| An interview with Mike Thorp; Mike Thorp, creator of World of Twilight, answers some questions | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 3 2010, 07:18 AM (618 Views) | |
| James Baillie | May 3 2010, 07:18 AM Post #1 |
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Interview: Mike Thorp For this edition, Mike Thorp - creator of The World of Twilight wargame - has agreed to do an interview about the creation of the game; here it is, a real look at how the game was originally designed... Q. When did you first come up with the World of Twilight? A. Sometime around the summer of ’98 or ’99 I was playing around with some ideas, and started doodling a few creatures for an alternate fantasy setting. It wasn’t long before I sketched some little critters called Trebarnii and their cousins the Fubarnii. Somehow the Fubarnii then took on a life of their own, and I had a sketchbook full of characters that then slowly developed into the World of Twilight you now see. It took me about a year to learn enough to sculpt a little range of crude figures and cast them up myself, but then another 10 years or so to learn to sculpt well enough to release them properly! Q. How did you come up with the name? A. I was very interested in messing around with expectations, and looking for creatures and races that weren’t what you would immediately expect. The primary protagonists are the Fubarnii, nocturnal cave-dwelling creatures who you would normally expect to be seen as the bad guys. The Devanu, nominally the bad guys, on the other hand come out and hunt during the day. Mostly. The name Twilight somehow captured the idea of that boundary between light and dark, day and night, while also suggesting a world set in greys. It was a few years later that the name became associated with werewolves and sparkly vampires but by that point the name had well and truly stuck and I couldn’t bring myself to change it! I now try to refer to it as World of Twilight to try and make it a bit different. Q. What has inspired you with the world's background? A. I didn’t realise at the time, but the single biggest influence probably lies in the Dark Crystal. Some of the designs do have similarities I suppose, but the main thing is the idea of creating such a deep and magical world. I’ve tried to do the same sort of thing with Twilight. I’ve also generally looked at anything and everything I’ve studied in the last decade and wondered how it might fit in with Twilight, from documentaries on interesting places in our world, to long discussions with friends about creature creation, languages, biology or any number of other random topics. Q. Where did you learn your sculpting skills, and what advice would you give to new sculptors? A. I’ve mainly just practised a lot, but I got some great advice on forums like 1listsculpting, the Forum of Doom and Frothers. Andy at Heresy gave me my first break when he offered to cast up a spider I had sculpted. The first cast failed miserably, but I learned from that (including the fact that cork does not survive the casting process) and just kept on playing around. I’ve also looked at what other sculptors have done, and stolen techniques where they looked useful! I would advise any new sculptors just to give it a go and keep practising. It’s a slow process, but it does give you the chance to create anything you want. It’s really worth gritting your teeth and sharing your work in a suitable forum, the advice you get can be invaluable, even if criticism can be a bit hard to take! Q. If you had to pick a World of Twilight force yourself to play as, which would it be? A. That’s a tricky one! Possibly the Delgon, as they are the ones I’ve spent the last year focussed on, but the Empire still has a soft spot in my heart as the Enuk knights have been around pretty much since I started on Twilight. Then again, I’d probably choose to play as the Ferals. But I guess that counts as cheating as they don’t actually exist as figures yet. Q. What do you think separates WoT from other wargames? A. Quirkiness? It’s an odd little setting that doesn’t follow too many of the traditions you find in most wargames. Q. Have you enjoyed all the stages of creating WoT? A. All the stages? Probably not. There have been plenty of times when Twilight has seemed a tad all consuming, and I’ve had to put sculpting to the side for weeks at a time to spend my evenings worrying about things like stock control or booklet printing. Then again I don’t think you could ever hope to create something like Twilight without at least a little heartache, and it’s certainly been worth it so far! |
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8:36 AM Jul 11