Last month there was a short interview with Harvey Smith in Game Developer that I really enjoyed, though I thought it was pretty short. Fortunately - it was short - as in a condensed version of a much longer (and much more interesting) interview on Gamasutra.
Kudos to Harvey for making a game that says some things that he's feeling, and kudos to Midway for giving him the leeway to say things like that. I think it is critically important - if we want the industry to reach broader audiences - that we let our top creators (and Harvey is one) not only make games about challenging things, but also let them talk about it.
Frankly I'm getting really fucking bored of reading about how many weapons and vehicles there are in next month's AAA FPS mega-hit.
Also - I hope if I ever end up in a position overseeing creative at an entire studio as Harvey does, that I would still have the humility to get my hands dirty if it was needed. That boy's got character.
Before the GameDeveloper interview, I just assumed that Blacksite was just a sequel to a generally underwhelming game (Area 51). They need to do a better job of getting the info that they ARE doing something different out to the people who care about that shit.
Posted by: Zack Hiwiller | October 11, 2007 at 11:48 AM