Interviews// Jacob Minkoff - Lead Designer - Damnation

Following some delays Codemasters' Damnation 'vertical' platformer is due into the world in Spring this year. A steampunk take on the American Civil War, it comes from Blue Omega Entertainment. Having begun life as an Unreal Mod in 2004 and has now transmogrified into a fast-paced, action title. SPOnG posed some questions to lead designer Jacob Minkoff. We received answers as to the development and aims of the game.

Although we also asked about causes for the delay to the title's release, we couldn't get Jacob to proffer any information on those tricky details. However, what follows does provide some interesting insights in what can all hope is small developer progressing its ambitions.

SPOnG: First of all, Hi and can we get the correct spellings of your name; what you did on the game and also a brief piece of background on how you got into the industry?

Jacob Minkoff: Jacob Minkoff – Lead Designer. I just sort of fell into the industry. I had graduated college with a BFA in Computer Art, done a few internships where I worked on interactive simulations, and was trying to get into the film industry while holding down a job as a web-designer. The owner of the web-development company wanted to get into video games, and I was the one with the most knowledge about interactive simulations and games (admittedly little).

SPOnG: Now, for Damnation: Firefly, Wild (Wild) West, Iron Man? (We may be missing the point). Could you give the readers a backgrounder for the story?

Jacob Minkoff: Okay, here goes: In the alternate history of Damnation, the American Civil War has been waged for over 40 years, and the various factions involved have basically all fought to exhaustion. Then, suddenly out of the blue and into the chaos steps W.D. Prescott who is the leader of PSI (Prescott Standard Industries). It turns out that he’s been manipulating the war, selling new weapons to one side and counter-measures to the other. With the country finally weakened to the point that it cannot stand against him, Prescott sweeps in and lays waste to the East Coast and what remains of the government.

Now, as PSI begins to move across the continent, it’s up to the Peacemakers – a group of resistance fighters – to take down PSI and save what remains of the country.

It’s a deep, character-driven plot which follows each of the members of this small force of guerilla soldiers as they fight to protect their homes, their families, and try to get revenge for what has been taken from them.


SPOnG: Which platform was the lead on this project and why?

Jacob Minkoff: We haven’t got a lead platform for Damnation, all platforms will be identical aside from platform-specific features like Achievements and Trophies.