Parsec Frontiers team spotlight: Peter Rocchio

In this series our goal is to let the community see who is working on the upcoming space MMO Parsec Frontiers.

Extreme focus.

Today we are talking to Lead Game Designer Peter Rocchio who is an experienced Game Designer and has worked on games like, Block N Load, Grimm and Trolls vs Vikings.

Could you briefly introduce yourself?
No problem. I’m Peter Rocchio, 35 years old hailing from Rhode Island, US.

What are the responsibilities of the Lead Game Designer?

I see my role as building the framework that can accommodate hundreds of ideas from dozens of people, allowing them to come together into a coherent game. In order to do this I have to think of my position a service role, I am responsible for providing the team with what they need to accomplish their tasks. Sometimes that is very specific, such as a damage formula, but often it is making certain everyone is sharing the same vision and goals so that we are all working towards the same end.

How do you decide in what direction to lead your team?

Despite the job title, I don’t consider it my role to lead the team in a specific direction. That is a collective decision that the entire team (and with the Parsec community) makes together, my job is merely to keep everyone pointed in that direction.

What is most challenging about working as a Game Designer?

I would say the two extremes of the general and specific spectrum are the most challenging. At times, there is a lot of extremely repetitive and uninteresting work to do, such as budgeting, testing, and data entry. Here the challenge is to stay motivated and productive.

The other end is an enormous creative challenge. Figuring out how all of the small elements of a large game come together has no clear or direct answer, and it may not have an answer at all. Working through such a gordian knot is probably the most difficult part of my job.

How did you become a Game Designer?

Honestly, luck mostly. I was lucky enough to get my start in the industry during the early MMORPG boom when there were many positions open for junior content designers. I applied to the right place at the right time and turned out to be pretty good at it. I started my career with Vanguard at Funcom and stayed there for 12–13 years.

Are you a gamer? If yes what is you favorite game and why.

Very much, and that is an absolutely impossible question to answer :) In general though I really enjoy RPGs, puzzle games, strategy games and other genres of games that work in large scale decision-making elements. I tend to dislike games with lots of narrative, I personally think the strength of games as a story-telling medium lies in other places. I also am a huge fan of Nintendo first party games, they are usually design masterworks.

There have been similar projects with very ambitious goals that have not delivered in the past. Why do you think Parsec Frontiers can deliver?

For Parsec we have clear goals and methods for achieving those goals. While experimentation and openness to change are important it is critical to keep your players in front of the decision-making process to ensure the ultimate good of the game. This is how we keep ourselves on track.

That’s it for todays Parsec Frontiers team spotlight. Next week we will be talking to Henning Rokling, founder of Parsec Frontiers.

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