Production Coordinator

Joining us from the Nine Ululating Voles Of Parnassus comes Matt 'Anti' Lowe. Kiln-baked for additional ballistic protection, he's widthy, lengthy, heighty and depthy, pretty much in line with international DIN, IETF and STANAG standards. In his spare time he's the middle eight of "I'll Follow The Sun", the spare bakelite washer from when you fixed your Mum's old food processor and a Concise Pepys.

Recently, Matt's status as goo-squirting guardian of the games library has won him renewed respect - his ruthless tenacity in tracking down overdue lends has lead to him being headhunted, but only by actual headhunters. All about the persistence, those guys. Matt got milk, and, additionally, rhymes where you ain't got none.

Things You Were Too Afraid To Ask...

Every once in a while, we interrogate one of our own and put their answers up for all the world to see. Read on to find out more about what Matt does, how he ended up at Splash Damage, and more.

What do you do at Splash Damage?

I'm a Production Coordinator, so it's my job to help keep the project running as smoothly as possible. I valiantly stand guard against the more mundane day-to-day issues a development team faces, freeing up the wonderfully skilled Artists, Programmers and Designers to stay focused on making the best game possible! This means I get up to all sorts; one minute I can be taking notes in a meeting or helping with scheduling, the next I'm likely to be lugging around heavy boxes or filling up the fridge with fizzy Stroyent.

I'm also lucky enough to be the Production Coordinator responsible for assisting the Design team. This means I get to do exciting things like running our internal playtests, holding daily scrum meetings with the team and sitting in on Design meetings, taking notes about the cool new features they want to create.

Why did you want to work in the games industry and how did you get started?

After spending a couple of years working as a Purchasing Manager in Scientific Equipment Wholesale (erk!) and then training at University as a web designer (everything I learned I've forgot), I decided I really didn't want to spend my life doing a job that I didn't love. My brother, an animator at another UK dev studio, suggested that as I loved games so much, I should have a go at forging a career in the games industry. With no relevant practical skills or experience of game development, this meant starting at the bottom: As a games tester!

I was lucky enough to get my break with a small UK games developer who employed me as a tester for just under a year. At about that time Splash Damage started recruiting for experienced FPS gamers to come and work as Production Testers and I was successful in getting one of those positions. Since then I've been here, quietly annoying people into giving me more and more responsibility until one day I'll take over the entire company! *evil cackle*

Why did you join Splash Damage?

I've always been a big fan of FPS games, so Splash Damage was the perfect fit. They were also probably the only studio making FPS games in the UK at the time, so it felt like an amazing opportunity to be able to work with them. The chance to share my own opinions of what makes a great Shooter and possibly see that have some affect on a retail game was really exciting!

Plus, I'd also heard they were partial to a bit of cake.

What are the best and worst parts of your job?

The best part is the massive variety of things I get to do in this role; no two days are the same. One minute I'll be doing simple stuff like answering the phone, testing or organizing the next playtest and the next I'll be out of the office collecting new equipment or helping out with some event like Multiplay's i-series. We even do fun stuff like showing the PC Gamer guys who is boss at ETQW! :)

The down side is that every now and again, there will be some horrible monotonous task that gets thrown up and it'll fall to one of us production folks to suck it up and get it done. This might be sweeping some area of the game for hours on end, helping re-arrange the entire office, or worst of all, carrying the drinks order upstairs! You still feel good once it's out of the way though.

What was your first gaming experience?

It has to be playing on a ZX Spectrum with my Dad. The agonizing wait whilst the cassette tapes took 20 minutes to load the 100m dash on Daley Thompson's Decathlon. I also fondly remember Booty, a pirate platform game, and Jet Set Willy. I am also proud to say I once owned a Mega-PC, a 486 with a Megadrive inside it. I was in total awe of this wonderful piece of technology… Cannon Fodder and Sonic on one machine!

What types of games do you like, and what's your favorite game of all time?

Although I now own a current generation console, I am and most probably always will be a die-hard PC gaming fan and as such I really enjoy FPS, RTS and MMORPG games. Multiplayer makes up 95% of my gaming, I've never really managed to get more than three or four hours into a single player game before because I simply find it way more fun to be testing my wits against another human being.

My favourite game of all time has to be Tribes 2. To me this is still competitive multiplayer gaming perfection. There were so many strategies and tactics, so much opportunity for team work and communication and an endless supply of excitement. Watching two top teams face off at it on LAN, with one winning on 'grabs' in the last 10 seconds of the match is still one of my best gaming memories. It doesn't get any more tense than that!

What's the meaning behind your nickname?

Back when I was a petulant yoof, I strongly believed the only 'real' music involved playing actual instruments, especially thrashing Guitars. I hated Pop music. Using this as a jumping off point, I scoured the limitless depths of my infinite imagination for a cool nickname and came up with AntiPop, because I was Anti-Pop… yeah! Inevitably I grew up to like pretty much every type of music and now the nickname sucks, but I'm loathed to change it. I do shorten it to Anti nowadays, though - it's good at representing what a mardy git I can be. :)

Finally, what do you enjoy doing when you're not at work?

I'm a huge sports fan and watch lots of it on TV, as well as playing the odd bit. I spend a lot of time watching Football (including the mighty Nottingham Forest) and I'm regularly involved in our own SD five-a-side sessions, they're always entertaining! :)

Recently I've also started playing American Football with my local team. I've been a fan of the sport for years and decided it was finally time to give it a go. This should also help explain the black-eye you're inevitably going to see me sporting in the photo on this profile.