The guy responsible for the whole battle engine in Total War since Rome 1 had ‘never worked writing game code’ when he got the assignment

Ever felt lost at sea in the first days of a new job? I’ll admit it—my first weeks at PC Gamer, I had no idea what I was doing (some might say that’s still the case). I was just trying to keep my head above water and not publish anything libellous, or at least nothing both libellous and unfunny.

But my experience doesn’t have a patch on Scott Pitkethly, battle architect at Creative Assembly. In a chat with PC Gamer, Pitkethly said his start at the studio—all the way back in 1999—was very much sink-or-swim. First, the studio put him to work on sports games, which he couldn’t care less about. Then when he finally got to make a Total War? Well, he had literally never worked writing game code before.

“I remember [Shogun: Total War] looked incredibly cool. I said, I want to work at that company! I get there, and I’m working on sports games. And I personally have no interest in sport whatsoever,” said Pitkethly. “I really wanted to work on Total War.”

He finally got his chance when Creative Assembly began work on Rome: Total War. “So Shogun had come out, and Medieval: Total War had started. And we were doing this whole new initiative, Rome: Total War. And it was a completely new codebase. Everything was 3D. All the characters were 3D. The campaign map was going to be 3D.” It was a big undertaking, and set to be “this completely fresh thing.

“So I was given the opportunity straight out of university. Never worked writing game code before. Someone’s like, ‘There you go! Make the game!'”

(Image credit: Sega)

But Pitkethly must have had some affinity for the art anyway, because Rome: Total War came out and quickly became one of the most beloved entries in the series—so much so that it earned itself a remaster back in 2021. The engine for the game even ended up being put to use in the BBC’s Time Commanders (though it turns out that show was all built on a big lie).

As for Pitkethly? “I’ve been here on every project since really. Except the one everyone says is their favorite, Medieval 2, I didn’t actually work on [that].” Ah well, at least no one’s making him develop sports games anymore.

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