This week we’re proud to introduce Star Citizen’s Senior Designer, Nathan Blaisdell! Nathan comes to CIG with plenty of experience in the game industry, must recently working with Chris Roberts’ old co-worker Warren Spector at Junction Point! You’ll get to learn more about him on Friday’s all-new episode of Wingman’s Hangar… tune in at 11 AM CST (-6 GMT) for that!
How did you get started in the game industry?
I grew up with a C-64 (after a brief stint with a VIC-20) and knew from an early age (7 or 8) that I wanted to make games for a living. I majored in Computer Science, but it wasn’t until I got my first foot in the door at Looking Glass Studios as a QA tester that I realized that game design was really where my passion lies. Little did I know I would be testing the sequel to System Shock, one of my all-time favorite games not to mention a groundbreaking immersive sim. Shortly after that I became a designer working at Irrational Games.
What projects have you worked on?
System Shock 2, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Doom 3, Spider-Man 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Disney Epic Mickey 1 & 2, and a hand full of titles that never shipped.
Were you familiar with Chris Roberts’ games before Star Citizen?
Of course. Though it wasn’t until I started working in the games industry that I realized that he was behind games like Wing Commander and Times of Lore (which I remember playing on my C-64 so long ago).
What will you be doing for Cloud Imperium?
As a Senior Designer, I’ll be doing a lot of different things including mission design, systems design, gameplay scripting, tuning, balancing and more. Also, I’m responsible for destroying Rob at board game night as much as possible. What are you most excited to see in Star Citizen/Squadron 42? Many, many things. But probably most of all, I’m excited to see how the players will take the game systems we make and create gameplay in ways we had not anticipated.
What are you playing right now?
When I’m not playing “Dad” I’m often found playing Magic the Gathering Online, and I recently have been doing some catch up with games like Amnesia and Mark of the Ninja. And after 16 years or so, Pete got me back into the recent revival of the card game Netrunner.