People Make Games x Noclip!

About 20 months ago now, I wrote a somewhat optimistic email to Noclip's Danny o' Dwyer, pitching a documentary on one of my favourite video game series: Total War.

If you check the date on that email, you'll see that I sent this over on a Sunday afternoon, which is a bold move. I hadn't quite figured out my work/life balance at this point, sorry Danny.

Anyway, this got the ball rolling on a project that would eventually morph its way into something even more ambitious. Rather than focusing on Total War alone, we decided to go for the jackpot and tell the entire history of Creative Assembly.

And so, almost a year later (these things take some organising), we went about doing just that. Noclip's wonderfully-talented Jeremy Jayne flew over to the UK and together, we filmed seven interviews over the course of three jam-packed days.

I've been reporting on this studio and its games since I landed my first job in games journalism and so I knew there were some great stories to be told here, from the disappointing launch of Total War: Rome II, to the incredible partnership the studio has now formed with Games Workshop.

But, to tell the full story, we had to go a little further afield than just the studio's offices in the south of England. We needed to speak to Creative Assembly's founder, Tim Ansell. Not only had this entire company started from his spare bedroom, he'd actually left the studio on quite bad terms, following its sale to SEGA in 2005. There was absolutely some unfinished business there and we couldn't tell this story without finding out more.

And so, Anni and I travelled to the Tuscan hills of central Italy (it's not a bad job, sometimes) to meet Tim at his holiday villa. What followed was an interview that, I think, makes this documentary something special. As is often the case, success and happiness don't always get along as well as you'd expect them to.

All in all, the documentary's around 50 minutes from start to finish and I think it's turned out really well. I'd love to hear what you think!