Interview Annie Mitsoda's (nee Carlson's) Zombie Baby

[Darth Roxor]

Cleve's Bunker Simulator?

I read it as Clive Barker Simulator.


The hell?

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Cleve's Bunker Simulator?

I read it as Clive Barker Simulator.


The hell?

 

[Kos_Koa]

Good interview. It's also interesting to know that they are at the "mashed potato" level of production.

There were other ideas, and once Brian and I decided we were going to work with Vince and co, I looked at Brian and was like "well, what do you think would work best in the AoD engine?" and he said - with a great intense look in his eyes - "A zombie survival RPG." And I closed my Big Book O' RPG Ideas and went "OK. Convince me." And by God he did. (And by that I don't mean naughty things, I mean that he actually convinced me it was a good idea by using words.)

She definitely has a way of sparking the imagination.

 

[jazzotron]

I still wish someone would make a modern version of ... Shining Force 2

Hear, hear!

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

Thanks for the read, all. I was a little worried it would run long, but DU asked good questions (and also I've had a horrible fucking cold for the last two weeks, so I'll blame cold medicine and illness as well).

And I wish I could say more about Project NJ, but in case anyone didn't suspect it yet, YES, NDAs are still binding. Hell, I think they're even MORE binding if the game doesn't come out, because you have possible backlash on the companies involved. I would dearly love to say more about it (and calling the publisher on the carpet about it publicly would be delicious) but that sort of shit can basically punch your career in the balls. Like, LAWSUIT level bad.

Also I believe my Codex handle is now out of date! Gots to change that. [UPDATE! Thank you DU ]

 

[Fat Dragon]

You should post here more, Annie. Let all the rage and faggotry of the Codex consume you.

 

[Selenti]

Yeah, pretty great interview. Selfishly I wish it were something other than a zombie survival RPG since that does absolutely nothing for me, but I love AoD's setting so I guess 1 for 2 ain't bad for personal taste.

 

[Tycn]

Thanks Annie and DU, that was an excellent read. I'm slightly more optimistic about Guild Wars 2 knowing that a Codexer is on board.

 

[deuxhero]

Thanks for the read, all. I was a little worried it would run long, but DU asked good questions (and also I've had a horrible fucking cold for the last two weeks, so I'll blame cold medicine and illness as well).

And I wish I could say more about Project NJ, but in case anyone didn't suspect it yet, YES, NDAs are still binding. Hell, I think they're even MORE binding if the game doesn't come out, because you have possible backlash on the companies involved. I would dearly love to say more about it (and calling the publisher on the carpet about it publicly would be delicious) but that sort of shit can basically punch your career in the balls. Like, LAWSUIT level bad.

Also I believe my Codex handle is now out of date! Gots to change that.

Does Shining Force 2 get better after Peter "joins" as a guest?

 

[Antagonist]

This must be a better than your average interview as I actually took the time to read it from start to finish. Nowadays interviews with game developers are mostly good for playing bullshit bingo as the signal to noise ratio is in strong favor of noise. Well, this interview did spark my interest in ZRPG anew. Selfishly I have to ask, if you guys plan alternative means of following the development of the game, for instance a monthly newsletter or an RSS feed, as I don't have the time to hang out in the realm of the Dweller too often.

Anyway, thanks to Annie VanderMeer Carlson Mitsoda for answering the questions in such a great detail and to DarkUnderlord for actually getting his ass up. This reminds me of the better days, before the dark times, before the purge...

 

[circ]

Thanks Annie and DU, that was an excellent read. I'm slightly more optimistic about Guild Wars 2 knowing that a Codexer is on board.

Someone seems to be forgetting that AC was partially responsible for the horrible armor in NWN2. As if the NWN1 armor wasn't bad enough, Obsidian outdid themselves. In every aspect.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

really? I thought she made item descriptions. NWN2 had some cool storys in the item descriptions. What items did you make the descriptions for, Annie?

 

[meeneque]

These comments are to nice.
Decline?









p.s. nice interview

 

[hiver]

"my god, I don't wanna work with that guy again, he can't take constructive criticism to save his life."

Its MCA isnt it? It must be him. Hes all nice and lovable in public but i bet his real Adolf backstabbing primadona privately.

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

The downsides of the NWN2 armor were as follows:

* there was a standing order from Wizards of the Coast to make ALL ARMOR asymetrical, while it had initially been built for symmetry.

* The armor also worked on an "attachment" system, where you put pieces on top of a base set, which sometimes worked and sometimes OH NOES HORRIBLE CLIPPING!!!1ONE

* It took time to get used to the way textures and tints interacted. The icons came before the actual armor sets, so I was trying to make them look as close to the icons (which went from gray as normal to copper as +1, silver as +2-3, and gold as +4-5) as possible. Also, red and blue dragon armor is either gonna look like one scaled plate on top of normal armor, or it's gonna look RED or BLUE, so I opted with... well, the louder stuff. Don't even get me started on how hard it was to make the Rainbow Armor look... well... not totally gay. There's really no other way I can say it.

* THERE WERE TOO MANY ITEMS IN NWN2. It incorporated every single item from NWN and all of the expansions, plus whatever new ones we made for NWN2. They were super-duper unbalanced and it was like you tripped over a new magic item every 15 minutes, which is why I wanted to throw that shit out and start over with SoZ.


THAT BEING SAID - I handled the look of all the armors in NWN2 (unless they're plot ones, which were most likely specialized ones like Ammon Jerro's or Lord Nasher's), and all of the really spiffy artifact-level items and armors in MotB. And pretty much everything in NX2, although I think Jeff Husges hated the massive pauldrons on some of the armors so much he snuck in and took some out, but the rest was all mine. The descriptions - all of the falchions in NWN2 (the rest, as said, were artifacts), and all of the other stuff I mentioned for NX1 and 2.

(and no, I don't have a virtual boner for massive pauldrons, they were just the best-looking attachments for the given set, in my opinion, and it looked kinda doofy without them in some cases)


And yeah, Shining Force 2 gets better after Peter joins. Cause them you start getting fuckin centaur bowmen and beastmen and flying motherfuckers and enemies have stupid-strong spells and effects and it is super awesome. I'm not saying it'll blow your mind or you'll freak out the strategy will hit you SO HARD, it's like RPG Strategy Lite, but it's still a really engaging game. There are also some interesting little quirks in the story at later points that nudge it above the average JRPG of the day (which isn't saying much, I suppose, but considering story wasn't exactly a high point of ANY JRPG of the time, making any change in 1994/5 was interesting. And yes I know that was the year Chrono Trigger came out and it was the better game, but SHUT UP just kidding I still love SF2.)

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Ok, so who did write the story for a sorc-only spear that cast Mordenkainens Disjunction on hit? It was about some Rahsemi sorceress who fled from slavery in Thay and then killed a lot of Red Wizards or something.

 

[ironyuri]

BONUS QUESTION: You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, Annie, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back, Annie. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that, Annie?

If, based on your answer we can prove that you are a replicant, will we need Deckard to take care of you/will you go all Rutger Hauer squeeze a pigeon to death?

Also: The Blade Runner adventure game? y/n

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

The Special Edition OC stuff was all done by Josh Sawyer, with the exceptions being the warlock stuff (which was done by Travis Stout).

I'm pretty sure I'm not a replicant, but not only do I dislike pigeons, but I'm fairly certain that I could beat up Harrison Ford, especially after that last terrible Indiana Jones movie. I haven't made any origami unicorns, tho. I suck at it.

Sadly I didn't play the Blade Runner game - I wanted to, but it was one of those things that slipped by me... and I was gonna post "like tears in the rain," but then I stopped myself, because it would have been kind of lame of me. However, if it helps, I work with someone who stood in for Edward James Olmos for the game! Awesome and random.

 

[denizsi]

Here's an exchange of messages between me and Annie that I was intending to send to DU in case he'd like to use it or just share it sometime on the Codex but was too busy indulging in teh lulz:

denizsi 20 June at 13:04
Latest ZRPG update: is that how it (marriage) happened?

Anyway, congratulations is in order, I think. Wish I had played Sozzy SoZ; I could probably make a witty and fitting reference to a character.

Annie Mitsoda 21 June at 19:54 Report
I'd say congrats are in order! Fuck yeah and hooray for us, says I! And yeah, we are hitched. Brian and I were co-workers and friends for quite a while before the dating-engagement-marriage progression, so no, the deliciousness of a zombie (the drink) did not contribute (although I definitely had one on our honeymoon, because hooray rum and yay honeymoon)!

I'm a little afraid to return to the Codex at the moment, I'm certain there are those screaming that I must have been hired to DoubleBear because of my powers of vaginamancy and not of game design. Ah, internet. Whaddyagonnado.

If you did make reference to a SoZ character I would be more than a little surprised. There was a cohort (Zarl) that Brian was supposed to have voiced, but sadly he was cut. If I ever get around to that bloody mod I've been planning, it'll be easy to get him to voice the character, at least...

-Annie

denizsi 21 June at 22:05
You mean never, eh : )

Live happily till genres do you apart.

And if you are really only hesitating to post at the Codex but you have something to contribute, kindly man the fuck up, please. Nobody would believe DoubleBear could afford to "hire" anyone anyway (and I have to add, you realize "hired *to* DoubleBear" sounds all kinds of fun wrong, right? Almost like porn lingo.)

By the way, you should try that recipe while playing board/party LARP games. Nothing like a drunk "Murderer" slipping out that he is the murderer, other drunk players not even noticing it and the one to notice being ridiculed or looked at with suspicion.

Annie Mitsoda 22 June at 03:53 Report
Man, I'm holding off posting at the Codex until I have some DB stuff to talk about (which will hopefully be soon), or everyone stops talking about Alpha Protocol (which I can't post about because I've disavowed any connection with it, and saying anything about it would be weird). Or they stop talking about Dragon Age, which I can't talk about because it's considered bad form (all I will say is that I'm still going through it, and the fact that the AI loses its targets on knockdown or when they're moving away is ridiculous, but I liked having a dog that I could name stuff like "Buttsnorter"). So... yeah. Also I'm insanely busy with my full-time job, which I'd talk about if Dark Underlord ever got around to interviewing me like he said he would, because if I started a thread like HAY GUISE THIS IS WUT I UP TOO that would be pretty egotistical. Someone has to convince me people want to hear the shit I've been up to before I say stuff about it, most times

And yeah - when Brian and I were searching for stock photos to base the DoubleBear logo on, he was foolish enough to search for "bear" without Google's Strict Safe Search turned on. BAD IDEA. ::shudder::

Believe it or not, the saddest thing about that zombie recipe is how few actual ingredients of it we own. Hard liquor is really expensive in Seattle (because of all liquor stores being state-run) but we're going to invest more in some good stuff with our "hooray you're married now" money. (wise investment, eh?) Thankfully we make up for the lack of cheap liquor with a large amount of really amazing microbrews... nommmmmmmm. Ah beer. Combining booze with videogames is also really fun (so long as nobody gets TOO sauced and gets everyone else killed). Booze with party games... hmm... I must try this.

denizsi 22 June at 13:14
Those are pretty lame excuses to avoid posting about DA and AP. What do you think about AP, btw? Could you tell what has changed in basic game mechanics from when either of you were involved? And what the story was, if there was one at the time?

Anyway, about the interview: You are pretty much waiting for Godot if it's up to DU, so let's bring it on; we're doing the it here and if it's stuff people want to hear, I'll edit the messages and send it to DU.

So, for the sake of going "on record" with the marriage, congratulations again and tell us how this will affect DB, if you think it will at all. The thing that immediately pops up in my mind is late night bed talk over RPG design.

You have mentioned in the past that it was you who convinced Brian to cooperate with ITS and use their modified Torque engine. So, is this a scheme to cut down on possible expanses? Will you keep marrying new team members as they come on board, to avoid dealing with paychecks and other employee benefits, like a Black Widow? (If you rather not have any mention of the marriage, let us move on)

So what are you two up to outside the ZRPG?

Annie Mitsoda 23 June at 03:46 Report
I'm with you on them being lame reasons, but I'm still not fully in the indie field - which means I've got to watch my mouth as far as talking about other games goes. You never know who you're going to interview with in the future (as the game industry is an "incestuous" place - everyone's worked with everyone else, due to the extremely high turnover rate), and even current employers view it as bad form for their employees to go bawling about other companies. It's not a situation I'm gleeful about by any means - I think games could use a lot of constructive criticism by those who actually know how they get made - but no matter how you look at it, it's risky for those involved (unless they're top-ranking folks who can talk some weighty shit but know they've still got jobs).

As for Alpha Protocol, I honestly don't know how it's been changed - I didn't get a chance to really look at it after I was moved off of the project, and I haven't played it. I know they basically wiped out everything Brian and I wrote (if anything of ours is still in there, I've no idea one way or the other). Many of the mechanics were still in flux while we were on the project, so I can't say much one way or the other as to how they changed; and for the story, all I can say is that it's different. Sorry if the info is scant, but that's all I got.

RE: marriage - Brian and I have been dating for quite a while now and living together since we first arrived in Seattle, so although getting hitched is super-cool, nothing will really change with DoubleBear and ZRPG stuff as a result. We've always talked about game design stuff, even back when we were hanging out on the beach in Southern California (discussing ideas for "HoboQuest," an RPG where you lost levels instead of gaining them in your journey to become King of the Hobos). Part of being a game designer, I think, is that you never lose your enthusiasm for talking about shit having to do with games, and you do it all the time. Usually that drives other people crazy, but when you find that perfect person to bounce ideas off of, then - well, it's fantastic. We were lucky enough to find that, so we thought it fitting that we "lock that shit down," so to speak.

Annie Mitsoda 23 June at 03:46 Report
Regarding Iron Tower - basically, the way the whole DoubleBear/ITS cooperation situation worked out was when Vince first interviewed me, and then I got him in touch with Brian for another interview. Shortly after, Vince mentioned offhandedly to me that he'd love to work on a game with us - him providing the expertise of ITS, while we worked on the writing and design - and I brought it up with Brian as something we should seriously consider. Actually, the prospect was such a dream combo that at first Brian and I were worried that the offer couldn't possibly be for real. But Vince was serious, and we really couldn't say no to an offer that awesome.

The Torque engine and AoD's modifications were basically a key part of the package, and we knew that from the beginning - it wasn't really a matter of me convincing anyone it would work or not, it was something we were aware we'd have to work with - so we already knew our sort of game restrictions (I should add that we're working in Torque 3D now, as we found out later that the port would be pretty easy, and T3D was really affordable for indie devs). I threw out a couple ideas for projects, but Brian proposed a zombie survival RPG, and convinced me it would be perfect (although in my defense I can say I didn't need much convincing!) While we started work on the project, both of us were looking for jobs, although Brian had been thinking more and more about creating his own company, and with Iron Tower having our back, it seemed like the best time for him to do so.

One day we'd like to actually hire on new people to DoubleBear (WITHOUT me marrying them, thank you very much), but that'll come after ZRPG is released and the sweet, sweet profits for it come (hopefully) rolling in by the truckload. I do have my own plans for getting all my friends to move up here to Seattle (because it's really awesome up here), and being able to eventually offer them a job is icing on the cake. So - not hiring yet, but hopefully soon, with the support of people who like our games and would like us to make more of them.

RE: why I'm not also full-time indie: It was a combo of needing steady income and my own desire to keep learning in a larger industry environment that kept me job hunting (while working full-time on ZRPG). Thankfully, I was lucky enough to not only find a rad place to work, but one that would let me still do part-time stuff at DoubleBear. My full-time gig? I'm a designer at ArenaNet, and I'm working on Guild Wars 2. It's fucking sweet. Massive project by day, indie work by night. I'm really lucky, and ANet's been really good to me. [Aaaaaand now cue Volurn screaming "OMG NOW GW2 WILL BE SOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZY" as if I singlehandedly controlled everything having to do with every project I've ever worked on]

RE: Outside ZRPG - We just got back from our honeymoon in Bonaire, and we're missing the Cuban rum we had there and (dammit) couldn't bring back with us. The Seattle Beerfest is coming up, and both Brian and I are going to take a break from our hardworking game-creation schedule to imbibe some delicious microbrews of sublime perfection. The weather in Seattle has been pretty assy lately, but once it gets back on track, we've got a garden to attend to in our free time. And plenty of gaming, of course. Between Picross 3D (which I played the hell out of on the plane rides to and from Bonaire), Red Dead Redemption, and pretty much the entriety of the Humble Indie Bundle... yeah, I've got some stuff to play. So life is hectic, but good

denizsi 23 June at 22:25
That's really great, the bouncing ideas part with someone you're closest to. I'm the only CRPG "nerd" in my circle of dear friends so I know full well what it feels to be alone in this regard and how fantastic it would possibly be to have someone like that. Don't fuck it up, miss! And don't let him fuck it up, either!

I wasn't really secretly wishing for you to badmouth someone, anyone in the industry. I only wanted a straight "AP was like this" instead of something possibly like "AP was our baby, they RAPED IT! And then GRILLED it and served us the meat, real ITZ style!". You might under a NDA so I won't force the subject but if not, can I spoil the design, story and some of the characters of AP for you, so you can point key differences? You surely must have read some reviews on how the game plays at the very least?

Tell me more about your work on GW2 at ArenaNet. What position(s) are you filling and how much, if any, influence you have on your part of the design? Is there anything particular about the game that might appeal to the average Codexer? I'm reading a couple interviews and articles on the game so I might return with more questions on this.

What were the most important advantages/improvements of T3D over TGE to make -or even justify- the move while you already had access to a working framework as provided by ITS? I see that the most significant improvements seem to be the gameworld editors and the new lighting schemes (pureLight is pureAwesome for lightmaps).

I sense that it's actually a future investment in technology for further games but also think that T3D might be little limiting from a "graphicswhore" angle, eg. if you ever want to go next-gen(TM) with dandy shaders, nice dynamic lights and all that cool stuff, which aren't T3D's strong side as far as I know (and are instead in T3D Advanced's domain).

Note that when I say next-gen, I don't mean Crysis type, photo-realistic über-hardware-intensive stuff forcing multi-billion polycount barriers. The new shaders and lighting techniques give immense opportunities at creating very alluring but low-resource illusions in ingenious ways. Think of Ecstatica I & II (from "94 & "96), for instance:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ecsta ... Id,219553/

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ecsta ... Id,336784/

I don't know about you but most people immediately think of polygonal primitives when they see this game but those models aren't even volumetrically polygonal. They are volumetrically placed 2D sprites that do a humble lighting trick (eg. a primitive shaders) to look 3D. Now imagine all the cool stuff you can do in such simple ways with all of today's hardware tricks to achieve very detailed and organic looking visuals on still sub-budget machines.

(Actually, the reason I brought this point up is that I've been working on my own things regarding game design and until I've actually started doing things, -I'm using Unity3D by the way- I haven't ever realized that I could use all this cutting-edge stuff in very resource-friendly ways that I couldn't otherwise pull as good, so I could never imagine going with the basic T3D, which is like going back in time to pre-2004 technology-wise).

A lot of this obviously has more to do with the type of games you'd like to make and TGE/T3D is safe enough for pseudo-isometric games, but what about other styles? Any thoughts on this front?

How much code have been written when you decided to switch the engines and port the current stuff thus far (weaseling my way to get an answer to "how much of the basic game is done")? Will your acquirement of TG3D will have an involvement in your partnership with ITS, ie. can you tell if ITS will use your version of TG3D in turn in the future? Last we were told, Cycoplean would also use ITS' TGE but since now that you have TG3D, maybe they will switch too?

About Brian wanting to start your own company - how grounded in reality is that at the moment? Is Brian a welfare hippie for the time being? And how big a company are we talking about if it ever gets off the ground?

Is "Vince" really VD's real name? I remember him telling that he had a certain business agreement with his company that forbade him to openly take any other business ventures so I always found it strange how the name Vince stuck with him, as well as how he's using it at ITS forums.

"Massive project by day, indie work by night."

That sounds almost like a "Another cog in the machine by day - FUCK DA SYSTEM! by night".

denizsi 29 June at 00:19
Too busy? If not, I insist you tell me straight away "what the fuck are you talking about" ; )

Annie Mitsoda 29 June at 02:37 Report
Busy! Will give mail soon! Brian's been sick this past week (always fun to return home from a trip and shortly thereafter get "teh airport uckies," blargh) so I've been keeping an eye on him. Will getcha a proper mail when I can get his input in too.

denizsi 29 June at 03:01
Alright. Don't let him drop the loot.

Annie Mitsoda 01 July at 06:03 Report
Hah! Don't worry - we're not going to let each other fuck up what we got goin' on. So definitely we will not be like Ted & Roberta Williams in that regard. Also, we don't snort coke, so we won't be like them there EITHER. Whee!

Sadly, yeah, I'm kinda still under NDA for AP stuff. The most I can tell you is really a sort of summation of what was revealed about the game before and after the change: namely, the initial version was far more real-world and serious, "more Syriana-like" (as some have said), and the new version was far more "Kill Bill" (direct from a producer) and showy. All of the characters (except Grigori) were Brian's creation, two characters that he created I ended up writing for (and one was cut from the final game), and from the looks of it, pretty much all of them were largely changed, or definitely simplified. A good friend of ours, Travis Stout, wrote Steven Heck, and tried to keep it as in-line with Brian's original take on him as possible (if a bit more unhinged and less dangerously eccentric), and his take was probably (as far as I know) the most faithful to how we'd originally written the characters.

Personally I was sad to leave AP - it was neat being moved onto Storm of Zehir and all, but I think that my work for AP (writing with Brian and eventually writing some solo dialogues) is the best writing I've ever done. It bums me out that nobody will ever see it, but at the same time, it makes me really fucking want to write more rad shit that I know WILL be seen. I can't really say anything about the AP that *is* because I haven't played it, but I miss the AP that *was* because although it was problematic, I had some damn good times working on parts of that game, especially the VO. I'm sad that Josh Gilman - the actor who plays Mike Thorton - has gotten such a thrashing in some reviews, because he really is a FUCKING GOOD ACTOR, and I consider it a real priveledge to have worked with him. I think basically he was cast for a role that he was perfect for, and then a fundamental nature of that part was changed. I'm betting the directive he was repeatedly given was "be more bad ass!" because I know he has an excellent range, and brought a sly, geeky humor to the role when he was cast.

Off the record - ... Brian and our baby, .... shit happens ... I'm lucky I get to do both

Aha, GW2 stuff! I hate to disappoint you, but I can't really talk about my role on things just yet. As Gamescom approaches, more stuff will be released, and perhaps I might even be involved with some chatter that goes out to the press. Sadly in the meantime I just have to bat my eyes and say "I'm working on it as a designer and it's great!" and leave it at that. Alas!

The details of the Torque-T3D switch are all practicality-minded ones: since we're saving development time and money for ZRPG by using the Age of Decadence engine, we were already commited to Torque. Lo and behold info about T3D comes out, it looks pretty neat, seems to hit the high marks with what we want to do, and HEY PRESTO, they have a major discount for indie developers! And what's more, Iron Tower's very talented programmer Nick looked at it and was like "yeah, I could transfer our tools to work in that." And voila, ZRPG stuff in T3D. It was faster, prettier, and more robust - if we want to do future projects in it (and I would imagine we DO) it's something to grow on far more easily than TGE. I think we're less focused on major graphical oomph, and the consensus seems to be that T3D has more than enough power to handle the sort of stuff we'll be throwing at it. (Not to make that seem like we're sticking with sub-par graphics, but that it's more robust than TGE by a fair margin, mind.)

RE: other games. I did check out a game demo of T3D stuff at PAX that was running a 3rd person action game, and it seemed pretty easily managed within T3D's interface, so I think the engine itself will give us a fairly free rein to create variant projects in the future. As to what those will be - too early to say! We're focusing on ZRPG for now, and it's more than enough.

Also, regarding code and ports of ITS stuff - no idea, and it'd probably not be my place to say, either. I'd ask Vince about that one (and no, I don't think that's likely his real name, but it's a solid moniker nonetheless. Rose by any other name would still be blah blah blah etc. Vince is Vince!)

Brian wanting to start our own company is not "if" and "when" - it's happened! DoubleBear Productions is a FOR REALZ company with our business license and everything! So I'd say it's entirely grounded in reality. And no, he's not a "welfare hippie" - we're comboing my income with savings, which is basically par for the course with any start-up company. I'd imagine we don't ever want to become SUUUUUPER big, but for now, we're focused on just getting stuff done with our current staff instead of future projections.

As for me - I'd probably be prone to say "FUCK DA SYSTEM!" if working for ArenaNet wasn't awesome. Which it is. Awesome, I mean. So yeah, I'm lucky

denizsi 06 July at 10:37
But working for Obsidian wasn't? weasel: not a real question, obviously)

You rock for giving such detailed answers. Sorry I didn't reply and say that sooner.

I'm glad to hear that T3D is as capable as you say. Would you object to any part of this talk being made public, any parts that you'd want taken out? People sure would like to read your words on AP.

Annie Mitsoda 06 July at 20:57 Report
I think just the paragraph where I say "off the record" should be left out - it might be unseemly to whine (also I think I misspelled "privilege") Otherwise I'm cool with stuff being released! As with T3D, I'd suggest talking to Vince or Brian for more in-depth replies on the functionality of it. Also, DarkUnderlord FINALLY got around to pinging me for an interview, so very likely you might want to (stop) collaborate (and listen) with him on something, very possibly. But it's been fun to answer stuff - thanks for askin'!

And it's all good about the delay. Trust me, I know delays...!

Sorry for not editing it to be more readable. The paragraph mentioned by Annie removed censored on her request. But I left enough clues to give the shitty happy news. ie. I'm trolling. Nothing came up about babies, except the zombie babies in ZRPG. Ok, trolling again... or AM I?
There's probably some embarrassing stuff that I've written there and before a lot of you lynch me, I admit, I've underestimated T3D in some areas.

 

[Silellak]

Good read, denizsi. Thanks for posting that. Shame Annie can't talk more about AP, I'd love to hear more details about how it started off.

PS - Annie I'm a programmer and I've never done any work in games but I'd love to learn PLEASE HIRE ME.

/shameless

 

[Trojan_generic]

The downsides of the NWN2 armor were as follows:

Annie, you are still the only woman in the world who actually sacrifices part of her life analyzing this and can write about it and as well can maybe do something about it. ZRPGFTW.

Thanks,

and all the best in the holy union,

Trojan.

 

[Kingston]

Trojan.

-Qwinn

 

[circ]

However, if it helps, I work with someone who stood in for Edward James Olmos for the game! Awesome and random.

Hehe, ya that is pretty awesome.

 

[GarfunkeL]

 

[oldschool]

Also: The Blade Runner adventure game? y/n

y. Good game.

... and I was gonna post "like tears in the rain," but then I stopped myself, because it would have been kind of lame of me.

You could have gone with "My mother? Let me tell you about my mother." and then shot him.