EverQuest II Interview
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Q: How did EverQuest II come about? When did the idea come to fruition and a team actually form? How much of a hand did you have in selecting the team? Did you also select Laura Karpman as composer?
A: I guess that you could say that initial planning for EverQuest II came about during the development of EverQuest. There was desire for improvement of the engine, mechanics, and content that at the time was not possible due to technical, time, and resource limitations. During game-tuning meetings, an idea would be presented, evaluated, and weighed against these limiting factors. If the implementation was not feasible, it would be written down and locked away, not to be seen again for many moons.
Shortly after the launch of EQ, a core group of engineers, artists, and designers was formed to begin R&D on the new engine and game design. After wrapping up Kunark, I moved onto this team in late 2000. Over the past 3 years, the talent and size of the team has grown immensely. In addition, just about every aspect of the original design and engine has improved significantly as well. Based on the knowledge we have gained with EverQuest and the successive release of expansions, our current design of EverQuest II has evolved quite a bit from the original goals.
After a few months of attempting to find a composer that we felt could match the level of visual quality in EQII with an equally awe-inspiring suite of music, our parent company, Sony Pictures, recommended that we listen to a demo reel from a composer by the name of Laura Karpman. At the end of the first piece, we knew that Laura would be scoring our soundtrack.
