38 Studios Interview
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In 2006, Schilling founded a company called Green Monster Games (he'd change the name a year later, to reflect his jersey number) and began to size up the competition. (I would go and visit studios it wasn't real hard for me to get in,) he says. (I had a notebook with me like I did when I was scouting other baseball teams, and I would take notes. What was going well in the industry? What did people love, what did they hate?)
Schilling's sporting career also helped attract top talent. He'd met baseball nut Todd McFarlane (creator of the demonic comic book anti-hero Spawn) while pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks; R.A. Salvatore (The Icewind Dale Trilogy and DemonWars Saga) was a stranger, but (I just cold called him,) says Schilling. (He's an enormous Red Sox fan, and I had just finished reading all of his stuff, so I was a huge fan. It was 15 minutes of '˜Oh my God I can't believe I'm talking to you' for both of us. We were just geeking out.)
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Like Tolkien's Middle Earth, he wants to see the Amalur universe franchised into products including movies, toys and comics. (At the beginning of the company we had always had an ecosystem of products,) he says. (We understood that it was far bigger than a game or two games, it's an intellectual property. the IP has to be the driver behind everything we do.)
Schilling's excitement about the future of 38 Studios is palpable, combining the pride of an entrepreneur and the devotion of a fan. But he has no illusions about how much work is left to do. (I played in a profession for 23 years where you couldn't bullshit anybody about what you were doing, because at 9:00 on ESPN everybody watched it,) he says. (This is no different.)
