Creativity at KingsIsle

Today we want to showcase some of the creativity we’re lucky to have at KingsIsle.  This doesn’t just apply to making games though – many of our employees have highly creative hobbies outside of the office as well!

My making the statement that KingsIsle is the most creative environment I have ever worked in is probably no surprise to anyone reading this. What’s really fun to see is how this creativity manifests outside of our day to day work. Given this I thought it would be fun to start a series on the KingsIsle blog showcasing some of this creativity.

For this first installment, I wanted to showcase our very own Executive Producer William Haskins. By day he’s an incredibly talented producer, but at night his creativity really comes out. He has been writing poetry for years. I was able to convince him to share a bit on his background as well as a few of his original works here on the blog. I hope everyone enjoys the work. I’d also encourage any budding poets out there reading this to share your own poetry in the comments section.

Howdy. My name is William Haskins and I am Executive Producer here at KingsIsle.

I started out with the company as Associate Producer on Wizard101, back when it was little more than a lot of brainstorming and some hilarious doodles scrawled on index cards. I took the helm as Producer for the two years leading up to its launch and shepherded it through its first year or so as a Live game.

I then served as Senior Producer throughout the development and launch of Pirate101. Now, in my role as EP, I oversee both games, in addition to our fascinating new projects.
Though I’ve been in the videogame industry since the 1990s (spanning two centuries, yo!) and have been at KingsIsle now for nine years, I have been writing poetry for much, much longer. It’s been a constant thread in my life since before I was a teenager, and it’s something I will do as long as I live.

Robert Graves famously said: “There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.” Fortunately, I have been extraordinarily blessed to be able to make a living in a highly creative environment, which allows me to take care of my family doing something I love and still be inspired on a daily basis by the creative energy that surrounds me. I try to take this forward into my writing.

Anyway, here are a couple of my poems. Hope you enjoy.

One of the (many) perils of commuting in Austin is the dreaded traffic jam. One day, both before and after work, this slow crawl brought me in uncomfortably close proximity to a possum that had made the mistake of straying into the highway when traffic was actually moving. It didn’t end well for him, but it inspired this meditation on risk and, ultimately, mortality itself:

Ode to Roadkill
I saw you at eight
and again at six,
your fur blood-matted,
eyes like ice,
your grimace greeting
the traffic, speeding
to places where
slaves while away
their days and
nights in cages,
swallowing rages.

I wonder if they
ever felt the rush
or risked the risk
to bolt between
those metal monsters
on instinct alone;
I wonder if you
took some satisfaction
in those errant tracks in
the roadside grass and
foolish fear of
the human heart.

Sleep well, my friend.

The buzzards will wait
until rush hour ends
and traffic thins, when
the sun isn’t watching,
then pierce your skin
and take you home,
piece by piece.

Peace.

This one is an admonition (to myself, as much as to anyone else) to never squander creativity, no matter what life throws at you. Though the metaphor of the pen connects it to the act of writing, it applies to any creative endeavor:

Alea Jacta Est
In fury’s grasp
or throes of pain,
when nightmares stalk
the waking brain,
and monsters wear
the masks of men—

still the mind,
move the pen.

Beneath the heel
of tyrants’ wrath,
when robber-barons
plot your path,
to journey through
the vipers’ den—

steel the soul,
move the pen.

And when the
final die is cast,
each breath connected
to your last,
a matter of
not if, but when—

steal the night,
move the pen.

Thank you for sharing this poetry with us William! If you are a fan of creative writing, make sure you check out the Wizard101 Fan Fiction and Pirate101 Fan Fiction sections. We love to publish poetry alongside the creative prose of our players!