex and larger scale project than I first envisaged!

'''How many people worked on the project?'''<br />The core team consisted of around 10 people, 4 programmers, 5 artists and 1 mapper but there have been a number of extra people working on the project at various times during development. In addition, our internal A/V team were responsible for all the music and sound effects, our technologies department offered general support, and several vital development tools, and our QA group provided all important testing and feedback, helping us to bring all the elements together. So, all in all it's been a pretty big project.

'''What was your working schedule like during Medievil?'''<br />Pretty crazy (or sad, depending how you look at things!)… Since December '96, I've worked pretty much every day including weekends, working late on most. Most of the core team have invested many long hours and late nights into the project. 

'''What's the game's camera system like?'''<br />A big challenge of the game has been the camera, our goals being a system allowing the player the freedom to explore, offering a clear enough view to counter attacks from all sides, and allowing for cinematic and interesting views. We started with a purely spline based system (like Pandemonium, but with full 3d freedom). Unfortunately this proved to be rather inadequate for the game we wanted to make, and we lost quite a bit of time reworking things to enable a freeform 'chase' style camera. The final game uses a mixture of spline and chase camera styles, and I believe meets the initial goals pretty well, especially considering the complexity of the worlds it has to work within.

'''In the game what is your favourite part?'''<br />I'm really pleased with the diversity of the game - all the levels are very individual, both graphically and gameplay wise. There are also plenty of weapons and enemies, and so quite a few different ways that the player can tackle the game. Also, Medievil doesn't take itself too seriously - it has a sense of humour, offering some genuinely funny moments, something not often found in an action game.<br />If I had to name a single favourite part, it would have to be the final showdown with the evil sorcerer Zarok. This is a pretty unique blend of action, humour and wacky ideas that define the game very well, and should offer a few surprises to the player!

==[[James Busby]] - Programmer==

'''Why did you go into games?'''<br />I've always liked games and I knew I didn't want to work for a bank.

'''How's the geometry then?'''<br />That fine, MediEvil is very strong on that front in that we've got a lot of polygons in the enemies and that we've got a real 3D world, we don't use sprites at all whereas most games rely heavily on sprites.

==[[Paul Donovan]] - Programmer==

'''Why did you decide to work in games?'''<br />I don't know really I always wanted to be an airline pilot.

'''You could be a commercial pilot.'''<br />I could have been, yeah, but it also got to the point where they weren't recruiting anyone, so I went to university, computer science and decided I wanted to be a games programmer.

''' What's your average working day then?'''<br />Get in about quarter to ten, work to midday then have lunch, finish lunch at one and then work till about seven or eight in the evening, go home, eat, watch TV and go to bed. Although the last year we've been working till midnight twice a week and then obviously depending on what we're doing, like this week we're here every night till nine.