Just Joined Your Site

Michael Paul Cottam

Space Marshal
Hi to all on Wing Commander CIC!

It's great to see a strong interest in the work we did so long ago. Reading your forum has resulted in a wave of modelling memories. I did a little modelling on Wing Commander when I was introduced to game modelling by Paul Steed during a visit to Origin in Austin Texas in 1993.

I worked on Privateer II the Darkening, Dark-Light Conflict and Starlancer later. I'm still making games at 50 and feel exited when I see Chris Roberts new game 'Star Citizen'! (Best wishes with that Chris)

Anyway, great to be a part of your site!

Regards,

Mike

http://michael-cottam.blogspot.co.uk
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michaelpcottam
 
Hi to all on Wing Commander CIC!

It's great to see a strong interest in the work we did so long ago. Reading your forum has resulted in a wave of modelling memories. I did a little modelling on Wing Commander when I was introduced to game modelling by Paul Speed during a visit to Origin in Austin Texas in 1993.

Privateer the Darkening, Dark-Light Conflict and Starlancer followed. I'm still making games at 50 and feel exited when I see Chris's new game.

Anyway, great to be a part of your site!

Regards,

Mike

http://michael-cottam.blogspot.co.uk
Welcome to the site. I myself have been a lurker since the 90s. Only recently registered here after I felt my hiatus from the community was complete.
 
Welcome, Michael! It's great that you are still going strong after so many good games!

Enjoy your stay at the CIC and remember.....

Always good to see a friendly ship!
 
I agree with Dundradal, welcome aboard Michael. If you are on Xbox Live and haven't played WC: Arena I suggest checking it out cause I have been looking for people to play against. It is hard trying to get a game up with people cause of all our conflicting schedules. But if you are game for a challenging fight let me know. But seriously welcome to the board.
 
Don't want to sound like the selfish bastard i am, but you wouldn't happen to have some more samples of your Darkening work lying around that you could post (preferably hi-res) pictures of? The examples are amazing! And i LOVE the gritty atmosphere on the Starlancer carriers, that's how a wartime spaceship is supposed to look like.
Oh yeah, and welcome.
 
Hi,

This link shows some of the art I did over the years, it's work I found on the web: http://michael-cottam.blogspot.co.uk You can see old Privateer II the Darkening and Starlancer work here too.

For the Reliant in Starlancer, I designed most of the suff as I went along, I was an electrician just before so the detail came from real life. I must have re-built the in-game ships in both games at least three times.

Can't believe you guys still play these games, it's great!

I will keep looking for old hard drives, CD's and floppy disks to see if I have anything else.

I just found this image of the Origin/EA 'Privateer II the Darkening' team from the Starlancer page: https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/File:DARKENIN.png

I'm sat on the floor with a white shirt on. That was so long ago. Even worse looking now ;o).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Heh, it's not like there's a new big budget space-sim coming out every year to take our attention off the classics.
I admire that you managed to create a wholly new franchise (Lancer) in a genre that was not only dominated by 1.5 big players, but also going south by the time. And absolutely love the gritty visual style and all those little gizmos you see when you're walking around the carrier.
 
Welcome, Mr Cottam! Pleasure to have you here. We always love hearing from the people who helped make our favorite gaming series.
 
Heh, it's not like there's a new big budget space-sim coming out every year to take our attention off the classics.
I admire that you managed to create a wholly new franchise (Lancer) in a genre that was not only dominated by 1.5 big players, but also going south by the time. And absolutely love the gritty visual style and all those little gizmos you see when you're walking around the carrier.


Cheers for your comments! I would love to work on the new Star Citizen and add my mark to that too, it would be like starting working on games again.

Again from the web: Here are my original drawings of the Reliant Int from Starlancer. I drew them on holiday and built the rooms in 3D when I got back to work. According to my resume It was done around 1995??? (the team I look after now was not born then).

I love adding detail on top of detail.

Mike_ 5-31-2000 1-02-26 PM 442x319-2.JPG
Mike_ 5-31-2000 1-02-26 PM 442x319-4.JPG
Mike_ 5-31-2000 11-57-38 AM 442x319.jpg
Mike_ 7-3-1998 1-02-48 PM 444x320-1.JPG
Mike_ 5-31-2000 1-02-26 PM 442x319-6.JPG
 
During my time in games I've been amazed how gamers take on the worlds we create. Here are two examples I found: A paper ship maker and a model maker. Thanks guys! I could't imagine that one day someone would spend SO much time re-creating our work.

I remember building these ships first time around. I have no idea who did the work but it's fantastic!
 
I can't imagine why CIG couldn't use you. I loved the look of Starlancer ships and Darkening is an experience all its own. If you're serious about working on Star Citizen send your resume to hr@cloudimperiumgames.com

Maybe Ben can bend their ears a bit. It's not like the team won't recognize you.
 
I can't imagine why CIG couldn't use you. I loved the look of Starlancer ships and Darkening is an experience all its own. If you're serious about working on Star Citizen send your resume to hr@cloudimperiumgames.com

Maybe Ben can bend their ears a bit. It's not like the team won't recognize you.


I've sent a few seeds out, maybe one will grow ;o).

I'm trying to upload a movie of Starlancer I put together years ago, not been seen for a long time. Watch this space.
 
Paper Commander is the hard work of Pericles. It's truly amazing what he can do with some good quality paper.

I'm totally spacing who created the mini-models.
 
Here are some unfinished (work in progress) images that have never seen the light.

I was blocking out the rooms of the Reliant when I rendered this lot (lighting was done later). In the story the ship had been hit so many times it was falling apart and had jacks holding the ceiling up. Crazy!

This work was done on 286 computers with 8 MB of memory. (I've since been told they were better, maybe it was me that was slow. I was thinking Privateer II the Darkening) We had no modern shaders or V Ray lighting like today. I had to build a room like this in two to three , maybe four days.

I think this was 1998.


Mike_ 3-23-1999 3-02-40 AM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 3-23-1999 3-32-50 AM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 10-6-1998 10-41-28 AM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 3-5-1999 4-41-30 AM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 5-22-2003 3-02-54 PM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 5-22-2003 3-05-16 PM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 5-22-2003 4-06-14 PM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 5-22-2003 4-21-34 PM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 5-22-2003 3-33-00 PM 640x480.jpg


Mike_ 5-22-2003 3-32-46 PM 640x480.jpg
 
Here is a video thats not been seen for a long time. I made it for fun 15+ years ago. It's a string of FMV from the Reliant. I built the backgrounds and Paul created the crew, did the lighting and the animation. I remember doing the intro for this too. Sorry for the low quality, I had to chop the resolution.

Hope you enjoy!

 
Oh that's so great to see. I fear Chris won't be able to take you into his team, the game would be too awesome for our universe and punch a hole through space-time continuum if there's too many old devs working on it.
Can you elaborate some on the design process, were you given a rough direction or did they pretty much take what you gave them?
And WHY was the hamster scrapped, the fish could stay too?
 
Back
Top