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A Man With Designs On Chocolate
What do you do at Free Radical?
Mainly, I eat chocolate. Also I work as the Lead Designer on Haze.
How did you get into the 'biz'?
A mate got me a job at UbiSoft, doing tech support. I spent all day on the phone to people who couldn't play games for sh*t. There was this old Welsh woman called Trudy who called me every single day for advice on Rayman. It went on for hours. She was very dedicated. I'd say ninety percent of the calls I took were about Rayman, because no one knew they had to punch the giant plum.
What was your worst piece of work?
On Republic I designed this clever idea about a way to view which characters were interacting with each other, in what context, like who was blackmailing who, and all that. It got ditched. Thank God.
What piece of work are you most proud of?
Evil Genius - It was my first game. We did it on time, and on budget. No one got fired.
Who do you admire?
Any pirate. Sailing the high seas isn't for the faint of heart.
Who rips off your ideas?
Actually, I always seem to get chatting about my ideas in McDonalds. Then somehow they end up in other games. So, there's some person out there who loves Big Macs as much as I do, listening in and stealing all my best ideas.
What was your nickname at school?
I had two: 'Smock' and 'S-Man'. My name starts with an 'S'. That's all the explanation I ever got.
What do you think is the best game of all time and why?
Angband. It was a 2D dungeon game based on the Tolkien universe. The graphics were rubbish. You were the '@' symbol, and you go around pushing into enemies. That sounds terrible, but it was brilliant. It keeps getting updated though. It's hard to describe, but you could drink potions and knock down doors and allsorts.
What do you think is the worst game of all time and why?
That's tough. I guess probably something like Bad Boys II: Miami Takedown. Maybe not the worst game of all time, but certainly not one for anyone's resumé.
What question are you glad I didn't ask you?
Do you like GoldenEye?
Written on 2006-08-18
What do you do at Free Radical?
Mainly, I eat chocolate. Also I work as the Lead Designer on Haze.
How did you get into the 'biz'?
A mate got me a job at UbiSoft, doing tech support. I spent all day on the phone to people who couldn't play games for sh*t. There was this old Welsh woman called Trudy who called me every single day for advice on Rayman. It went on for hours. She was very dedicated. I'd say ninety percent of the calls I took were about Rayman, because no one knew they had to punch the giant plum.
What was your worst piece of work?
On Republic I designed this clever idea about a way to view which characters were interacting with each other, in what context, like who was blackmailing who, and all that. It got ditched. Thank God.
What piece of work are you most proud of?
Evil Genius - It was my first game. We did it on time, and on budget. No one got fired.
Who do you admire?
Any pirate. Sailing the high seas isn't for the faint of heart.
Who rips off your ideas?
Actually, I always seem to get chatting about my ideas in McDonalds. Then somehow they end up in other games. So, there's some person out there who loves Big Macs as much as I do, listening in and stealing all my best ideas.
What was your nickname at school?
I had two: 'Smock' and 'S-Man'. My name starts with an 'S'. That's all the explanation I ever got.
What do you think is the best game of all time and why?
Angband. It was a 2D dungeon game based on the Tolkien universe. The graphics were rubbish. You were the '@' symbol, and you go around pushing into enemies. That sounds terrible, but it was brilliant. It keeps getting updated though. It's hard to describe, but you could drink potions and knock down doors and allsorts.
What do you think is the worst game of all time and why?
That's tough. I guess probably something like Bad Boys II: Miami Takedown. Maybe not the worst game of all time, but certainly not one for anyone's resumé.
What question are you glad I didn't ask you?
Do you like GoldenEye?
