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Jeff Skalski, Deputy Art Director

What is it you do on a daily basis? I work with the other Art Managers, making sure the art staff is focused on a consistent look for WAR. In terms of my day to day work, I’m pretty much responsible for 1) all player interaction within the game and 2) ensuring our art pipeline is optimized. This means I work very closely with the Programmers, Designers, Content Developers, and Artists to deliver a consistent and useful interface that best fits the game play elements of WAR. What is your background? I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art for my BFA with a major in Illustration. Six weeks into my freshman year I attended a seminar on how to make video games. Seven months later I landed my first internship at the company that gave the seminar, MicroProse. Before the start of my sophomore year, I was offered a full-time job and took it. I learned more during that summer than I had at any time up to that point. I loved every second of it and still do. I’ve been in the video game industry for over 9 years, and with Mythic for just over 4 of them. What titles have you worked on in the past? In what capacity? The titles I’ve worked on, in chronological order with director’s commentary, include: Klingon Honor Guard (Level Builder and Designer / Andorian Disco!), Civilization II:Test of Time (3D Artist / Some Civlopedia renders), X-COM Alliance (Level Builder and Designer / Sadly cancelled), X-COM Enforcer (Level Builder and Designer / Bowling Alley fun), Re-Mission (3D Artist / Prototyped a game to help kids with cancer), Dark Age of Camelot (Artist / Epic Armors for Enchanters, Mentalist, and Wizard), Shrouded Isles (World Artist / All 6 dungeons from Caer Sidi to Galladoria), Foundations (World Artist / Concepted and built all Albion and Hibernia player housing), Trials of Atlantis (Lead World Artist / Aerus City Phoenix Encounter and Oceanus Caves), Frontiers (Lead World Artist / Early prototyping), Imperator (Art Director / We made a lot of impressive art for the game), and finally Darkness Rising (Just helping out / Midgard Ice Dungeon). What was your “welcome to the game industry” moment when it hit you that you were really making games for a living? The very first day of my internship at MicroProse, I was given a list by the Lead Designer (Chris Clark) of things I needed to build for the game. It was mostly health packs and weapon pickups. I had it done in about 4 days when it should have taken me several weeks. I just couldn’t stop working. It was just so much fun to realize people were going to be interacting with these objects I was making. What excites you about the Warhammer property? What makes it perfect for an MMO? What cool things in the Warhammer universe do you hope to bring to life? Warhammer is such a rich and crazy universe, unlike anything else out there. Once players look past the fact that we have Dwarfs and Orcs like so many others, and really start to understand what makes these races tick, they’ll begin to see why WAR is the perfect property for a new MMO. Coolest thing I hope to see… I just want a snotling all tied up, screaming for its life at the end of my wooden spear as I roam around as a Goblin Squig Herder. How can it be any cooler than that? Do you collect Warhammer figures? What army do you play? Does your spouse let you display them when friends come over for dinner? I started painting Warhammer figures when I was a sophomore in high school. I was painting 8-12” tall ceramic figures for some cash on the weekends before that. I saw these little figures one day while at a local hobby store and figured they would have to be the most challenging thing to paint. I picked some up and have not gone back to ceramics since. In Warhammer, I play my own little twist on the Night Goblins and for 40,000 I play a faction of the Dark Angels. My spouse unfortunately doesn’t let me display my latest creations around the house since Pottery Barn doesn’t carry them in their catalog. That’s no big surprise since she won’t let me keep my arcade cabinet in the kitchen anymore. No biggie, it now has a safe home within the offices here at Mythic. Anyone up for some Samurai Showdown? What are your hopes/goals for the game? Simple. I always work with one goal in life…. to dominate. What are your key influences when making the game? Anything besides Warhammer? There have been many influences for me while working on WAR outside of just the rock solid IP from Games Workshop. I take a hard look at other games, from all platforms and genres, and break down what I believe they did right and wrong. It doesn’t matter if it’s an FPS or a puzzle game. I can always walk away with something to reflect on when it comes to solving the challenges I am presented with on a daily basis. What is the biggest problem with current MMO’s you hope to fix with WAR? Queues and losing track of my objectives. Every time I have to refer to some internet site for some general info, it pains me to alt-tab. 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? Hands down favorite games of all time - Final Fantasy III (US), Final Fantasy VII, Super Mario 64, and every Zelda game (except The Adventure of Link and that Philips piece of junk they tried to do). The games I’m playing now? The more appropriate question would be “what I’m not playing?”. ^.^ Let me just list what I’ve played over the last week. On the PC we have WAR, Dark Age of Camelot, E.V.E., Ultima Online, WoW, and Oblivion. On the 360, I’ve been squeezing in a little Madden ’06, Burnout Revenge, Fight Night, and Geometry Wars. The PS2 is catching its breath after I rocked it with Shadows of Colossus, God of War, and Monster Hunter. DQ VIII is still taunting me. I still need to finish up Metroid Prime Echoes on the GameCube (sorry Retro -- the light and dark worlds have just been slowing me down -- thank you for not repeating that in Corruption). As for the PSP, I finally went out and bought a new game since the system was released. The game? -- Monster Hunter. ;) And finally, that leaves me with the system of the year (till the Wii hits us) … my DS Lite has seen a lot action since I overnighted it from Hong Kong when it released. I still religiously play Brain Age, Animal Crossing, New Super Mario Bros., Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, and Bleach. What should you be playing now if you haven’t yet? GC - Resident Evil 4, PS2 – Shadows of Colossus, Xbox360 – Geometry Wars, PSP – Monster Hunter Freedom, DS - Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. What should you go pre-order now to be playing this fall? GC/Wii – Zelda Twilight Princess, PS2 – Final Fantasy XII, Xbox360 – Gears of War, PSP – Valkyrie Profile, DS – Final Fantasy III As a side note, I’m going to predict by the fall of 2007 that Nintendo Wii will have 47% of the world wide market share for the next-gen consoles race; Sony’s PS3 will hold 27% of the market share, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will hold close at 26%. Mark my word; it’s going to be a great holiday season this year for console gamers. What music are you listening to right now? I am an XM addict, so you can always find me jamming out to anything on BPM, Top20, U-Pop, Flight 26, and Caliente. Whenever I want a little more control I listen to Live, Veruca Salt, and BT. Is there a recent movie you’ve seen or book/comic you read that you’d recommend to others? I finally got through the DVD set of the TV series LOST Season 1. Just amazing work. As for movies, I was pleasantly surprised by Cars and Superman Returns. They were a lot better than I originally thought they would be. My all time favorite book series is Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series. Look it up and check it out. Anything else you want to add? "Oh! Cloud! Your hair looks like a Chocobo!" -Tifa

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