Added 1 new A* page:I was interviewed by host DeaconBlue for his DataNodeOne podcast (episode 9). : )
The interview is not about A*, but rather about my work on the massively multiplayer role-playing game The Matrix Online ("MxO"), which I worked on for some years, right up to the point where I left—the game was shutting down—and started A*. I started as the development test lead for the game, worked my way over to writing missions, and, as everyone else gradually left or was let go, eventually ended up as the sole remaining designer on the game, mostly through sheer stubbornness I guess. My internet handle as a developer was "Rarebit," and that's how I was known to players, including DeaconBlue.
So the interview covers my work on the game. Here are a few examples of stuff I did as a designer:
^ A gang of hostile programs I introduced to a high-level area of the city in the Matrix. White-haired young women, how odd.
^ Playing characters from the second Matrix movie—the high-living rogue program known as "The Merovingian" and his wife, Persephone—in a bit of a spat during a story event with players.
Working on MxO taught me I could tell stories—sci-fi stories, no less—and even got me back into drawing, as I found myself drawing scenes and characters from the game's story over the weekends; that was where I developed the black and white "lasso tool" style I would use for the first episodes of A*. Some of those MxO drawings are in my deviantArt gallery. And being able work with the Wachowskis' appointed writer, veteran independent comic writer/artist Paul Chadwick, didn't hurt either!
For this DataNodeOne interview, I had to dig up the old microphone (it's a Blue "Snowball") I used to do the voice-overs for the original animated A* episodes; and I have to thank DeaconBlue for the interview and getting me to do that, 'cause it's inspired me to start doing live commentary for the videos I put up on my video game YouTube channel—and if nothing else that's helping me learn how to speak better on the air, at least I think it is; for instance, I've managed to stop doing the little lip-smacking thing I was alarmed to hear myself doing from time to time in the interview! Yeesh. Some kind of nervous tic, I suppose. : o
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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