full circle

We're coming back to Wisconsin! This is full circle for me. One of the first cities I lived in out of highschool was Green Bay. I moved away from there in later 1995. It's been 10 years and alot has changed, but now I will be moving back to good ol' GB.


I just gave my resignation to Radical Entertainment. Over the last 1.5 years I've been part of one of the best game teams in existence. We created Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. This team delivered fully on the Hulk experience. Which is what a game should be about, it should be about delivering (in a consistent way) on a certain type of experience. Too often, as developers, we take a laundry list mentality to creating our games. Every game must have: bump mapping, rag doll physics, squad tactics, free roam, muliplayer, co-op. The list goes on.

A good game is about focus, and making the right decisions. In any good game this is clearly evident: GTA3 focus exclusively on free roam, they did not add squad tactics- it would have been pointless and most likely it would have hurt the game. They did not give a damn about the fact that their targeting system for firearms was a little poor. Would it have been better with this fixed? Sure, it could have been improved, but efforts were better spent elsewhere and that decision pays off. Focus is key to success, and I see our team had it.

We all know this as developers, deep down... but we get carried away in the hype. Gamers have no clue how games are made. They only know buzz words, and they might think they have some idea for how easy it must be to make a game with those buzz words included. As smart and as experienced as we are, we get caught up in that occasionally. For Hulk:UD we did not and this is why the game is ranking in the upper 80th percentile from the reviews we've seen. We currently have a lot of people telling us how great this game is. Like the guys who developed God of War, they love it.

The next game from this team is going to be even better. So I'll miss being a part of that.

At the same time, I have come to know the truth about the industry: there are no short hours. Look at this, for proof. This industry is all about crunch times, it's the only way a game is made decent. True, Radical did a better job at it than Raven, EA, Rockstar. But at the end of the day- you WILL have to work 60-80 hours a week at least during those last couple of months. If you don't, they you suck and the game will suffer. If the game sucks then you might as well be making banking software or flash web games. Because otherwise, what is the point?

It's a great industry but it's not meant for a family guy or anyone who wants a life separate from gaming.

This is what it came down to, if I was to keep my "rock star" games industry job, I'd be hurting my family and myself. Perhaps if we could have convinced someone (anyone!) to move out to this paradise it would be different. And trust me- this IS paradise. It snowed once this winter, never dipped below 30 and during summer as hot as we get is 80 without humidity. That, and we never bother closing the windows or doors since there are NO mosquitos.

Truly, THIS is where everyone should be- not in the barren freezing (and WAY too hot in summer) wastelands of the midwest. But, we could not convince anyone to move out here. Even if we had, I'd still have to convince Radical to keep me at strictly reduced hours. Something maybe they would have done, but who knows. I would have been producer here, someday I can feel it- so they probably would have. But that is only part of the equation.

In the end it also came down to the fact that I love and miss teaching. It might not be a rockstar glorious thing to do, but I liked teaching those undergrads at UW-M how to write C++ code. Now instead of teaching only C++ I will be teaching games. My work is cut out for me, ITT-Green Bay has a long way to go to become Full Sail or Digipen. But mark my words: it WILL happen. They are giving me the clearance to change curriculum, get in guest lectures from the industry, and potentially hire other games industry veterans. This is something that many games schools have not done in the past. So I am confident this will work, it's all on my shoulders.

I have been ranting for years about how schools do not teach what they should. I feel I have a very good idea of what they SHOULD be teaching, and some schools are getting hints at this too. People like Robin Hunicke as well as researchers like the xeodesign group are finally making a more formal study out of what we do as game developers. And why shouldn't they? Film schools are successful in churning out budding young independent film makers, who occasionally make it into the industry. We need more of this give and take in industry.

These are going to be challenging times, it will be alot of work to get the program to how I want it. But, I will have family all around me and the support we need to make this work. Hell maybe I'll even pick up hobbies that I ditched more than a year ago, like playing DnD and DJing once in a great while.

To be honest, I am glad we are going to GB. It's a blue-collar wisconsin town. I miss that, I miss the simplicity of it, the honesty. Also, for when we put the kids to bed- there is a bit of culture. In fact, when I moved to Madison from GB- I lamented about how there were more cool dance clubs in GB than in Madison (changed now of course).

Oh and the other thing: it's cheap as fuck! Which will really allow us to live a good life. It will be a great place to raise children, which is the ultimate goal of all of this.

Wisconsin, here we come!