Brett Close Talks: Salvatore, McFarlane, Schilling & 38 Studios

MMORPG’s Managing Editor recently interviewed Brett Close, the President and CEO of 38 Studios. For those of you who aren’t aware 38 studios, formerly known as Green Monster Games, is a collaboration of R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane and Curt Schilling teaming up to produce and MMORPG. The interview covers the state of the studio, the stars and the game. Close something to say about each of the three stars and their involvement in developing the new fantasy title.

“Bob is a fixture in the studio,” Brett told me when discussing Salvatore’s role in the process. “He is writing the story and creating the tapestry and the backdrop in which all of this unfolds. He’s very involved with everyone, lending his wisdom and thoughts on the best way to impact the audience with both his story and game play experience.”

“He (Todd McFarlane) is in with the dev team in-person at least once a month,” Close said of the artist, “and we have a video linkup that Todd can [and does] use to interact with the studio art director. “It’s a very cool, high-tech way to art direct without being on-site. He is still having a big impact on the team.”

“Curt’s a very smart guy and realizes that his primary experience has not been in video game development,” Close told me of the baseball superstar, whose philosophy is to, “get strong, solid people in place and get out of the way and let them do what they do well.”

Close describes the new game as fantasy. The studio is shooting for virgin territory for MMOs; it wants to have the decisions that players make effect the game and player choices impact the game world.

I have talked about this being at the root of my problem with MMOs. Still I can only imagine how they can actually pull it off on an individual level.

Read the full article at MMORPG.com.