The folks at MMORPG.com managed to catch up with a very busy Starr Long to chat about the role he will play in the development of Portalarium’s Shroud of the Avatar. Here’s a couple relevant tidbits:

MMORPG.com: Ultima Online still remains relevant in the MMO space, especially with the move back to sandbox style games. Can you tell us some of the lessons you learned when working on that title?

Starr Long: The biggest lesson I learned is that while we built the world, the players were the ones who owned it and ultimately, it was the players who determined what the experience was going to be like. We also learned that the deeper you make the simulation the more unexpected results (both good and bad) you will get; but that of course is what made it so exciting.

MMORPG.com: What elements of the game will you be working on directly? Do you have your team in place already?

Starr Long: I will be managing the entire project including milestones, budgets, etc. I will also be heavily involved with all aspects of game design. There is already a very strong team on Shroud, which is part of why I was so attracted to the project. We have a very small, tight team that works great together and we hope to stay very lean.

Attached to the interview were a handful of high-resolution screenshots take from the RTX demo of Shroud of the Avatar. These have been added to our Shroud of the Avatar screenshots page; check them out!