Woot, he picked mine for the first to be answered!
@thejessesnyder What stresses are there living up to a storied franchise in Halo? As well, talk about your being the first dev/lead at 343.
The “stress” question comes up quite a bit. I cut my teeth on Call of Duty, one of the largest franchises known to mankind. Having the opportunity to work on CoD taught me about the realities of making AAA games. While there are always surprises, having done it enough times it’s easier to know what to look out for and to avoid mistakes. You learn about what typical problems arise, you get a sense of what is possible to make or what an idea costs to make real, you can identify when something is good and when to push that idea or feature forward (or kill it) and so on. Halo is no different. While the Halo and CoD are very different games in many ways, the way they are developed is not completely dissimilar.
That’s the career side of things anyway. Having enough experience to enjoy the confidence of dealing with problems, and having enough experience to identify when you’ve struck gold.
Then there’s the more personal angle. Designing games comes naturally to me and it doesn’t stress me out to make them. When I was a young child, my mother and I used to take old Atari programs that were printed in books, type them into the computer by hand, and get them to run, then change them. I grew up on making games and made mods and map packs for Marathon when I was in middle school that many people played at the time. I love tinkering and I love making games out of pretty much everything in life. When I go to lunch, I invent games out of the sugar packets and silverware.
I literally have one of the best jobs in the world, and I’m pretty happy to work on shooters especially. There are always new problems to solve when making games and solving those problems out only nets me more experience, and makes me a better designer.
As a result, I have a pretty reserved, laid back attitude when it comes to making games. I’ve had other people tell me during a project “You should be freaking out right now!” which is always hilarious to me. Since when did that ever do any good for anyone? Maybe if someone is breaking into my house with an axe, but not when it comes to making video games. Everyone deals with stress differently.
As for being the first dev lead, I actually wasn’t the first dev, or lead at 343. I was the first designer hired at 343 (it wasn’t called 343 back then, it had no name). There were other designers there before me, but they were internal to Microsoft. They left pretty early on once we started hiring folks and building the 343 team. Technically, Ryan Payton would be the first “designer” hired (he left and Josh Holmes, the current creative director took his place), but I typically don’t count creative directors as designers since they oversee many departments (including design). I don’t see them as a designer, per se. Giving them a title of “designer” would also mean they should be given the title of “artist” and a “composer,” since they oversee the art and audio departments. It’s like saying the manager of a sports team is also a quarterback.
Also “dev” is a title thrown around a lot, but means different things at different studios. “Dev” can mean someone who specifically writes code, or someone just working on a game. In some places a producer would be considered a dev, while in other studios, not. But someone who writes code for a game is almost always considered a dev at any studio. They’re total squares, man (a square is considered a rectangle and a square, but not oh never mind).
For all the questions and answers go here.
-Sal