Basically I do a lot of different things on the artistic side of the job. These range from creation of characters, animation, setting up scenes, building and designing parts of levels, some texture work, in fact I've had a taster for everything involved in the artistic side of the job. This in itself is pretty rewarding, but at the same time it can be quite exhausting. Worth it, though..

The hours involved, and the hours involved...

Seriously, the good points are when you get to see what you've created up on-screen and moving as it should do. That's incredibly rewarding, and when it enhances the gaming experience, it's even better. The bad point of the job is having stuff amended or altered, even though you know in your heart it looks ace. I suppose that's what comes with the job.

I tried for a few job interviews after leaving College with a BA Hons in Animation, though I actually chased up this job by phoning up and hounding them. I was lucky they were recruiting strongly, and managed to get in. After all the rejections from other gaming companies, I'm very glad they saw me as an asset and had faith in me.

Happiest moment? Realising we were developing for Dreamcast!

I'm a pretty vocal supporter of the machine, and it pissed me off when I heard all the developer-negative feedback, those developers jumping ship for PS2. I think they all know now they've took a much more harder approach to getting games out. Dreamcast is doing very well indeed, so hopefully we could see some sense return to those developers.

Dreamcast is an absolutely fantastic machine to develop for - we've had very little problems with it. Rant over.

First game I ever played was Centipede on the Atari 2600. I was just six years old, but I was totally hooked on it. I remember those days when the joypads you used were horrific - and the fact the difficulty level was actually a switch on the machine itself!! I'm showing my age now...

Favourite game of the past - has to be Atic Atac, on the ZX Spectrum. I absolutely adored that game - it had some superb gameplay aesthetics and it was produced by Ultimate - Play The Game, who are now known as Rare. Ultimate kicked ass in those days with Sabre Wulf, Pssst! and Knightlore. They were the Konami of the day.

Either it's Samba De Amigo - possibly the happiest and most exhausting game I've ever played, or Jet Set Radio - a game which oozes style, is easy to get into but hard to master, has a superb soundtrack and a them of anti-establishment. Smash the state! :)

Metropolis Street Racer is brilliant when I have some spare time, and of course Quake III Arena...

It loathes me to say Metal Gear Solid 2 and ZOE on the PS2, but on DC, Half Life, definitely Phantasy Star Online and Sonic Adventure 2. There's more and more exciting stuff being done with online gaming on Dreamcast, and it's pleasing to see that Sega are taking the risks in advancing the online ethic as a whole.

Monkeys. No doubt about it. I'm sure Miyamato-san said "Monkeys maketh the game" while shaking his maracas and making a sombero-wearing monkey dance.

Lemme see. It used to be Robert Crumb when I was deeply into comics, and he still does in a way. I could tell you that Quake III Arena has inspired us the most with Hellgate, though when you look at that game, you'll realise it's one of the most gorgeous-looking games ever created. And you don't even have much time to admire the texture work without a rocket heading for your ass!

Keep playing videogames if you play videogames. I think a love of videogames is a definite "must" in this industry, because you know when something feels right and when something doesn't. You can also gain artistic tricks and tips from simply playing games and absorbing the textures and models around yourself.

Virtual Reality might make a comeback, but then again Black and White might actually get released in the future. Who knows..?