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GS: So once you guys decided what you wanted the characters to be, did you then start to flush out the differences and the looks of the characters? Or, are you guys basically sketching all the characters first and then saying, "Well, I think this character looks like it should be a barbarian"?

Phil: We named them first, or we came up with the classifications - the names first, the types first. In fact, we design as we go along. The Amazon was the first one to be designed and flushed out, sketched and modeled and animated. And the Paladin was the second one and so forth.

GS: So what characters are you still working on flushing out right now?

Phil: We're currently working on the Sorceress - she's just been started. She's fully designed, and we're into the modeling and animation phase. I'll be starting on the Necromancer within the next couple weeks. A lot of his design is done. And the Barbarian is still in a pretty early stage right now. We have some preliminary sketches.

The process of how we design the characters is kind of interesting. It usually starts with all the artists getting together and brainstorming, maybe some of us have done some sketches, and we look at the good points and the bad points of each one. Then we sort of pick and choose what we think would be appropriate for the character we're working on, and the artist who's going to be actually working on the character takes those ideas and those sketches and goes off and puts them together into a more comprehensive design. Then we get back together and look at them again and critique them some more. From there, we come up with the final design, and then we start modeling and animating it.

GS: Does that basically mean one artist is in charge of one character?

Phil: Yeah. From the point of when it's designed, the actual modeling and animation and texturing is the province of a single artist. Everybody pretty much has a say in the design of it. And then at some point in the process, one artist pretty much takes over and anybody is free to say anything about the progress of that character at any time. But the responsibility falls to one artist.