Behind the Scenes - Issue #3 - Page 1
Black Prophecy: Behind the Scenes with Creative Director Timo Krahl and Art Director Nick Ebenhoch
In this issue of Black Prophecy: Behind the Scenes, we have the pleasure to talk with Creative Director Timo Krahl and Art Director Nick Ebenhoch about Black Prophecy’s game design and graphics. We will also learn more about their career in the games industry and their personal interests.
Chris:
Hi Timo, hi Nick. Thanks for taking the time for the third issue of Black Prophecy: Behind the Scenes. Why don’t you introduce yourselves to our readers for a start and tell us more about your area of responsibility in the development of Black Prophecy and your career in the game industry?
Timo:
Hi Chris, except for some short interruptions I have been working in the game development industry for about 10 years now and was on the payroll at Reakktor for most of that time. But at the age of 28 I wouldn’t call myself an old dog yet. I’ve started out with “modding” (at a time where this term wasn’t established yet), where I created campaigns for Warcraft 2, maps for Duke Nukem 3D and Jagged Alliance and animated characters for DOOM. I did my first professional works as level designer in the early conceptual phase of Neocron. Since then many things happened and if I would have to describe my current scope of duties I would say that, for a large part, I am the one who has to make the appropriate global design decisions for the game – this sometimes renders as a difficult endeavor to bring the interests and possibilities of the designers, artists, authors and the technical departments to a common ground. In addition to this I am also responsible for the audio/video department, have cut most of the trailers and also intensively grappled with graphics at times.
Personally I get quite much out of games, but I also am a huge movie buff and like taking a closer look at how they are produced. My big love is still the music – as I am a musician I often tinker with sounds, work with other bands and also produce my own tracks if time allowing. Next to all this mind melting media stuff I sometimes do sports or paint the town red with my buddies.
Nick:
Hi Chris, I am 28 years old and have been working in the computer games industry for 6 years now. Like many other game developers my actual job training has nothing to do with my current job. I’ve started at Reakktor as a career changer and originally applied as a level designer. Fairly soon thereafter, I switched positions into the graphics department, where my actual career took its beginning. Next to my interest for level design I also have a passion for technology and design. During the Neocron development I was able to live out this foible very well by developing and modeling weapons, vehicles and other futuristic assets (Editor note: In game development, assets are all components of a game, e.g. graphics, source code, music tracks, etc.). Thanks to the support of the other talented artists, who were already working at Reakktor at that time, I was able to break into the matter quickly and gather precious working experience. With Black Prophecy I had the opportunity to help design a game from scratch in my role as a graphic artist and contributed to the design of the game world and the space ships with my own ideas. In the course of the development I was promoted to the position of an Art Director and became responsible for the graphical direction of Black Prophecy, with everything that coheres to this.
In my leisure time I am often on the move with my camera to look out for new motives especially in old ruins, industrial areas and harbors. This is quite interesting for my passion as a level designer to study lighting situations or create new textures. Another benefit from this is that I can be creative in a completely different manner. Surprisingly I don’t play games that often. I am more interested in the technical implementation of game levels and assets instead of just playing the game. Also I still engage in game modding from time to time but rather in a small scale.
