Interview: M0rdred

I would like to present to you an interview answered by M0rdred, the man himself, a few days form now I will post a second interview from his partner in crime... Abhuva.  Enjoy!


Mordred Questions:

So let’s start off with the basics M0rdred… who were you before you became the face of PoP 4.0?
Mordred, which has been my online alias since I was around 13 and playing Ultima Online... some fool on Taleworlds dared to steal second identity, so I become M0rdred.

More seriously though, I joined the dev team just after they had released PoP2, sending a long email to SaxonDragon (SD) about the Knighthood Orders and my thoughts on how they should be improved. Next thing I know, I am invited to the team and many of my suggestions are implemented for PoP3. After PoP3, I took a short hiatus in which time the Warband port was completed, but then got a charming email from Fawzia asking me to return to the team for work on PoP4, this I accepted and we got dug in. It was a hard year, with Fawzia passing later on, MadVader leaving to work on The Last Days and SD more actively pursuing his real life activities. With much of the core team leaving / otherwise engaged, there something of a leadership crisis, after lengthy discussions I stepped into the breach and did what I could to bring new blood to the team and continue development in the same vein as those before me. The rest as they say, is history.

What persuaded you to say “Hey, I’m M0rdred I should join the Pop team in the first place?
I didn’t heh, SD very kindly invited me after a few private messages swapping ideas about Knighthood Orders, during which time he asked if I would be interested in joining the team in order to further the possibilities I was envisioning. At no point did I ask or even consider actually being on the team, its funny of life plays out and my life potentially changed due to a few innocent messages about a hobby.


Sooo ignore what you’ve been told… which is cooler, Prophesy or Prophecy?
PropheSy, just sounds more interesting, though honestly either is fine. As important as names are, it’s more about the content of the game.


Do you secretly root for the bad guys?
Not usually, I am far more interested in moral dilemmas or grey areas, one infusion of this you can see in the Dawn / Eventide split, particularly the downfall of the Dawn. You should have seen them in PoP2, disgustingly pure and noble.


A knight of Eventide, 3 peasants, a Noldor, and Siggy wander into a bar… what happens?
They each ask a passing stranger if they can join his party, and so Sir Jocelyn, Diev, Leslie, Julie, Lethaldrian and Siggy go out into the big wide world and make their fortunes under the future King of Pendor, along with some old guy with a huge sword and an even huger moustache who calls himself “Facial-hair Fred”

So I heard you and Abhuva made a game called Vinland… what’s that all about?
In a word, Vikings! It’s a little shooter game, in which you play as Leif Erikson and must work to guide his crew to the “mystical lands of the west”, later to be known as Vinland, and even later still, America. During the course of play, players will encounter all kinds of obstacles and challenges, ranging from mad bishops, wild witches to vast hordes of icebergs. It has gameplay somewhat similar to Asteroids, but it is far more in depth with different choices of ship, weapons and crew, together with a storyline which is loosely based on the series of books I am currently in the process of writing.

So if you like shooters with certain puzzles you have to overcome, tied together with an engrossing story featuring huge blokes with big beards, bigger axes and too much confidence, then this would be for you. No horns though. Viking’s didn’t really have horned helms.

If you want to know more, take a look at www.Zatobo.com, there is a demo up that you should check out!


Were there any lessons learned in the development of PoP4 that either helped or hindered the development of Vinland?
Helped, absolutely. Everything you do in life is the opportunity to learn something new, and to discover new ways of thinking or perception than you otherwise would have, and leading a development team as diverse and skilled as Pendor is no different. I could write an essay on each individual aspect, but learning to work with people who have different skills and personality types was key; for instance one of my friends observed that managing a group of programmers was just like herding cats. Make of that what you will...


Does England suck or what… Yes/ Yeah?
Firstly, that is “Yes”, not “Yeah”, we speak properly over here. As such, I will substitute the Americanism with “No”, and apply that as my answer. Seriously though, I used to rail on about this nation and all its downsides. It wasn’t until I moved to another country and spent a year there that I really realised how great it was and what I had taken for granted. This turned out to be mostly rain and Shepherd’s Pie.


When you aren’t making video games… what do you do for fun?
Play them! Either that or stab people... legally of course, that is what Fencing was invented for after all. I also read a fair bit, and work on my book which has become more of a hobby and less of a job now that work on the game has really taken off.


Thank you very much for your candor M0rdred, but one last question… what is next?
I would very much like to finish the book, so that is certainly on my list of things to do. Also we’ve begun work on Vinland 2, however the viability of that depends entirely on how well Vinland: Arctic Assault does, so we really need everyone’s support on that!