Halo Wars Update 04.19.07
We are cranking away on the development of Halo Wars, and recently passed another milestone. (Yes, this can be rather unpleasant sometimes) These deadlines for having features in the game start to come fast and furious when you're well into development on a game, and it certainly feels like we're at that point now. There's still a mountain of work to do, but everyone on the team has their toothpick and is working away on it.
One of the many talented toothpick wielders here at Ensemble Studios is Graeme Devine, the Lead Designer on Halo Wars. Graeme has been in the games industry for a great many years, and has his fair share of stories to tell. I burst into his office on milestone day to ask him a number of very important questions, such as, what does a lead designer do?
Thunder: What's your name and where do you hail from?
Graeme: Graeme Devine. I was born in Scotland over in the UK. I guess nowadays I hail from Dallas, Texas though which is where Ensemble Studios is based. Hail is something that happens in both Scotland and Dallas so I'm quite at home.
Thunder: Are you now or have you ever worn a kilt?
Graeme: Not that I can ever remember.
Thunder: Can you drink your own weight in Guinness?
Graeme: Well I do love Guinness. Let's try that out right now and then I'll answer the rest of the questions! Okay, okay, just kidding. I think my own weight in Guinness would be a scary thing to try.
Thunder: You are the Lead Designer on Halo Wars...what exactly do you do?
Graeme: Being the lead designer on a project at Ensemble is all about getting the team on the same page and making sure we have a coherent vision for the game that everyone is working towards. I work on everything from the story to the controls to the campaign to looking over the daily playtest feedback.
Thunder: How is Halo Wars coming along?
Graeme: We've been playing Halo Wars internally for approaching double digit seasons now (ooohhh did I give something away) and we're having a lot of fun with the game every day. Because it's a console only game we've really worked at iterating both the controls and feeling of the game. If I say anymore I'll be killed.
Thunder: Right, we better change the subject slightly then. I hear you liked to skip school to program games as a kid. What did you parents think of that?
Graeme: I skipped school one time to go work for Atari and finish a game. I kind of got expelled for that so my parents weren't too happy about the game industry. Now it's almost 30 years later so I'm guessing they may have figured this isn't a passing fad for me!
Thunder: What drew you to programming at such an early age?
Graeme: My dad brought home something called a Transam Triton and then a TRS-80. There was no Internet back then so if you had a computer you had to make it do something on your own. So I made it do stuff and copied arcade games and tried to write them from scratch on my own. Eventually I guess I did an okay enough job at it!
Thunder: What was it like working for Atari at the ripe old age of 16? This must have been during the golden age for that company?
Graeme: Well I was in the UK office and contracting for them. It was actually not the best time for Atari since they were near bankruptcy and in the process of being sold. I did get to meet cool folks and work on a lot of awesome titles in a very short period of time though, so the actual creative aspect was really very good.
Thunder: How old were you when you founded Trilobyte, and what was it like being one of the first companies to develop a game on CD?
Graeme: I think I was 23 when I founded Trilobyte. It was four of us for nine months and less than half a million dollars to make The 7th Guest. It was the one of best experiences I've ever had making a game because it was so concentrated and when it came out was such an unexpected success.
Thunder: Other than Halo Wars, what game is capturing your attention right now?
Graeme: Well I just got Guitar Hero II. I'm thinking my weekend is shot, but if my daughter beats me to the box it might be a weekend of C&C3 which is a killer game too.
Thunder: Who is the best player at Halo Wars right now at Ensemble Studios?
Graeme: Without a doubt the best player is ..... wait a second that's not a fair question! I'm going with ... you know, I think we'll have to have a little tournament again to find that answer out!
Graeme is just playing it safe, trying not to hurt anyone's feelings there. I'll ply him with Guinness and see what he has to say on that subject. There's a brief introduction to our Lead Designer, I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from him down the development road.
On a slightly different note, this link to GameSpy's Top 25 Video Game Cinematic Moments was passed around here at the office recently. It was very exciting to see the Halo Wars trailer included on the list, as there are a great many fantastic game cinematics out there. I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone here that Halo cinematics pepper the list.
Until next month...