Vince D’Amelio is the Senior Programmer on City of Heroes and the subject of our next “City of Heroes Ask a Dev”. We have a profile of him below, then we want to hear your questions in the comment thread so that he can turn around and answer a selection.
Vince D'AmelioRecommended VideosSo, who is Vince D’Amelio:
Vince D’Amelio is a long time gamer, starting out playing D&D, Diplomacy and other tabletop games. With the advent of PCs, he moved into playing computer games such as Ultima and Wizardry, eventually learning to program so he could create his own games. He went on to study Computer Science at Cornell University and after several years in the corporate world, entered the computer game industry in 1998. Working as a programmer, Vince contributed to numerous titles including Thrasher: Skate & Destroy, Dave Mirra BMX 1&2, and Aggressive Inline before following his passion for online games to join Cryptic Studios in 2004 right after the launch of City of Heroes to work on the continued development of that title and City of Villains.
What does he do?
Vince is a Senior Programmer with the City of Heroes/Villains team and focuses on game play features such as holiday events, PvP zones, the invention system and the recent Rikti Invasion. He works closely with the design and art teams to take their visions of the game and craft them into features that work well with the existing systems that make up the game. While Vince is involved in the implementation of many new features, he isn’t the best person to ask about the game’s design or what new things are coming. Instead, questions about how existing system function or about the “behind the scenes inner-workings” are good subjects.
Does he have a “Persona” in the game?
Yes and no. I have gotten the chance to play many of the Signature Heroes and Villains in the game during our developer events, but I spend most of my time playing my own characters and teaming up with pick up groups of regular players. I enjoy getting to play the game just like everyone else so I can see what people are enjoying and see things that I would like to improve. When the group conversation turns toward what the development team is working on, it can be hard to sit on my hands and not say anything. It just goes to show, you never know who you are grouping with!
Now, let’s hear your questions!
