Which side of game development to you prefer - creating ideas or programming?
I no longer do any programming myself - I'm too busy managing and leading a team of 20-30 people, consisting of artists, programmers, researchers and animators. But the really interesting bit about being a producer at Codemasters is being the creative lead on the project. This means I have the final say on what goes into the game and I get to use my ideas. My job is split between day-to-day management and the creative ideas. It's the creative side which really appeals. I always wanted to oversee a whole project but when I was a programmer it wasn't easy to do that because you needed to be able to step back and see the big picture.

How did you get into the games industry?
I started off as a programmer with Mirrorsoft/Imageworks, working on a game called Battlemaster for the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and PC back in the 1980s. I left Mirrorsoft after that and worked freelance on a variety of projects until I joined Codemasters three years ago.

Are you a big football fan yourself?
You have to be to produce a game as good as LMA Manager! I support Coventry City and was a season ticket holder for years. These days I'm too busy but I do try to get to the odd game. Also, Codemasters have a box at St. Andrews, Birmingham City's ground, so whenever I want to see a Birmingham game for free, I pop along. Nick Wheelwright (Codemasters' MD) and I led the teams out onto the pitch before the Birmingham City versus Manchester City game a couple of weeks ago. It was the day LMA Manager went to number one in the PlayStation charts so I took the development team to the game for a celebration. And I've just heard that Steve Froggat, the Coventry winger, has been called up for England! A sign of Coventry's change of fortune, maybe. Robbie Keane has been our star buy of the season and I doubt if we'll be able to hold on to him, but for now he's a real superstar. The other surprise is Chippo. He was only bought to keep Hadji company but has turned out to be a real bargain. Hadji himself hasn't reached his full potential but has started scoring recently. Before you ask, Coventry City are accurately rated in LMA Manager and if you want to win the Premiership with them, it'll require all your managerial skills.