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Ken Shuck, Development Director

What is it you do on a daily basis? I am a Development Director and manager of the WAR Core Systems Team. Mr. Barnett prefers to call me the "guy who worries about the laws of physics", while he is responsible for "creating the joy". It is the Core Systems Team’s responsibility to develop most of the features found in the game. This includes RvR, Careers & Combat, Items, Guilds and Grouping, User Interface, and all of the tech and tools required to create the game - just to name a few areas. I am personally responsible for developing a plan for my team, identifying and mitigating risks/issues, and executing on that plan. It sounds so clean and boring when stated that way, but trust me it's anything but! There are so many unknowns, dependencies, and risk in software development that I spend much of my days just analyzing and resolving the never ending issues that are communicated to me by the line of team members forming in front of my office door. Don't worry though, I am not going home and crying myself to sleep (yet). What is your background? College? Degree? Has it helped with the job? 1st job out of school? I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1992 with a Bachelor's Degree in Information Systems and in 1994 with an MBA. Out of school, I went into the ever exciting defense contracting industry working as a systems analyst/software engineer. Most of the projects that I worked on with the Government over the years were military, medical and finance systems. After a few years of working in the trenches, I started gravitating towards the project management side and began managing software development efforts. I did that for over a decade, before deciding that I needed to make the switch to a commercial company or find a new profession. In between the defense work and my decision to join EA, I worked at AOL managing the roll-out of new spam control features and as a Director at a project management consulting firm in the area. What other titles have you worked on in the past? In what capacity? Having joined EA and the games industry just about 2 years ago, the only other title (other than Warhammer) that I have worked on was the Superman Returns game at the EA Tiburon studio. I served as the Senior Development Manager on the Xbox 360 game overseeing the graphics, effects, tech and tools, and performance aspects of the game. As the Development Director, I also managed the port of the Superman Returns 360 game to the PS2 and Xbox. I know that the game did not meet some expectations, but I learned a tremendous amount about game development and the industry during this project. I got to work with a highly talented group of people, and it was a terrific experience for me. What was your "welcome to the game industry" moment when it hit you that you were really making games for a living? There were a few moments early on during the Superman project when I realized what a huge change I had made in my career and how happy I was that I did so. In one of the very first meetings I attended, we had a very deep and heated discussion about how Superman would fly through the city and which superpowers he would want to use to defeat the villains attacking Metropolis. Until that point, I don't think it ever really occurred to me that people could be sitting around talking about these types of things and get paid to do it! 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? I am sure that I am not the first person to say this, but the Warhammer IP is amazing. It's just so deep and revered. We have a tremendous foundation to work with and my understanding is that Games Workshop has been very open to brainstorming with us on new ideas for the game. A great relationship with your IP partners is critical to delivering a successful game and we have that in spades. Do you collect Warhammer figures? What army do you play? Does your spouse let you display them when friends come over for dinner? Unfortunately, I do not collect Warhammer figures. Having two toddlers, aged 3 and 1, and a baby on the way, we are not allowed to have anything small in our house that could possibly fit in their mouth! It’s probably better this way as it would be difficult to explain why my daughter has a small finely painted Orc or Dwarf miniature lodged in her throat to the emergency room doctor. What are your hopes/goals for the game? My greatest dream is that all of the planets align and I create the mythical perfect project plan that delivers this game on schedule and it exceeds even the toughest fan's expectations. I lie in bed at night sometimes and think about this. 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? Before I joined Mythic, I admittedly was strictly a console player. In the past year, my favorite games were God of War, Burnout, Psychonauts, Jade Empire, Prince of Persia, Mercenaries, Kingdom Hearts, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and Godfather. I am spending most of my spare time now playing MMOs, but still wouldn't mind checking out GOW 2 and Bully if I get the chance. What music are you listening to right now? Currently, I am listening to John Legend, Lumidee, and the new Maroon 5. I have pretty broad musical tastes including R&B, dance/techno, and pop. Is there a recent movie you’ve seen or book/comic you read that you’d recommend to others? Just a couple days ago I saw Borat on DVD and felt like I wanted to turn my head away every few minutes. I get more embarrassed for other people than I do for myself ...call me sensitive or a wuss I guess! I have to admit that it was hilarious. If you think you can handle it, definitely pick it up. Anything else you want to add? I just wanted to close by saying thanks to the team at Mythic for allowing me to join their storied studio and work on such a fantastic game.

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