Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Brian Hook Interview

Posted by Hemos on from the learning-the-game-market dept.

A reader writes:"I just read this very in-depth interview with Brian Hook on a site called Curmudgeon Gamer. Hook used to work for id Software (Quake 2 and 3) and later for Verant (Everquest) and he apparently worked on Glide for the old 3DFX cards. Now he runs his own smaller game company called Pyrogon. In the interview he talks about development styles of Q2 and Q3, MMORPGs, the lessons of 3DFX, and development of cross-platform games like his Candy Cruncher (which is available for MacOSX and Linux!). He even gets into some criticism of modern games and the life of a smaller game developer. Lengthy read, but lots of stuff to think about there since he tells it like he sees it."

4 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Re:modern trends are too predictable by RLiegh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think that's why other genres like the life-building Sim City games have become so popular. Killing monsters is getting old for sure.

    For some reason spending hours exploring dungeons and killing monsters is seen as adolescent; but spending hours making houses and watching simulated people is 'sophisticated'.

    That one has always puzzed me.
  2. OpenGL's parents by reidbold · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think a good issue is (re)raised here with regards to OpenGL having no one really looking after it now. OpenGL is the crux of porting games to non-ms platforms. He mentioned that it was a reasonable task to write rendering code that works across different graphics api's, and IANA graphics developer so I'd like to know what other people feel about this. And by extension, is it really that important for a game to use OpenGL to be easily portable?

    --
    -Reid
  3. Brian Hook Speech by MrCode · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I attended a speech by Brian Hook at the University of Florida a few years back. He had once been a student there before dropping out to work at 3Dfx. As I recall he was still at 3Dfx at that time (which was well before 3Dfx melted down.) It was an interesting speech, relating how he went from a student half-way through his studies to the creator of the Glide API.

    One thing that is interesting is that I think has become much less arrogant as he has gotten older (he seems quite humble in this interview.) I mean he did create Glide almost single-handedly. Of course I imagine that getting humble with age is a pretty standard trend, especially among software developers. How many developers in the audience remember how arrogant they were when younger? I know I was. Ah, the ignorance of youth...

  4. Re:Sigh. Brian Hook. Sigh. by MisterFancypants · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Quake2 shipped while Brian Hook was still at id, he was even around during a lot of the Quake3 development.

    In any case, I'd much rather hear Brian Hook speak than, say, Seamus Blackley... now THERE is a bloated ego for no reason.