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Vol.
2, Issue 11
February 8, 2000
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Sumaleth:
Were you a DPaint or Brilliance user?
Joachim:
Only DPaint. I loved Dpaint. You could do the same with mouse then
as you can with tablet today, except for the resolution.
Sumaleth:
You become known largely from your work for Melon Dezign, a group
that made the point of focusing on the "design" of their
demos rather than the routine-routine-routine approach generally
in use. Were you a founding member or did you join later?
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Some of Joachim's work on Pocahontas. (100k).
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Joachim:
No, I wasn't a founding member, actually the Danish Melon hated
me! But the French guys, who were the real designers, liked my work.
Though I had been more of the "artist" type than a designer,
somehow Wlat (the designer) loved my design work. (Probably because
it was funny.)
Sumaleth:
How many demos did you work on with Melon? Do you have a favorite?
Joachim:
I did 3 demos I think. I don't have any favorite any more, at least
none of my own, but I respect the work I did on Ninja since I was
sweating for 4 months.
Sumaleth:
Were you still with Melon when you did the RAW cover?
Joachim:
That was before, I think. I joined Melon rather late. (Probably
the technique I did on the RAW cover made them want me?!?)
Sumaleth:
The technique
on the RAW cover reminded me a lot of Hof's style, do you think
that was the case?
Joachim:
Maybe, that's at least what I aimed for :). Or more like Uno,
who had been everybody’s idol in the old days. I could work
on small areas of a picture for months before I learned the technique.
Sadly, it's not necessary anymore.
Sumaleth:
The RAW cover was a copy of a Kruger caricature if I remember correctly.
Did you do a lot of copying (which was pretty standard in those
days) or did you generally prefer to do originals?
Joachim:
I think that was my last copy! And I'm really happy I stopped,
even though they looked better when I copied them. But copying didn't
improve my actual drawing skills.
Sumaleth:
So you got out of 'copying' a long time before it becoming fashionable
to do 'no copies'.
Joachim:
I guess I did - maybe that's why I didn't get as famous as many
others. But I think the most important thing is to reach for new
goals.
Sumaleth:
Ninja was certainly a big surprise to those of us who had started
to get into your previous style. How did the jump to traditional
animation come about?
Joachim:
Well, I had always loved [traditional] animation. Ninja was a LOT
of work! That was the first time that I had to animate characters
in different perspectives.
Sumaleth:
It was unique too, I don't think I've ever seen another demo, on
any system, like that.
Joachim:
No, that's actually what we hoped to see more of when we did the
demo but everybody just continued that design fancy stuff which
probably made me quit the scene.
Sumaleth:
Did your work on Ninja lead directly to your job at Funcom?
Joachim:
No, I did Ninja right after I started in Funcom, which was almost
8 years ago. I was still a scene-member at that time.
Sumaleth:
Had you long aimed to get into the game industry?
Joachim:
Actually, no. I [accompanied] a friend to an interview at Funcom,
but it looked so cool - everybody just played games, ate chocolate,
etc - that I got tempted :). So I asked for an interview as well
and they hired me the next day. I quit school.
[Food interval.
Joachim had sandwiches and I went for some 97% fat-free crackers.]
Sumaleth:
What was the first game you worked on?
Joachim:
The first game I worked on was We're Back on the Sega Genesis
(based on a movie from Steven Spielberg).
Sumaleth:
What games did you do after that?
Joachim:
Ehhm let's see.. many got canned, but the ones we finished were:
We're Back, Days Before Christmas, Pocahontas,
and Dragon Heart (which sucked big time by the way).
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