Corey Dangel has been an Art Director for 15 years. He spent the last four years establishing the visual direction for The Agency, a critically anticipated title for PC and PS3. Prior to SOE, Corey spent nearly a dozen years living the life of an elite art director in the games division of Microsoft. Focused principally on online games, Corey spent his first tour of duty working on several groundbreaking titles including the Internet Gaming Zone, Fighter Ace, and Asherons Call. A two-year hiatus sent Corey to Cavedog/Humongous Entertainment where he helped bring the Total Annihilation franchise to the online world. A return to Microsoft had him working on a variety of PC and Xbox games, most notably Dungeon Siege, Psychonauts, and Mythica. Corey attended Western Washington University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication. Outside of work, Corey pretends to be a rock star in his circularly referential band, AgentC. He makes a fine martini, too.
For more info: LinkedIn Profile
Cavedog
the constant state of change
Lured by the charisma of Scott Wallin and Ron Gilbert (creator of Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island and S.C.U.M), I left a fortune in Microsoft stock options to join the company that just released Total Annihilation. The game was a critical success, the studio was growing, and the opportunity looked to be fantastic.
Only hours after setting up office I found myself immersed deeply in conversations with Ron about where to take Total Annihilation and future Cavedog games on-line. I was so excited! I slid right in to a project called Boneyards and helped construct an interface around the Galactic War expansion for Total Annihilation. With the help of rookie artist/designer Brad Rebh we were able to design the entire interface in a couple weeks. I built this Macromedia Director prototype in about a week. (note: the file is an executable for windows only. We were not allowed to use rollovers so navigation may seem very quaint by today’s standards.)
The next project was TA: Kingdoms. I took a leadership role in designing the Darien Crusades, the persistent metagame for Kingdoms. I sketched out high-level objectives as well as interface design and worked closely with programmer David Satnik to refine the mechanics into an algorithm for determining contested spaces and escalating victory conditions. The idea was to move from the Galactic War’s point-node map to more of a Risk-like map and it was a challenge. As the interface needs for Boneyards were substantial I found myself taking on more and more of the main game interface to ensure consistency. I ended up making a lot of gold buttons for that game.
I also spearheaded the effort to re-balance the game for multiplayer. It was immediately clear that the single player balance, which worked very well for mission-based play, was easily exploited in multiplayer contests. With the help of two online-focused designers (JC Connors and Brandon Franklin) I worked through significant challenges to provide an even playing field for the four different sides. This effort carried through to the quickly released Iron Plague expansion for Kingdoms.
I worked on many other projects while at Cavedog. Some highlights: I wrote the gameplay pitch document for a Harry Potter game, assembled a production team to build the Humongous Family Entertainment Network, managed the sysop team for Boneyards and the Backyard Sports Network, designed the Boneyards website and gave the Cavedog website a face lift, I helped build some little flash applications for the Amen: the Awakening web site, and, lastly, I hold the dubious distinction of creating the last downloadable unit for Total Annihilation. Oh yea! Pretty sweet, huh?
E3 2007 interview with Corey Dangel. 9 minutes.
