In case you missed it with the subject, I'm in the process of getting Arena Net Environment Artist Josh Foreman on the Lincolncast again. To those who don't know about him...

-He spearheaded the recent Super Adventure Box for the month of April.
-Made the destructible towns for the Wintersday events for December
-Tortured all of us cause we asked for it in the Halloween Jumping Puzzle
-Made parts of the world of Tyria (the continent of Guild Wars 1 and 2, that's right he made zones in GW1)
-Worked on many other games before joining Arena Net.

-Also he repped Hyrule during this dumb youtube craze

Sounds awesome right? Just one problem... WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO ASK HIM!

Here's the list of questions we were given for our first interview from everyone in the community, thanks again for the help with that! Also here is @selfconfessedcynic's post to listen to the original interview.

Any and all questions are welcome, worst case is we just wont choose it. Anything you'd want to know about a person who makes player models, environments, etc please post in here with the question!

(PS. Does anyone know if I can duel link this to general discussion/ off-topic and the gw2 subforums? Holding off on a double post until then)

Since no one seems to have chimed in yet... bone-in or bone-less?

A more serious question re: adventure box: is it harder or easier modeling and designing with blocky stuff? It sounds like it'd be simpler, but the stuff in Super Adventure Box looked pretty complex.

Also, what was the thought behind infantile mode? Doesn't it kinda suck that some players wouldn't see most of the levels because of the easy rainbow-laden path?

I'm also kinda curious how many people worked on the Super Adventure Box, especially compared to how many people working on other Living Story things (like Flame and Frost). And how were they even be allowed to make all that crazy stuff.

I'm curious if, in any game he has worked on, if there was something he designed/made that he really liked but couldn't go in game for lore reasons or it not fitting in the world.

An example would be making this really awesome floating thing but not being able to use it because it wouldn't make sense in the game world for it to float.

Guess I'll post what I'm wanting to ask him too;

-With things like the hidden cube inside the 'Red Keep' of Eternal Battlegrounds (on the stairs by the jumping puzzle portal) or making changes like the new dungeon in Wayfarer, what challenges does the environment team face when having to make edits to a released map?

-(Follow up) Are you restricted to changing the environment to areas that do not have Story Missions, Renown Hearts, etc due to them having a 'static' requirement. (You can't say bad guys have destroyed that house cause its part of a story mission so the house always must be standing).

One of the reasons why Jumping Puzzles can appear more then other content is because it more or less just requires 1 artist and doesn't tie up any programmers (who have been busy fixing stuff like culling or making spectator mode and other awesome stuff)

-Is it just as easy to make Mini dungeons with a focus less on platforming but still something a group of friends or guildies can do, or does it require more people/resources/effort to add traps, guards, puzzles? (Some examples are.. The

Flame Temple Tombs

underwater in Diessa,

Tears of Itlaocol

with frog-men in Caledon, or

Only Zuhl

with the Destroyer hold-out event)

NOTE: We have seen some mini-dungeons added post release, just curious if we should expect one more then the other.

so what was it like working with Brad Muir on Alter Echo?

WvW -

Would it be possible to have a different map for every borderlands?

What about adding dynamic lighting to the maps having something similar to a Snowblind Fractal darkness that would reduce the visibility making it more difficult to see players at night?

2 parter - Could you add more things to the WvW maps if you wanted to or are they pretty much locked in? If you could add things to the map have you ever thought about adding underground areas below keeps allowing for not only siege assaults from above but more player focused combat in say tunnels or caverns (you hit capture a switch and hold it for like 5 min or something and it auto opens the doors to the keep or something)?

General PVE -

Have you guys ever considered adding an event similar to a horde mode? I think it would be awesome to have waves of enemies swamp a town while players try to defend it? While I know some events include waves and such but the amount of enemies and time it takes to defeat the wave seem rather trivial. I was thinking more along the lines of like 20+ players defending against huge waves of 50+ enemies constantly streaming in.

Are we ever going to see a new permanent dungeon whose layout constantly shifts? Stagnant dungeons can become very boring having to run them for tokens over and over again.

Okay, I think we'll definitely do a bone-in or boneless joke question at the end like we did with bat/knife last time. You know, because I'm not afraid of memes.

But don't send that one in for vetting, I dont want to give him time to think about it

Anyway, I think some of my questions would be pretty lengthy if I were to ask them on the show, so we'll probably have to figure out what the scope will be @thurbleton

But yeah;

• We'll open with what he's been playing etc as usual
• Can he outline the creation process of the adventure box? eg: what stages generally go into making one of these pieces of content - how long did the art take, how long did the design take, what was the planning like? Gantt chartz motherfucker?
• What is his favourite element of it and why?
• What would he do differently on his next project?
• Has he seen Evoland? What are his thoughts?
• Did he personally play many of the classics which insipred the box? What are his thoughts on them? Which is his favourite Zelda and why? Which games inspired him to work on games? (I want to bring up the point about him liking to explore games and look at their art here)
• If he were to work with one of the makers of those classics, who would it be and why?
• Why isn't the box sticking around?
• What is he working on next?
• Is he doing any work on Flame and Frost / subsequent story beats?

I'll relisten to the old interview before we do this one so I can make sure there's little overlap and bring in more perspective on the new interview.

I'll just throw out the one question I can think up at the moment:

You've mentioned that you were working on a new project several months prior to the release of SAB. Was this initially a small, one- or two-man effort? If so, at what point did ArenaNet decide to commit the not-insignificant amount of dev resources that the final "game" appears to have required, and what do you think convinced the company at-large of the value of the project?

@plague102 Keep in mind that Josh Foreman has a specific job at ArenaNet, because I have a feeling that he won't be able to answer most of the questions you're asking. Read Thurbleton's post for ideas on things he can discuss.

An extra question I managed to get from WoodenPotatoes. I think it could be an interesting one.

@shinboy630: Ooooh, that is interesting.

OK, sent the questions off for vetting! If someone has an idea please continue to post, if it has merit we may try running it by him before hitting 'record'

Thanks for all the ideas guys.