Team members you can talk about

[Diduz]

We discussed on AVS forum about your "nameless" team members you can't talk about right now.
Who are the guys you can actually talk about?
I'm asking because Lucasarts veterans sound like friends to us gamers!
Diduz (Italy)

[zoganily]

Right so many have jobs they are working at now until we get going, but many are free agents or freelancers, so those I can talk about. The first five are Bill Eaken, Gary Brubaker, Paul Mica, Anson Jew and Maria Bowen.
Bill Eaken you may remember was an artist on the Secret of Monkey Island, the Lead Artist on Hal Barwood�s Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis, and on Brian Moriarty�s version of The Dig, most of the art he did for that made it into the final Sean Clark version. Bill will be helping do backgrounds.
Gary Brubaker is currently standing in as Technical Director, but he is committed to his current teaching position at Southern Methodist Universities, Guild Hall Game creation program. But he will be helping us out as much as possible. Luckily are game isn�t to tech reliant so, his being part time won�t be a problem. Gary also has very good game and puzzle deign skills learned form being the lead on The Dig.
Paul Mica worked at Lucas on bunch of games and will be doing a lot of out character designs. He has already done quite a few, some of which I posted on out web site. Paul also designed characters and art for Pixar on Nemo and Toy Story 2 and is currently working on Happy Feet, the animated feature directed by George (Babe, Pig in the City) Miller.
Maria Bowen, Paul wife, and ex Lucas Artisan as well, worked with me with painting backgrounds on Curse of Monkey Island. So she will be doing the same on A Vampyre Story. She is also currently working o Happy Feet.
Anson Jew is a freelance story board artist in Hollywood. He did our story boards for our opening cutscene and will be doing the rest once we get going. Anson worked on tons of games at Lucas such as Monkey Island 2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Dig, Full Throttle and Curse of Monkey Island.
Depending on when we start and our budget there may be many more ex �Lucas Artisans� on the team. We will also be working with many other non Lucas Arts artists and developers too, but right now those are the people I can talk about.

-Bill

[a_side]

Wahou !
We can expect a great game with such a list

[zoganily]

Thanks and I hope so, and plan to.
We also have two very good ex Lucas game designers and two animators we plan to work with too, but again, they wish to remain anonymous right now.

-Bill

[Diduz]

Thanks, Bill!
Those guys are top-notch.
Dom

[zoganily]

Well we are lucky in that we have use of what I call the Lucas Arts Mafia, which is the ex Lucas Arts community. If for example I want an opinion of a game design or art I can run it past Jonathan Ackley, Justin Chin, Tim Longo, Mike Levine or Larry Ahren, or even Hal Barwood (though at this point I think I'd have to pay him http://www.finitearts.com/ ). Same with art and technical questions.

So the association with ex Lucas Arts developers who were there during adventure games halcyon days will really benefit the company and the game. I am very lucky to know such talented and experienced people.

-Bill Tiller

[Diduz]

Do you know if Lucasarts has some great talents left?
I follow "Lucasarts Mafia" but I'd like very much to see Lucasarts shine as it did in the glory days. :-[
Dom

[zoganily]

Sure, Lucas has some great talent. The biggest one is Derek Sakai, one of the animators on Curse of Monkey Island. Mike Gallo is great producer too. He did the KOTOR games. And Hayden Blackman, a producer on Stare Wars Galaxies is still there.
But they have lost a lot of good people, true and last I heard they are trying to hire as many back as possible.
But any company is a reflection of its leader. Right now their leader is pretty much focused on financial success, and it seems, at the cost of LEC�s storied history and culture. So that is why so many people want to work for AME, Pileated Pictures, Tell Tale, and Double Fine. We all want to keep that flame going. There are just so many Indy or Star Wars games you can work on before you go insane.
So I�d give up on Lucas if you want to see a new Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango (though a sequel would be silly), Loom, or Zack McCracken. Thank God Steve owns the right to Sam N Max.
But they will put out some fun Star Wars and Indy games for sure, and they will look great.

-Bill