Here’s our next installment of Get to Know a Dev. This week we got a chance to get to know Hal Hanlin, a Design Producer for Trion.
Name: Hal Hanlin
Alias: maRaider
Position: Design Producer
What was your first MMOG? What was your favorite?
My first MMOG that I played more than a couple of days was City of Heroes. Getting to craft a character to that degree of detail was lots of fun and the VFX were shiny! In terms of sheer anguish when I could not play, my favorite MMO (Present project excluded) was Nightcaster. It was a turn-based MMOG similar to Risk but with magic and gigantic creatures in addition to armies. I blew all of my phone cards during one vacation calling my office mate from the middle of the Mojave Desert to coach him on which moves to make for me.
How did you get involved with making games?
In 1997, a wise very person (my wife) asked me a pointed and brilliant question: “If money didn’t matter, what would you do all day?” I was a snarky and fired back: “I’d play video games all day.” Two years later, I got a job as a System Administrator at a video game company in Boulder, CO. A little later, I participated in a game design submission challenge, submitted 3 designs, had 2 make it to the top of a pile of nearly 100, and was offered a position as a Designer. I have never looked back.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve done so far in the creation of Rift: Planes of Telara?
I get to push for more, constantly, and then cheer for and encourage intensely smart people in making awesome content. When they hit our very high quality bar, I make sure that they finish in time to get it out the door.
Can you provide a sample of your work, assuming it can be released to the public? (A snippet of lore, a screenshot of a vista, maybe a screen or video of a game system, a UI element or a few lines of quest text; or if you’re brave enough a picture of your desk?)
Hah… well, here’s a snippet of my work: “This is not intense enough… it does not sell me on ‘OMGWTFBBQ, I am so glad I chose to be this faction’… more… Lots more… it’s still not clear, what do you need to punch this up… please pass this by Lore to make sure it fits… no… Yes…No… NO… Whoa, crap, that’s pretty cool… Yeah, more like that… you need anything? I’ll get it… Holy crap! Dude, that’s awesome!… Polish it… are you done yet?… now? No, now. Seriously, I mean now! It’s OCTOBER!”
That’s a fair sample.
Care to tease the fans with your favorite in-game moment?
We had solidified what Rifts were, and the Rift pod had this notion about Invasions they had been working with tech on. One day one of them put them into a zone and we left it running for the weekend. When we came back Gloamwood was completely taken over by Life invasions. I saw just how compelling this gameplay could be when we spent the next couple of hours running around and having lots of fun with this prototype. Now, as I see the fully realized version of invasions running around the world and fighting each other, I am still blown away by how compelling it is. That Life invader is running right past that Fire beacon… will they see each other? YES! Awesome, they’re fighting it out! I call in my Guardians to help me and we stomp the snot out of both…
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