After more than six years of spearheading several exciting projects at Amazon Games, most notably the acclaimed New World, Bill Trost, MMO industry veteran and EverQuest co-founder, is charting a new path in his illustrious career.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Trost announced that he has joined Intrepid Studios as the Lead Designer for Ashes of Creation. This move marks a significant change in Trost’s professional trajectory and is a major boon for the Ashes of Creation team.
Trost’s connection to Intrepid Studios is far from new; he’s known Steven Sharif, the Creative Director of Ashes of Creation, for over seven years. They met as gamers through mutual friends, and Sharif’s ambitious vision for an immersive MMO initially met with Trost’s skepticism. However, as Intrepid Studios started to realize Sharif’s dream, Trost found himself growing increasingly excited about the project.
“The beautiful, deep world, the gamer-first attitude, and the openness of the team were all things I wanted to be a part of,” Trost stated in his LinkedIn post. He revealed that he seized the opportunity to join Intrepid Studios when it arose, welcoming it as a chance to reunite with several colleagues with whom he’d worked in the past.
This reunion, he suggested, makes the move feel like a homecoming, emphasizing that the world they once built is still thriving today.
In his new role, Trost will tackle the ambitious challenges that come with the scope of Ashes of Creation, admitting that “there are tons of challenging problems to solve.” Yet, he also acknowledges that these challenges are part of what makes game design so fulfilling. He concluded his announcement expressing his eagerness to get lost in the world of Verra, the setting for Ashes of Creation, along with the game’s community.