Telltale Interview -- Greg Frank
TelltaleGames
Former Telltale Staff
Boys and girls, Telltalers and Telltale-ees, Sea Monkeys and Protoplasm, welcome to our latest interview.
Sooner or later, we will stop hiring new employees and I can actually start interviewing people who have been here longer than a week. But for now it gives me great pleasure to introduce our new newest member, Greg Frank.
So Greg, welcome to Telltale!
Thank you.
And how long have you been working with our illustrious little group?
I have been here for about a week now.
And what niche do you fill in our elite game devving society?
I am a new programmer here. But currently I am doing some level designing and authoring, which means I am mostly working on dialogue and game logic.
I notice you have a giant banana slug on your desk. Please explain.
Ah yes, that is my friend and pet slug. It is an alumni slug, hence the hat with the tassel on its head. I graduated from UC Santa Cruz on June 11th, 2005 with a BA in Computer Science. I bought it in honor of graduating.
Ah yes. (For those who don't know, the banana slug is the mascot of UC Santa Cruz.) Describe, if you will, an average day at Telltale Games.
Well I get in at about 9/9:30 depending of traffic and when I get up in the morning. Then I sit at my desk and check my e-mail. After that ritual is done, I load up the tools I use to control and change dialogue and game logic. Where I spend most of my day fixing problems we find in walkthroughs and duties that Karen or Dave give me. Then get some lunch and finally go back to work. Through out the day I try to make co-workers laugh and hopefully not cry at my terrible jokes.
How do you like our new offices?
I love them. It is nice and small so it is easy to communicate with everyone when I need to and it is big enough that we are not all crammed together. A little too hot on some days, which makes me eye Doug's Fan and think about how lucky he is, how lucky I can be if...um...I buy one just like his.
How much caffeine would you say you consume on an average day?
Well if I told you that I would have to kill you. Just kidding. Actually the message would self destruct and destroy the computers of all the people who visit our site, which we wouldn't want, right? But let's just say it is a lot.
I have heard rumors that you occasionally post on Four Fat Chicks. What have you told them about me?
I have told them how great you are and how much of amazing person you are. Four Fat Chicks is a great site, mostly I just told them I got an entry level job here and that I am doing game development stuff involving logic. Since they are a site that has reviews and a message board about mostly adventure gaming, I have been a member of theirs for a long time even though I am not really fat nor a chick. But hey it is the internet so technically I could be, right?
I have also heard that you, like many of Telltale's distinguished employees, once worked at LucasArts. What games did you work on there?
While I was at LucasArts I was a QA tester for Gladius, Star Wars Battlefront, and Knights of the Old Republic 2.
Share a funny LucasArts story with our fans. They like that.
I don't know of any funny stories I can share from LucasArts without getting sued or harassed by those involved. But let's see, there is hitfoot (can't talk about that), Hot sauce and Pancakes (no), Ah the only thing I can think of is how I got the nickname Greg and Frank. Well there isn't much of a story there; most it was one of the supervisors that started to call me that. But then it moved on to others and I would get e-mails asking about how both of us were doing, or if both of use could share one game, etc... I am even listed as 2 people in the end game credits of Knights of the Old Republic 2.
Finally, tell us a funny story about banana slugs.
Let's see do you mean the UCSC Students or The real thing. If you mean the real thing then you might be interested to know that Banana Slugs have no known predators. Sure salt will kill them but that is a weapon not a predator. As for the students, well there are so many stories that I can go into. Like the getaway style of getting into a car, this happened before I went to UCSC but I am a slug, so it counts. The story goes that I was heading to San Francisco for a party with a few friends after work and I yelled to the last friend getting in my car to do it getaway style and slammed on the gas. He tumbled a bit and I panicked and slammed on the brake, so he went fly head first into the door frame, then I stepped on the gas and he hit the back of the door frame then when I stepped on brake he hit the door again and fell into the car. We all have a laugh about it now. Also there is the story about my friend's car, where you would step on the gas and all the electric devices (including head lights and meters) would all turn off, and many more good times.
Yes, it sounds most humerous. Remind me never to accept a ride from you.
Sooner or later, we will stop hiring new employees and I can actually start interviewing people who have been here longer than a week. But for now it gives me great pleasure to introduce our new newest member, Greg Frank.
So Greg, welcome to Telltale!
Thank you.
And how long have you been working with our illustrious little group?
I have been here for about a week now.
And what niche do you fill in our elite game devving society?
I am a new programmer here. But currently I am doing some level designing and authoring, which means I am mostly working on dialogue and game logic.
I notice you have a giant banana slug on your desk. Please explain.
Ah yes, that is my friend and pet slug. It is an alumni slug, hence the hat with the tassel on its head. I graduated from UC Santa Cruz on June 11th, 2005 with a BA in Computer Science. I bought it in honor of graduating.
Ah yes. (For those who don't know, the banana slug is the mascot of UC Santa Cruz.) Describe, if you will, an average day at Telltale Games.
Well I get in at about 9/9:30 depending of traffic and when I get up in the morning. Then I sit at my desk and check my e-mail. After that ritual is done, I load up the tools I use to control and change dialogue and game logic. Where I spend most of my day fixing problems we find in walkthroughs and duties that Karen or Dave give me. Then get some lunch and finally go back to work. Through out the day I try to make co-workers laugh and hopefully not cry at my terrible jokes.
How do you like our new offices?
I love them. It is nice and small so it is easy to communicate with everyone when I need to and it is big enough that we are not all crammed together. A little too hot on some days, which makes me eye Doug's Fan and think about how lucky he is, how lucky I can be if...um...I buy one just like his.
How much caffeine would you say you consume on an average day?
Well if I told you that I would have to kill you. Just kidding. Actually the message would self destruct and destroy the computers of all the people who visit our site, which we wouldn't want, right? But let's just say it is a lot.
I have heard rumors that you occasionally post on Four Fat Chicks. What have you told them about me?
I have told them how great you are and how much of amazing person you are. Four Fat Chicks is a great site, mostly I just told them I got an entry level job here and that I am doing game development stuff involving logic. Since they are a site that has reviews and a message board about mostly adventure gaming, I have been a member of theirs for a long time even though I am not really fat nor a chick. But hey it is the internet so technically I could be, right?
I have also heard that you, like many of Telltale's distinguished employees, once worked at LucasArts. What games did you work on there?
While I was at LucasArts I was a QA tester for Gladius, Star Wars Battlefront, and Knights of the Old Republic 2.
Share a funny LucasArts story with our fans. They like that.
I don't know of any funny stories I can share from LucasArts without getting sued or harassed by those involved. But let's see, there is hitfoot (can't talk about that), Hot sauce and Pancakes (no), Ah the only thing I can think of is how I got the nickname Greg and Frank. Well there isn't much of a story there; most it was one of the supervisors that started to call me that. But then it moved on to others and I would get e-mails asking about how both of us were doing, or if both of use could share one game, etc... I am even listed as 2 people in the end game credits of Knights of the Old Republic 2.
Finally, tell us a funny story about banana slugs.
Let's see do you mean the UCSC Students or The real thing. If you mean the real thing then you might be interested to know that Banana Slugs have no known predators. Sure salt will kill them but that is a weapon not a predator. As for the students, well there are so many stories that I can go into. Like the getaway style of getting into a car, this happened before I went to UCSC but I am a slug, so it counts. The story goes that I was heading to San Francisco for a party with a few friends after work and I yelled to the last friend getting in my car to do it getaway style and slammed on the gas. He tumbled a bit and I panicked and slammed on the brake, so he went fly head first into the door frame, then I stepped on the gas and he hit the back of the door frame then when I stepped on brake he hit the door again and fell into the car. We all have a laugh about it now. Also there is the story about my friend's car, where you would step on the gas and all the electric devices (including head lights and meters) would all turn off, and many more good times.
Yes, it sounds most humerous. Remind me never to accept a ride from you.
This discussion has been closed.