I would first like to start by letting you all know a bit about myself, I was born and raised in downtown Toronto. I really never knew that I wanted to make games till I was about 21 years old. When I was young all I did was play games, I started on my Apple IIe and continued playing till I got my 386 but really got into it hardcore gaming when I got my p133.

I wasn't a huge computer geek back then more into playing hockey and just hanging out but one day sitting in my dorm room contemplating if I want to continue with my current studies I got a Seneca collage course catalog and started going through the pages when I saw the words.. 3D graphics and Game Development, the name of the course was ILT (Illustration Technical) Problem was they had a art test which I thought anyway was my weakest skill. After taking the test it was safe to say I was extremely happy when I found out I got in. I would have to say it was one of the happiest days of my life, and I didn't waste another day and got to work.

I graduated with honors about 3 years later, and started working on business tycoon with stardock a company I knew nothing about,until Brad asked me if I ever hard of Galactic Civilizations, now I was a windows gamer so I never even played it but I was a huge Moo fan and I knew that GalCiv was the competitor. Once I played it I saw the genius of the game and really liked it though it was dated, I then knew what I would be working on GalCiv for the next few years and was happy to be doing so, say the least.

The rest is history.

GalCiv 1 is a great game but the graphics where really it's weakest point which is something we tend to fix in GalCiv 2. I really want this version to be up to par with every game in the industry, I feel that with some effort we will achieve this goal. Switching to 3D has given me the freedom to run wild as a artist, which is something I have never had the opportunity to do and I am really excited about it, the fact is now animation can be fully put into the game so we can really immerse the gamer which is my biggest objective.

You can have a great looking game but boring as hell because of bad UI. Frustration is not something I take lightly when playing a game and I will not let our game suffer from it. So when making a game I always look first as a gamer and second as a artist, the truth is I would rather play RTS/TBS or FPS games then make art I am a avid CS player and know that Gameplay is everything and any true gamer can see right through the smoke and mirrors. Isn't that right guys..

If anyone has any ideas about the graphics in GalCiv don't be shy to speak up, any techniques that will be helpful are much appreciated.