Ad Personam: Paul Neurath, Floodgate Entertainment
Sia 'Garrett' Manzari, 2003-07-24

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 Paul Neurath, the legendary designer of Ultima Underworld, System Shock or Thief and former CEO of Looking Glass, today with Floodgate Entertainment, and doing the first expansion pack for NWN.

Paul Neurath: Presently I am Creative Director of FloodGate Entertainment, a development studio outside of Boston. Our most recent project was the Neverwinter Nights expansion Shadows of Undrentide, which we co-developed with BioWare. FloodGate is also developing mobile games, including Neverwinter Nights for cell phones. I see my role on projects as a catalyst to help the team form a vision for the game, and then support and guide them through the development process.

My start in the industry was during the 8-bit days of the Apple II and C64, when we thought 1Mhz processors were fast. I worked as an independent game developer during the 1980s, at a time when one person could do all the programming, design, artwork and audio that went into making a game. The last game I did solo was Space Rogue, which was really too big for one person to tackle, making it clear that I would need to work with a team for future titles.

Therefore, I founded Blue Sky Productions and brought aboard a team for the next project, Ultima Underworld. We were fortunate in having some super talented folks at Blue Sky from the get-go such as Doug Church, James Fleming, Doug Wike, and Dan Schmidt. Our next project was Madden '93 (which was Electronic Art's first million unit seller.) After we changed our name to LookingGlass, we went on to do such well regarded titles as the System Shock, Flight Unlimited and Thief.

RPGDot: Your favourite game, both electronical and board?

Paul Neurath: Board game - poker. I had the fortune of playing poker with the legendary game designer Dan Bunton (MULE) many moons ago at an early Game Developers Conference, and more recently have been playing with the likes of Steve Meretzky (Planetfall).

Electronic game - Advance Wars, which was the most recent game I played through to completion purely for pleasure. Amazing implementation of a strategy game on GBA. I also have a weakness for pinball (the mechanical sort.)

RPGDot: Your favourite movie and favourite actor & actress?

Paul Neurath: I saw Shakespeare in Love for a 3rd time the other week - Hollywood films don't get any finer. Then there's always Enter the Dragon.

Daniel Day Lewis has done some incredible acting, as has Gwyneth Paltrow.

RPGDot: Your favourite singer/band and record?

Paul Neurath: I've been listening to a lot of Phillip Glass recently. Oddly addictive, although I'm not sure why.

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

Paul Neurath: For some time I've mulled a design that is based on Asian shamanism, and set in a primeval fantasy world. I think it's a reaction to an overdose of euro centric high-fantasy.

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?

Paul Neurath: I've been fortunate to work with some wonderfully talented game developers over the years, including Richard Garriott, Doug Church, Shigeru Miyamoto, Chris Roberts, Ned Lerner, John Romero, Warren Spector. At this point, I'm actually more focused on working with "up and coming" talent who can bring a fresh perspective to the industry.

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

Paul Neurath: Cugel the Clever from Jack Vance's the Dying Earth series. Cugel was the character I had in my mind's eye when the concept for Thief was being fleshed out. But he is more light-hearted than Garrett, and as a thief, much more prone to bumble.

RPGDot: Your non-gaming hobbies?

Paul Neurath: I go through phases. Years ago I could not get enough of hovercrafts, and designed some custom, remote-control models. Recently it's been skiing in the winter, kayaking in the summer. I also built my first custom PC from the motherboard on up this year; aluminum case, round cables, neon lights, the whole bit.

RPGDot: Your favourite author and favourite book?

Paul Neurath: Tolkien, Lord of the Rings. I was 11 when I first read the trilogy, and have been a captive of Middle-Earth ever since.

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

Paul Neurath: Siddartha. It's not everyday that you get to meet a demigod.

RPGDot: Thanks for your time!