I’m excited to take this on with one of the best groups of people I’ve ever worked with, and one of the best communities I’ve ever played with too. I never thought recording for Insurgency, screaming into a microphone “RPG HEADS DOWN!” at the top of my lungs in the closet where the Christmas tree used to be, would ever bring me to this point. Before that, it was Rogue Spear, Delta Force, Ghost Recon 1, Day of Defeat, Counter-Strike, a ton of other Half-Life 1 mods (Firearms? Frontline Force? Desert Crisis? Global Warfare? Ringing anyone’s bells?) and countless others. I’ve always had the kind of taste in adversarial multiplayer games that hardcore ones like Insurgency and Day of Infamy satisfy. I’ve been passionate about the FPS genre for as long as I have played video games. On a personal note I’d just like to say this new role is an extremely exciting opportunity for me. I still do writing, voice over, and community relations stuff (I love doing them) but now focus primarily on design. This means that I will be working with the team to direct and oversee the design process as well as keep the development process cohesive. I have the great pleasure now to be the lead game designer on Insurgency: Sandstorm. On our next title Day of Infamy I maintained some of those community duties, but primarily took on a new role of casting, directing, and writing for the many talented actors we brought onto the project. On Insurgency I wrote and voiced just about all the game’s voice over, worked as the team’s community manager, and also hosted our weekly official livestreams. Some of you might know me as Mikee ingame or by one of my former roles. Let’s talk a little bit about Sandstorm, and why I’m writing this announcement. The whole team deeply appreciates his time and contributions to our projects, and we wish him only the best.
Andrew has been a mentor and a friend to me personally, providing guidance when I began full time with the team as community manager. A love for this kind of multiplayer experience led to the commercial release of a full standalone Insurgency game in 2014, our WWII FPS Day of Infamy in 2017, and our current project Insurgency: Sandstorm.
It was the inception of our signature gameplay and style of FPS that our team continues to develop.
Released in 2007, the mod won ModDB’s Mod of the Year award. Andrew has been with us since the very beginning, co-concepting Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat with our CEO Jeremy Blum. Our creative director Andrew Spearin has left New World to pursue other opportunities. We’ll need to start with some sobering news. But now it’s time to get a little more talkative. We’ve been chugging away and working on things in relative secrecy. We’ve been quiet for a while about Sandstorm, I know.
I am the lead game designer on Insurgency: Sandstorm, and I want to give you all an update on what we’re up to here at New World. Hey everyone, my name is Michael Tsarouhas.