5 minutes with Krister Monsvik - Development Director

I'm Krister Monsvik and I'm the Development Director at Zero Latency. I work on the planning, coordination and efficiency of our Content and Core Teams. I am involved with breaking down requirements and making sure we're on track.

What led you down this career path?

I was interested in games at an early age and always wanted to improve and add features to them. I'm a very logically driven person, which led me down the path of programming.

Around the time of finishing uni, I began my programming career at a games studio that was starting to develop a games engine from scratch, which we eventually ported to many platforms.

As that project and my understanding of the space grew, I got into leading a smaller team of programmers, which then led into producer and other management roles. While I find programming satisfying, helping teams operate smoothly and effectively has become the field I'm most passionate about.

First video game system you owned?

I've been around for a while... the first system I had was a Commodore 64!

Commodore 64 game you enjoyed the most?

I really enjoyed a little known game called Save New York, but the Last Ninja series was also excellent!

Favourite video game system so far?

The SNES was great. The controls were so pure. With games like Zelda: A Link To The Past, Super Metroid, Super Mario World and Mega Man X, it was hard to beat.

What aspect of a video game draws you to play it?

I really enjoy games where you start from humble beginnings and progress by improving your character in some way. Metroidvania (a subgenre of action-adventure) games do this well. I'm delighted they are having a huge resurgence at the moment.

What was your first mind-blowing multiplayer moment?

I'm from Norway, and we were really into LAN parties. Dragging your computer through the blizzard to meet up with hundreds of like-minded people was a blast. It wouldn't be the first game, but Counter-Strike in the early days (Beta 0.6) definitely sticks out as one of the most memorable ones.

Which company puts out exceptional releases these days?

I've liked Blizzard for a very long time.

Most anticipated upcoming releases?

I've been looking forward to Metroid Prime 4 for quite some time. Anthem is looking great for a fun, multiplayer adventure. Days Gone are doing some really impressive zombie hordes.

What's the appeal for you, creating experiences in VR?

I truly believe that virtual reality is the future. The pure immersion that is possible in VR is something you could never achieve on a more traditional medium like a monitor. It will take a while to get there, but virtual reality will certainly be part of a large portion of our everyday lives.

Alliance or Horde?

For the Horde! They are complicated and misunderstood. You might think they are the bad guys, but if you dig past the surface, you will realise that it's not skin deep.

Game that you can always pick up and replay?

Double Dragon is an excellent classic game that is fun to play co-op. It also has a sweet soundtrack that makes for a neat ringtone ;)