Wizard101 Interview, Part One

RPG Vault has dished up the first portion of a multi-part interview with KingsIsle's Todd Coleman about Wizard101, their magic-heavy MMORPG designed for a younger audience.
Jonric: How long ago did the project get under way? Who is the developer, KingsIsle Entertainment, where is the team located, and what else is the company working on?

Todd Coleman: Hmmm, well, Josef Hall, our Director of Technology, and I started back in February of '04, so the project started about three and a half years ago?

KingsIsle has just over 100 hundred employees, with offices in Dallas and Austin. The company was founded by Elie Akilian, an incredibly savvy (and successful, I might add) entrepreneur from the telecomm space, and David Nichols, who came from a long tenure as a senior executive at Midway. Josef and I were very, very early in the development of Wizard101 when our paths crossed. We found we had very similar views of the market, the technology and the way to build a company. From there, everything just... clicked.

Wizard101 is our flagship title; but I should also mention that we do have another virtual world in development. It hasn't been announced yet though, so I have to be careful how much I say about it. :) I can tell you it's led by Tom Hall of id Software and ION Storm fame.