Interview: Colosseum

Colloseum is a well-known member of AoKH's community for a while now, he's my first ever non-AoM member to be interview:
1. So what do you mostly do with Age Of Kings? How did you find AoKH in the first place?

Mostly, I design scenarios. A lot of my time spent in-game is taken up by map editing. It's hands-down the best part of AoC, and by far one of the only reasons the game is still around. However, I also enjoy multiplayer games; some friends and I often play standard games via LAN and occasionally I can talk them into playing a few custom blood scenarios with me.

I found AoKH back in 2003, after a short tenure at Stronghold Heaven. I had lurked around the AoKH forum for a while, but never joined. I think a lot can be said about its quality because after five years, I'm still an active member (when time permits).

2. What would you say was the best example of your skills?

I can't really say for sure. I've actually never uploaded a single file to the Blacksmith in my entire time at HeavenGames. For a while, I would start a project, work on it a bit, and then lose interest and go somewhere else for a while. I think that can be said about a lot of the designers on AoKH. However, anyone who has ever reviewed a scenario for me has commented on its quality. I hate to say things like that. :p


3. So any current projects?

I've been working on the same project since 2004. It's called "The Manuscripts", and it centers on a British Royal Navy captain in the Caribbean in 1730. It's by far the longest I've ever worked on a project (4 years now?), and I really hope to finish it sometime soon. Lord knows if it will ever get done, but I sure am doing my best to work on it around my relatively busy schedule.

4. With a couple of new AoK designers coming in, what would be any tips you have for them?

Read the sticky threads. Be polite. Ask questions only if you can't find them in the stickies. Don't start a design team unless you really know what you're doing (and, being a new designer, you most likely don't). Understand that developing a good scenario takes a lot more than a few days or a week. But most of all, while you may get discouraged and stuff like that, the most important part of designing is to just not give up. Working with AoC is challenging because the editor doesn't exactly have some of the functions you would expect (like an Undo function, you can't even imagine how helpful something like that would be). What's really important is that you managed to overcome the difficulties associated with designing for Age of Empires II and made a good campaign or scenario.

5. Besides the Age Of Empires II games, what else do you do whenever you have spare time?

Along with watchwood, a former HG employee, I developed a browser-based naval combat game called Sea Powers. You can find it at www.seapowers.com. I'm also an avid web designer, graphic designer, and I also spend time drawing profiles (line drawings) of modern day and second World War naval vessels; I figure I'll try and see how much I can get done before I get a life. Just proves that AoC isn't all you have to dedicate yourself to. ;-)


6. Thanks for answering this interview, anything else to say?

Thanks for choosing me to interview. :-)