First off, tell us a little about yourself. Where did you go to college, your major, hobbies, what exactly it is you do at Volition, what an average day at the office is like for you, things like that.

I went to a tiny liberal arts college in Washington called The Evergreen State College. Evergreen is a goofy state school that the Washington legislature tries to shut down every year. The school has no grades, no tests, and plenty of alternative lifestyles.

I paid my way through school by cooking at a local restaurant. For awhile, I really considered cooking schools. I also thought about applying at UC Davis' Enology department, but figured making wine for a living was a little whimsical. I wanted something more down to earth, more practical, grounded in fulfilling basic human needs.

I am Director of Product Development for Volition. Mostly, I do what I can to ensure our projects are going well and staffed properly. I am responsible for schedules, budgets, general studio functions, and personnel issues. I spend a lot of time reading and answering mail, going to meetings, making the rounds to see how everyone is doing, and give Dave B a clinic in Ping Pong. I don't really produce anything; I'm purely overhead.

What type of pre-Volition experience did you have? How did you come to be at Volition?

Before joining Volition, I was a Development Director at Electronic Arts in Seattle, where I worked on FIFA 98 and World Cup 98, among other projects. I learned a lot at EA and I worked with some great people, but it was definitely time for me to move on. Besides, Seattle was really getting to me. Housing prices were increasing at an astronomical rate, traffic was horrible, and I never saw the sun. No joke. I moved here last June and my friends in Seattle weren't please to report 90 consecutive days of rain last winter.

Once my wife and I decided to move, it was just a matter of deciding where to go. Actually, the very first place I thought about contacting was Volition. I have family in Illinois, so that was appealing, but Volition's and Parallax's history of developing industry-leading games made this place extremely desirable.

What do you think is your favorite game?

Tough call. I have a very strange taste in games, too. I like sports games and I was a huge soccer player as a kid, so FIFA has gotta be on the list. Working on it was pretty good, though I actually spent a lot of time at EA playing NBA Live (Tim Hardaway was unstoppable in 98). Some one-man outfit in Scotland put out a soccer manager game called One-Nil. I'm sure I put in more hours playing that game than any other. Of course, no game list would be complete without DeathTank, the ultimate Sega Saturn multiplayer game. It was built by a couple of programmers at Lobotomy and was never really shipped.

What do you think is the worst game you've ever played?

"I Never", but that is another story.

What's your favorite ship in FS1? How about FS2?

I like the Ulysses in FS1.

I'm still undecided in FS2. I like some of the bombers, actually. The Cyclops is a pretty sweet weapon to be toting around.

OK OK, I've heard a rumor that the pizza in Champaign is the best in the world, care to comment on that?

Well, Papa Dell's is the place to go for 2 inch high Chicago style pizza. It is pretty fine. There's a joint in town that does an upside down pizza that is pretty novel. Is it the best in the world? Maybe not, but you won't find a finer apple cider donut anywhere else in the world that at Curtis Orchard. And then there is the Seaboat... mmm.

I've also heard that Jim Boone is the best FS2 player around the office. Who do YOU think is the best player around the office? How 'bout pool.. Who's the man when it comes to playing pool?

Jim's all right, but I think the guys let him win a lot. I mean, the guy is living in a hotel. You gotta give him something. Seriously? Yeah, Jim can give anyone a sweet tooling.

Pool is another matter. Sandeep is the Gary Payton of pool. He talks non-stop trash, but doesn't have the goods to get the ring. GeO is as serious as a heart attack when he is playing, and he has this Brooklyn thug thing going. I think he wins most of his games on intimidation. Schroeder is pretty good, but what is he not good at? Kulas shoots well, but there is always a nagging question in the back of your head: "Do I really want to beat the boss?" I guess I don't have an answer for you. Once we ship FS2, we'll probably line up a pool tournament. Maybe Nate can update a Tourney tree on the web.

I've also heard another rumor (we hear a lot, apparently). Is it true that in a previous life you were a famous blues musician?

You know, before I thought about moving out of Washington, I bought my grandmother's 78 Cadillac Eldorado. She lives in Southern Illinois. My plan was to pick up the car and head south, to Memphis first, to check out Beale Street, Sun Studio, and Graceland. Then, I was gonna take a slow tour down Highway 61 through the Mississippi Delta to find the Crossroads.

Well, I didn't make the trip. I did buy the car, but instead of going south, I went north to Champaign to interview for this job. Good thing, too, cuz you never know what you'll find at the Crossroads.

What is the hardest part of your job and why do you think this is so?

Tough question. I really like my job and I enjoy just about everything I do here. Sometimes personnel issues are a little sticky. Budgeting and scheduling is pretty hard. How can you plan how long it will take and how much it will cost to build fun? When you build a new game, creating the gameplay experience that people will crave isn't like specing out how some button on an interface screen is going to work. Sometimes it takes a long time to realize and implement that core game experience. Building a schedule and budget around that is pretty worrisome.

Where do you think the 'Space Sim' genre is headed as a whole? Do you think it will start to sway more towards being as realistic as possible or stay how it is with some realism, but usually choosing fun over what would be more realistic? Do you think it should be called something other than 'Space Sim' since its not actually a true-to-life simulator? :)

When I was a kid, I saw Star Wars about 50 times in the theater. After every show, I would go home and pretend I was Luke or Han and act out parts of the movie. I recreated the experience in my imagination. To me, Space Sim games are all about creating that same kind of experience, getting lost in the moment, absorbed in the action and the story. Making our games more realistic is all in an effort to engross the player in the most vivid experience, not to overwhelm them with the banality of a simulated reality. Some games suffer from "the most realistic physics" or "the most realistic flight control systems". I'm not a fighter pilot. I don't have years of training on how to fly combat air or spacecraft. I'm just a guy that wants to fly cool ships around and blow stuff up. All of the features and enhancements we have added to the game are all about creating a more immersive experience for gamers so they feel like they are really in a believable world while having a blast flying around blowing stuff up.

The development team of FreeSpace 2 is relatively small compared to say the teams over at Origin and Lucas Arts. What are the advantages to having a smaller team? Does each team member get a fair amount of input into the game, or are the shots called by the top man?

One of the coolest things about Volition is the degree to which everyone has a say in what we do. This is a tremendously collaborative company where ideas are judged on their merit and not on how high up the ladder you happen to be standing. I think the guys on the team have enjoyed the fact that their input matters.

It is a lot easier to coordinate with a smaller group of people. Is it easier to figure out where to go eat lunch with 4 people or 10 people? Yet, you do need to have enough people to get all the work done. We have tried to strike the right balance between all the benefits of a small team and the sheer man power of a bigger team.

At the end of the day, we need to be profitable. We can stick 100 people on the game and have plenty of managers do all the coordination and run all the meetings, but we would make on dime. If we don't make any money, we don't get to make more cool games.

The all encompassing and most important question of any interview: Anything else you would like to add?

I am just really happy with Freespace 2. The team has worked really hard and has done great work. I think it was Jim McCarthy who said you can see the team in the software, that the software is the team.

The game is really good and I can't wait for all of you to get your hands on it.

I'd like to thank Philip for his time again, and I you guys enjoyed this. Look forward for more interviews in the future, we already have a couple more lined up! Whee!