Ad Personam: Raphael Colantonio, Arkane Studios
Sia 'Garrett' Manzari, 2003-06-13

Ad Personam is dedicated to the people behind the games: programmers, artists, musicians, directors, producers and many other professions involved in creating the stuff that fills our harddisks, lets us sleep less and eat more junk food. In each Ad Personam, we want to introduce one of these fine folks to you - and this time it is Raphael Colantonio, Lead Game Designer & CEO at Arkane Studios.

Raphael Colantonio: I run Arkane Studios, I have many different roles as we're such a small company: lead Designer on Arx, AI scripting, animation tuning, but I would also clean the dustbin when required and I answer the phone !
Before that, I worked for Electronic Arts as an associate producer, and at Doki Denki as a project manager.

RPGDot: Your favourite game, both electronical and board?

Raphael Colantonio: What a tough choice... can I name 4 ?
Ultima7
Underworld
Thief
Alone in the dark 1

RPGDot: Your favourite movie and favourite actor & actress?

Raphael Colantonio: Good fellas, Robert De Niro

RPGDot: Your favourite singer/band and record?

Raphael Colantonio: Definitely Red Hot Chilly Peppers

RPGDot: If you could do any game, regardless of money and developing time, what would it be?

Raphael Colantonio: Probably somekind of mixture between an immersive 1st person game and a Massively Multiplayer game. Nobody has done it so far, it sounds rather challenging !

RPGDot: If you'd be able to choose anyone from within the game industry to work on your dream project, who'd you put in your team?

Raphael Colantonio: Richard Garriott, I've been trying to join his team in the past at least 3,000 times ! But then, I wish I could work with Doug Church, or Warren Spector. Damn, I sound like a groopie now.

RPGDot: What character from a game or role-playing setting best describes you?

Raphael Colantonio: Can I say Garret from Thief ? Well I bet everybody wants to be Garret so that's not very original, but he's the first character I really identified to in a game.

RPGDot: Your non-gaming hobbies?

Raphael Colantonio: Playing music. I played in a band for a long time (bass and vocals), then, because of the long hours since I've joined the game business, I had to give up the band. So now I play the guitar from time to time, and I sometimes have fun with Cubase on my PC.

RPGDot: Your favourite author and favourite book?

Raphael Colantonio: I'm not a big reader, but I'll choose Lovecraft for its novels

RPGDot: What historical person would you like to meet and why?

Raphael Colantonio: Meeting with Jesus should be a pretty fascinating thing, for obvious reasons.

RPGDot: Thanks for your time!