While I never really got into the first Tribes game I was a big fan of Tribes 2 despite all of the bugs and flaws. It was my first experience with a huge multiplayer FPS game that didn’t involve me killing everyone I saw. When I had a chance to check out Tribes: Vengeance at E3 I was pretty impressed with the working beta on the floor and I had a chance to meet Ben Lee, one of the art directors at Irrational who was working on the game. Ben was kind enough to answer a few questions about his background and about the upcoming game.


GamingNexus: What’s your role on the Tribes team?

Ben Lee: I am the art director. On Tribes I also did all the concept art, storyboarded and directed the cutscenes.

GamingNexus: Can you tell us a little about your background?

Ben Lee: I come from a 2d animation background , which I moved from into directing 3d animation , then came to Irrational.

GamingNexus: How did you get into the gaming business?

Ben Lee: I actually emailed someone I had previously worked with , who was at Irrational , asking to beta test Freedom Force.. Long story short, I ended up art directing it.

GamingNexus What are your artistic influences?

Ben Lee: Wide and varied. Comic art had a big influence on me in early times, but now it`s more or less anything :)

GamingNexus Did you play any of the previous games?

Ben Lee: I didn`t play them when they were released, but we played a great deal of both Tribes games when we were in pre-production (several months.)

GamingNexus What new features can gamers can look forward to in the new game?

Ben Lee: From an art point of view, everything is new! Game-wise, jetpacking is quite a different experience compared to older tribes games.. The vehicles are different , we have all kinds of cool new weapons like the grappler and the buckler that are totally different though any from Tribes , but most of all , you get a huge , involved , story based single player experience as well as the multiplayer game you would expect....