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We interviewed our Creative Director, Tim, who designed the new User Interface for Tomb of the Lost Queen!

Her Interactive: How long have you worked at Her Interactive?

Tim: About 14 ½ years.  Probably longer than some of our players have been alive…gulp.

Her Interactive: How did you get into the game industry?

Tim: I went back to school to get a degree in Computer Animation and got my first job as an artist at, yes, Her Interactive.  And they haven’t been able to get rid of me since!

Her Interactive: How instrumental were you in creating the new UI?  How would you describe the process?

Tim: I was responsible for designing the look and feel of the UI and defining its behavior, but I got a lot of invaluable feedback along the way that brought it to where it is now.  It was certainly a collaborative process.  I would come up with a concept with several variations based on a lot of reference images that were used to draw inspiration from, and then a group of us would look at it and discuss what we liked and what we would like to see changed or added.  I’d take that feedback and go back and make changes and then present it again for further feedback.  It evolved a lot through that back and forth process.

Her Interactive:  Why will fans of Nancy Drew games love the new UI?

Tim: It’s pretty to look at and is very easy to use.  All the things that you use most in the game are right in front of you.

Her Interactive:  What’s your favorite part of the new UI?

Tim: I really like how the expandable task list/journal turned out.  And the new auto-sorting task list is a nice addition.

Her Interactive: Will fans of Nancy Drew games notice the higher resolution graphics used in TMB?

Tim: I think so.  I pulled up a screen shot from one of our first games and was shocked to see how small the game screen was compared to TMB.  You can really appreciate all the detail our artists put into these scenes now. 

Her Interactive:  What are you working on next that we should know about?

Tim: I’m helping to build out one of the environments for our next game.  It’s been fun getting to do some 3d modeling again – I haven’t had a chance to do much of that in a while and although I’m a bit rusty, I’m enjoying it!

Her Interactive: If you were the main character of a video game, who would you be and what is your story or mission?

Tim: I would be a young man fighting against an evil tyrant, up against seemingly insurmountable odds using only his wits, his courage and his very life if necessary to save the one he loves.  Either that or a Minecraft dude building all sorts of cool stuff! 

Her Interactive: If you could travel to any place, either real or fictional, where would it be? What would you do there?

Tim: Heaven.  Hang out with Jesus and ask a lot of questions. 

Her Interactive: What is your favorite movie?

Tim: Oh, so many good ones… I’ll say the Lord of the Rings trilogy off the top of my head.  Epic.

Her Interactive:  What is your favorite TV show?

Tim: Firefly.  Hands down the best TV show ever created.  Why FOX!  Why did you have to cancel it! :(

Her Interactive:  Last question, what is your favorite video game of all time?

Tim: Ultima VII.  I have fond memories of spending waaay too much time playing this game.  I realized that I needed a break from it when I was driving down the road one day and saw a dead animal on the side of the road and my first instinct was to double click on it to see what I could loot from it.  :)

Thank you Tim for creating a new and beautiful User Interface and for all the hard work you put into making these games!