Let me tell you a story about a little boy and his dreams. This boy (we'll call him Adam) wanted to make video games since he was 11 years old and Nintendo Power ran a contest to design your own game.* Back then (the late 80's), the only career paths to video games were computer programming and art. Believing he was no good at the latter, he studied computers for the next twelve years.
But Adam wrote too. Oh, God, he wrote -- and designed, because for him it was always about
creating the games. Programming was just a means to an end.
In early 1999, Adam got his wish. Feargus Urquhart, head of Black Isle Studios, took a chance on a rookie programmer not quite out of college, and Adam became a scripter on
one of the greatest RPGs ever made. And he
impressed some people. So much so that when he told them he wanted to be a designer on
the next project, rather than a programmer, they happily obliged.
But it didn't last. Oh he loved the job, but the hours were many, and he was commuting 2.5+ hours a day on top of it. When Adam got married, he decided a less demanding (and possibly better paying) job would help ensure the longevity of his new family.
And then he went crazy and left it all for Thailand.
It was all good, though. He'd found a new creative outlet in his novels, and being a full-time dad actually gave him opportunity to write. Of course he missed game design, just like he missed steak houses and the ocean; it was just one of many sacrifices he'd made for the greater good.
But Adam, like so many of us, underestimated the power of the internet and social networking.
Now, this is happening. My old friend, Colin McComb, asked me to be one of the primary designers on a successor to our beloved
Planescape: Torment. We're working with Monte Cook (one of the creators of my favorite edition of D&D) and other equally cool people that I can't even mention yet.
We're still in pre-production, and there's always a chance the game won't even happen: big publishers don't want this thing, so we have to
go directly to the people who do (BTW, if you're one of those people, we'll talk later).
But just the fact that there's a
chance I can do game design again is kind of blowing my mind. We're living in the future, guys. Next stop: teleporters and flying cars.
* Before 11, I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot. I blame Iron Eagle.