What is your forum name? Zahariel
What is your job title with Vanguard? Game Designer
How would you describe your job? One part writer, one part orchestra conductor, three parts relationship councilor, shake vigorously and pour into a glass of two parts sleep deprivation and five parts awesome.
When did you decide on this career? When I was in first grade and the teacher asked us all what we wanted to be when we grew up, I said I wanted to make video games.
What do you think it takes to be successful in this career? Knowing what is fun and convincing others that everyone will think it is fun too.
How long have you been associated with Vanguard? 1 year, 6 months, 14 days, 6 hours, 21 minutes at this time of writing.
What other games have you worked on? Sovereign, Everquest 2, and Fall of Troy.
What areas in Vanguard did you assist with in the creation process? I was one of the handful of designers who overhauled diplomacy, I also had a hand in on a good amount of the lore, from racial storylines, to the gods and dungeons, and how they exist together in the world of Telon.
What is your favorite area of Telon? This is very difficult to narrow down. Obviously I have a bias toward my own work, but I think that the island of Martok just has this vibe to it that really works. The music, the weather, the fact that I'm an escaped slave of the Gulgrethor on a mission of vengeance; it all blends together very well. However, I also enjoy Leth Nurae, probably because I worked closely with the art team on it's revamp into a proper high elven city.
What is your favorite NPC in Telon? Oooh, that's a toughy. I would have to say that it is Ghaldrid, the voice of Kaon.
Do you have a favorite race or class and why? The Dark Elves are my chosen people due to their absolutely ruthless nature, but I have a special love for the kurashasans just because so much of my energy went into their back story. My favorite class is Dreadknight, I love playing the tank when it comes to adventuring.
Do you have any advice for an individual breaking into this industry? Make contacts in the industry and sell yourself to them. Once you have someone on the inside you have a much better chance of having your special talents noticed and scooped up. Of course, this all assumes that you have talents that the industry wants, so I would say step one is finding out what you can offer the industry and doing that really well.
If you have worked on a primary game play feature can you describe what you have done and tell us something about it? I worked on the diplomacy system. When we sat down to revamp it we asked ourselves two questions. What's doable with our current code time, and can we make a card game out of it. Knowing how successful the card games are in the Final Fantasy series, we took that base idea and ran with it. We're still running too.
Is there anything about you that you think the community would be surprised to know about you? I am the voice of high elf males."
by lifebane 243 weeks ago
I see he still doesn't have his grammar worked out:
Quote: "I worked closely with the art team on it's revamp into a proper high elven city."
Ps: Shame on whomever doesn't see it
by vandeen 243 weeks ago