Matt Barton's interview with George Ziets continues this week with some more discussion of the latter's early career. George got his first taste of game design with Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set, a mid-1980s game creation toolset that could be used to create Ultima-like RPGs. After talking a bit about how the industry has changed since then (so much more tools, so much more games), the discussion moves on to the topic of George's first professional game development role on Westwood's failed MMO Earth & Beyond. Apparently the game suffered from severe executive meddling, with the entire plot thrown out six months before it was due to release.


George's next role was on Neverwinter Nights 2, which as we know was a development hell of its own. The interview quickly segues into an amusing bitching session about RPG strongholds. George wishes they would all cut the faux-strategy game crap and just work like the strongholds in Baldur's Gate II. It's a really fun episode, and we haven't even gotten to Mask of the Betrayer yet. More to come next week.