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- Tell us a little about yourself, what have you accomplished in life?
Wow that’s a scary question. I’ve definitely shocked myself that I’ve been able to support my lifestyle through my art. I started a flash dev firm 5 years ago which has been a really fun and challenging way to make a living. I stepped away from 3D graphics out of a quality of life issue. I couldn’t hack the long hours you had to put in, not to mention the technical challenges that always come with trying to make something look good. These days it’s a lot easier to produce something of quality but it would be hard for me to go back at this point. We’ll see--I do a lot of broadcast design stuff now, so 3D is coming back in my life slowly but surely.
- What are your favourite computer games/board games and why?
I really like bust-a-move which is a really simple reverse breakout game that you can play against another player or the computer. I was really addicted to Rayman2 at one point--I loved the art style and the game play. I’m not much of a gamer so it took me far too long to do anything of note in the game but it was so beautiful, it always had me coming back. After that I moved on to metal gear solid 2 but I haven’t played anything in a long while as you can probably tell.
- What hobbies do you have besides computer games?
Well during Fallout I was road racing motorcycles at Willow Springs in Palmdale, CA. I’m strictly a fan now cause I basically sucked and I didn’t want to make mayonnaise out of key body parts. I was also designing and building furniture which I still do. That really is a great departure from the computer world and extremely therapeutic.
- What are your favourite bands/artists (music)?
I’m really into Pinback, rougewave, the shins, death cab, and other sensitive boy bands these days, but back in the fallout days… my office mate Eddie Rainwater and I were really into techno with an occasional burst of Brazilian rap (Eddie is from Brazil).
Occasionally we would throw on (as loud as we could) the Conan the Barbarian sound track until we pissed our pants. I don’t know why it was so funny to us but we would just laugh at how dramatic and hilarious it was taken out of context. We’d get pretty punchy cranking out heads at all hours.
- Tell us a little about your role in the making of Fallout 1/2/3 (Van Buren)/Tactics?
The heads came about because I was hired to provide sculptures of the cast of Star Trek for the Vulcan’s Fury title (god awful game) and Leonard Boyarski came by to the sculpture studio to try his hand at doing a little sculpture. He actually sculpted the first Fallout head--the overseer. He got me on Fallout to do the rest of the heads and really encouraged me to do get into 3D which later positioned me to become art lead of fallout 3. (I quit weeks later to move up to San Francisco)
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- What's your favourite Fallout memory?
After fallout2 launched and we went to a signing at a local mall in Orange County. I was shocked at how many people showed and seemed genuinely interested in meeting all of us and having us sign stuff. Totally cool to get appreciated on that level.
- What specifically inspired Fallout for you? What were the biggest influences?
I had no part in the predevelopment but I can say that I was most inspired during development working with Jason Anderson. He really inspired me to bring my art up to a higher level. His work was so clean and rich with detail. And most of his work was for the map pieces and had to be very small in some instances. I was always amazed how much detail he got out of so few pixels.
- Pop Culture played a big role in Fallout, what pop culture influences you?
Again I really didn’t have much say in the game design, but in doing the heads I suppose we were inspired by frank frezetta and frank miller not pop culture mind you but we all lived in a comic book vacuum at the time.
- How was it to be a part of the Fallout team?
I was totally humbled and honored--the guys I was working with were so impressive. For me it was about the process. I was working as an artist and that was a true joy. It was only years later that I realized what a special project Fallout was.
- Were there things that you wished you had added to either Fallouts?
We wanted heads for every character but time and cost prohibited that. We were getting pretty good at the work flow and a head might take little over a week to complete so I feel we could’ve done more. But at 25 I was getting jaded and wanted a life outside of staring at my computer screen.
- What were you favourite places in fallout and why?
Ok don’t hate me but I can’t honestly recall any map in particular that stood out more than another. We were so caught up on the heads and the process I think we rarely looked at the whole game. I loved the cut scenes that Leonard and Jason did though.
- What is your hope for future Fallout games? Would you like to be a part of a future Fo team?
No I’m too old for that. 3D is such a pain in the ass I’d rather just hire someone and watch the magic happen. I don’t think I could ever work on a large scale game again without a gun pointed at my head.
- Who would you bring with you in a future Fallout team and why?
Well you have to have Eddie Rainwater and Tramell Isaacs--those guys killed themselves for the team and really knew their shit so it makes the game that much better. Leonard and Jason could lead the team. I think it would be easier to deal with them now that I’m a little more secure in my art and what I bring to the table. You can read between the lines on that if you want.
- In your opinion, what are the key ingredients that every RPG should have?
Ok that’s just the wrong question for me.
- Where do you see computer RPGs going?
When the iPhone comes out i'm sure we'll see more handheld multiplayer stuff come out. Maybe they'll throw out a nice RPG for that.
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- How does the fan base hinder/help the projects that you've worked on?
I’d say the fan base was all positive. Once I knew there was actually a fan base to speak of I was inspired to do better and better work.
- When planning the story how do you go through the process of integrating themes and story with the constraints on software?
Design design design. At Interplay, unfortunately design of the game play was given a very low priority (Tim Cain changed this for Fallout of course). Just make sure your story and design are solid then go from there. I mean, if you read the script for Star Wars “Episode One” would you make that into a movie?? Cripes.
- If you could make any computer game that you wanted, which would it be and why?
As a Flash developer now, I’d like to port some popular games over to show how powerful Flash has become.
- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Hmm most likely doing broadcast design in some capacity or another.
- Any last word to the Fallout fan base?
Yeah thanks a ton guys! You were a real inspiration to us on Fallout2. It really started to mean something once we knew that people cared about the product. So again, thank you so much for caring.