As Project Lead, Chris Pope fills many roles, but all with the common goal of shaping the look and feel of COR. When Chris is not giving constructive feedback to fellow artists or working on game mechanics, he adopts the position of a 3D artist, having developed the Pulse and Harpoon characters.

Chris has always had an incredible passion for games and art, and is constantly driven to create. After two years of pursuing a degree in Computer Science at the University of New Mexico, he chose to switch to the Game Design program at UAT. Additionally, Chris has been involved in an undergraduate work program at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the last three years. When he has time, Chris works as an artist at Los Alamos, helping to research and implement government applications with the Unreal engine.

Chris' ultimate goal is to bring COR to fruition by bringing out the best in others and in himself.

Matthew Tonks matt@corproject.com
Lead Programmer, Project Lead

Matt Tonks is COR’s Project Lead and Lead Programmer, so his wide variety of technical skills and drive to create games should come as no surprise.

Matt takes on many of the managerial tasks and focuses on maintaining the team’s motivation and organization. Beyond his obvious roles of programmer and leader, Matt has worked on many of the challenging aspects of COR’s development, including research and development of the robust transform system. Outside of the project, Matt works summers at Los Alamos National Laboratory on the VISIT project, which uses the Unreal engine to produce visualizations and simulations for government applications.

Before working on COR, Matt did programming for several other mod projects at UAT. One of his previous mods, the MTOS project, eventually blossomed into the COR project. Ultimately, Matt would like to work as an engine programmer on a production team.

Nate LaMartina nate.lamartina@corproject.com
Lead Texture Artist, Modeler

Nate LaMartina is COR’s lead texture artist, and also does character modeling. His responsibilities involve keeping the game visuals cohesive, shaping the look and feel of the Great Human Council (GHC), and creating character models. To date, he has created the Scorch, Hellfire, and GHC Pilot models.

Throughout his life, Nate always felt a love for video games and artwork. When given the chance to combine the two, he knew it would be the perfect choice for his career, and has been pursuing this dream ever since. Nate began the majority of his computer artwork through Photoshop manipulation and making floating spheres in Bryce 3D, eventually moving on to college where he learned how to use 3D Studio Max.

Nate was recruited to COR during the initial asset phase of the project. He is a graduate of the University of Advancing Technology, completing his Bachelor’s program in less than 2.5 years. He is currently on his way to Fairfax, Virginia to join Mythic Entertainment as a hybrid modeler.

Nick Herring nick@corproject.com
Public Relations, Programming

As one of the loudest members on the team, Nick Herring does as much PR as possible for COR. However, a majority of the hours he dedicates to COR are related to programming. Nick has coded all of the weapons and effects in the game, as well as some of the vehicle physics/controls.

Nick became interested in gaming at the age of seven. He would play console games with his older brother, and always lost. After enough losses, he became tired of it and started hacking cartridges and trying to find cheats. From there, Nick moved to coding OpenGL applications, which eventually became a small game engine.

Nick has worked on and organized many Quake 2 and 3 mods, but no projects as significant as he considers COR to be. Nick’s contacts and dedication have been invaluable to the project’s growth.

Joe Baker joe.baker@corproject.com
Concept Artist

It is the concept artist’s job to bring the designer’s ideas to life in a visual form. This may sound easy enough, but for Joseph Baker, it is always a three-step process. He starts with thumbnail gestures, moves to a pen and pencil drawing, and finally, touches it up in Photoshop. Joe has created concepts for weapons, plant life and anything else under the Tantalus IX sun.

Joe has always been interested in art and has been drawing since age six. While in high school, Joe began to pursue art more aggressively, learning about its many forms. Joe found inspiration in da Vinci’s pencils, Donatello’s sculptures, and Raphael’s figure paintings. However, much of his inspiration is also drawn from comic books and 80s cartoons. With a new passion for digital art, Joe has once again been inspired to create great work.

Joe joined the project in August of 2004, just as COR was entering production. Joe has found that COR provides a productive working environment that is fun at the same time.

Paul Ziomek paul.ziomek@corproject.com
Concept Artist

Paul Ziomek, a concept artist for the project, creates 2D designs for the transforming robots that inhabit the COR universe. So far, Paul has visualized the concepts for four characters in the game: Scorch, Harpoon, Streak, and the GHC Pilot. With each design, Paul’s creativity and eye for aesthetics has gained emphasis.

Paul attended the Art Center Design College in Albuquerque, NM where he studied graphic design and illustration. Currently, he is a studio artist at Rick Johnson and Company. COR is his first game-related job; he considers it preparation for future concept illustration jobs. Comic book stories and movies are two of his primary career aspirations and both seem to cross over into the realm of electronic gaming.

In October 2004, his friend Timothy Talley, who knew he enjoyed the genre of robotic science fiction, recommended Paul to the project. COR characters have been among the most challenging and rewarding designs he has illustrated, and Paul considers the project to be a journey into a new and exciting world.

Andy DeGroff andy.degroff@corproject.com
Animator

Andy DeGroff, the man in motion, is a character animator for the COR team. His tasks include developing realistic robotic movement, along with aiding in the development of promotional video projects.

After graduating from Pittsburgh Technical Institute with an Associate’s degree in Multimedia, Andy chose to seek further education, centered on his passion of video games. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s in Multimedia (Game Design) at UAT, and it seems Andy has found his niche in animation.

Through the pipeline of UAT, Andy was recruited for the COR project in its beginning stages. He embraced his role on the team with ease, and is a strong asset to the project.

Toren Lehrmann toren@corproject.com
Animator, 2D Artist

Toren Lehrmann’s contribution to COR is as an animator and 2d artist. He’s created the weapon animations, heads up display, rag doll physics for the characters, and adopted miscellaneous tasks such as video editing and logo design.

Toren has always been interested in computers, art, and a blend of both. Special effects, animation, video games, and movies are his main inspiration. At a young age, Toren began drawing and slowly moved through other aspects of art until he found himself working on 3D art/animation. Toren hopes to land a job as a character animator, or a related position such as a motion capture technician for a video game or movie studio.

COR has been a great part of his experience at school, and he has learned many valuable things from his talented and dedicated team members.

Alex Utting alex@corproject.com
Animator

It is the job of Alex Utting to breathe life into the characters of COR. He is one of the team’s talented animators.

Alex was raised in a small Kansas town, population 100. He knew it wasn’t the place he’d live his life. After graduating high school, he pursued a degree from Kansas State University and began studying programming. Due to his perceived lack of art skills, Alex never thought of pursuing an art position. To him, programming was the way he’d enter the Game Industry. Soon, Alex realized that Kansas State wasn’t the ideal school for his career path. He enrolled in the University of Advancing Technology.

While at UAT, Alex’s passion for games led him into art and he soon found himself focused on modeling, which parlayed into animation. Alex never looked back, earning a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis in Digital Animation Production. Alex is now working at Mythic Entertainment on the Imperator project. Since joining COR in March of 2005, Alex has been a great addition to the COR team and enjoys his role on the project.

Jason Garner jason.garner@corproject.com
Modeler/Texture Artist

Jason Garner is a modeler and texture artist for COR; he focuses mainly on static meshes.

After the collapse of Enron, which ended his brief stint as a Japanese/English translator for an engineering company, he sought a career in art. A longtime lover of video games, Jason chose to pursue an education in video game development at UAT, where he is finalizing his Bachelor’s in Multimedia: Digital Animation.

Jason has been involved in COR for just a short time, but has been a friend and fan of the team since its inception at UAT. Jason is constantly learning from and impressed with his teammates, and considers COR to be the best and most satisfying job experience he has had.

Holly Meyer holly.meyer@corproject.com
Modeler, Texture Artist

Holly Meyer’s role is primarily as a modeler and texture artist, specifying in weapons, game-play items, and static meshes. One of her secondary roles is 2D art; she has created a library of icons for COR.

Holly has always felt an intense passion for art, even at a young age. Her background is in classical art, focusing mainly on photo-realistic pencil drawings and portraits. Recently, her talent has blossomed into digital art as well; her first job as a digital artist involved working with the Unreal engine as a modeler/texture artist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Though relatively new to the gaming world, her strong skills made the adjustment effortless. Holly is currently pursuing her Bachelors in Multimedia with emphasis in Digital Animation at UAT.

Holly became involved with the COR team during its pre-production phase in the summer of 2004. She attributes the COR project and her fellow team members for being a driving force in her artistic education and development, and for inspiring her as an artist.

Mark Thorsen mark.thorsen@corproject.com
Modeler, Texture Artist

Mark Thorsen is one of COR’s modeling/texture artists. Rather than specialize in one area, Mark tends to complete miscellaneous assignments and fill in the gaps that other members cannot. His tasks include creating static meshes and environment assets.

After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Arts, Mark felt a desire to enter the digital realm. He made the choice to attended UAT, and it allowed him to form a knowledge base around the necessary software for video game art. Like many members of the COR team, Mark has been a video game enthusiast for his entire life.

While Mark joined COR only recently, it hasn’t stopped him from being a contributor of many quality game assets. A talented artist and dedicated team player, Mark has proven himself a valuable addition to the project.

Jay Elwanger jay.elwanger@corproject.com
Level Designer

As a level designer, it is Jay Elwanger’s job to create worlds that showcase the amazing work of his teammates. Jay performs a variety of tasks to bring his maps to fruition, including modeling, texturing and manipulating level geometry.

Before Jay joined COR, he worked on three other mod projects. Among them, “Atlantis: Fight for Earth,” a top ten finalist for Phase 3 of the Make Something Unreal contest. Since childhood, his aspiration has been to become a level designer for a major game company.

On the lookout for a project at UAT, Jay came across COR and loved its unique premise. Recruited as a level designer because of his previous experience, he was thrilled to be a part of the ambitious project. The fiercely dedicated team and the closeness of its members make this his most enjoyable project yet.

Cliff Lasana cliff.lasana@corproject.com
Level Designer

As a Level Designer for COR, Cliff Lasana helps create the virtual worlds that players experience. To date, his work has primarily been on the tutorial level. Unlike other levels in the mod, this is a single player, linear level to make learning the in-game systems and functionality easier for new players.

Cliff has a background in computer support and programming. Prior to moving to Arizona, he worked as a Network Technician for the State of Delaware, where he was responsible for most of the day to day technical support. Cliff received his AAS in Computer Information Systems and after much deliberation (and research) decided to pursue a career in video games. Eventually, his goal is to be a level designer in the game industry. Despite the long hours and high stress, Cliff feels a career centered on something he enjoys would be more fulfilling than programming database applications.

Cliff is COR’s newest member, joining the team last December. Cliff was seriously impressed with what the team had already accomplished, making the choice to join COR an easy one. It became apparent that everyone on the project is serious about producing a quality product, which Cliff has found to be rare in mod projects.

Jason Reiss jason@corproject.com
Level Designer

Level designers are often credited with merging all of the core gameplay, and for Jason Reiss, this is no exception. Working from conceptualization to a polished map, Jason creates levels that are both fun to play and beautiful to the eye.

Creativity has always been one of Jason’s strongest qualities, so his choice to design computer games is perfect for his future. His pursuing a degree in Game Design and Digital Art is only logical. Once he graduates, he hopes strong art and design skills will get him a job in the industry.

Jason has been part of the COR team since its inception. His initial role as a modeler and texture artist has remained a secondary position, despite switching to level design. The COR team provides the perfect atmosphere to foster his potential.

Sean deVries sean.devries@corproject.com
Sound Engineer

Sean deVries is COR’s New Mexico based sound engineer; he is responsible for the composition and execution of in-game themes and trailer music.

Sean has never had the pleasure to work on a video game before. A lifelong fan of music and confirmed deathmatch addict, Sean felt right at home combining his creative abilities with his passion for gaming.

Sean heard of the COR project through one of its concept artists, Paul Ziomek. Soon, Sean learned of the involvement of many fellow Los Alamos High graduates. The trust he feels for his teammates has proven indispensable during the development process.

Nick LaMartina nick.lamartina@corproject.com
Sound Engineer

Nick LaMartina is a sound engineer for the COR team; he is involved with sound effect composition and any other audio/video assignment he can get his hands on.

Nick has previously been a part of game-related projects in both official and unofficial capacities, ranging from senior programming presentations for friends, to animated shorts with his brother Nate, to work for Mind Game Studios. Nick earned his bachelor’s degree in music from Albertson College of Idaho with a dual emphasis on vocal performance and music composition/theory. He is also the co-owner and chief engineer of LEXTech Media, LLC, a local sound and multimedia studio.

Nick was recommended to the COR team by his brother, Nate. Working on the team is quite enjoyable to Nick, as members are exceedingly self-motivated and competent in their work. He intends for his involvement in COR to aid him in finding professional outsourcing opportunities for games.

Nikki Graham nikki@corproject.com
Writer, Community Representative

As COR’s Writer and Community Representative, Nikki Graham manages the forums along with doing everything from editing to backstory and world design.

Nikki has already gotten a taste of online community management as a VNBoards moderator for Asheron’s Call. Along with gaming, writing has always been her passion. Before settling at UAT for a Bachelor’s in Multimedia (Game Design), she attended Pratt Institute, majoring in Writing.

Mid-November 2004, Nikki joined the COR project, already in progress. She’s been a welcome addition to the team, and extremely enjoys the opportunity to work on COR.

Erin Ali erin@corproject.com
Web Administrator

Erin Ali is COR’s web guru, she prepares the majority of corproject.com’s graphics and is the member in charge of website layout, content and updates.

An Arizona native, Erin knew her focus and drive would prompt her to move away from the small town where she was raised. She had aspirations of working with games since childhood, but was guided to other career paths, like journalism. Once Erin discovered UAT, she realized how much she wanted to work as a game designer, knowing that game journalism could remain her hobby. Erin started at UAT July of 2004 as a Game Design and Digital Animation major. After a short time, she shifted into Web Design instead of animation and took up programming and graphic design.

Erin Ali was approached about working on the COR website in late May 2005. Her abilities and willingness to learn has proven invaluable. Erin is happy to learn new skills if they will improve the work she creates for COR.