Team Information - Battlezone II

"We try to focus on having excellent communications between a small group of people who are all the absolute best at what they do."
- George Collins

From Left to Right:
George Collins,
Nathan Mates,
Andrew Goldman (?),
Julio Jerez,
Carey Chico,
Jack Davis,
Hess Barber,
Ken Miller,
Will Rosas,
Wil Stahl,
Brad Pickering,
Matt Candler,
John Rheaume,
Nick Punt.

	Hess Barber Hess is a 3D artist for Battlezone II. Hess came from Beam Software in Australia where he worked on Dethkarz, KKND Infiltrator and (ahem)Alien Earth. Hess has also been working on Dark Reign II. He's been working in the games industry for nearly 5 years now and also writes dance music and has been a nightclub DJ for the past 9 years. In addition, Hess enjoys crocodile wrestling and "hunting wild boar in the outback with my bare hands." Quote: "These yankees are bloody weird."
	Matt Candler Matt Candler is the producer for Battlezone II at Activision. Matt has worked on a number of projects at Activision, including a lot of late nights as an Associate Producer on Mechwarrior II: Mercenaries. Matt currently manages several projects for Activision, including Dark Reign II and Vampire: The Masquerade.
	Carey Chico Art Director on Battlezone II, Carey comes to Pandemic with experience as Lead Artist on Battlezone I. He graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Design, and has always loved playing games. While focusing mostly on the art aspects of the game, Carey is also prominently involved with the musical aspects of game creation, having composed music for the Mechwarrior series and the upcoming Activision title Civilization: Call to Power. Carey's favorite games of all time include such wonderful landmark titles as Ultima Underworld I and II, System Shock, and Incubation.
	George Collins Born in San Francisco, George Collins has been a lifelong lover of games in all forms. He attended the University of California, San Diego and then worked at the Cognitive Electrophysiolgy Lab at the Scripps Research Institute where he developed signal processing software to analyze brain activity and published a paper on brainwave research. After attending the Graduate School of Business at the University of Southern California, he was delighted to discover that he could actually make a living creating games when he went to work for Activision in 1995. As an Associate Producer he worked on several titles, including "Return to Zork" and "Zork Nemesis." As lead game designer he helped create the new Battlezone. He is now the Director of Battlezone II at Pandemic
	Jack Davis Jack Davis was born and raised in Southern California. Jack is a relative newcomer to the gaming industry, and Battlezone II will be his first major title. You can currently see his design work in the Sin mission pack "Wages of Sin" published by Activision. Before breaking into the industry Jack was a bored college student and gaming addict who passed the time by creating amatuer game designs and levels. He is very happy to be working on Battlezone II and hopes to be in the industry for a long time.
	Andrew Goldman Andrew Goldman is Mysterious. Terribly Mysterious. This is the only recorded image we have of the man. Or should we say the myth. We still do not know if he exists, and at what capacity.
	Julio Jerez Julio is a veteran game programmer and is the man behind a lot of the 'magic of movement' in Battlezone II. Julio comes to Pandemic from Activision, where he worked on I-76 and Heavy Gear. Before that he worked at Westwood Studios as a programmer on Lands of Lore.
	Nathan Mates Nathan is American, but grew up in Islamabad, Pakistan (his parents had jobs overseas). He attended Caltech for undergraduate studies. Before coming to Pandemic, Nathan was a programmer at Adrenalin Entertainment 1996-98 and worked on Ten Pin Alley and Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling, two Bowling games. He is currently the network programmer on Battlezone II.
	Ken Miller Ken Miller is the acting Lead Programmer for Battlezone II. Previously, he was the physics, interface, and effects programmer on Activision's Battlezone. In addition to programming skills, Ken has some non-professional art experience, and acts as a liason between the programming and art staff. Ken received a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. He chose a creative writing concentration to satisfy the M.I.T. humanities requirement.
	Brad Pickering Brad Pickering is a programmer on Battlezone II. He is working mostly on AI (pathing issues) and a little bit on Networking (world prediction). Brad got addicted to computer games in College playing on his Apple II when he should have been attending classes at UCLA. He spent many years programming in the aerospace industry (JPL), not realizing you could get a job programming games in SoCal. He found his true calling when he saw a job at Activision for a Mac programmer. He worked on 'Spycraft:the Great Game' and was Lead Programmer on 'Battlezone' while at Activision. Brad is currently trying to balance his life between his many loves: wife, kid, game playing, and game programming.
	Nick Punt Nick Punt began working at Pandemic as an intern (no jokes please) in January of 99. He is now working full time, and will soon be attending college part time at Santa Monica City College. His job description is something to the tune of "3d artist, webguy, and everything else you need me to do." Formal training was a six week crash course in Softimage and a eighteen year obsession with games (board games, computer games, old school Sega master system, you name it, if it has the word 'game' in it he'll like it.) Nick wants to become a game designer or director later in his career, and to bring gaming to new heights. He thinks gaming "should be recognized as a recreational activity with the same respect as going to the movies." (i.e. chicks should dig it.)
	John Rheaume John, a veteran artist and illustrator, is responsible for "artifying" all the BZII single-player mission maps and making sure that each map environment is just as pretty to look at as it is fun to play in. Before coming to Pandemic, John was an artist on Heavy Gear 2 at Activision.
	Will Rosas Will Rosas is the lead artist on Battlezone II. He's created 2D and 3D art for the world as well as concept art for the characters in the game. Will joins Pandemic Studios from Activision where he was a 2D artist on the original Battlezone. Will Rosas graduated from the School of Visual Arts, (New York) in June 95 with a degree in Illustration. He's worked as a freelance illustrator in New York for several years before moving to Los Angeles to work for Disney Interactive. At Disney he was a concept and 2D artist on a real time game based on the Aladdin universe. In his spare time, Will enjoys working with writers designing and developing characters for children's television shows.
	Wil Stahl After working at Activision for 3 year as a game designer and associate producer, Wil came to Pandemic Studios as Lead Designer for Battlezone II. Having worked as a designer on the original, he has a tremendous amount of experience and familiarity with the game. Wil is a tyrannical, egotistical and uncompromising man. It is not uncommon for him to strangle a programmer or artist that offers him some innocent design criticism or is "breathing too loud" around him (as he explains). Many feel he has become bitter and hardened by the lack of originality in the gaming industry, while others feel he was simply dropped on his head too often as a child. He would never admit that his real problem is the eternal battle between the Fonzie and Potsie within him. He so desperately wants an idolized, over-hyped persona, but he just cannot suppress the geek in him long enough to garner the A-list magazine interviews or score with the Lara Croft lookalikes at E3. So instead, he gets in early, leaves late and works over the weekend in hopes of creating that gravy-train game that will allow him to command four times the salary while working one-fourth the hours. If he has to change the gaming industry to do so, so be it.