The Secret World designer Joel Bylos steps up as Funcom's new creative director

Veteran Funcom designer Joel Bylos will now take on the role as the Norwegian studio's new creative director on MMOs The Secret World, Age of Conan and Anarchy Online, the company announced today.

This new role comes in the wake of the creation of a single, centralized live team developed following organizational restructuring throughout the company since the launch of The Secret World last year. This centralized team will be located in Funcom's North Carolina studio, working closely with quality assurance teams, as well as community, customer service and billing teams within that office location.

"Having one centralized live team responsible for both the health and the future of each online game means there will always be fresh ideas, years of design know-how and invaluable skill with our tools flow freely between each project," says Bylos in a prepared statement. "I am very excited to have been given the opportunity to lead this team going forward and we have already started mapping out a very exciting future for Anarchy Online, The Secret World and Age of Conan. Stay tuned, great things are coming!"

Bylos will fill the role of former The Secret World creative director Ragnar Tornquist, who has since launched his own studio in order to develop the upcoming Dreamfall Chapters. It was previously stated Tornquist would continue to work for Funcom in an advisory role as creative director of The Secret World while heading development on Dreamfall Chapters. We have contacted the designer for details of how his role is now affected.