There is a good bit in here for Adeptus Titanicus, but I find some of the background of how these games come to light some of the best highlights. This is definitely a very nice read, and worth your time today.
via the Ask Me Anything Line..... I posted some of what I thought the more interesting sections, but there is a lot more there.
I'm James M Hewitt, freelance tabletop games designer (formerly of Games Workshop and Mantic Games). You might know me from Silver Tower, Gorechosen, Betrayal at Calth, Blood Bowl, Necromunda or DreadBall. G'wan, Ask Me Anything!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer/comments/7k1tp0/im_james_m_hewitt_freelance_tabletop_games/
I’m tabletop games designer James M Hewitt (the M is silent, but it means google doesn’t get confused.
It really is me, honest. It's not like I'm famous enough for anyone to pretend to be me, of course! (If you want proper proof, here's me on Twitter saying that I'm doing this.
So... who am I, again?
I was part of Games Workshop’s rules team for two and a half years, at a really interesting time when they were starting to produce original self-contained games again. That meant that, as well as helping out with the development of Age of Sigmar and writing several codexes for Warhammer 40,000, I got to design the rules for The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth, Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower and Gorechosen. Then I left the team to be part of the new Specialist Games team (technically “Specialist Brands”, but no one ever called it that) as their game designer. I was responsible for the rules work on Blood Bowl, Necromunda and the coming-out-at-some-point-in-the-near-future-honest Adeptus Titanicus.
Before GW, I also worked on DreadBall for Mantic Games, and spent a year as their Community Manager – I made YouTube videos, ran their social media accounts and did various other bits and bobs for them. Before that I was in GW retail for about a decade, running a couple of stores and working in a few more. I also spent a couple of years as a local government benefits assessor, and several months as part of a touring comedy show, but I'm mainly expecting questions about the relevant bits of my life.
Back in July I left Games Workshop to pursue a long-time dream: having my own games company. Needy Cat Games is still in its infancy – so far I’ve been offering rules consultancy and freelance design work to existing companies, and it's been going well – but I’m hoping to get working on my own designs before too long.
So, yeah – Ask Me Anything about games design, working as part of a rules team, the wonders of the GW staff restaurant, getting started in the industry, Rampart, designing rules within strict parameters, revitalising classic games in a way that only leads to death threats from around 15% of the fanbase, how much I really don’t miss working in retail this close to Christmas… anything at all!
I’ll start answering questions at 8pm GMT. Maybe people will have made it to the end of this very rambly intro before then.
You can find Needy Cat Games on Twitter or Facebook, or if you’re more interested in me going on about parenting, board games and how kids these days play their music too damn loud, I’m here.
Looking forward to what you've got to ask!
