Tabula Rasa : Illumination - Paul

Favorite games
Ratchet and Clank Series, World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Frequency and Amplitude, Animal Crossing, Starcraft, Ultima III, Bard's Tale II, Mortal Kombat II and III, Soul Calibur, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Tradewars 2002, Sly Cooper Series

Favorite books
Hitchhikers Guide Series, Dune Series, VALIS series, The Silmarillion, The Dragon Reborn, In Search of Schroedinger's Cat, Belgariad

Favorite movies
Memento, Fight Club, 12 Monkeys, Jacob's Ladder, Blade Runner, Holy Grail, Blues Brothers, Weird Science, O Brother Where Art Thou

Favorite websites
TotalFark, IGN, Game Rankings, IMDB

Favorite bands or songs
Cake, REM, The Killers, Beastie Boys, Ben Folds, Parliament, Crystal Method, Tangerine Dream, MC 900 ft. Jesus, Beck, Reverend Horton Heat

Favorite quote or personal mantra
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.

Previous projects
Ultima Online

Describe your job
My job now involves taking in lots of ideas and filtering those for the best ones that will make a cohesive game.

Describe one of your most memorable adventures/encounters in a MMOG you've played previously
In DAoC, my guild was hunting in Yggdra Forest. We were in the midst of a pretty hairy fight versus some creatures, when. you guessed it, we got jumped by some Albion punks. Instead of losing our heads, we turned around and concentrated on them. I think they thought we would run, but we held together as a team and really kicked their asses. It was a great rush. I can acknowledge a lot of people don't like PvP, but for me, there are very few more thrilling moments in a game than besting an equal opponent that gets the drop on you.

How did you get into the industry?
I knew this girl that I met on my 21st birthday when I was at a club. She was working there as a waitress. We went out on a weekend date to Houston, but we didn't really keep in touch after the date. I saw her again when I was 25 and we caught up. I asked her what she was doing outside of working at the club, and she said she worked as an artist for a company called Origin, and asked if I ever heard of it. After I cleaned the beer off of her, I told her that I was a fanatic of at least two of their series of games, Wing Commander and Ultima. I asked her how she had been so fortunate as to have a job there. It turned out that she knew Chris Roberts and he told her to apply, which is what she told me to do. Not having a particular skill set other than some background in Computer Science and English in college and being an avid game player, I applied for a technical support position. Two interviews later, I got the job, and tried to bust my ass to keep it. I'm the guy who worked his way up from the mailroom, so to speak.

What do you like most about your job?
Watching things take shape. I think there are points where you write something out, wonder if it will ever work or if it will look good. When you are surrounded by a really talented team, you need not worry. It is just amazing to watch nascent ideas grow over time.

What sources have inspired you?
For TR? More than anything else, I would have to say Saving Private Ryan. Specifically, I like how the dichotomy of the chaotic scenes mixed with the more intimate scenes make it work. In the beginning, the incredibly tense storming of Normandy beach is almost too frenetic and hard to sit through. However, when the rangers go looking for Ryan in the calmer scenes, you get a chance to develop a bond with them. Every time another member of the squad gets injured or killed, you are saddened, but never once did I fail to believe in the nobility of what they were doing, or what they did. There is just a constant feeling of tension and identification exemplified in that movie, and if we can capture any of that feeling for TR with our story and battles, I believe we will have a very compelling experience.

What tools or software do you use most often?
Probably Word, Excel, VIM, Python, or our internal tools for database entry.

What have you contributed to the game that you are most proud of or what is your favorite feature of Tabula Rasa?
When we first started to rethink TR, and we said we needed to get weapons in the game that were more identifiable, we naturally went with guns. Something our QA Lead Kyle Stewart brought up was that if he had a gun in his hand, he wanted to play the game like it was Counter Strike. Kyle said what I was thinking, so I took that very much to heart. Richard at the same time mentioned that he wanted the gamer to stop playing the interface so much. When we started down the path of mouselook always being on, and getting the more shooter controls, there was a lot of doubt about how it would work internally. Still, we stuck to our guns. When we first played with it, I knew that the decision was the right one. I wasn't playing the interface, I was playing our game.

What evolutionary or revolutionary changes would you like to see in games?
I would like to see dev teams concentrate the same amount of energy on AI, scripted or emergent situations, than they do on flashy things like graphics and physics. I've played really good games with lame graphics and no physics. I have rarely played a good game with lame AI or poorly scripted / emergent scenarios.

What advice would you give to someone with aspirations to do what you do?
Realize you are entering a multi-million dollar business and don't act like you are going to work for a game company. You should be passionate about games and have fun doing what you are doing, but you can't be frivolous or unprofessional. The talent coming into the industry is amazing, so there is a lot of competition for every job. I used to tell people to try to get a foot in the door by working in QA or CS. I think that route is becoming more difficult, and now I feel the best way is simply a good college education or game school. As a manager, I crave experienced people, and while I am devoted to moving people up if I can, the slots for training someone are VERY limited.

The biggest lesson for me right now is to make sure to see all points of view. Almost every person on the team wants to create a great game, but not everyone is going to agree on the best way to do it.