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10 Game Industry Questions - Rob Davis

AUSTRALIAN GAME INDUSTRY Q and A - 10 Questions with Rob Davis - Game designer for Pandemic Studios, Brisbane

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Fullname: Rob Davis

Gender: Male

Age: 25

Current Company: Pandemic Studios, Brisbane

Current Project: Unannounced Title

Gaming Systems Owned: N64, Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, 360, Wii GBA, DS, PSP, etc etc etc

1. What is your job role where you work and can you explain what it entails?

I�ve been working at Pandemic as a games designer for a few years and right now we�re working on a new next gen title. Pandemic is probably best known for Mercenaries 2, Star Wars Battlefront and Destroy All Humans! and what do all those games have in common? Well if you are playing along at home and you said "Er...they�re all open world games?" you�d be correct (You can collect your prize from the lovely Samantha)*. So when I swing into work I can be pretty sure that my day is going to be filled with Mission Design, World design, Feature Prototyping (and Board Games).

If you want a little more complex answer:
When it comes to mission design we try to manipulate the game�s main systems to create interesting and unique scenarios for the player whilst also trying to tell the game�s main story. In terms of World design, Open World games have a lot in common with MMOs and Sim games because they encourage the player to explore the landscape anyway they want. So one thing we try to do is to give the player big landmarks in the world to explore. Then we try to build interesting paths that allow the player to navigate to them in a in a fun and entertaining manner.

Finally, when it comes to prototyping we have a very "hands on" approach to design. We�re very tools focused designers so when we want to put a cool feature into the game the very first step is to build a prototype and see how it feels in the build.

Oh and as for the Board games, that doesn�t really have anything to do with my job and more to do with the fact that I love to whittle my lunchtimes away in the lands of Castle Caylus and Puerto Rico**.

2. What games have you been directly involved with previously?

Ty 3 at Krome Studios
Destroy All Humans 2 at Pandemic

3. How did you get your start in the gaming industry?

I was 21 and fresh out of college. There was a job opening at Krome for a level designer advertised on Sumea.com and I really really really wanted the gig. So when they sent me the level design test I took it a bit further and built the level in 3DSMax. Then I animated a really simple character (A blob in fact) running and jumping around in it and to top it off I recorded a voice-over commentary of what was happening in the scene. I chucked the whole thing into After Effects and sent them a cool movie of my level. John Passfield (the then Creative Director of Krome) thought it was a pretty neat package and gave me my first gig.

When I turned up they forgot that they�d hired me which was funny (in retrospect) but skipping 9 months later down the track I�d got my name on a cool little platform game starring a Tasmanian Tiger.

I guess the moral of the story is that putting in a bit of extra effort into submissions pays off�In retrospect it probably would have been faster to just sleep my way to the top or something. (After all, everyone loves a young Jewish guy!)

4. What has been the most positive experience of working in the games industry so far?

Boss battles!

The Short answer: They are so huge in scope and spectacle that you get to work on something epic and you get access to a ton of resources to build it. When they are done they are a really great set piece for the game so getting to work on them is the good times.

And a bit more of a complex answer: Western Games design (Especially open world games) tends to follow the "30 seconds of gameplay" philosophy*** but with Boss Battles we throw that all out the window a bit. So they end up being a really nice change of pace because they are such a unique piece in the game. They are custom built just for that 5-10 minutes of gameplay so there is nothing else in the game that is really like them which is really refreshing to be a part of.

5. What has been the most negative experience of working in the games industry so far?

Boss battles!

The Short answer: They are so huge in scope and spectacle that they can take forever to get right. Getting a boss battle to feel good can sometimes be as much work as building a whole other mini-game on top of what you already have.

And an aside: The other thing that�s tough/weird about bosses is that they are usually waaaay better when they do less****. The heartbreaking thing is that the temptation is there to give them everything including the kitchen sink. (I mean, they are usually the coolest enemies in the game, right? That�s why they get to be a boss after all so there�s so much cool stuff they can potentially do.) So having to pick just a couple of things can quickly drive a man insane.

6. What advice can you give to other people looking to get into a position such as yours?

Get your hands dirty with something. We just hired a really great junior designer and one of the key selling points was that he had independently learnt the Unreal, Hammer, and Neverwinter editors. That may not seem like a huge deal but it is! It shows that you can learn toolsets, that you are passionate about games and that you could perform a similar role professionally.

Also, keep your eyes open for any gig (Remember, even experience on a really simple game is better than no experience at all).

Get to know the people in your neighbourhood, they can give you some great advice and sometimes it�s not so much what you know but who you know.

7. How do you see Australia as a market when compared to the rest of the world?

Well I don�t think we are an enormous industry but I do think we�re a microcosm of the international industry.

One thing that makes me think that is that we�ve got a really split development scene in Australia. Like you are either on a project that costs millions upon millions of dollars (BioShock, LA Noire, Total War) or you are on a project that is more of a "Gun for hire" approach (Firemint, Tantalus, Redtribe). I think that�s also happening internationally too (for better or worse) so in that sense we are operating like the rest of the world.

One other thing that makes us feel more international is that we are keeping up with the new trends from the international scene. As an example, lately we�ve started seeing this new concept of "Break out indy hits" in the international marketplace. However, just as the world market is getting its Everyday Shooter, Desktop tower Defence and Line Riders Australia is right up there with stuff like Puzzle Quest. When you see puzzle quest for the first time the whole reaction is like, "Where the heck did this game come from?!" You had one of the biggest games of last year and you were on like 6 SKUs but did anyone know it was coming. That�s really a cool thing and in the end I was playing it so much that I was seeing those little falling gems in my sleep.

8. Got any good stories you want to share?

Yeah, none that are really appropriate...

9. What are your favourite games and why?

Mmmm tough but ill stick to 3:

Wario Ware (Gameboy Advance)
I could gush about this game all day but I think, ultimately, the thing that I really love about it is that it redefines what it means for pacing in games. I guess bishi bashi and a couple of others trod this territory too but the whole concept of a Micro Game was brand new to me when I picked this up and it left me really amazed. The way that you are thrown from one world to another is really fascinating and the fact that you can immediately recognize and react to what that world is all within 5 seconds is testimony to it. Also the art style is amazing and the multiplayer is actually really great!
Prince Of Persia: Sands of Time
It�s got a few problems and it�s by no means a perfect game but I really like the way it looks at some things in a different light. It takes the idea of "lives" in a platformer (something that was becoming so redundant in the genre) and replaces them with the Rewind mechanic. Not only is that visually amazing but it means that player can take leaps of faith and experiment with the levels a bit knowing that they can always safely rewind. Suddenly using "lives" is actually a fun mechanic. So clever!

It�s also got a really great narrative and I love that they use that to redefine the way "Game over" works. When the player dies and the Prince just says "no no no that�s not the way the story goes" they are actually embedding "Game over" into the narrative. How clever is that?!
Pokemon Red/Blue
I think I actually knew *everything* about this game when I played it some years ago. I clocked something crazy like 100+ hours into it. I just wish that competitive gaming had been around at the time so I could have taken my team on the road (Fyi I played with Lv100s Mewtwo, Zapdos, Dragonite, Venusaur, Golem and Lapras)

Runners up:

Theme Park
Super Smash Bros Melee

10. If you could meet any gaming character in real life, who would it be and why?

Ken Masters from the Street Fighter series.

Apart from the obvious reasons***** I think he�s great in the Street Fighter Animated series.

Also I love that Capcom took these two characters that were essentially palette swaps of one and another (Ryu/Ken) and over the last 15-years or so has actually made their play-styles and metagames unique. From the addition of fire to Ryu�s Fireball and Ken�s Dragon Punch to today where Ryu is more of a punch focused and power-strike character (almost more like Akira from VF) and Ken is more of a Kick focused combo character, Capcom has really branched the two characters apart. I think that�s really awesome and im really looking forward to see what happens next with them in SF4.

* The lovely Samantha: http://us.ent4.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/lions_gate_films/house_of_1000_corpses/karen_black/corpses.jpg

** Wow I just read over some of the other 10 question docs and that could very well be the geekiest thing ever said in the interview set.

*** In case you aren�t familiar, 30 seconds of Gameplay is a production method where you build a few core systems and then just build interesting scenarios for them to take place in. (Eg. Halo�s main mechanic is shooting/grenades and almost everything is iterative of that. Same goes for Driving/Firing Weapons in Mario Kart and Strumming/Drumming/Singing in Rock Band).

**** Exhibit A: These guys only have a couple of moves but its one of the best Boss battles I can think of! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KStpDpItAgs&feature=related

**** The obvious reasons: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ng6kJMEjH10&feature=related

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