Welcome to Gearboxity's first edition of Who Is Borderlands, our series of interviews introducing you to the minds behind Borderlands!

Meet Evan Gill .  He's one of the many skilled artists working on Borderlands , Gearbox’s recently announced cooperative FPS game.  Specifically, Evan works with weapons, which are kind of a big deal in Borderlands.  Over half a million weapons is an ambitious goal, and it's taken immense effort from several talented individuals to discover how to make that goal a reality.  When it comes down to it, someone has to be in charge of getting the guns right, and that’s where Evan comes in.  In addition to modeling the guns, Evan is involved in the process of making sure each these 500,000+ weapons have a distinctive look and feel.  What's it like to work for Gearbox on such an exciting title, and who are the people brave enough to take on Borderlands?  Well, I got to sit down with the Borderlands “gun guru” and ask him a few questions about working on the Borderlands team.

ennui: First off, the golden question - what got you interested in game development?

Evan: I guess like most people, I like games, art, and computers, so I’m not really sure what else I’d be doing.

ennui: What would you say some of your influences and major motivators are?

Evan: I get influenced by everything - the trees, the birds, grindhouse movies.  A big motivator for me is wanting to look back and have no regrets about my work.  I’d hate playing through a game I worked on and feeling like, "Man, if I had only spent a few more hours on this, it could be so much better."  That and not letting my comrades down.

ennui: Could you tell us what your responsibilities are on Borderlands?

Evan: My responsibilities on Borderlands would be, first and foremost, the guns; specifically working with the concept artist to flesh out the design, modeling the weapon itself, and assuring quality on the weapons I don’t model. Occasionally I’ll venture off onto other things usually related to environment art, as well as some vehicle stuff - that can be a nice change of pace for a little while.

ennui: I’m sure a lot of people are curious – what does a typical "day in the life" look like for you?

Evan: So a general day in the life of Evan would look something like: get into work, check the ol' e-mail, then get to prioritizing tasks and making a battle plan for the day. Usually I’ll start out with any modeling work that we need, and that usually keeps me busy 'til lunch. When I get back, it's generally time to check up on assets that I'm not working directly on but oversee.  Depending on how long that takes, I'll usually be able to jump back onto whatever I was working on during the morning. A few days a week, the team will meet for updates and planning - those are always fun.  Guess that’s about it.

ennui: Who do you usually work closely with on the team?

Evan: Who I work closely with changes quite a bit, with weapons it's concept and code, for environmental stuff it’s the level designers. I also work pretty closely with the various Transformers toys scattered around my desk.

ennui: Borderlands is something of a large undertaking - what's the biggest challenge you’ve had to face?

Evan: By far my biggest challenge is time management.  There’s always so much more that could be done if I only had the time, but that’s what caffeine is for.

ennui: So, what's the most satisfying part of your job?

Evan: I would say the most satisfying part of my job is seeing everything come together and experiencing the collaborative efforts of everyone as a whole. That might sound corny, but it’s true. For instance, the first time I got a headshot with one of the guns, that moment was born of art, code, and animation, and it was glorious.

ennui: I'm sure that many interesting and amusing stories have come from working with the team so far - could you share one with us?

Evan: Actually this isn’t so much a development story, but one day the Borderlands team was going out for ice cream, and a certain somebody forgot to call ahead and let the shop know that 20 plus people would be magically appearing at their door. So we get there and there’s one person behind the counter with the deer in the headlights look on his face. Luckily we brought along Gearbox’s not-so-secret weapon, Mr. Randy Pitchford, who without hesitation asks the Ice Cream Man if he can jump behind the counter and help. The Ice Cream Man thinks for a moment, and shrugs his shoulders, “Sure!” We then discovered Randy’s L337 5K1LLZ as an ice cream dispenser, which is actually pretty cool because that kind of attitude totally filters down and leads to an egoless environment of mutual respect.

Thanks to Evan for spending some of his time with us - the whole team is always busy making Borderlands amazing (I can't wait to show and tell you guys more about the game).  Be on the lookout for the next Who Is Borderlands feature to learn more about the team behind this project.  Check out the forum thread to suggest questions for me to ask in upcoming installments and discuss this article!