Category Archives: Developers

Interview with Star Trek: Conquest Lead Designer

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Last week I was able to chat with Frank Arnot, lead designer for Star Trek Conquest. The following Q&A should help you learn a bit more about the game and what it’s all about.

How would you best describe Conquest?

Conquest is a game of galactic domination that mixes turn-based strategy game with arcade elements.

What’s back story for the game?

Because of the nature of the game we have a very straight-forward back story:

It is a time of unrest, all the major races are at war. Age-old alliances are forgotten, diplomacy is dead. Powerful fleets prowl the galaxy establishing outposts and vanquishing indigenous and enemy fleets alike in the pursuit of the ultimate prize – the capture of all home worlds and galactic domination.

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Inside the Vault: Grant Struthers

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Today we talk with Grant Struthers, the artist responsible for my favorite location in Oblivion – Cloud Ruler Temple. And, of course, these days, he is hard at work on Fallout 3. If I could pick any cubicle to visit on the team, I would pick Grant’s. He always has the most crazy looking stuff on his monitors — his test areas are always fun to look at. (Grant and his wife, Clara – who also works here – just adopted a new kitten who had been abandoned at Craig “Claff” Lafferty’s – a producer here – doorstep. Leaving a kitten at someone’s doorstep and running away – who does that? Anyhoo…)

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New Official Fallout Site; Todd Howard Team Diary

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So after, oh, 4 1/2 months of work, we finally got the official Fallout 3 site done and out the door. Todd, Lindsay, Istvan, and I have been working on this thing since March, and finally got it just the way we wanted.

I think it’s a really cool site, probably the best one we’ve ever done. Many thanks to Lindsay for the 10,000 revisions she had to do until everyone was happy, to Istvan for making sure the look and feel was just right, and Natalia for pulling together all the Vault Boy images we needed.

You’ll find lots of links to all the coverage that’s come out so far, screens you’ve probably seen, new wallpapers you probably haven’t, the teaser trailer, etc. The usual stuff, but lots more to come over the coming months.

We wanted Todd to kick off the Diary section with his thoughts on undertaking the task of making Fallout 3 and what that means to him, and us. Here’s a snippit:

The massive expectations of what this game means to everyone who loved Fallout, RPGs, and gaming-in-general is not lost on us. It’s impossible to discuss the game with anyone without them referencing Oblivion and/or the Fallout legacy. In many ways, it’s the sequel to both games. It’s our “next” RPG after Oblivion while also being the sequel to one the greatest games in the history of electronics. No pressure.

Head over to the new site to read the rest. Drop us a line when you’re done and let us know what you think.

Interview with Matt Firor

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So an announcement went out today about our new sister division, ZeniMax Online Studios. I thought it might be nice to find out a little bit about the newest member of the family and ‘that guy I’ve seen in the cafeteria from time to time.’ Matt was nice enough to answer some questions, while deftly evading others (curses!).

Is it pronounced Fire-or, or Fire-er, or…?

More like Fire-roar. Or, you can just call me Matt. Much easier.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

Most of my game industry career was spent at Mythic Entertainment, where I was the Producer of Dark Age of Camelot, an MMO that launched in 2001. Prior to that I was Producer and/or a designer of 12 other online games including Aliens Online, Silent Death Online, and Magestorm. I was at Mythic from 1995-2006. Prior to that I was a founder of a multi-user BBS game development company with some friends that eventually became one of the two companies that merged to form Mythic. I go back a long way in multi-user gaming; our first project was in 1987, when I was in college.

Hit the jump for the rest of the interview….

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Lead Level Designer Interview

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Sliver Rose Studios, a community devoted to modding for Oblivion, put up an interview with Lead Level Designer Joel Burgess. For the interview, community members on the site compiled questions for Joel to field. In the interview, among other things, Joel discusses modding, downloadable content and Bethesda office culture. Here’s an excerpt: Continue reading full article ›

Emil’s Return to E3

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Oddly enough, I’ve been with Emil every time he’s attended E3. Thing is, the last time he attended was in 1998 in Atlanta, the second of two E3s we attended together while working at The Adrenaline Vault, where Emil and I first met a long time ago. This year, nine years later, Emil made his return to E3 (and his first-ever trip to the Left Coast) so I asked him to put together some thoughts on his experience this year. Here’s what Emil had to say:

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Today at E3 — Sunny and a Bit Blurry

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So we’ve got one full day of the show under our belts. The demos went well yesterday and we really had a packed room the last showing of the demo as we caught up with people who couldn’t get back in time from the Sony press conference. First demo is ongoing as we type and, despite some rather, shall we say, ‘tired’ people walking around the hotel today (Gatorade is quite the popular beverage this morning), everyone made it and it’s completely packed in there . Every demo today is going to be way, way full (unlike the image below taken while out of session).

Party last night seemed like it was a big hit. Love the Saddle Ranch and the people that run that place. All they really care about is that you have fun, which everyone definitely seemed to be having right up until the point where they had to push quite a few of us out the door at closing.

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