We interview Funcom's Creative Director about the three MMOs in his care.

ZAM: That’s one of the things – people see the title Creative Director and think you’re in charge of the entire game.

I think it’s a partnership. The producer – at least in Funcom with the way we have it, it’s a shared responsibility. I’m in charge of the creative side of the game, the producer’s in charge of the delivery and management side of the game. I’m the PR person, the spokesperson for the game, the face if you want, which means I get all the responsibility from the player side of things. But of course, every day Scott and I will talk and work together on everything. That’s how it goes right now, and it’s been the same since I took over as Game Director on The Secret World as well. We have a good working relationship where we share most of these decisions.

ZAM: You’ve also got a Lego Minifigures MMO lurking in the background. Are you involved with that at all, or is there a completely separate team handling the new game development?

It’s a completely separate team. I’m involved on the level that I’m helping them flesh out the storyline for the game at the moment, because that’s one of the things that I’m good at. I’m helping them a little bit – I’m not the creative director of that project or anything, I’m just helping them out and making sure things make sense in the storyline and so forth.

ZAM: And is that using the existing tech that you’ve built for TSW and so on, or is it completely new?

It’s another engine upgrade over where The Secret World is. It’s a new set of technology, but it’s basically getting our engine to render in different modes like Flash and tablet modes, so you’ll be able to play games like The Secret World in a flash based environment, for example.

But of course, I don’t think we’ll be able to get it [The Secret World] running on Tablets in the near future, but Lego is being specifically designed to work in those environments. So they are doing engine upgrades, but it is the same tools and technology.

ZAM: Right, so it’s not the kind of thing that TSW and AOC are likely to take advantage of because they’re not designed for cross-platform?

Yeah, the texture budgets in The Secret World are too high for example, there’s just no way to do that. It doesn’t mean that we couldn’t in the future for example make it so that we take the assets from The Secret World and make a game that’s tablet based, or a tablet based Age of Conan. We could do those sorts of things, or even just Flash based. It’s completely possible because the tools are the same – you can open any of The Secret World playfields in Lego, any of the zones for example, but they wouldn’t run well until the textures are turned down and so forth. The technology is being converted to be able to make these types of games, which wasn’t really possible in the past I guess.

ZAM: But that does mean you have a lot more opportunity in the future.

Yes, I think Funcom is trying to, as a company our direction is to diversify and make ourselves more of a dynamic gaming company, in the sense that we have more possibilities, and the ability to deliver on multiple levels, and with our in house tools it means we’ll be able to create games that fit into any platform for the future.

ZAM: You’ve had a fairly rapid rise at Funcom of late. What’s next for you?

Right now I’m focused on getting a really good state for these three games. Part of my mandate as Creative Director is actually pitching new games to Funcom, so that is something I will look at a little bit further down the line when I’ve got these three games in the place that I want them to be, and got things set up in the state I’d like them to be. I haven’t thought much past getting those stable and then pitching a few ideas upwards about what way we can take the company in the future, in terms of which games we would make.

That’s pretty much it. I really am just trying to get the three games I have under my belt at the moment, into a place where everybody’s happy. And then we’ll see where we go from there.

ZAM: With the pile of work on your plate continually growing, how do you feel about Ragnar Tornqiust and Martin Bruusgard heading off and doing their Dreamfall KickStarter, while you take on the mantle of these three huge games?

[laughs] Well, Ragnar and Martin and I, we’re all buddies. I was at their Kickstarter party when it kicked off! They’re all people I worked with on The Secret World, all really good people. How do I feel? I’m a little bit jealous, I have to admit. I’m a little jealous of them being able to go off and do their own thing - there’s nothing cooler than being able to go and start your own game.

I guess I would say that I chose The Secret World and Funcom because I really believe there’s a lot left to do on TSW and AOC and AO. I think all those games have a very bright future. Of course I’m a little jealous of people going and getting to work on a brand new thing, but it’s not the end of the world, and I really like what we’ve been doing with The Secret World, and I really like where we can take Age of Conan and stuff in the future, so I’m excited about our games.

It’s a little bit of niggling jealousy about their ability to roam free and do brand new things, but I talk to them all the time and I know what it’s like, and they have their own struggles and their own challenges to face, so I’m not necessarily that envious either [laughs]. Of the expectations they need to meet of a crowd-funded project, there’s a certain level of expectation that they have to face up to, and they also have a very well loved IP that they have to  bring to life, so it’s  they have their own challenges as well, don’t get me wrong.

I’d like to thank Joel Bylos for taking the time to talk to us about the challenges he’s facing, and the ongoing development for all three MMOs. Both Anarchy Online and Age of Conan are free to play, while The Secret World is subscription-free. Bylos also invites you to share your thoughts and feedback on each game’s official forums.

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Senior Contributing Editor