An Interview with Andy Chambers

[Primarch]

This comes from BoLS, but I believe they got a copy from elsewhere. Apparantly it has been translated from Italian into English, so if some of it reads like an Ork wrote it, that is why.

November 2010:

Andy Chambers has been so kind to consent to make some chat with us. To those who should not know him, Andy has been for a long time the main column in games development in Games Workshop, during the years of her expansion, since dedicating himself after that experience to other projects in tridimensional wargame (we count Starship Troopers), and as creative mind in videogames for software house like the Blizzard; that not forgotting his personal love for GW Hobby background, and his personal player activity.


1) Ludusbellorum: Well Andy, you have on your back a very various career: book Author, Creative, Hobbyst … Just alike a little Leonardo Da Vinci, for the world of the games. In wich of those aspects you find yourself most bond within?
Andy Chambers: I’ve been very lucky to have the opportunity to write and create in a lot of different ways down the years. Working at Blizzard was an amazing experience that allowed me to learn some of the writer’s craft from the best in the business. At Games Workshop I learned about making games and creating worlds from the giants of the industry. I enjoy making games and writing about equally, when I work on one without the other I always miss it to some extent. Having said that I’ve been enjoying writing novels a lot recently, having such freedom and effectively unlimited space to tell a tale is great fun.


2) LB: let’s talk about your background and formation. During the long years of work in Games Workshop, you had surely confronted with your fellow collegues, and had made your bones strong: which are the most important lessons you learned from that activity?
AC: There’s a great many lessons, it’s hard to say which is the most important. Many lessons I know but I fail to apply them. If I were to pass one nugget of wisdom along I would say this: Do not allow your creative decisions to be dictated by fear. Fear leads to stagnation and stagnation is death. Your players and readers are on your side and really do want to enjoy what you create no matter what.


3) LB: How do you feel to be outside the GW world, after a so long time? Was excitation greater, for measure yourself agaist something new, or the challenge to reinvent yourself has taken more than some minute of reflection, before you went boldly on the venture?
AC: Stepping out into the wider world after so long is challenging. The creative skills I learned apply in other areas too, but there’s been a lot more to learn. The payoff has been a far more diverse set of projects to work on, new ways of thinking and a better idea of what I can and can’t do. I love the diversity and surprises. Over the last year I’ve been drawn back to working in the Warhammer 40,000 universe (The Work as I think of it) and I’m delighted that it has gone from strength to strength.

4) LB: Surely you are a most senior hobbyst that could be – and we suspect you are still an active player too: what are your games preference at the moment?
AC: I’ve recently been adding to my Warhammer 40,000 Orks with some of the excellent new plastic models available, the dreadnought is truly wonderful. I also have a Flames of War Russian army almost completed (lots of guns and mortars still to paint). Gaming-wise I’ve done relatively few tabletop battles recently, the last was a Warhammer Fantasy battle with my nurgle army. Blizzard has given me a taste for pc games too, current favourites are Majesty and Achtung Panzer Kharkov 1943..


5) LB: a technical question for a good Games Deveoper. How is possible to success in the challenge to reach the right balance between well working rules and to have games at most open to all the players’ fun exploitation? Do you think you ever successed in this?
AC: No. The difficulty is that players are not all the same, they want different things from a game depending on their passion and commitment to it. The intricacies that delight a commited player can confuse and drive away a less passionate one. Players themselves also evolve after their first few games and learn new ways to fight. The old saying of making a game easy to learn and difficult to master is the best guide here, but you always have to compromise when making a game that can first draw people in and then keep them interested.


6) LB: Choosing within all the stuff you worked on in Games Workshop, what is the work you are most proud of as a Games Developer?
AC: Probably Battlefleet Gothic as being a ‘complete package’ of game, miniatures and history created more or less from scratch. Having said that I’m not particularly happy with the BFG rules in some areas, mechanics we developed later for other games are smoother and quicker to use than the ones I chose at the time.


7) LB: just a word about the actual edition o Warhammer 4000. If you could change one single aspect of the actual gameplay, where you would work over, as a player?
AC: Melee combat. I’ve never felt that melee combat in Warhammer 40,000 was as clean and well-handled as other aspects of the rules, probably because balance is so difficult to achieve on a battlefield with tanks and heroes interacting so often.


8) LB: let’s talk about two army list we know you are found of: Skaven for WHFB and Orks for Warhammer 40000. If you are familiar to their present status, are you satisfied of their actual development?
AC: I don’t have the new Skaven book unfortunately, but if the plastic miniatures in the most recent box game are anything to judge by I’m sure the book is awesome. I have the 40K Ork Codex (and a stack of amazing plastics) and I have to say that’s a wonderful, wonderful Codex, much better than the old one.


9) LB: let’s talk about some other stuff close to you: Battlefleet Gothic and Starship Troopers. In the first you succeded – doing it surely thanks to Gav Thorpe too – to give to us a pearl, that shine today, after many years of his first publication, for his elegance e completeness. In the second you confronted yourself with one of the most revered sacred monster of Sci-Fi, Robert Heinlein, as cinema brought him on screen, creating a very realistic and complete rulebook. Someone asks: why Warhammer 40000 has never had a similar elegance, functionality, and durability as these other games, who are seen on the games outlook as “minor ones”?
AC: There’s a simple answer to that – scope. Warhammer 40,000 and WFB have to handle games between a dozen or so different armies with a vast variation in what they can select. Starship Troopers and BFG have a much narrower scope so its easier to make a clean, tidy system that covers everything. The other element at work is legacy, in the 2nd and later editions of a game there is a lot of pressure to keep the game the same so as not to invalidate player’s existing tactics armies (yes I still invalidated things sometimes anyway, I’m sorry). The legacy effect means you keep mechanics which perhaps aren’t the best but that are very familiar to existing players. At the same time some players want something NEW! And are most happy with big changes. Most players tend to fear change, often with good reason.


10) LB: the marketing and the art to be a creative impulse guided Games Developer: how much in you experience those two force contrasted each other or enforced each other in your work?
AC: Marketing and games development work hand in hand, one is nothing without the other. As much as I would like to believe that pure genius design sells games on its own it won’t advertise them or get them into stores. At the same time marketing is nothing without good products to sell so its a symbiotic relationship. Planning well with Marketing can be very useful creatively too, it gives a set of real-world considerations that goes a long way to turning an idea into a reality.


Thanks of your time Andy! We are expecting to read some chapter from your new books!

November 2010

[Spevna]

Interesting read, cheers.

I am off to download the BFG rules now and give them a read. Any rules that are described as clean and tidy are "win" in my book.

I think the point about legacy is a good one too. A lot of the stats and rules from RT40k have carried over into the 5th edition yet the size and scope of the game has changed so much. I would be interested to see what game designers would do if given a completely free reign to write the rules as they saw fit.

[The Other Dave]

Interesting read, cheers.

I am off to download the BFG rules now and give them a read. Any rules that are described as clean and tidy are "win" in my book.

I think the point about legacy is a good one too. A lot of the stats and rules from RT40k have carried over into the 5th edition yet the size and scope of the game has changed so much. I would be interested to see what game designers would do if given a completely free reign to write the rules as they saw fit.

BFG is a tight game, if you ignore some of the newer fleets. Epic 40K (the edition between Space Marine and the current edition) is a really good evolution of the rules as well, but the rules aren't available online anywhere as far as I know.

[Primarch]

Interesting read, cheers.

I am off to download the BFG rules now and give them a read. Any rules that are described as clean and tidy are "win" in my book.

I think the point about legacy is a good one too. A lot of the stats and rules from RT40k have carried over into the 5th edition yet the size and scope of the game has changed so much. I would be interested to see what game designers would do if given a completely free reign to write the rules as they saw fit.

BFG is a tight game, if you ignore some of the newer fleets. Epic 40K (the edition between Space Marine and the current edition) is a really good evolution of the rules as well, but the rules aren't available online anywhere as far as I know.

When I played BFG, the rules were fairly straightforward, but I didnt feel particularly inspired by them. I'm interested in how Spartan handle space combat (Firestorm Armada) since I like their naval game (Uncharted Seas).
As for Epic, the best version in my most humble of opinions is the last version of Space Marine. (ie before the switch to Epic 40k). There is a free version of some fan made rules on the interwebs called NetEpic, which is basically Space Marine with some elements of the later versions worked in. Having played it once, I like it and want to play it again.

On the topic of Mr. Chambers.

Over the last year I’ve been drawn back to working in the Warhammer 40,000 universe (The Work as I think of it) and I’m delighted that it has gone from strength to strength.

This REALLY caught my interest.

RP is gone but is AC making a comeback?