Hi, I’m Mark Terrano – long time game designer, inventor, and generally creative person. I’ve been involved with games and technology since I started my first company as a teenager in 1979 – writing custom computer software for business by day and playing games on PCs all night for fun. I’ve been making games ever since – Personally I live in an A-frame house on raw forest land in the Spokane Valley and look after the trees. I do a lot of artistic things as hobbies like figure drawing, painting, and woodworking.
TGN: Where were you born and where did you grow up?
MT: I grew up in New Orleans, LA where I lived until I graduated High School, as a city it is a crazy melting pot of food, music, and culture – I think I got my appreciation for different perspectives and lives growing up there. After NOLA I moved to Dallas Tx and worked in tech as a software engineer on real-time systems.
TGN: What were some games you enjoyed during your childhood?
MT: I played every kind of commercial board-game as a kid (Monopoly, Risk, Stratego, etc) making up rules variants and trying to speed them up with things like simultaneous turns (I always liked multiplayer)- later when video games became more popular I hung out a lot at the arcade with the early video game classics. I played a lot of pinball then too. I got introduced to D&D rulebooks in 1978 and that kept me going for many years.
TGN: When did you join Ensemble Studios?
MT: Actually before it was started – I was working at Ensemble Consulting for Tony Goodman as a Delphi trainer and 3-tier Database specialist in 1994 – I came to work there specifically because David Rippy (Who composed AoE music) lured me with tales about this game they were working on in the evening for fun (actually a couple of different prototype games) – the best game was something called ‘Dawn of Man’ a Civilization type game which later became Age of Empires. Angelo Laudon and Tim Deen built the Genie engine and architecture, I created the multiplayer stack and we built the original prototype. Later Dave Pottinger added brilliant non-cheating AI and Matt Pritchard did some amazing things with graphics and optimization. Of course Brad “2D’ Crow made really enchanting initial animations and characters and animals – I remember gasping the first time a gazelle got attacked by a lion spontaneously. I’d love to list more people but just look up the credits – everyone on that team was incredible.
TGN: What work did you do with Age of Empires?
MT: Pretty much everything to do with Multiplayer – I invented the simultaneous simulations system we used in AOE and the multiplayer designs for things like taunts, matchmaking, etc. I’m grateful for the help and whole-team effort to fix the many desync issues in the game. From the design side I was happy with multiplayer competitive and co-op, recorded games, my contributions to the Trade system design, the Wonder of the World gameplay (with Tim Deen), and collaborating with Rick and Tony Goodman on every aspect of the game.
TGN: What is your favorite “faction” (Empire/Nation) to play as in AoE?
MT: Byzantine and English are my two favorites. Discovering new strategies was so much fun in our daily playtests (me juggling priests and cavalry) – and then having that explode after fans got in the game and it really took off. Strategy debates are one of the most fun things about the AoE series I think. I’m glad there is still a fan community and active play, and tournaments for the original and successive games.
TGN: What was your favorite part of developing those games? (AoE)
MT: Working closely with a small team to do something great – with so few developers on AoE we each had an enormous role in creating and designing the game. The first time I got multiplayer working with 8 machines, being exhausted after a long day and then starting ‘just one game’ to test it and playing till 2am. We playtested together every day (and Ensemble tradition I’ve brought to every studio since) and iterated the heck out of every aspect of the game. Then seeing the fan reaction afterward – we weren’t sure how the game would go over, we knew we loved it but it isn’t until you see the excitement from other players that you know you have something really special. I’ve loved hearing people’s stories in the 25 years since – family members they connected with, the legendary battles they’ve fought – all of it.
TGN: What projects or jobs are you currently working on?
MT: Well, Mountaintop Studios (Spectre Divide) has just closed so I’ve been thinking deeply about the areas I’d like to explore on my own for games and storytelling – I’d really like to go back to making VR games: one of the game designs I’m proudest of was Brass Tactics, where I tried to capture the feel of AoE but revolutionized in VR. My pitch to Oculus was “AoE in the style of the opening credits for Game of Thrones” they said “You can do that?” I said yes and they funded it ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2GCI75Velw ) on Rift. I’d like to work on games for the Quest or Augmented Reality – I worked on R&D in that space with Meta and I’m excited to go back and make multiplayer games there. On the Forest side I’d like to make an AI recognizer for dwarf mistletoe (a parasitic plant) – there are always more interesting things to do in the world than time to do them.
TGN: Are you enjoying playing any games currently?
MT: I’m playing games constantly for work and for fun and it changes as often as a Steam sale or new release. I really love survival builders and process sims (all deep systems games)- if you haven’t played Rimworld it is pure brilliance of depth and storytelling (Thanks Tynan Sylvester). Favorite survival builders have been The Forest/Sons and Enshrouded is my new Valheim. I have high hopes for Stars Reach and Light No Fires. Baldur’s Gaet3 was brilliant and looking forward to the update to play it again. For exercise I like Racket Club and Beat Saber on Quest3.
MT: To the AoE fans – just wanted to say thanks for all of the things I’ve learned from you as a designer about making great games and having fun. May all your battles either be victorious or instructive. Cheers!
TGN: I want to thank Mark for this interview and insight into his past. Age of Empires is, and will forever be, one of my all time favorite games. Thanks Mark!
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