Eric Kohler
Eric Kohler is the head Monolith Productions concept artist and "weapons expert." He joined Monolith in 1996 to work on Shogo: Mobile Armour Division. He had previously worked in fantasy comic strips through digital colouring, and had a few reservations about the job offer given his expertise was in fantasy art rather than anime. However, after submitting an anime-style poster his application was accepted.
He is described as having a life long obsession with both real and virtual weapons, having spent his childhood making home-made bows and arrows and having received training in martial arts and combat shooting. He is described as spending a lot of his time when designing weapons thinking about their background, "is the fictional entity producing them going to make them cheap and quick to make or expensive but strong?" He would then change the designs accordingly, as well as to other standards. However, he admits that the most important angle on game weapon design is to make the weapon fun to use and to enjoyably simulate the power of large weapons.
He was the concept artist for Blood II: The Chosen and most other Monolith games such as F.E.A.R. and is notable for being one of the few Blood II staff still at Monolith. His name is mentioned in several of the PA announcements inside several CabalCo buildings in a jocular fashion. He is credited with the "Gunslinging Caleb" image shown as part of the The Crypt Fan Art Contest, though it is not clear if he was the one who submitted it and coloured it or if he is credited as he is the author of the original image it is based on. It should be noted that a similar artwork idea was also done by Michael "Fire-start-er". The bulk of the images reflect Kohler's concept art as does Daniel "firestriker" Gaxiola Lugo's "The Black Gunslinger" charcoal piece.
See Also[edit]
- Kevin Kilstrom
- Craig Hubbard (also joined Monolith in 1996)
