When Cryptic Studios picked up Bill Roper they had snagged a developer with experience unlike any other. Having started out developing big titles like Warcraft and Diablo, Roper cut his teeth on wildly successful games and then took a hit when his co-founded studio Flagship Studios was closed.

With such ups and downs, Roper walks into Champions Online as a veteran of the game development world and as such, he has a few tales to tell! Gamasutra sat down with Bill Roper and talked a bit about where he has been and what his experience brings to Champions Online.

Do you look at the Flagship experience as something that was really good and kind of went awry and "that's really sad"? Do you look at it as something that never really came together?

BR: That was some of my biggest highs and biggest lows in the industry. Things definitely were exciting and were really good about it, things that were ultimately big disappointments. Having to shut down a company was something I never had to do before.

It was a really dark time. It cost me a lot more than just the money we'd put into the company and things like that. It cost me a lot on a personal level with friends and loved ones that I wasn't able to keep in the process.

Since it was the first company that I'd run, I took it extremely personally. Now that I'm on the other side of it, I can look back at it and say, "Well, that's business; it happens. I'm not happy about it." I learned an amazing amount from the process. Those are things that I use everyday.

This interview gives a great in depth look at the industry as a whole and is a great read. Visit Gamasutra to check out the whole interview!


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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