Today we have the distinct pleasure of speaking with Chip Bumgardner, one of computer gaming’s highest ranking Executive Producers. Chip currently works for Mattel in Los Angeles where he heads a hard working team of software designers producing many of Mattel’s most successful software titles. Having started his career with yours truly at Interplay as a phone tech, Chip steadily climbed the ranks of computer gaming working with companies such as Activision, Crave, Gratuitous Games, and Planetwide Games. His dedication and ability to produce quality gaming titles under incredibly tight deadlines while maintaining a sense of fun in keeping with the spirit of gaming has earned Chip the trust and admiration of his peers and of those who work for him. So let’s take a few minutes and talk to Chip, try to get inside that shaved head of his and see what he has to say.
SLS: Thanks Chipper for giving us some time out of your busy day of surfing MySpace… errrrr… I mean working REALLY hard. I’ve known you since *stammers* ummmm, the mid 80’s, ever since you had really long hair, wore eye liner, and rocked out in a band which can now be seen on MySpace at www.myspace.com/eroction.
Dude, you’ve come a long way, props. Give us a quick breakdown of what it is you do as an Executive Producer.
CB: Wow, now THAT is an introduction. I’m taking you with me when I buy my next car. While it is true that I have been on more than one occasion, the Executive Producer, I am currently a Producer. Mattel works a little differently than a typical company that is devoted solely to Video Games. Here at Mattel, I get my hands in all kinds of stuff that I would never even dream to have been able to do in the Video Game world. I get to work on movies, toys, board games, new IP, and obviously… Video Games.
That being said, my daily responsibility is to get numerous titles out the door on time and within the constraints of my budget. Fortunately, I’ve been doing this for a LONG time and I can say with pride that I get 92% of my projects done early and under budget. This entails working with ALL facets of game development including: Marketing, Licensing, PR, Quality Assurance, Sales, etc… Basically, I touch everything! Yeah, you heard that right… I touch EVERYTHING!
SLS: For the most part we all love gaming, and would love to get the inside scoop on how these things go from imagination to reality. How do games get picked? Who decides what we see on the store shelves? I’ve got an idea for a game, who do I talk to about it?
CB: It’s not as easy as “who do I talk to” anymore. WAAAAAAY back in the old days (10 years ago), games were made based on whatever the team thought would be a good game. Nowadays, everything is a sequel or a licensed product (for the most part).
Everybody has an idea for a game, but not all ideas are useable or even feasible depending on the platform that the game will be released on. Most people don’t even think about the important details when they come up with an idea… Here’s an example:
Random Person: DUDE! I’ve got a GREAT idea for a game!
Me: Awesome! What is it?
Random Person: It’s a shooting game!
Me: About what?
Random Person: This guy has a brother that is a spy, somehow somebody kidnaps his brother and then the guy has to go get him back!
Me: What environments would the player visit?
Random Person: Huh?
Me: Where would all of the fighting take place? What weapons would be attainable? How much damage does each of the weapons do? What type of feedback will the player get via the controller? Will there be FMV’s or Static Info Screens?
Random Person: Wow, I have no idea…
Me: Well then, that’s not a very good idea!
There is a MASSIVE difference between writing a back-story and designing a game. EVERYBODY that I meet thinks they can design a game, until they try to do it. It’s not as easy as you might think.
Here is another situation that I encounter A LOT!
Random Person: You make Video Games? AWESOME! I would LOVE that job! Sitting around and playing games is the BEST!
Me: Wow, I wish I actually got to play games for a job too.
Random Person: You don’t get to play games? I thought that’s ALL that you do!
Me: No, that would be QA. They have an extremely difficult job.
Random Person: Yeah, that’s it, can you get me a job?
Me: Are you sure about that? Think about this… Imagine the WORST game you’ve ever played. Now imagine yourself playing ONLY that game, the worst parts, for 12 – 16 hours a day for 8 months. You still want that job?
Random Person: Wow, that SUCKS, no.
SLS: You made me slam some God awful shot at Dave and Busters one night, what the hell was that thing called, kerosene?
CB: HAHAHAH! No, that was called a “Lethal Weapon”… They taste like ass, but get the job done. You were much prettier to me shortly after that shot.
SLS: At a recent E3 your booth for RYL was chocked full of near-naked hotness, causing an uproar in E3’s management and sparking a new rule that if there were any such booths with models that scantily clad at any future events the booth would be shut down. Do you take full responsibility for this? And if so… *high five*!
CB: I am VERY proud of the fact that my little company caused so much strife! We did indeed hire a LOT of girls for the show; in fact, we had 16 girls in a 20x20 foot booth! They were dressed in less clothing than we should have, but hey, we got attention! The E3 Board of Directors threatened on numerous occasions to shut down our booth and ban us from the convention forever. We just laughed and asked them to wear less… Fortunately, E3 has changed format this year and isn’t as large of a spectacle as it once was.
SLS: Dude, I got to meet Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell while they promoted RYL for you. You rock! Are there any other people of note that you’ll be working with on future projects?
CB: That’s always a possibility. At Mattel, we have a TON of our own Intellectual Property, so I don’t have to bring other people into the project.
The Boris and Julie thing was AWESOME! We sent our Art Director out to Boris’ studio for 6 days. He had the time of his life!
Here’s a fun fact: The Male Human character on the RYL box, is actually Boris’ son! And the painting is dead-on.
SLS: Ok, something a little more serious and personal, you’ll be getting married soon to a VERY lovely and sweet girl whom you met on line. In Second Life there is a lot of that too, with people moving quite some distance to be with their bf’s or gf’s. Was there any apprehension in meeting her? How’d you make it work going from the theoretical and imagined to the reality of marriage?
CB: I’m actually going to answer this one a little differently. I’m going to answer this question by copying a couple blogs that Kelly wrote about the proposal. I hope you all have just as much fun reading her writing… The writing in GREEN is all from Kelly…
Before I get to that, I have to preface her story with the story of how we met, and then I’ll let Kelly swing for the bleachers with her stories.
How we met:
I had just started my job here at Mattel. In actuality, I had worked a total of four days for Mattel. We get out of work at 1:00 on Fridays. I was RUSHING home to lead an Instance with my guild in World of Warcraft. As soon as I got home, I checked MySpace to see if there was any love for me and I had received a single message from a girl named Kelly. It basically was a message to let me know that not all women are whores and to not give up the search for the right girl. We had our first date at BJ’s (I picked the place because I thought she didn’t get the joke), our first kiss was at Dave N Busters, and here we are 1.5 years later making wedding plans.
***As a side note, if you ever receive a message on MySpace from a chick that says “you have a nice mouth, can I sit on it?” run… RUN for the hills… Just trust me…
Anyway, on to the blogs that Kelly posted…
First up, a story about the proposal…
(sappy, lovey stuff warning)
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So, I'm finally getting the opportunity to blog all of Chip proposing story as well as some of the details of our trip to England!
From the time we started to plan this vacation, Chip repeatedly told me that this trip was all about me. Every time he told me this I would tell him that this was a vacation for both of us. Of course, he would continue to insist that it was all about me and who am I to argue with him, right?
Some back story here; we saw V for Vendetta on IMAX when it came out in theatres last year. We both loved the movie so much and it was fun for me to see Chip experience his first IMAX movie. For those who haven't seen this movie, it's centered around the 5th of November which is Guy Fawkes Day in England. Back in the 1600's, Guy Fawkes planned on blowing up Parliament on the 5th of November, but his plan was foiled hours before it was carried out. Since then, the 5th of November (or Bonfire Night) is celebrated every year. Our trip to England was planned specifically to include the 5th of November so we could experience Bonfire Night in England.
So we jump on an airplane from LAX to Chicago then off to England it is!!! We land at Manchester and make our way to our hotel to get some much needed sleep. When we wake up we grab a taxi and head to The Old Mill to have a couple of drinks and to grab a snack. The building used to be an old corn mill built in 1912. After it shut down they turned it into this quaint little pub. We order Cider and Beer and grab a table in the non-smoking section. The inside of this place was just incredible! Chip orders us a ham and mature cheddar cheese baguette which was PHENOMINAL!!! I'm not a big cheese person, so me loving this cheese is like Speedy Gonzales taking on a love for cats.
When we finished eating we decided to walk back to the hotel since it was only about a 1/2 mile. While we are walking Chip was pointing out the Sherwood Forest which was just breathtaking to see. The trees were so lush and the ivy grew up the trunks of the trees all the way to the tippy tops. Just the most incredible sight to see. We return to the hotel, go out again to absorb the awesome pub culture of England and return to our hotel for the night.
It's Saturday and we head in to Dewsbury to see the Piece Mall. Apparently it's a place where merchants would come and trade textiles when that industry was flourishing in that area hundreds of years ago. We walk around town and take in the sights. The buildings are just beautiful. We do some shopping and Chip picks me up a very cool viking hat!
We continue to shop and go into one store where there was this super cool wooden throne that had demon heads and dragons carved into it. It was all good until the man the owned the shop, dressed in a leather kilt with a blue beard starts to tell Chip about how his dead mother told him he would have a number one record before Christmas and is inquiring if Chip can help him achieve this. Chip grabs me for a speedy exit before this man can lick his soul. We finish shopping around and return to our hotel.
We decide to head into Mirfield to part-take in the Bonfire celebration. We see about 8,000 people and the most enormous bonfire ever! We couldn't believe it because fires like that here at home usually have a team of firefighters putting it out!!! Incredible!! The ground is super muddy so we head to the fire station across the street for pie and peas only to be told that they ran out right when we reach the front of the line. BOO! Oh well, better luck tomorrow?
It's about 1:00 am when we return to the hotel. We get back in our room and Chip says, "Hey! Let's go take a walk in the Sherwood Forest!" Of course, I'm game so off we go to frolick in the freezing midnight air. We take our short jaunt across the street and up a dirt road into the forest. We start to think this road may actually lead to someones home and consider heading back. I start to turn to head back when...
Chip-Baby...I just love you so much...
Me-I love you too baby!
C-I just...I don't want a day to go by that you aren't in my life...(then he starts to get down on one knee...I'm smart so I figured out very quickly what was coming next)
K- (jumping up and down) OH MY GOD!!!! What are you doing? OH MY GOD!!!
C- (on one knee, holding a Tiffany's box in his hand he extends it to me) Will you marry me?
K- (crying and jumping up and down) YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!
So he gets up and I open the box. It's a beautiful Tiffany's silver heart necklace to match the bracelet he bought for me in September!!! I just love it!
C-I wanted you to have the ring that YOU want, so we can shop for a diamond when we get home and then have our rings custom made!
K-(still crying) Okay!
We exchange lots of I love you's and hugs and kisses; then I look at him and shake my head, nearly speechless.
C-What is it baby?
K-I..uh...you...uh...I...um...you...you...you're wearing the viking hat!
Yes, my friends! My man proposed to me in the Sherwood Forest at 1:31am on the fifth of November wearing a viking hat!!!
Needless to say, all the pieces fell into place for me and with Chip's help I realized that he had been planning this for months!
I have to say that I am the luckiest girl in the entire world/universe/galaxy! I am so excited about what the future has to hold for us and I can't imagine nor see my life without Chip in it.
Chip, you are just the most amazing human being I have ever known. You have shown me what is it to be loved completely and without condition. Your enormous heart and your compassionate spirit coupled with your sense of humor and giving nature make me so very proud and I am honored to be your wife. I love you with every fiber of my being and take comfort in knowing that we will spend the remainder of our lives together. I love you more today than yesterday but not as much as tomorrow.
...I'll have to write England Part II and post it later! Gotta run folks!! Chipster and I are off onto another adventure! Cheers mate!
Okay, so, we went ring shopping today!!! We get to the jewelers and walk in and were greeted promptly by two different people before being introduced to Christine who helped up pick a ring. She went through the formalities of walking us through the store and showing us the lounge, etc. Then asked if we knew what we were looking for. Well, I knew that I wanted either a white gold, palladium or platinum setting. I really wanted platinum, but wasn't sure if it was going to be reasonable or not. I wanted something that would be timeless, that I would look at in 20 years and love just as much then as I would today, if not more so.
So, she promptly shows us the palladium settings. Meh. Nothing spectacular. Pretty rings, don't get me wrong, but nothing that just jumped out at either one of us.
So, we continue to look through the cases. We find a really pretty square shaped diamond in a palladium setting, with a triangle shaped diamond on each side. Really pretty. So, we hang on to it and continue to browse. Then we come across another ring with a square shaped diamond in the middle, the sides had diamond shaped diamonds (3 on each side) but the metal was not solid, around the diamonds you could see through right to the skin. Very unique and a pretty ring as well. Hmmm....it's unique. Timeless? Not so much, but unique no doubt.
So, we continue to look. Chip stops dead in his tracks and says, "That one. Can we look at that one?" She pulls the ring out and I put it on and it's a PERFECT fit. BEAUTIFUL ring. Platinum setting in what's called an "eternity" band because the diamonds go all around the band. The diamonds are sunk into the band so that they are flush with it. The center stone stands in a 4-prong setting. WOW!!! We both look at it and think, "this is it...this is the one." To be sure, we look half-heartedly at the other rings. We do find an INCREDIBLE men's platinum wedding band that just looked SPECTACULAR on Chipper.
After half-heartedly looking at other rings for a second, I look at Chip and say, "I really like this ring. This is the one." He smiles his beautiful beaming smile that just makes me soar every time I see it, and says, "Well, okay then. That's it."
Christine proceeds to take us back to her station to show us center stones to choose from. We got to look at them under a microscope and everything. It was pretty cool. Really neat to see a diamond up close to see the inclusions and stuff that you wouldn't normally see with a naked eye. Neat-o. We look at 4 separate stones, reduce it to two. We look at them for a couple of minutes (I've been known to be fairly indecisive on rare occasions meaning all the time). Christine says, "so, which one do you like?" Simultaneously, we say, "THAT ONE!" Yipee!!! The deed is done! We've picked the perfect setting and the perfect diamond! Much to our surprise, she let's us know it will be ready in 2 hours! BUT, it doesn't end there...
Chip says to me, "Well, we'll go eat lunch. Then, we'll come back and pick up the ring. But I've got a plan. So...You don't get the ring right away." WHAT!?!?!?! Not right away!??!!??!..../DEEP sigh......."okay..." Looks like I don't have a choice.
So, we go eat lunch at King's Fish House at Laguna Hills Mall. YUMMY!! One of our favorite restaurants. The other being Taiko of course. While we're eating the conversation goes like this:
C-So....
K-*thinking* He's changed his mind! He'll let me have it right away!
C-Do you think you can wait until Wednesday? (it’s currently Saturday) I have a plan you know...
K-*pouty face* (for those who don't know, my pouty face rules)
C-*laughs* What? You can't wait until Wednesday?
K-*sighs w/pouty face* Doesn't sound like I have a choice...
C-*smiles and chuckles* No...no you don't...
We finish up our meal and settle the check. We head over to Macy's to pick up some cologne for the both of us. MMMMmmmm. We smell good now!! Showers aren't needed anymore when you have awesome cologne! We finish up and it's time.
We hop in the car and head down to get the ring. Now, let me just say that I can't stop thinking about it and am contemplating how the hell I am going to get through the next 4 days KNOWING he has the ring. I have no idea. So, I resolve myself to the fact that I'm not getting my ring for at least a week, possibly even longer. Well, I can't complain. I'm engaged to the most incredible man and at the end of the day, that's what matters.
So, we arrive and pick up the ring. At this juncture I'm not even allowed to touch it! In fact, I was lucky he even let me back into the store with him to pick it up! He is having waaaayyyyy to much fun torturing me with this. We grab it up and finish paperwork and head out. He puts the back in the trunk. Foo-ey. No ring for me...
Rewind to yesterday, we had planned on seeing the new 300 movie. So, we head to the Spectrum to see if there are even tickets availalbe (fandango was sold out). After stopping to get some Le Citron chocolates from Cuaco (spelling? not sure..), we start walking towards the theaters. We start to pass by Dave & Buster's and decide, "Hey! Let's grab a quick drink!" We walk in and don't see our favorite bartenders and start to walk towards the gaming room, but then decide to sit at the bar near the restaurant instead. We walk up and sit down, then ponder what we should drink. It's a vodka red-bull kind of day so we order two. I notice that we are sitting in the very two chairs that we were sitting in when Chip kissed me for the first time! /sigh.
I excuse myself to go use the little girls room and I take my dope-ass bee purse with me because a girl just never knows when she's going to need to go into her dope-ass bee purse. I return back into my chair and then my phone rings. It's one of my best-friends, Heather. She's awesome. I love her to pieces. She's screaming because she know's we picked up a ring! She's so excited for us! I tell her he's making me wait and she starts to LAUGH! LAUGH! Can you believe it? Ugh.... So, Chip talks to her a bit about the ring and then about the movie we're all trying to coordinate seeing. He hands the phone back to me. Then the following conversation ensues while I am still on the phone with Heather:
C-OH NO!!! DO YOU HAVE MY WALLET?!?!?
K-No. You don't have it?
C-The last time I had it was at the chocolate place.
K-*look of confusion* (mind you, I'm still on the phone with Heather). *look around as if his wallet is going to just appear to me out of thin air*
I turn around and look at Chip and there he is. Holding the ring in his hand with an enormous smile on his face. I start to cry immediately as he slides this GORGEOUS ring on my finger! I can't believe it! He winks at me and says, "I told you... I had a plan".
So there you have it my friends! He gave me my engagement ring in the very spot, the EXACT spot in fact, that he first kissed me! /sigh.......
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(end sappy, lovey stuff)
SLS: Now I know you’re a MMORPG enthusiast and I once showed you Second Life but it never really caught on with you. What was the appeal or lack there of for you in Second Life?
CB: It’s odd really, well not so much I guess… From what I saw and you explained about that game, I was absolutely interested. Unfortunately, I get TOTALLY into the games that I play and don’t have room for more than one or four at a time. I was nut-deep in WoW at the time (VIVA! LA TERRORISMO!!!).
Playing MMO’s is a whole new ballgame for most people and companies. What most people fail to realize is that playing an MMO isn’t about the money that you spend to play, it’s the time invested in doing so. It’s not about being about to afford the game you’re playing, but can you afford the time.
SLS: Can you give us a hint or a teaser of something that you’ll be bringing out soon? We’ll happily feature it here for you if you’d like to share.
CB: Everything that I’m working on is currently un-announced. It’s pretty safe to guess that there will be Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Uno games coming out though. ;)
SLS: Internet imagery has shown you to have equestrian DNA. Would you like to elaborate on that?
CB: It is true, I am 100% Horse from the waist down and the knees up… Weird.
SLS: It’s true you work long hours often seven days a week, but you also know how to have a good time when the pressure is off. So what are some of your favorite things you like to do? Descent? And no, there’s no need to mention how I’d slap you down with the mega bombs. Are you still leading Magic the Gathering Tourneys? I think your new fav is an RPG called Descent, tell us about that?
CB: HA!!! I had forgotten how much fun we used to have playing games on “chipnet”… remember that? I guess there’s something for YOU to expand upon for your readers.
I currently host a gamenight at my place on Thursday nights. We’ve been playing “Descent: Journeys in the Dark” and the two expansions that were released for it. It’s a GREAT game that plays a lot like HeroQuest. You remember HeroQuest don’t ya? We used to play that game a LOT back in the day (back when I had long hair and wore eyeliner)…
I still play Magic Online every single day. Feel free to send me a game invite! My name on there is UncleSlappy. I still love everything about the game of Magic and could talk about it for a lifetime, but I think I’ll just stop now.
As far as “normal” stuff goes, you can always catch me in Newport or Balboa either riding a tandem bike with my fiancée, or riding a couple of those longboard skateboards.
SLS: Alright my friend, I want to thank you for your time and for sharing with us a bit of your brain and what it’s like to be a Producer for Mattel. Please feel free to share with us any information regarding upcoming events or titles that you’re working on or where we can see your booth on display next. I’d love to stop by and harass you sometime.
CB: Anytime my friend. I expect you to be there for next weeks gamenight… Maybe you can post an update of your experience getting beaten down by the evil overlord Chip!
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