Space Marine Developer Interview 2: Morten Haugaard

So it's been a very busy and very hectic last few weeks with my impending move across the country looming overhead, but I have here for your reading enjoyment the second interview I managed to acquire at this years Games Day Chicago convention.  I had the pleasure of talking to Morten Haugaard, THQ's Global Brand Manager for the Warhammer 40,000 license and a very cool dude to boot.



TVW: So who are you and what do you do?!

Morten: I'm Mort Haugaard, the Global Brand Manager for THQ working on the Warhammer 40,000 titles we've got.

TVW: So you're the liaison from THQ to Games Workshop?

He's so ready.  Come at him, bro!

Morten:  Yeah, I work between THQ and Games Workshop to come up with some of the great art that you see for our packaging and our online stuff and also making stuff like this awesome Chainsword that you see here.  We work with them to actually replicate this and bring the in-game model to life.

TVW: THQ and Games Workshop seem to give a lot of creative freedom to Relic.  They stay true to the IP but also let them try new things like Space Marine, which is a bit of an untested field for Relic.  How do you feel that it's turned out?

Morten: I mean, I'm a 40k gamer myself; I've got an Imperial Guard army and a metal Grey Knights army, so I've been playing for a bit.  Relic really understands the IP.  They understand what makes it cool, what really works, and so we are trying to bring the 40k universe out to people who may not have normally had experience with it.  So getting it in front of the Gears of War guy or the God of War guy, people who see a space marine and think "Gears did it first."  So we are really trying to get it out to a wider audience and get people loving what we all love.

TVW: With Space Marine coming so close to the Gears of War launch, there has been a lot of talk about the comparison.  Having played the demo, I can definitely say that it's definitely not Gears of War and that they aren't really similar.  Nonetheless, are you worried about the closeness of the release date?

Morten:  Gears of War is going to be a great game, let's not lie.  But we think Space Marine has it's own unique position.  We've got some great stuff going on - I'm not sure if you got a chance to play the jump pack level (I did!) where you get to take control of an Assault Marine, but it's really great.  You get to fly around and do this awesome ground pound into a group of Orks or other enemies and you just really get to wreck things as a Space Marine.  You really get that feel of being the seven foot tall bio-engineered super soldier with all the extra organs and everything else.  You really get the feel of what it means to be a space marine in this universe.

Morten Hauugard
THQ Global Brand Manager
 for Warhammer 40,000

TVW:  As a 40k player yourself, was there one weapon that you really wanted to be in the game but design might not have allowed for it, Orks or otherwise?


Morten:  I don't know, we've got a pretty good selection of weapons in the game:  we've got melta guns, stalker-pattern bolters, plasma cannons, las-cannons, plasma guns, plasma pistols, thunder hammers, power swords, chain axes, demon mauls.  We've got pretty much all the weapons you can think of in the codex's in the game, so I think we've done a good job.  So I can't come up with a weapon.  As a Grey Knights guy, it would've been great to have a Force Halberd or something like that, but that doesn't fit with Ultramarines.  If you're a Space Marine player, we're going to have the weapons your used to.

TVW:  Would you like to see models for those put in for the multiplayer?

Morten:  We're still looking at what we're doing after the game ships, I can't promise anything.  But we do have a very robust customizer that lets you create your own space marine chapters and customize the colors, and then on the Chaos side also customize the armor.  You can really make your guy in multiplayer your own representation of a space marine.




Thanks for much for talking to me Mort!  It was a blast, and the game looks like it's going to be the best action game of the year in this humble bloggers opinion.  If you are interested in playing Space Marine, the DEMO is finally coming out on August 23rd for PC and Xbox 360 and the 24th for PS3.  If you are a smart cookie and pre-ordered through Steam, this coming Thursday, August 18th, you will be able to get early access to the demo through the weekend!

Space Marine releases September 6th for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. You can pre-order from any major retailer including Steam and THQ.com . You can also grab the amazingly cool Collector's Edition only at THQ.com! I got to man handle the Purity Seal that comes with the collectors, it's really quite high quality. If there's one game this fall that won't disappoint, it's Space Marine!