What is it you do on a daily basis?
On a typical day I eat a pastry from the vending machine, consume at least a half a dozen cups of coffee, and scribble frantically on whiteboards and notebooks using arcane shorthand comprised of acronyms, stick figures, and diagrams.

Using a top secret methodology passed down through the ages by sages and gurus I transliterate the notes, stick figures, and diagrams into blueprints for a living design in my cubicle shaped workshop. I then present the results to the people who are far wiser and richer than I am, collect and read between the lines of feedback and edit requests, mutate the designs genetic blueprint, send it to engineering for technical exploration of the synthetic innards required to give our creation life, collect and sort through engineering feedback and edit requests, mutate the designs blueprint again, then send it back to engineering for birthing.

Once given life in our secure controlled testing chamber, we poke at and torment our unruly chaos touched creation until it adapts and behaves in an appropriate fashion. The adolescent game feature is then ready for replication to our minimum security testing chamber where thousands of volunteers take joy in playing with and abusing it.

Often I get feature designs based on other designer’s blueprints. When that happens I sit down with the design and stare at it until it feels uncomfortable and reveals its insecurities. I then engage in mental discourse with it to help it work out its problems or come to terms with itself. When the design is confident enough I send it to the engineers who like mad scientists studying the anatomy of an alien life form either cut it open and dissect it or suggest some minor cosmetic surgery that will allow the feature to attract a greater number of admirers, or just fit in unobtrusively.

Let’s not talk about the corrective surgeries or cremations that happen when things go wrong!

How long have you been with EA Mythic?
As of the authoring of this developer profile I’ve been with EA Mythic for just over a year.

Have you worked anywhere else? What other jobs have you held in the industry?
I started working officially in the game development industry in 1999 at Verant Interactive, and continued working there under Sony Online Entertainment until January of 2007.

Unofficially I’ve been creating and modifying pen & paper, tabletop, and electronic games since I was knee high to a snotling.

What other titles have you worked on in the past? In what capacity?
I provided content, systems design and implementation on Everquest, and it’s expansion titles Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, Planes of Power, and Legacy of Ykesha; Everquest Online Adventures for the PS2 and the expanded version EQOA: Frontiers.

In addition, I did some work with external product developers using the Everquest intellectual property, pre-production design work on SOE’s upcoming FreeRealms title, and some last minute design work on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes after SOE acquired the publishing rights.

What excites you about the Warhammer property?
One of the great aspects of working with the Warhammer property is the well-established tone of the setting and lore. This allows our content developers and creative teams to build on and create new stories within the Warhammer world that fit comfortably within the Warhammer property as a whole.

What cool things in the Warhammer universe do you hope to bring to life?
I’d like the tone of the Warhammer universe to be conveyed by the underlying game systems in addition to the content in order for the game to deliver an experience that is undeniably Warhammer.

Do you collect Warhammer figures?
I have obtained a small army of figures and am in the process of assembling and painting them all. I’ve played Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play several times over the last couple decades, and played through most of the Warhammer electronic games, but this is my first Warhammer Fantasy Battle army.

What army do you play?
Dey iz Orcs!

What are your hopes and goals for the game?
Higher than a haughty high elf’s nose to a drunken dwarf.

What are your key influences when making the game?

The Warhammer property, the Warhammer fans, the history and evolution of the MMORPG genre, and the collective development experience of our talented studio employees.

What is the biggest problem with current MMO’s you hope to fix with WAR?
There are no problems, only solutions. Well, and the more than occasional unpopular design decision. I hope we make design decisions that are popular with our target audience of Warhammer and MMORPG fans.

What are your favorite video/computer games of all time?
Of all time! That’s a tough question!
I have fond memories of Mail Order Monsters, Golden Axe, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams, Heroes Quest aka: Quest for Glory, The Magic Candle, Wing Commander, Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, Monster Rancher 3, Zoo Tycoon, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Dragonstrike, PowerMonger, Battletech: The Crescent Hawk’s Inception, Pools of Darkness, Baldur’s Gate I & II.
I can’t list them all! There’s too many!

What games should the readers be playing if they are not?
Go, King’s Table, and Senet

What music are you listening to right now?
Spell Toronto – Be More Careful

Buy it, listen & love it.

Is there a recent comic book or graphic novel you read that you’d recommend to others?
Garage Band by Gipi

I also recommend Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud to anyone in or interested in a design related field who hasn’t already read it.

Anything else you want to add?
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” – Marcus Aurelius