Q: Who are you and what are you doin’ here!?

A: Hey there, I’m Tim “Raskolnikov” Lang (but the Content team calls me “Man-Bat” for some reason).

I’m a relatively new member of the Systems team, having moved over from the QA team in November of last year. When I first arrived I was immediately thrown into the Forochel (Book 13) monsters: “Hey Tim, welcome aboard… you like monsters, right?” ‘Well, actually I…’ “That’s great because you get to make a bunch of new behaviors for the Sabretooth and Gauradan Mammoth.” ‘Okay, so how do…’ “Oh, and one of the FX guys mentioned something about a Grim… anyway, good luck!” (Note: It didn’t really happen like this).

So, the short of it is that I work on monsters, which makes me a sort of behind-the-scenes guy. I don’t get all the girls like the Legendary Item guys, but on the flip side I also don’t get egged like the class guys when they “balance” your favorite class. For this Dev Diary I’ll walk you through the broad process of how a monster comes together, what components of a monster I work on and how they are created, and our broad goals for the monsters in Mines of Moria™. Finally, I’ll give you a brief preview of some of the monsters I’m more proud of (they’re like my very own hideous babies).