Ian Frazier (Tiberius Moongazer) has been so kind to talk with The Ultima Codex about Ultima V: Lazarus, game design, and the difficulties in producing a large-scale fan project. 

Ian Frazier started his career in video game design as the founder and project director for the major Ultima fan-project, Ultima V: Lazarus, while still a student at Purdue University.   Ian was inspired by the philosophy of the Ultima series at a young age, and he talks avidly about how the series has inspired him as a game designer and as a person.  He also discusses what a large undertaking Ultima V: Lazarus was, and how it helped springboard him into a career as a professional game designer working for Big Huge Games’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

He will soon be starting at Bioware Montreal, in a role as Lead Gameplay Designer for the next entry in the Mass Effect series.

A big thank you to Ian Frazier for his warm replies to our questions, as he makes good use of his downtime while waiting for his visa to be processed to start working in Canada.  As someone who is about to start working in the United States, I understand what a time consuming this process can be.  He has even been so kind to contribute a substantial amount of Lazarus design documents, which will soon be finding their way onto the Ultima Codex.

So check out the interview!