Name
Björn Pankratz

Work at Piranha Bytes?
Project director, game design, story writer, QA

Age
I’ll turn 38 this summer
...that’s almost 40, isn’t it?

Education
I studied mechanical engineering, physics, and chemistry

Jobs so far
Well. I’ve done a lot. I suppose the eleven years I worked as a bouncer are worth mentioning.
You could say I spent my youth in a small-town disco.
Well, and the short time I worked as a teacher, until I figured out that the profession of teaching wasn’t quite right for me.

Worked on the following games
Gothic 1, Gothic 2, Gothic 2 add-on "The Night of the Raven", Gothic 3

Favorite music?
Dark Music, EBM, Industrial, Wave, and 80s music, basically.
Back then, I was a fanatical Iron Maiden fan.
My hair dwindled and so did my affinity for that sort of music.

Favorite game?
There are quite a few, but my favorites are System Shock, DeusEx and Outcast.
I know, it’s all old stuff. Well. Bioshock is very good. But the game play in the System Shock series was simply better.

What are your strengths?
Strength is in your head.
With a healthy mix of ambition, purposefulness, self-discipline, and tenacity, you can achieve a lot.

What can you absolutely not stand?
I think, "All talk and no action!" pretty much says it all.

What do you enjoy, what are your hobbies?
Jenny, computer games, role-playing games, board games, composing music, playing guitar, painting, soccer, festivals, musicals, parties, Jim Beam...

What would you like to see in a game?
Well-balanced game play with an exciting story and a free world in a classy steampunk third person RPG.

Do you worry about running out of ideas for a game?
No. There are plenty of ideas.
Continuing to have fun in my work is the harder part.
 
 

Interviews by WorldofRisen.de