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ABOUT MELANIE CAMBRON
Since 1997
Melanie Cambron has been recruiting for game industry
leaders such as THQ, Rockstar, and Sony. Featured in
such books as Game Design: Secrets of the Sages,
Game Creation and Careers, The Fat Man on Game
Audio, Get in the Game! Careers in the Game
Industry, and Secrets of the Game Business
for her game industry knowledge, she also wrote the
foreword to the successful book, Game Programming
with Direct X 7.0 and its follow-up. Melanie is a
frequent guest speaker at universities and high schools
on the game development industry, and is frequently
interviewed by major media such as the Dallas Morning
News for her industry expertise. Having been a
moderator and panelist at e3 and GDC, she has also
served as a consultant to the City of Austin's
Interactive Industry Development Committee. Learn more
about the "Game Recruiting Goddess" at
www.melaniecambron.com
or contact her directly at
melanie(at)melaniecambron.com
CHATS 2004:
 Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Randy Beverly
This fall,
when you’re lying on your couch, watching UCLA play
Oklahoma State, stuffing chips and pizza in your mouth,
nacho cheese sauce dripping down your chin, and thinking
"yeah, so he can sack a quarterback on a blitz, but I
bet he can’t make a video game!", you need to think
again. Randy Beverly has produced over 15 hit game
titles on three continents, and served as Lead Designer,
while overseeing production, on titles numbering over 3
million sold. While at EA,
then Disney Interactive, he worked as a designer and
producer on the Madden series, the ESPN
brand of video games, and several Fox Sports
titles...More (July 2004)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Chance Thomas
Just after "How do I get a job making games?"
the second most common query this publication
receives is the more specific "How do I get a job
making music for games?" As with most all
professions, it’s always good to look to a master
for direction and inspiration. And when it comes
to games and music, Chance Thomas is definitely
one of the masters. Thomas and his music production company HUGEsound are credited with numerous high-profile game
soundtracks including one of the first live orchestral
scores for games, Quest for Glory V. He has
been featured as a game music "sage" in numerous books
and articles and has been described as "a composer’s
composer"...More
(May 2004)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Mike Wilson
Featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times,
New York Daily News, Wired, and Texas
Monthly, Mike Wilson has certainly risen to the rank of
game industry icon. Entering the industry
in 1995 and spending his early years as VP of
Development at IVS/DWANGO, Mike is perhaps best known
for his contributions to id Software, ION Storm, and
GodGames. In the fall of 2001, Mike tested the waters of a new
form of DVD entertainment in his next venture as
publisher and co-founder of SubstanceTV. But 2003 found
him back in the game fold at Take Two...More
(February 2004)
CHATS 2003:
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Lorne Lanning & Sherry
McKenna
Wired has called Oddworld Inhabitants co-founders Lorne Lanning and Sherry
McKenna "game making gods" and, to date, Oddworld
products have received over 100 awards and sold nearly
4.3 million units worldwide. Oddworld’s decision to
develop exclusively for Xbox and Microsoft stirred
passions and debate among their original fan base, but
with the Xbox release of Munch’s Oddysee raking
in the accolades, all appears well in the land of Odd...More (November 2003)
Interview with the Goddess: A Chat with Jason Rubin
In
this interview, Melanie chats up Jason Rubin,
President and Co-Founder of Naughty Dog. Jason and his
partner, Andy Gavin, have been developing games since
1986, and helped make the world a brighter place with
the Crash Bandicoot franchise, selling more than 25
million units worldwide. The third
installment in the Crash series, Crash Bandicoot:
Warped is reportedly the only foreign created and
developed title to have sold more than a million units
in Japan in the history of video games. Today, Jason and
Naughty Dog ready for the anticipated debut of Jak II,
the sequel to Jak & Daxter, the game that
some have credited for making PlayStation2 the leading
console for platform games...More
(October 2003)
Interview with the
Goddess: A Chat with Ian Wilkinson
In this interview, Melanie chats up Ian
Wilkinson, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Radical Entertainment. Founded by Ian in 1991,
Radical has developed a variety of successful games
including the recently released Hulk and
Simpsons Road Rage which has now sold over 1.8
million copies. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia,
Radical Entertainment was recognized in 2000 as one of
"Canada's 50 Best Managed Private Companies" and last
year was ranked the best place to work by BC Business
Magazine. The company now employs over 200 people
and has been lauded for implementing superior
communication between staff and management....More
(September 2003)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with the Game Critics
In her monthly column, Melanie chats with
some of the most well known developers in the game
industry. Now, in this interview or, rather, in
these interviews, she turns the tables. She asked
Richard Aihoshi, Wagner James Au, Jim "Ripclaw"
Broach, Eric Butcher, Steven "Westlake" Carter,
Victor Godinez, Tricia "Kazi Wren" Harris, Dave
"Fargo" Kosak, Phil LaRose, and Chuck
Osborn, ten of the industry's most established
game critics, to share their thoughts on games,
and hopefully some insight for developers. Whether
you agree or disagree, their responses should make
for some interesting reading...More
(August 2003)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Jeff Anderson
In this interview, Melanie chats up Jeff
Anderson, President and CEO of Turbine
Entertainment, developers of the Asheron’s
Call online games, as well as the upcoming
Middle-Earth Online, based on J.R.R.
Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, and
the very recently announced Dungeons &
Dragons Online...More
(June 2003)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with American McGee
There are very few "above the title" names in
the game industry. American McGee is the obvious exception
to the rule. In December 2000 when Electronic Arts
released American McGee’s Alice, a darkly gothic
version of the Lewis Carroll tales, a
star was born. American was selected by PC Gamer
as one of the future "Game Gods", listed in the
Rolling Stone "Hot" list as "Hot Game Designer" and
was ranked #40 in the Gear Magazine "100 Most
Exciting People, Places, Things" issue...More
(May 2003)
 Interview with
the Goddess:
A Chat with the Oliver Twins
Melanie chats up
Philip and Andrew Oliver, perhaps better known as
the Oliver Twins, founders of independent game developer
Blitz Games. They began writing games in 1981 and had
their first games published in 1984. By 1986 an
estimated 7% of all games sold in the UK were attributed
to the Olivers. Over the years they have developed over
100 games...More (March
2003)
Interview
With the Goddess: A Chat With Tom Kudirka of 2015
In this interview, Melanie chats up Tom Kudirka,
Founder, President, and CEO of 2015, Inc. 2015’s most
recent release, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault,
represents the culmination of Tom’s efforts as a studio
head. Tom is currently steering the studio through the
transition to the console market and 2015 has two highly
anticipated projects in production, including the
recently announced Men of Valor: Vietnam...More
(February 2003)
2002
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Alain Tascan
In
this interview, Melanie chats up Alain Tascan. A
well-known game industry executive, Alain is Vice
President of Worldwide Product Development for BAM!
Entertainment. He joined BAM! after seven years at Ubi
Soft where he served as its Vice President of Product
Development. He was also responsible for the creation of
Ubi Soft Licensing, which includes entertainment
partnerships with Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Disney
Interactive and New Line Media. Some call him a "suit,"
some call him "Mr. Vice President," but we just call him
that fun guy with the French accent...More
(December 2002)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Larry Holland, President,
Totally Games: A graduate of Cornell University
with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and prehistoric
archaeology, Larry spent two years exploring Africa,
Europe, India, and the United States on archaeological
expeditions. Bone digging behind him, Larry became an
original game designer in 1984 with the space simulation
game, Project: Space Station for the C-64 and
Apple II. In 1987 he began designing a series of WWII
air combat games to be published by Lucasfilm Games (now
LucasArts). In the past several years Larry has
developed the X-Wing series of critically
acclaimed and best-selling space combat games set in the
Star Wars universe, as well as this year’s highly
rated Star Trek: Bridge Commander...More
(October/November)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Bruce Shelley
In
this interview, Melanie chats up Bruce Shelley. A
professional game designer and developer since 1980,
Bruce Shelley has been hailed throughout the gaming
industry as a pioneer of computer gaming. Prior to the
start of Ensemble Studios in 1995, Bruce is best known
for assisting Sid Meier on the design of the original
editions of
Railroad Tycoon and Civilization.Today, he is a senior designer at Ensemble Studios, where he helped
organize the company and evolve their development
methodology. He contributed to the design of both
Age of Empires and Age of Empires II: The
Age of Kings, as well as Ensemble’s highly
anticipated title, Age of Mythology...More
(August/September 2002)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with BigSky Interactive
While perhaps a new game developer name, the
people behind BigSky have held senior positions on some
of the biggest and best-known titles in the industry. But the real story of BigSky is one of inspiration
and dogged determination. Overcoming admittedly daunting
odds, Austin-based BigSky rose from the ashes of
Kalisto’s bankruptcy and, in the face of stiff
competition, succeeded in landing one of the most
popular licenses today...More
(July 2002)
Interview
With the Godddess: The E3 Panel With Yu Suzuki and Will
Wright:
At the just wrapped-up E3Expo, Contributing Editor, Melanie
Cambron, moderated a panel with Will
Wright and Yu Suzuki, Design Secrets Part 1: Japan and
the USA. This special "Interview With the Goddess,"
features question and answer highlights from
that panel...More (June
2002)
Interview
With the Goddess: A Chat With Elonka Dunin. In
this interview, Melanie chats up Elonka Dunin,
Executive Producer and General Manager of Online
Community at Simutronics Corporation, a pioneer in the
field of massively multiplayer games. Not only a
lifetime gamer and executive in the industry, Elonka is
a cryptographer, a la A Beautiful Mind,
who has been invited to give talks to a variety of
investigators ranging from the FBI to the Secret
Service...More (May
2002)
Interview
With the Goddess: A Chat With Will Wright. In
this interview, Melanie chats up Will Wright, a man The
Wall Street Journal summed up as follows: "In an
industry best known for blood and gore, computer-game
designer Will Wright is an alternative thinker.
Intellectual may be more like it."...More
(April 2002)
Interview
With the Goddess: A Chat With Stevie Case and John
Romero.
When swapping stories around the cattle trail
campfire, even cowboys have been heard to tell the tale
of game industry lore: the day Killcreek defeated Romero
in a friendly game of Quake...More
(March 2002)
Interview
With the Goddess: A Chat With Richard Garriott.
In this interview, Melanie chats up Richard
Garriott. In an industry that now rivals the film
business in terms of popularity, Richard Garriott is one
of the few well-known "superstars."...More
(February 2002)
Interview With the Goddess: A Chat With
George "The Fat Man" Sanger.
In this interview,
Melanie chats up game music maestro George Alistair
Sanger, known by most in the industry as The Fat Man.
Internationally recognized for having contributed to the
atmosphere of over 130 games, People Magazine
calls him "a top candidate for the most prolific--and
obscure--living American composer"...More
(January 2002)
Interview With the Goddess: A Chat With Josh Resnick,
President, Pandemic Studios.
As the president
and co-founder of Pandemic, Josh Resnick has released
critically acclaimed games and made current national
news as part of a collaborative venture to
develop games for the United States military. Learn now
this Wharton MBA got in the game...More
(December 2001)
Interview With the
Goddess: A Chat With Paul Steed
In this interview, Melanie chats up Producer/Artist
Paul Steed. Steed’s mastery of modeling,
animation and the creation/direction of cinematic
sequences on high profile games such as the Wing
Commander and Quake series has garnered him
considerable recognition and praise....More
(November 2001)
Interview
With the Goddess: A Chat With Marc Saltzman
In her latest interview,
Melanie chats up Marc Saltzman, by all appearances, the
hardest working man in the game business. Marc has
reported on the burgeoning high-tech industry for the
past five years as a freelance journalist, author,
lecturer, consultant, and radio and TV personality. His
specialties lie in video games, computers, the Internet,
telecommunications, digital music initiatives and
consumer electronics...More
(October 2001)
Interview
With the Goddess: A Chat With Rick Hall, Senior
Producer, Ultima Online
GIGnews is pleased
to introduce our new ongoing feature: Interview With
the Goddess. GIGnews recruited Melanie Cambron,
known by most in the industry as The Game Recruiting
Goddess, to use her skills for the good of gamekind and
recruit some of the big names in the industry to give us
all valuable insight into what they do and how they do
it. For her debut interview, Melanie spoke with Rick
Hall, Senior Producer of Ultima Online...More
(September 2001)
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