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Dan Connors answers 10 Questions from the Academy
And now, 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Dan Connors is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. He works for episodic gaming developer Telltale Games. AIAS: What's your favorite part of game development? Dan Connors: Between Alpha and Beta, because it is the time where you get a sense for what the game will be. It is also the time where the ability to iterate quickly pays off the most. What's the one problem of game development you wish you could instantly solve? Ego Inflation. It leads to situations where individuals become so invested in their specialty, or in being right on every individual point, that they lose sight of the greater need of the team and the product. Are games important? Games like all forms of entertainment communicate the myths and stories of our age to many people in our society, most of whom are in their formative years. So, like it or not, they are important. I also think as games continue to evolve they will be used for all kinds things like teaching social skills, training athletes and helping sick people. As a programmer once said to me in response to a feature request, "Anything's possible," of course he also said, "With enough time and budget." How do you measure success? Against the plan of course. This assumes a well thought out plan that is getting you towards the ultimate vision.
Matias Myllyrinne answers 10 Questions from the Academy
And now, 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Matias Myllyrinne is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and will speak at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2010. He works for Remedy, and told Joystiq that the developer's latest game, Alan Wake, is "done" and is just being "polished" before its "Spring 2010" release. AIAS: What's your favorite part of game development? Matias Myllyrinne: Shipping. We are so close with Alan Wake and it has taken a while. I would really like to share what we have done with the world. No other feeling can match the exhilaration of seeing years of work come to closure. How do you measure success? As for, success in games. it's easy – units sold and Metacritic. In any form of entertainment, if the audience likes what you create and it sells – that's what counts in the end. Professionally, success is defined by the success of those around me. Are my partners aligned with me and taking part in good business, is my team creative, empowered and financially secure and are my shareholders seeing good long term strategic direction. Personally, I am successful if I am doing new things, enjoying a balanced life with the job I love and all the other interesting things the world has to offer.
Brian Reynolds answers 10 Questions from the Academy
And now, 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Brian Reynolds is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and will speak at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2010. After working with Sid Meier at both MicroProse and Firaxis, Reynolds went on to create Big Huge Games, where he served as CEO until the sale of the company to 38 Studios earlier this year. He now heads up the newly established social gaming team at Zynga East in Baltimore. AIAS: What's your favorite part of game development? Brian Reynolds: The last 25% of the project, when you're polishing and tuning the thing to make it perfect for release. Of course it's never actually "perfect," but the game starts to feel like a real game rather than a prototype – all the parts start working well together and you finally realize "hey now we have something I want to play!" What game are you most jealous of? Half Life 2 – totally wish I had meaningful skills for making games like that. It's got such an amazing combination of good writing, good technology, good level design, and just overall great craftsmanship.
Mike Capps answers 10 Questions from the Academy
And now, 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Mike Capps is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences where he serves as one of its board directors. He is the President of North Carolina-based Epic Games, the developers behind the Unreal and Gears of War series, and the seemingly ubiquitous Unreal Engine. AIAS: What's the biggest challenge you see facing the industry? Mike Capps: Game development has grown so fast as a business, but not nearly so fast as a profession, and you see the growing pains regularly. What's your favorite part of game development? I love the people; so many fascinatingly cool people are in game development. I really enjoy playing a game, and then meeting the people behind the game, and understanding how they think. Shipping a game, developing a game engine, and running a company... they're all insanely complex maximization problems. What do you with your time and your money, every day, to make the best game, the most profitable company, the best technology? It's a blast.
Jay Cohen answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Jay Cohen is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences where he serves as chairman of its board directors. Cohen left Ubisoft earlier this year, after serving as the company's North American vice president of publishing, and now works for Jerry Bruckheimer Games. AIAS: How do you measure success? Jay Cohen: Review scores and unit sales! What's your favorite part of game development? Sitting around the table and seeing a spark of an idea ignite into creative wildfire that rallies the team to go the extra mile. Then, seeing that idea implemented into the game and having it actually work as imagined!
Bruce Shelley answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Bruce Shelley is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, where he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has helped design classics like Sid Meier's Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, and Age of Empires. He mostly recently waved goodbye to Ensemble Studios, where he remained a key figure until Microsoft closed the developer earlier this year. AIAS: How do you measure success? Bruce Shelley: Do people tell you that they liked the games you worked on and do they sell well enough that you can make a living at it? For most of the last 30 years that has been true for me. What's your favorite part of game development? When a game is just getting started anything is possible. The brainstorming is fun. At some point we have to become more practical and start building something that is not only fun but technically doable and commercially viable. Then the process becomes more like work. But early on we are truly thinking up ideas with little constraint and that is exciting.
Alex Evans answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Alex Evans is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and spoke at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2009. He's worked for Lionhead Studios, co-developed Rag Doll Kung-Fu independently, and co-founded Media Molecule, developers behind the award-winning LittleBigPlanet. AIAS: How do you measure success? Alex Evans: The number of hand written fan letters from 4 year olds showcasing scribbly artwork they've re-imagined from your game. What's your favorite part of game development? Top'n'tail – the really fertile bit at the beginning, just messing around; and the final, final, tunnel of light where you actually ship the damn thing. The middle bit itself has phases: wherein you lost site of your initial good idea; realise what you've made sucks in several significant ways; rebuild it (several times); lose sight once more of the original idea; (hopefully) eventually recapture something of the original seed, by now actually usable; and finally enter the glorious 'tunnel of light' towards the end. All of these middle phases effectively only happen because of many, many hours of grind – or 'turning the handle' as my old math professor used to call it.
Masaya Matsuura answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Masaya Matsuura is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He spoke at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2008 and the D.I.C.E. Summit Asia in 2009. He works for NanaOn-Sha, where he created the pioneering rhythm titles PaRappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy, and PaRappa the Rapper 2. His most recent title is Major Minor's Majestic March. AIAS: How do you measure success? Masaya Matsuura: By the number of people who felt happiness through my creations. What's your favorite part of game development? Making totally new experiences into something tangible. Naturally a great effort from the development team is essential. In addition, there is a moment in development (usually later in the cycle) where the game finally becomes fun. A lot of developers say that this is the moment when a new experience is born, although I'm unable to properly put the sensation into words.
EA's Rich Hilleman answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Rich Hilleman is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences where he serves as one of its board directors. He's worked for Electronic Arts since 1982 where he was one of the first twenty employees, and was one of the creators of the original Madden football game. He currently holds the title of Chief Creative Officer. AIAS: What's your favorite part of game development? Rich Hilleman: Discovery of Fun. I think you can understand how elements combine to be successful, in the same way that you can create a recipe by chemistry. There are many elements, and as a result nearly infinite possibilities. The Art is in anticipating the results of a new combination and understanding what that means for feedback systems, game mechanics and marketing concepts. Those second order effects are where the magic is... How do you measure success? Impact = change x the number of people impacted.
