Gregory Fulton

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Gregory Fulton is an American computer game designer best known for his work on the Heroes of Might and Magic series as a lead game designer and manual author.

Contents

Career

Was hired by New World Computing on the same day as David Mullich, they became friends [1]

In 1997 sent resume by e-mail. Was interviewed by Jon Van Caneghem — creator of the company, later by Mark Caldwell. Later got a call from Mark, discussed the salary, Greg accepted, and after 7 days started his first workday. By his memories, New World Computing was full of shy introverts. [2]

Left the New World Computing company after backlash for the Forge content [3] before creating The Shadow of Death and moved to Westwood Studio as a lead game designer of Command and Conquer: Renegade.

Published works

YearTitleDeveloperRef.
1995 MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat Activision [4]
1999 Heroes of Might and Magic: Millennium Edition New World Computing [5]
1999 Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia [6]
1999 Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade [7]
2000 Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death
2002 Command & Conquer: Renegade Westwood Studios [8]

In 2018 was working on two indie projects, one of them — Fanstratics, in the style of HoMM3. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] , abandoned in 2025 because of health problems related to COVID-19 [15] .

On 2020 interview mentioned Ultima as "not the best RPG game ever created, but it laid the foundation for all my favorite RPGs." [16]

About Heroes of Might and Magic 3

In a 2019 interview, he said that Heroes belongs to its fans and encouraged them to continue developing the game, wished mod developers to get joy. Was very surprised to find Heroes 3 in Twitch TOP-20 games, and huge Russian community. [2]

Including overtimes, his salary was around $5 per hour — less than in McDonalds. [17]

In his developer diary for Gamespot describes crunches. [18] [19]

In a retrospective interview, he recalled that during the development of Heroes of Might and Magic III, he believed the game would perform well but remained cautious, noting, “We aren’t a hot 3D game. It won’t light the world on fire.” He commented on the industry's focus at the time on graphical features over gameplay, and drew a comparison to StarCraft, which initially received a lukewarm reception due to its 2D presentation in a 3D-driven market. He observed that, like StarCraft, Heroes III gained deeper appreciation over time, stating that the game receives “infinitely more attention and respect today” than it did at launch. [17]

References

  1. ↑ "Heroes of Might & Magic III: Remembering Erathia, 15 Years Later". www.gamedeveloper.com. Retrieved 2025-08-26. Another person I was happy to meet was Greg Fulton, a new employee New World had hired to be the lead designer the Heroes of Might & Magic III team I was putting together. Greg was hired on the same day I was, and we had never met each other previously, but we quickly became fast friends. I told Greg about my plan for upgrading the franchise's art style from its past cartoony look to one that I called "extreme fantasy." Greg showed me some artwork from the Warhammer tabletop miniatures game, proving to me that he knew exactly what I meant. Together we went through galleries of fantasy artwork created by such great artists as Boris Vallejo, Larry Elmore and Rowina Morill, picking out images of heroes, creatures and environments that captured the look we were going after. We then arranged our collection into eight themed factions, up from the six that were featured in Heroes II.
  2. 1 2 Федорков, Александр (2019-02-28). "Интервью с NWC: 20 лет Heroes III. Грэг Фултон". Грэг: Я отправил резюме через интернет. Имейте в виду, что это был 1997 год, поэтому отправка резюме по электронной почте была в новинку. Я жил в нескольких минутах езды. Сначала меня интервьюировал JVC [примечание переводчика: Джон Ван Канегем, основатель NWC], потом, во второй раз, JVC и Марк Колдуэлл. Позже Марк позвонил мне и рассказал о предлагаемой зарплате, и я согласился. Спустя 7 дней я начал свой первый день и впервые встретился с Дэвидом Мюлличем. XEL: Что Вам нравилось и что не нравилось в работе там? Грэг: Работа в NWC принесла мне странный опыт. Не поймите меня неправильно, у меня были периодические драматичные моменты, но в целом это было «тихо и подавленно». С точки зрения персонала компания была заполнена до краёв застенчивыми, неуклюжими, социально неадаптированными интровертами. Кто-то может подумать: «Это компания-разработчик видеоигр. Разве там подобное не обыденность?». Ну, да, это было бы в порядке вещей, только вот даже застенчивые, социально неадаптированные интроверты посмотрели бы на NWC и сказали: «Вау. Посмотрите на этих застенчивых, неуклюжих, социально неадаптированных интровертов». По сравнению с NWC, везде, где я работал, было как вечеринке в пятницу вечером.
  3. ↑ "'He Got Death Threats From Fans' - Heroes 3 Dev on Story Behind Co-worker's Departure". Gamepressure.com. 2023-06-18. Retrieved 2025-08-26. Greg Fulton was our lead designer. Yeah, it was after that backlash. He decided to leave. I think that he received some death threats from some of the fans and he was disappointed that our management didn't take that very seriously. But there may've been some other reasons as well – that could've been the straw that broke the camel's back for deciding to leave. But he didn't just leave the company. He left the gaming industry altogether after that [Fulton's only work after HoMM III: Armageddon's Blade was Command & Conquer: Renegade from 2002].
  4. ↑ "MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (1995) DOS credits". MobyGames. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  5. ↑ "Heroes of Might and Magic: Millennium Edition (1999) Windows credits". MobyGames. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  6. ↑ "Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia (1999) Windows credits". MobyGames. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  7. ↑ "Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade (1999) Windows credits". MobyGames. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  8. ↑ "Command & Conquer: Renegade (2002) Windows credits". MobyGames. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  9. ↑ Persianov, Nikolay (2018-05-17). "Интервью с NWC: Грэг Фултон об Ангелах, Джелу и Небесной Кузне". Что касается моей идеи о совершенной игре HoMM... я бы уважительно не стал давать ответ. В настоящее время я работаю над двумя личными инди-проектами, и оба предварительном производстве. Один из них — игра в стиле HoMM. В любом разговоре, касающемся «идеальной HoMM», я бы действительно говорил о том, что я сейчас пытаюсь сделать, и на данный момент предпочёл бы сохранить все детали конфиденциальными. В течение следующих 3-5 лет я надеюсь, что обе игры будут изданы, но, как и при любых предпринимательской деятельности, вероятность неудачи намного больше шансов на успех
  10. ↑ Nesterenko, Oleg (2020-06-09). "Heroes 3 "spiritual successor" in development". Game World Observer. Retrieved 2025-08-26. This is coming from David Mullich, who was Game Director on Heroes 3. He made the announcement during his talk at the Talents In Games Conference. He explained that Fulton is currently absent from social media, which is why any updates on the project will arrive through Mullich's social media accounts for the time being
  11. ↑ "Greg Fulton interview". hommm.hu. Retrieved 2025-08-26.
  12. ↑ a.s, Alza (2020-09-02). "Hlavní designer Heroes of Might and Magic III pracuje na jeho duchovním nástupci | Alza.cz". Alza (in Czech). Retrieved 2025-08-26.
  13. ↑ Vidučić, Marko. "[GG Interview]: Gregory Fulton". GoodGame.hr. Retrieved 2025-08-26.
  14. ↑ TMonto (2020-09-05). "Introducing Fanstratics | Articles# | HoMMdb" . Retrieved 2025-08-27.
  15. ↑ "To koniec duchowego spadkobiercy Heroesów 3. Główny projektant zamyka projekt Fanstratics – CD-Action". cdaction.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2025-08-26.
  16. ↑ "Wywiad z Gregiem Fultonem" (PDF). 2020.
  17. 1 2 "Большая дата – 20 лет Героям". GoodGame.ru. Retrieved 2025-08-26. I've told this tale numerous times as an industry 'war story'. I don't know if I would consider it 'funny'. At the very least, most might consider it 'amusing'. We were crunching on HOMM III. I was already putting in 9 and 10 hour days before crunch began. At some point, I began to wonder exactly how many hours I was working, and with my salary, what I was making per hour. So, I began tracking when I arrived and departed from work. After I had accumulated over 300 hours of overtime... I did the math. In the year 1998, I was making about $5 an hour. With this number in my head, I needed a break, so I left my desk, and drove to McDonalds for a quick dinner. I was waiting in line, looking at the young lady who was about to take my order, when it dawned on me. On a per hour basis, she was probably making more money than I was. Something to think about for anyone wanting to get into video game development
  18. ↑ Fulton, Greg (1998-12-05). "Designer Diary: Heroes of Might and Magic III". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 1999-10-13. Retrieved 2025-08-31.
  19. ↑ "GameSpot's Designer Diary for Heroes of Might and Magic III". www.gamespot.com. Archived from the original on 2002-12-04. Retrieved 2025-08-31. Everyone in the game industry knows the term "crunch time." Those not in the industry may ask, "What is crunch time?" Long hours: 10-18 each day. We're starting our fourth crunch month. We have at least one more after this. Bad take-out food: Mexican and Chinese food are New World's favorites. Today we had Taco Bell and Domino's pizza as part of NWC's "work for food" program. Social Life: To work in the game industry you must already have some form of social retardation. When crunch mode begins, you may only speak in code to coworkers. Immediate family and friends may be seen on brief occasions so they don't file a missing-persons report. I'm one of the lucky ones; I don't remember having any friends or family. Hygiene: Haircuts and showers become optional in favor of more sleep time. For me, showers are a must, but my hair is sprouting wings and a tail. Pretty soon I'll look like the lead singer from Flock of Seagulls. Stress: Anger and frustration are frequent companions
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