What does your name mean and how did you get it?

Pretty sure “Boswick” is derived from a Turkic word that roughly means, “look at that cool dude on a horse”. I got it because it sounded funny and I like making knights that have funny names.

Are you a women or a man? (I'm too lazy to check)

Yeah.

How, when and why did you take up art?

I was always an artistic kid growing up, constantly drawing and sketching everywhere, and so that was where my future aspirations tended to be funneled. While in high school though, while perusing the forums for the now-defunct Troika Games, I saw one of their developers say something to the effect that a college education wasn’t necessary to make game art. This was a bewildering, life-changing moment, as I always assumed that game development was the domain of wizards and geniuses, and frankly didn't know how I would fare in college, burnt out on school as I was. In any case, I contacted the developer, got a small bit of advice, and that was really all I needed to hear. I spent several years learning the craft through online resources, built a portfolio, accrued some experience via amateur game modification, and here I am.

Was becoming an artist difficult?

Was it difficult? Sure; it took me several years to get to a point where I thought anybody would pay me for it. Going a self-taught route certainly requires a lot of persistence as well!

How did you end up working for Spiral Knights?

I moved out here, to San Francisco, to work on it! Nick contacted me back in 2008, having liked some of the mod work I’d done for Neverwinter Nights. I went through the interview process, did an art test, and BAM, here I am. It's the only Three Rings project I've worked on, and my only professional, accredited game.

Why do you think everyone 'blames Boswick'? How does this odd humor effect you?

I think everyone blames me because all bugs and mistakes are attributable to me. It affects me by making me cry.

What inspirations helped create the designs of the many depths?

When starting a new environment, one of my go-to resources for inspiration is old, sprite-based videogame levels, actually. Due to technical limitations, good environment art had to be iconic and chunky so that players knew what they were looking at.

It makes for a strong basis for art-direction regardless of technical sophistication, but works doubly well for us, since we’re going for a candidly “gamey” aesthetic, rather than striving for realism.

What would you change about your co-workers?

I would make them all Chromalisks. In party hats.

What's the general creation process like for you? How do you coordinate your works with the rest of the dev team?

My role on the team is a little unique in that I don’t do a lot of conception-level stuff myself. Instead, our designers typically will come up with a new level idea, and early in that process, it’s decided what kind of new art it would require. Before I start producing any work, I press the designers involved for any bits of history and lore concerning the place we’re creating, as I find that’s most informative in making environment art. If I know who made this place, and why they made it, I can run with that and create environments that hopefully feel cohesive.

Sometimes, especially when it’s something like the Beast Bell (as seen in the Wildwoods) or Gremlin bunkers (seen in Crimson Hammer) that has gameplay impact, I’ll try to get a functioning prototype running ASAP, but otherwise, I just notify the designers when new art comes online and they plug it into their levels accordingly.

Which piece of work are you particularly proud of? and What is your favorite piece of work specific to Spiral Knights?

It’s not a single piece of work, but in creating the tilesets that comprise all of the world’s levels, one of my foremost goals was to establish visual language so that players could understand, at a glance, how the playspace is divided up. That is, players should never be wondering, “can I walk there?” or “is this a wall?”

In most cases, this means that a tileset is sort of color-coded. In a standard Clockworks level, for instance, the orange brass color means “this space is impassable”, and whenever you see that color in a Clockworks level, it probably means you’ll have to walk around it.

Other than that, I really like how the Tortodrone turned out, both in behavior and visuals. I can’t wait until you guys get to fight him again.

Which is your favorite tile?

The one where, if you zoom in and magnify times 10, you can see some small text that reads, “Marty was here”.

When is Boswick day?

July 6th.