Mark Gibbons: Games Workshop Lore, Diablo III, and Battling the AI Dark Side

Episode Description:We are officially BACK! After a stressful real-life high-stakes strategy game called "moving house," John has finally unpacked his gaming cables, the tea is brewing, and we are breaking our 2026 silence with absolute industry royalty.

Today, we sit down with the legendary concept artist and illustrator Mark Gibbons, a man who has spent over 30 years defining the visual landscape of gaming. From his early, gritty ink work at Games Workshop that helped forge the foundational lore of Warhammer 40K, to his time at Sony Cambridge developing Primal, Mark's dark, intricate imagination has shaped the worlds we love. We follow his journey across the Atlantic to California, where he joined the powerhouse teams at Blizzard (as Art Director for Diablo III and a core concept artist on World of Warcraft) and later Riot Games.

We dive deep into the differences between the tight-knit 30-person studios of the PS2 "golden era" versus today’s multi-billion dollar AAA machines, discuss the modern reality of being an older gamer, and get Mark's fierce, zero-tolerance stance on the rise of generative AI in creative spaces. Plus, we explore his latest chapter bringing tabletop RPGs to life with Rookery Publications.

Settle into your favorite gaming chair, get your best headphones on, and welcome a true legend to the hot seat!

Check out Mark's games here - https://www.rookerypublications.com/

Rookery's livestreams - https://www.youtube.com/@TheRookery

Check out Mark’s Board Game: Dark Deeds (via Modiphius Entertainment)

You can support them on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/InsideTheRookery

See loads of Mark's creations - https://mgartworks.myportfolio.com/

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GAMES INDUSTRY CAREERS & FEMALE GAMER STORIES. 🚀 Tina Townley (Production Director, Act 3) gives an unfiltered look at climbing the ladder from QA at Sega to a director at an independent studio. She reveals the shocking reality of working in game testing and how classics like Final Fantasy VII fuel her escapism.

• QA Exposed: The hard truth about testing one game over and over for years and the rush of finding submission-breaking bugs.

• The Escapist's Code: Why puzzle-heavy games like Tomb Raider and Monkey Island are essential for problem-solving and clearing a director's mind.

• Online Reality: Tina's strategy for navigating online gaming toxicity as a woman is by using private parties and avoiding public voice chat.

• Career Advice: Essential tips for aspiring game developers: Start in QA and network often.

Jason Wilson is the co-creator of the MediEvil series, a smash hit on the PlayStation. He started working in the games industry straight out of school in the 80s and has worked at many studios, including as a Creative Director with Sony.

In this episode, we talk with BAFTA winner Jason about the games he plays, such as the Elder Scrolls series, his enjoyment of gothic horror, his similarity to Tim Burton, comics and genius comic artists, his book 'Coal Face - The Devil in the Smoke' and lots and lots about Doncaster.

Check out Jason's work at https://jwartdesign.myportfolio.com/. Buy Coal Face on Amazon.

Some of the games and people we talk about:

Elder Scrolls, Knightlore, The Exit 8, Silent Hill 2, Pat Mills, Clint Langley, Chris Weston, Kevin O’Neill, Raymond Briggs, 2000AD, "Papers, Please", Dave the Diver

In this episode, we talk with Luke Hale, Head of Production Services at Frontier Developments. Luke is not retired, or even thinking about retirement, because he's in his early thirties. We're expanding our exploration of gaming experience to people of many ages now, at Horace Goes Podcasting.

With Luke, we talked about Football Manager, John's grudge against Frontier for nerfing his trade route in Elite:Dangerous, city builders, 'solo' developed games like Manor Lords and the most significant challenge Luke sees to video games (spoiler - it might be you!). Also, hear how Luke is helping out universities develop better game development degrees and how he mentors students.

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John and Kieron reflect on their favourite parts of the past four episodes and the great conversations we had with Nick, Terry, Eric and Dean. Drop your thoughts in the comments.

We also talk about how we will change the focus of Horace Goes Podcasting. Listen to the full episode to find out where we're going next.

Dean Mohamedally is Professor of Computing Science at University College, London. His projects include many works for the betterment of the world through computing in many forms. He works with the UK NHS, IBM, Microsoft and Intel, among many other partners as part of his Industry Exchange Network Methodology. One project of interest to gamers is the MotionInput project, where Dean, his team and industry colaborators, including our very own John McNamara, have developed AI software that interprets movement in order to give control of devices to people with limb loss and other additional needs. This has opened up a world of gaming for them. Hear some fantastic stories from this project and how their tech can extend to later life gamers whose reactions and mobility are reducing. They have released an autism-friendly game that has lit up lives too - Superhero Sportsday.

As well as these projects, in this episode Dean discusses his love for beat'em up games, his love for Sonic, frustration with complexity in games that prevents players finishing them and how AI could assist us through games.

Some games mentioned this episode:

• Marvel v Capcom
• Street Fighter
• Streets of Rage 4
• Shinobi

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Lunar Jetman

Also, we mention the Jurassic Park and Toy Story films.

Eric Lagel is a games producer who has worked in France, Canada and the UK, with Runescape, Crysis and Splinter Cell on his CV. He is deep into GTA Online and has sunk many, many hours in World of Warcraft. In addition to those games, we talk about his ideas for a magic shooter that will appeal more to older gamers, amazing story-focused games like Red Dead Redemption 2, and go off-brand to talk about Agile development and AI. John also gets to fanboi talking to someone who developed one of his all time favourite games, Splinter Cell.

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Terry Greer is a games design lecturer at Falmouth University and has 30 years of experience in the games industry. He worked at Microprose, Jagex and Blitz, on projects like XCOM and Runescape. In this episode, Terry tells us about the art of designing games, the high pressure environment of pitching games ideas for a studio and how students are learning to design their own game projects.

In the episode, Terry recommends the following:

FTL making of GDC talk Designing without a Pitch

Fallout London Team

Team FOLON's progress videos on their Youtube channel

Liz England - The Door Problem

Jennifer Scheurle - GDC lecture on hidden mechanics

Doctor Bounce student games project

Links to Terry's projects:

Terry's website - https://www.terrygreer.com/

Terry's novel - Jangada Trilogy

Some games we talked about:

Fallout London

Elder Scrolls 4: Skyrim

Ant Attack (Spectrum)

The Hobbit (Spectrum)

FTL

Elder Scrolls Online

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Left 4 Dead

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