Brian Martin, Designer

WOO:	How long have you been working at Origin and how did you get your start there?
BM:	I've been working at Origin for about six and a half years. I got a job here when I was working on Richard's 1990 spook house. I was taking some time off from school in order to save some money, (I was dead broke), was working a part time job, had no money and looking for a full time job. One evening while working at the spook house, Richard mentioned to me that Origin was hiring play testers. While I didn't think at the time that I would have a career at Origin, I figured that a full time job testing games would enable me to save enough money to finish school, so I got a job as a play tester. At the time, I figured that I would be here for a year at the most, then go back to school. Well, its been almost seven years and I'm still here! What did you do before you went to work for Origin? I was attending school at the University of Texas, studying medieval history. It is because of the fact that I was studying history that I stayed at Origin. At the time, I figured that I would wind up teaching history somewhere. While teaching is an honored profession, (my wife is a teacher), I really didn't think that it was for me but what else would I do with a degree in medieval history? I came into Origin just prior to our first explosive growth phase and saw the opportunity to create a career for myself. I figured that if it didn't work out, I could always go back to school. So far its worked out; they haven't gotten rid of me yet. :)
WOO:	We understand that you have a special interest in the medieval. Could you tell us a little more about it (education, SCA, etc.)?
BM:	Wow, I seem to be answering these questions before they're asked and I'm not even reading ahead. Well, as I stated before, I was studying medieval history at UT. Of course, there is no medieval history degree for an undergraduate at UT, only history. However, within the BA program for history, there are certain courses that are required covering various places and times for the history requirement. The rest of the history requirement, (more than half), can entail whatever time and place the student chooses. Therefore my history load was very heavily medieval in its focus. Since I left school, I have continued to read about the middle ages, focusing primarily on 12th - 15th century England; specifically the English manorial system and the Hundred Year's War. I enjoy reading things written in the period and also subscribe to a couple of historical journals. I also belong to the SCA, a medieval recreation group, which is a great deal of fun and has allowed me to meet and befriend some remarkably talented and creative people.
WOO:	What kinds of weaponry have you collected over the years?
BM:	Not much, really. I have two swords and a dagger. One sword was given to me by a friend of mine in the SCA. I bought the other sword a couple of years ago and the dagger just a few months ago. I got the second sword as the first one is a bastard sword and rather long and difficult to carry around. The dagger I ordered because a gentleman of the knightly class in the late 14th century England, (my SCA persona), should have a nice roundel (should this be "rounded"?) dagger. To be honest, though, I'm less interested in collecting a great deal of weapons than I am in putting money into my house and traveling. My wife and I will be traveling to Europe this summer and we have plans to build a deck in our backyard, (after we pay off the Europe trip - we're not rich!). We live in a nice, suburban house in a nice, suburban neighborhood and do all of those nice, suburban things like yard work, hanging wall paper and stuff like that. Not as interesting as having a bunch of cool swords and what not but there you have it. Sorry. (The older I get, the more boring I become!)
WOO:	There has been a definite decline of true computer roleplaying games in recent years as companies seem to want to crank out more action/arcade games. Do you see this as a problem, and do you think there is still a market for them?
BM:	I don't see the decline (in) role playing games as a problem at all. Rather, I see it as an opportunity: When Ultima Online comes out, I think that its going to be a huge hit, partially because people are starved for good role playing games. Of course, the main reason that people are going to love UO is because it is an absolutely great game. I know that I am biased because I'm on the team, but because I had nothing to do with any of the design work on UO, I can objectively say that this game is fantastic! The designers, programmers and artists on this team have done a spectacular job with this game. And yes, I do think that there is a market for good role playing games and we're going to prove that in the upcoming year.
WOO:	Would you like to design a historically accurate medieval rpg someday? If so, what specific time period do you think you would choose, which country, etc.?
BM:	Yes, I would love to do an accurate medieval game! There are, in fact, two games that I have often thought about. One is a strategy game based in 13th century Wales. The player would, essentially, be Edward I of England. Edward conquered and subdued the Welsh through a long series of castle building and occupation. There would have to be a great deal of aspects to be balanced in the strategy such as generating money to build the castles, keeping an army to fight off Welsh raiders, providing food and so on. Edward I was the king recently villianized in the horribly inaccurate movie Braveheart but I won't get into that. :) I also think that doing a role playing game set somewhere in the Hundred Years War would be great fun.
WOO:	What types of games do you like to play?
BM:	Actually, I enjoy playing all types of games. I enjoy the Ultimas that I didn't work on. (You get so tired of a game that you work on that you just really don't want to play it. UO is the exception to that rule so far because of its online nature.) I like some strategy games and some sim games but I'm not fanatically into either genre. I like the kind of flight sim that you don't need a test book to learn how to play the game. I also love mindless shoot 'em up games when I need to blow off steam. Doom was certainly great for that. I'd have to say that in the last few years, I've gotten more fun out of Command and Conquer than any other game.
WOO:	What do you do in your spare time (hobbies, etc.)?
BM:	Most of my spare time is spent doing SCA stuff and working around the house. I also enjoy spending time with my wife, (not involving the SCA), playing with my dogs, SCUBA diving and hanging out on the lake on a friend on mine's boat and watching the Dallas Cowboys. I'm such a boisterous Cowboys fan that my wife once invited people over to watch me watch a game. :)
WOO:	We remember the time you spent with a number of Ultima fans (ourselves included) during the 1995 GenCon. Do you enjoy the opportunities you get to talk with your fans?
BM:	Yes, I do. The only unfortunate thing about that is I have been misquoted a few times and that has lead to some uncomfortable occurrences at work. The thing is, it's usually not the person to whom I was talking that misquoted me, it's the third hand information that got out of hand. I'd say something and someone would repeat what I said. Then someone else would pick up on part of that statement, repeat that, adding or omitting something, and so on. Before you know it, people in news groups are saying that I said something outrageous. Its not really anyone's fault, its just the way things are on the Internet. So while I do enjoy talking to people who play our games, I try to be careful about what I say. In fact, in the last two weeks, I've just decided to not comment when asked about our games in progress. The one thing that I want to stress is that I think that's very important for us to talk to the game fans because y'all are the market. Y'all are the people who make our jobs possible. Y'all know what you want and we need to keep in touch with that.
WOO:	Many people may recognize you as the demon at at the end of the last Britiannia Manor haunted house (though we hardly see how
BM:	I would do another spook house in a heart beat! I hope that Richard is reading this. :) Working on the spook houses is the most high energy creative thing that I have ever been a part of and its exhilarating. I wrote the script for the last spook house and it was a real rush to watch that script come alive through sets, make up and performance. As for the demon make up, well, playing the role was fun but that out fit was a pain! It started with theatrical contact lenses, (yellow with black slits). From there, the mask was applied. The mask covered my entire head and took over an hour to apply due to the gluing and blending so people could not see where the mask ended and I began. Once the mask was on, I was put into a body suit and arms. Then all of the joints, (where the parts of the make up/costume end or come together), had to be blended or covered. Once that was done, the 18 inch long horns were applied to my head. Then my body and face were touched up with any needed red make up and covered with a sheen of Vaseline to make everything look more real, (it works). Finally, I was ready for the 10 inch stilts that bent my legs forward so that I kind of rested on my knees. The stilts made me taller and made my legs look like a goat's back legs. It took about four hours for a professional make up artist named J. M. Logan and the wardrobe manager plus the two demon attendants, (the pit crew), to get me into all of the demon stuff. Wearing that make up was hot, uncomfortable, sometimes painful and always a pain in the neck and I would do again without question because it was all so much fun! I really had a blast with all of the spook houses, but the 1994 one was by far the best. Well, that's about all, I had better get back to work. Thanks for the honor of being interviewed.
WOO:	Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer some of these questions for us. :)