GS: We understand that many of Black & White 2's nuances and niceties are the result of a lengthy discussion we'll politely refer to as a "complaining session" between designer Ron Millar (whose previous credits include games in the Warcraft series) and you, but what else has gone into the game's design? How much time was spent in design before production began, and what was the design process like?

PM: The process that now exists at Lionhead is to start with a concept, and for Black & White 2, [the concept] is: Are you the god of war or the god of peace? From this point, we kick off research and development. And for Black & White 2, we totally revamped all the game technology, the graphics engine, the way the creature interacts and learns, and the physics engine--this phase lasted quite a few months until we ended up with a prototype. During this phase, we started to design the world and started playing it to death until we had the first playable version, which is what we showed at last year's E3. From there, we have moved on to full production, which is where we are right now. I think it's also worth pointing out that this project started with about 20 people, and currently, the team stands at just over 80.