Meet the Team, Vol. V

Greetings Dev-Log Readers,

Today we interview Layonara's resident cartographer. Speaking with him, we find out we are already getting samples of the kind of work we will be seeing some of for the MMO. If you take a look over at the maps section on LORE you'll be able to see some of what Rasterick has been spending his hours on.

rowana: So, as I mentioned in one of the previous interviews, I don't do real names. I jump right in to: How old are you?

Rasterick: I was 50 this year. A half century.

rowana: Ah, king of the pack so far. *smiles* Where abouts do you live (and non-specificness is understandable here, hehe)?

Rasterick: In a small English village called Clanfield, North of Portsmouth on the South Coast

rowana: Sounds like cozy coastal life?

Rasterick: Yeah, its nice here, though we are eight miles from the sea.

rowana: Nice balance then, at least from what I know of coastal life.

Rasterick: Yeah, no sea gulls dive bombing you for your sandwiches.

rowana: We are going to test your memory here...

Rasterick: Don't forget I am 21 and 348 months old. Its not as good as it used to be.

rowana: *laughs* Well I think this one won't be too hard. Who did you play on NWN Layonara and do you have a favorite memory from your time spent there?

Rasterick: Ok, thats easy, as I was looking at my old characters earlier today. I had Ulver Arndt, Reef O'hagan, Marion Saywer and a Wemic called Jautaza. I suppose my favourite was Reef, a old sea captain, with many a tale to tell.

rowana: Sounds like a nice premise there!

Rasterick: As to my favourite memory, I have many, but one that stands out is a massive party of players that took on the crypt quest in search of a girls mother of something like that. All the friends I had made over the time playing turned out and made for a great quest. It seemed to all go so well, the atmosphere and excitement was brilliant. My RL son even played, and came along. Like all kids all he wanted to do was kill stuff, then run off and leave me to pick up the pieces.

rowana: Oh that sounds like quite an event indeed.

Rasterick: Yeah, sure was. Seems so long ago now.

rowana: Well, now I know other things are keeping you busy, both real life and for the game. Can you tell us a little bit about what you are doing for the MMO team?

Rasterick:Yeah sure. I was brought on board to work on some Lore maps. That has now grown into an Atlas, as well as the possibility of in game maps. I have also done work on mapping the heavens and the planes. I'm currently working on some high scale player maps.

Rasterick: Yeah, mostly map work.

rowana: That sounds rather intensive, from what little about map making I know. Can you tell us some about the tools and things that you use for this?

Rasterick: I initially started out using Photoshop exclusively, but as the style has changed over time, I am reverting to pen, paper and water colour paint. Then using a scanner and Photoshop to add text and various effects such as aging and tears etc.

rowana: The tears aren't genuine then? *winks*

Rasterick: I had thought of using my kids to do that stuff.

rowana: Hey now there's a nice edge!

Rasterick: I also have some other stuff in the pipeline, but I hope to save it as a nice surprise for the atlas.

rowana: Ah, something to certainly look forward too.

Rasterick: I hope so, just to add a little atmosphere to the game overall.

rowana: So what we have out on LORE currently is your handiwork?

Rasterick: Yeah, that version 1. The new stuff will be somewhat different, in a nice way I hope. Just trying to envisage how they would have drawn maps in the medieval times.

rowana: That sounds pretty exciting actually. Anything to help with immersion! So then, I imagine that takes a fair amount of time and effort. Something I'm noting on most of these interviews. Are you getting any free time in between real life and your commitments to Layonara? If so, what are you doing with that free time?

Rasterick: I try and balance time, like I suppose we all do... I coach kids rugby, and most Sunday mornings have 150 kids at our local rugby club. Though I may add not by myself. That would be suicidal.

rowana: Yes, I think I'd have to agree there!

Rasterick: I have even been known to play myself. Only when our senior side gets real desperate for players.

rowana: Aww, I bet it's not that bad! Well I know it's late there, so I will let you get back to your evening. Thank you very much for the interview!

Rasterick: Your welcome, and thank you. See you later

rowana: Have a good evening and thank you again!

We thank Rasterick for taking the time to speak with us and we hope everyone enjoyed this peek into the talents being used to develop the future MMO for Layonara. We are certainly looking forward to whatever additional surprises that are in store!

~row, on behalf of the writing team