[JM] How did you come up with the idea for Evil Genius? Is it something you have always wanted to do, like Republic? And how much input do you actually have in the development?

[DH] I've always loved spy films from James Bond to Mission Impossible to Austin Powers. It seemed to me a cool setting for a game but I often found myself wanting the villain to win just the once, especially Scaramanga... And from a games perspective influences have been X-Com, Dungeon Keeper and Theme Park from their simulation, missions and base building aspects. It's a game I've been thinking about since right back to my Bullfrog days and something I always thought would be a lot of fun to make and play.

Sandy Sammarco is the Lead Designer on the project and leads the design on a day-to-day basis. My role is that of Executive Designer which means meeting with Sandy and Pete Gilbert (the producer) on a regular basis to see where we are with the project and agree on which direction we should go in next. I'm also there to act as a sounding board for any difficult design decisions and make sure that the original vision of the game is maintained. I will also be heavily involved with the playtesting and game balancing when that phase of production kicks off shortly.

[JM] Can you give us a brief decription of what your hopes for the game are, and how far you currently are from achieving them?

[DH] Our aim was to create an innovative game that was fun, light-hearted and really easy to get into. We also wanted a very distinctive visual style with very strong cool characters. And from where we are right now things look very promising in terms of achieving these goals. Add to this the fact that we've left ourselves a lot of time at the end of development for polishing and I don't see any reason why Evil Genius can't be the huge commercial and critical success we set out to produce.

[JM] What's your favourite part of the game so far?

[DH] Probably super-agent John Steel parachuting in, under the cover of dark ness , to inflitrate your base complete with loud Union Jack parachute and dinner jacket. Although the incredible exploding-coconut - carrying monkeys come a close second :)

[JM] To what extent will the community be able to get involved with the game... Multiplayer for instance, ability to share maps, modding of new traps, etc?

[DH] We're currently evaluating this and we have massive plans for the future of Evil Genius as it clearly has a lot of scope for expansion in the ways you mention in your question.

[JM] I know it is a little early... but is a demo planned?

[PG] Yes a demo is definitely in the pipeline, we shall announce a date for that early [this] year.