Dennett has a love of wide, vast worlds and fantatsical dreams. Yet, he works on what many might consider the mundane allowing each player to enter Istaria through the portal of their choice through the Spirit of Istaria event - a chance to change the the web interface we log in through.

GamersInfo.net: What was your very first video game experience (not necessarily the first game you played) and why do you think that has "stuck in your head" to this day?

Dennet Ingram: So many early experiences… I think the big one that affected me was Bard’s Tale. When I was little, we got this killer system. It was an 8086 computer! It had a 10 MB hard drive, and CGA Graphics! I was given for Christmas a game for it (the only game on it) called Bard’s Tale. In case you don’t know about it, it was an early RPG. I would sit and play that game for hours. I actually still have it - on those big 5 inch floppies - sitting on top of the bookshelf (along with Bard’s Tale 2 and 3). As we got faster and faster systems over time, we eventually got a machine with 2 MB of RAM! I taught myself then how to create a RAM drive and load Bard’s Tale onto the RAM drive when the system booted, one of my first experiences in tweaking a system to improve performance. Later, with Bard’s Tale 2, I figured out how to exploit the transfer interface, to give my starting characters on Bards Tale 2 godly equipment and money, which was one of my first experiences of being a haxor, as well…

GamersInfo.net: Did you grow up wanting to work in the gaming, not necessarily electronic, industry? Or were your goals different? And if so, what were they?

Dennet Ingram: I have always had a love for games. My older brother always hated it, because I’d always try to hang around him whenever he did any sort of games with his friends, or on the computer; and when he got a Nintendo for his birthday, I would sneak out of bed late at night and play it, until someone heard the noise and sent me back to bed. What really intrigued me about games was that they take you to a new world, with new rules. They make you think in new ways, allow you to do things and overcome challenges that you could never do or overcome in real life. As I played Final Fantasy 1, it dawned on me if it is this awesome to play these games, how wonderful would it be to be able to create these worlds?

GamersInfo.net: Tell me about your "professional" life before Horizons. What experience do you have? And what are you most proud of?

Dennet Ingram: I worked for various computer companies, mostly working with web development. I had an internship while going to Arizona State University with a digital publishing company - they had me working on their web based products. After that, I got a full time job at a company doing contract work for the airline industry. It was all done using C#, which I had no real experience with it before, but after a few weeks, (and a few good books), I was up to speed and programming away. The program was a prototype, and within one year we released the product. In that time I had almost completely reworked / overhauled the database, and with just one coworker assigned on the project, implemented an almost entire rework of the web interface. After working there a few years, I was contacted by Artifact Entertainment (whom I had previously applied for) about doing some contract work for updating their web based patching software.

GamersInfo.net: What's the last book you read that had an effect on your life and why? And if you don't read books, what's the last movie?

Dennet Ingram: For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster (and the rest of the adventures of Pip and Flinx, I’ve read every book in the series 2-3+ times, along with the couple spin off series).

I love this series because it is a truly unique universe. Each planet portrayed in the series has its own uniqueness, and it’s own since of wonder. You can clearly visualize the people, races, and places in these books. And even though the universe has its own rules, those rules are explained in such detail, that you could believe they could actually be true…

GamersInfo.net: Outside of work, what are your passions and hobbies? What would you be doing RIGHT NOW if you could get up from the keyboard and go do it?

Dennet Ingram: Sitting down with a group of friends playing a game. It doesn’t matter if it is an online game, a board game (Ahhhh, Axis and Allies), an RPG (gotta shout out to White Wolf here), or even a LARP. Over time, I have learned that the only thing better then exploring an alternate reality, is experiencing it with friends.

GamersInfo.net: Many of your answers to these questions discuss the richness of alternate worlds. Do you write yourself? And have you had the opportunity to contribute to the world of Istaria?

Dennet Ingram: I used to be the Main GM in my gaming group (sadly, I'm groupless nowadays. So, I'd have the opportunity to create small scale scenarios and missions and such. I have started writing a few minor things (like designs for new games and such), but I never really get that far with them. I've never kidded myself into believing I was a serious writer.

And, as for Horizons, currently I am not on the design staff, so I have not had the opportunity to add significantly to the Horizons Universe, but I've sat in on design meetings a couple times. Every now and then, if I have a suggestion, I will voice it, though it usually has more to do with game mechanics, then the actual Istarian world itself.

GamersInfo.net: How long have you been P&P roleplaying? What are your favorite 3 Universes and why?

Dennet Ingram: I've been P&P role-playing since I was in the 7th grade. My Dad was a big gamer also, but my mom made him stop. She wasn't happy when she found out that I was starting to RPG (we mostly did it at my friend’s house, at first), but my mom broke down, and realized in some ways it could even be a way of "bonding" between me and my dad. (Ah, how sweet... except we never wanted the old guy playing, he was too old school!).

Since I've gotten married, and have a family to support, I rarely get a chance to play, except at the yearly gaming conventions we have in town.

My favorite universe by and large is the World of Darkness Universe by White Wolf. I like the uniqueness of it, and the variety. The roles, instead of giving you specific spells or powers (like you can cast a fireball), give you abilities, and it is up to you to determine when and how to use those abilities. It is a subtle difference in some ways, but one I think adds a lot to the richness of the games. It also concentrates more on the social aspect of gaming, social interactions with the pack, bloodline or the community. Also, it has a lot of elements of espionage, doing "missions" under cover of darkness without being caught, the type of elements that I find more interesting than just trying to get that +999 sword and hacking your way through 1000's of goblins.

Besides the White Wolf, I do enjoy the AD&D world, and also there's a fun, unique game called Paranoia, which I've enjoyed playing as well on occasion (it can be very humorous with the right people playing).

GamersInfo.net: Cats or Dogs? Hamburgers or Hot Dogs? Or....something I didn't mention?

Dennet Ingram: How about PS2 or Xbox? PS2 all the way, they have had exclusive rights to the Final Fantasy Series, though now that that has changed, I might need to expand my horizons…

GamersInfo.net: What was the process that brought you to working on the Horizons team?

Dennet Ingram: When I graduated from ASU I saw a job posting that they gave to the Career Services center. I applied for the position (I personally drove to the location, and talked with Rick Simmons, handing my application directly to him, but unfortunately the posting was slightly old, and the positions had already been filled.) So, I saved the name and address, and every 3-4 months or so, I’d either call them up and see if anything new had opened up, or updated my resume or cover page, and brought down the new version to him so he’d always have the latest version (Don’t tell anyone (well, ok, you can), but it was mostly just to keep him from forgetting about me).

After about two years of constantly hearing that they didn’t have any positions available for me, I finally got a call, out of the blue, asking if I’d be interested in doing a part time (contract) project for them. After I finished up with that, they had some more work. After a couple months, I was told that I could work on the stuff I was working on for as many hours (up to around 40) a week as I wanted to. So I quit my fulltime job, so I could do this contract work full time, in the hope that it would help push me into being a fulltime employee. After working Contract (hourly) full time for 7 months, knowing that at any time they could tell me, “Sorry, we’re all out of contract work for you, thanks for your help, don’t call us, we’ll call you”. I finally got the papers signed, and became a true employee of what is now Tulga Games.

GamersInfo.net: Name the five greatest games of all time:

Dennet Ingram: Horizons, Horizons, Horizons, Horizons, Horizons… Ok, besides our product… (these games are not in any order).

• Tetris: It engages your brain, keeps you thinking, has universal appeal (male, female, child, adult), and you could literally play it forever.
• Final Fantasy (and subsequent sequels): I’m still so amazed that they could develop such a rich world using an 8 bit processor. Expansive, not completely linear storyline, a storyline that is in-depth enough it could be a book, and actual character development. I’ll probably be made fun of for saying this, but Final Fantasy III was the only computer game that I actually cried when I was playing it, it was such a touching and in-depth storyline.
• Everquest: This game became like the very definition of online RPGs, and it’s still running strong, still generating revenue.
• Table Tennis: Ok, maybe it just made it into the list because I love it, but it IS an awesome game.
• Sim: (anything, Simcity, The Sims, etc) Getting to play real life! Awesome concept, creative thinking, universal appeal.

Dennet Ingram: I work on all the software effecting the website, patching, launching the game (not in the client itself though). I also implemented the reseller and new billing systems. My job is pretty simple to describe, since I’m the only one working on this stuff…

Well, over the last couple months, I have done some major changes to the website to make the information easier to see and get to. Because Horizons currently launches through the web site, I feel more like I have one of the most obvious jobs in the company, since everyone who plays the game has to pass through the web site to launch the game.

If you want a specific item though, a big thing recently is the Spirit of Istaria Contest. I created the launcher, and gave it the ability to be "skinned". I then designed the contest, wrote it up (including giving it a name), and implemented it in the website and added the support it needed in the database. I also go through the submissions, and add them to the website, as well. So everything about it, from the launcher it runs on (which I designed and coded from the ground up), to the place it's hosted on, I created the web pages for it, to the receiving and entering of submissions, and the creation of the voting system, is me...

GamersInfo.net: Tell me about this pathologic fear of grapefruit...

Dennet Ingram: Grapefruit.... They look so nice, and benign, almost like big oranges, but if you accidentally buy one instead of an orange, and cut it open, it's pink! It's almost like you cut open a human skull, the pink, fleshy interior stares at you, bleeding its pink blood all over your counters...