Formerly an artist at Bullfrog working on the tightly scheduled ThemePark 2 at Bullfrog, Ian is Big Blue Box’s Director of Art.
His career to date has included:
Senior 3D artist on Probe entertainment’s ‘Forsaken’. He supervised both PSX and PC versions as well as working closely with the external N64 team.
Ian first met Simon Carter during their first wild days at Sixth Form College. From that fateful meeting there was to form a friendship that would, years down the line, culminate in the formation of Big Blue Box studios.
During those college years Ian continued to develop a long-standing interest in role-playing systems and in particular ‘Live role-playing’. This went a stage further when he founded a live-role-playing club in 1990, which is still active today. At the height of its popularity it was the largest club of its type in the south of England, comprising of over 150 members. One of the reasons for its popularity was the simple yet rewarding rules and the magic system, which Ian himself developed.
Despite Ian’s interest in rule systems and game design he still managed to find time to put together a strong enough portfolio to win a coveted place at Salisbury art college on one of England’s finest photographic courses. Having decided to take a short break from his fine arts background he spent two packed years learning everything from set design and lighting to the use of complex large format cameras as well as an in depth knowledge of all types of photographic printing.
Having gained a HND qualification after two years Ian was lured away from finishing his degree by the bright lights of the games industry. Moving to lovely Croydon, Ian joined Probe entertainment and within a year worked his way to become a Senior 3D artist. He was responsible for a team of artists and worked on Probe’s flagship game of the time, ‘Forsaken’. During this period Ian found himself working to resolve many of the technical and art issues that beset such a technologically advanced game, demanding that he worked from Acclaim's New York office while trouble-shooting for the Forsaken team.
Eventually, seeking a return to his ‘pure’ art role, Ian was tempted away from Probe by the prestige and reputation for quality that was embodied by Bullfrog productions. There, he joined the ambitious Theme Park 2 team and quickly secured himself a reputation for originality and innovation. He was responsible for everything from final 3D ride design to concept artwork.
As well as owning all of the popular and some not-so-popular role-playing games on the market and still writing occasional adventures for his LRP club Ian maintains a wide range of interests. He cites as his personal non-gaming influences everything from the music of the Cocteau twins to ‘Johnny the homicidal maniac’ by Jhonen Vasquez. Perhaps slightly surprisingly Ian prefers to take his art influences from well outside the world of video games. Despite this, certain games have earned a place in his heart for both their look and playability, among them are Zelda (SNES), Total annihilation (PC), Thrust and Labyrinth (BBC B) and Xenon 2 (Amiga).
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