Chris Siegel

Chris Siegel

Position:	Lead Producer

Chris Siegel, known as ProducerMalphunktion on the forums, is producer for Underworld Ascendant.

So hey! My name is Chris Siegel but you can call me ProducerMalphunktion, or Bob, or Maud'Dib. Really I answer to pretty much anything nice or geeky.

I've just joined up with these crazy cats for a wonderful adventure! Totally psyched.

A bit about me:

Well, It all started in the summer of 1979. I played an elf, with 4 hit points and was killed by a poison spider. The life long obsession with games began. Thank you Gary Gygax and mom, my first Dungeon Master.

But I had another love, film and television. I was a Star Trek fan practically from birth,and Star Wars made me an obsessive movie nut.

Both of these loves formed my strange path to game management.

I started my career in Television as a cameraman and editor, but also spent time as a director and producer. By 24 years old I was directing a newscast, setting the on air look, rigging the studio, doing live events and NCAA sports and well, running the whole thing. Won a few awards, nominated for a few others, but it paid poorly. I moved on to a bigger station but the industry was making me disillusioned where news was going. I was still kicking butt, I was nominated for two Emmy awards in editing but my heart was no longer in it.

I quit TV to be "freelance" but really I was spending most of my time building Quake levels, maps for Warcraft...and dreaming. A fortuitous meeting with a developer in McDonald's got me a job at Looking Glass Studios. Ever hear of them? I worked in QA for Thief-the real one, Thief gold, Thief II and System Shock 2. I was QA lead on Flight Unlimited III, and finally a designer on Janes Flight Combat. Needless to say LGS closed, I moved on the the respectable world working on a digital non-linear editor for television broadcast, and systematically destroyed newsrooms across the country with our unified news solution. Sorry about that. Really all I wanted was to be back in games. I joined up with Turbine about 7 years ago, first as a QA manager then a producer on a couple of little MMO's Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. It was fun, but my heart has always been with LGS. The 'what if' always bothered me. What if we could do another game? What if we kept pushing the envelope of what we were doing? What if we could design without a net or an overlord? What If Groot joined the Fantastic Four?

Well, now we are gonna find out. Maybe not that last one.

Stay tuned for more about us in the coming months. Please be patient, and please be aware we are working behind the screens. The Dwarves are digging, the Wizards are making magic, and well, the elves are busy making toys right now, but we'll get them on something soon.

Peace
Producer Mal

External Links

• LinkedIn profile