Cryptic Studios today announced that Bill Roper has joined the company as Design Director for Champions Online. Before this announcement became public, we had a chance to talk to him about the fate of his last company: Flagship Studios.

"As you probably know, a few months ago we had to lay off all of our employees at Flagship, so really what we've been doing is trying to work with banks, creditors and former employees to wrap things up. We're not supporting any products right now." So when pressed if that meant that it was officially over for the Hellgate: London developer, he responded, "All the principals and employees have moved on. At this point and time, HanbitSoft has purchased the IP, which was being held as securities. Namco will keep their servers up until January 31, 2009."

Roper is not bitter over his time at Flagship, and in fact thinks that he learned lessons there that he'll be able to apply at Cryptic. "It can be a problem with a game that you try and go too broad, and I think we did that with Hellgate," he admitted. "With Champions Online, we'll focus on making something that's not wider but is much deeper."

As a nine-year veteran of Blizzard who has worked on the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo franchises, Roper hopes to apply those lessons of success to Cryptic. "It was a meritocracy at Blizzard, and they were willing to take someone who was new in the industry and give them some freedom if they did well," he commented. "So I've had experience directing, producing and went up to VP level there."

"It was a unique place to grow up [in the industry], during the RTS wars between us and Westwood, reviving RPGs with Diablo," he continued. "Blizzard has quality and focus, and they've had parent companies who were willing to let them do whatever has been required. When they needed extra time they were granted it. You can't downplay the element of luck, either."

"[Roper] brings experience, of both the good and the bad processes," added Jack Emmert, CCO of Cryptic. "He knows what we can avoid as we get closer to launch and he knows things we can add to the game, what to do when we go live. We can plot things out and he can help us make it successful."

Roper assured us that he was very excited about coming to Cryptic and he even revealed that it wasn't the standard route to employment. "I think it was fortuitous. I was really just trying to get into the beta for Champions Online," he commented. "I was into the game even before the beta, and I read about it constantly because I was a big City of Heroes fan. I went to a friend of a friend, and we just started talking about things and as the discussion evolved, we found we had some similar ideas. It's great coming to a place like Cryptic, a place with some very passionate designers, and it's nice to be less of a suit!"

"The first thing I'm going to be doing, is talking with the guys and digging deeply into what Champions Online is now. There's a lot of fantastic stuff here, and we'll focus on figuring out what's working, what needs some polish and rethinking other things. We're approaching the game from the standpoint that those people who are familiar with the license will be comfortable immediately and those people who aren't familiar or who like to solo play will have their own niches carved out," he concluded.