Gavin Henry Whelan

 is a Funcom employee.

Education
I spent 5 fantastic years at the Irish School of Animation, This was back before there were any colleges offering game development/design courses. I was lucky to have a lot of great teachers who demanded professional standards and discipline from their pupils. Hard work, long hours and being creative under stress.. perfect for the games industry!

When did you join Funcom?
I have actually had the pleasure of working for Funcom twice in my life. The first time was way back in 1995, and only for a year, (I joined back when Funcom had an office in my home town of Dublin). I rejoined in 2004 after working for a few different studios around the UK and have been here in Funcom Oslo ever since.

What was your first job in the games industry?
Back in the early 90’s you had to be able to do it all… Concept, level design, animation etc… I was an artist (indie developers will know what I am talking about).

What do you do during a workday?
My first coffee of the day is at 7.30 am at my desk… The first few hours of the day are my most productive, I try to do all my planning/direction before anyone else arrives in the office. Then I have a series of meetings with management and individual art teams (concept, Environment etc). This usually lasts 'till lunch time. Lunch is spent with a bunch of the artists, then more coffee (I drink way too much coffee). After lunch I have one on one meetings with any artist who needs further direction or wants feedback. and then maybe, just maybe, at the end of the day I get the chance to be an artist again, put on my headphones and do some concept work.

What are you currently working on?
It’s a secret, sorry… stay tuned! I honestly cant say any more.

What do you enjoy the most about working on Conan Exiles?
The same thing I enjoy about working on any project: It’s the people I work with. Game developers, despite all the bad press, can be some of the nicest people you will ever meet, no matter their age, ■■■, or color of their skin. No matter where you are in the world they are all the same: Open minded, fun loving, argumentative gamers who wanted to spend their lives doing something they love.

How do you decide what makes it into the games and what does not?
We always try to see the game from the players perspective. We listen to what the players are saying because you never know where the next great idea will come from. We also try to make the games we ourselves would want to play, we are gamers too. And while we don’t always get to add the things we all want to, we do try our hardest to make them work.