It was another dark and dreary night at Olympus Tower, but there was a shine of light from the executive office of Possidon.
"Our plan is finally rolling into motion. We've finally managed to capture a member the rebellious group known as the Forgotten Empires team, bring forth Jan dc for questioning..."

Welcome to the Community Spotlight. A chance for the staff to abduct one of our beloved forumers and get to know them a little better. For this months spotlight I have taken a member of The Forgotten Empires team to learn more about it and him.. Yes it's Jan Dc!

Bold text: Interviewer (Possidon): Regular text: Victim (Jan dc).

Would you care to tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you, where are you from, etc...
Hello everyone, well my name is Jan and I live in Belgium. I'm studying computer sciences at the historical university city of Leuven and will finish my studies this summer. In my free time I like to sport and to play the guitar. I'm also a big fan of history so when I have the time I like to read about it in books.

How did you come across our beloved game AOK?
When I was young we were staying with family of ours in France and there I saw my nephew playing Age of Empires I. It seemed such a cool game that when I later saw Age of Empires II in the shop I just had to get it. I remember my father crushed my first AOK disk because I installed it on his work computer which I wasn't allowed to. I was pretty devastated about it so he bought me a new one.

What brought you here to AOKH?
Good question. I don't remember how it happened exactly, but it was somewhere in 2006 I believe. I started playing around in the scenario editor and because I was stuck with something, I started searching on the internet and stumbled on this site looking for answers. I've been more or less a passive member ever since.

You're involved with the Forgotten Empires team. Would you care to tell us about who they are and how you got involved?
We're a bunch of Age of Empires fans who were asked to contribute first to the mod and later to the expansion because of our specific skill sets. We're from all over the world and our team consists of translators, scenario designers, graphic designers, historians... Many of us even came from here (if you check the credits you'll see many familiar names).
How I got involved? I got into contact with Cysion somehow a few years ago and because I already helped with some copy paste graphics for Age of Chivalry, he asked if I could help to do a couple of graphics for him as well. So I did that but didn't get involved any further at the time. It wasn't until later that he again contacted me to do even more graphics and I started to contribute more and more to the Forgotten. Finally I became more or less a full member of the team and not only helped out with graphics (mostly Photoshop) but also scenarios and AIs for those scenarios. As you know we're working on a new expansion and I'm very excited about that. I really hope we can make something that you guys can enjoy.

Are you working on any AOK related projects at the moment?
Perhaps you might have noticed my Sigebert campaign which is probably the biggest AOK project I've worked on after AoF and the AOE conversion mod. It's a modded campaign where I use the AOK related skills I've learned over the years and try to make four very different and unique scenarios. In it I make the AI, data and triggers work closely together to push the limits and fulfill my unrealistic aok fantasies. So far it's more or less how I wanted it although I make stuff up as I go as well. I just hope the scenarios will be as much fun as they are creating them (although it does get tedious at times).

What's the future looking like for you? Any plans or hopes & dreams?
I'll soon graduate and will get a job and stuff but other than that the future is still unclear. If anything I would still like to see a lot of the world.

Quickfire Questions
Who's your Favourite superhero?
Tough one. Batman if I had to choose.

Tea or Coffee?
Tea, I never drink coffee.

Crisps or Chocolate?
Both please.

To finish off, are there any scenarios, bands, books, or films you would like to recommend to the readers?
Don't think I know of scenarios which you haven't heard of yet, although I'm a big fan of the Macbeth and RISK scenarios.
Music wise I'm more into blues rock and folk rock. Radio Moscow being one of the bands I listen to among many. Can't think of any particular book or movie that would specifically be interesting.

Thanks for the interview. I'll have that tea, chocolate and crisps now .