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Harvey Smith, Ex-ION Storm Staffer, Profiled

Posted by Zonk on from the the-people-behind-the-games dept.

obchrisj writes "Harvey Smith, formerly of ION Storm and now Creative Director at Midway Austin, gets his trials and tribulations profiled in FileFront's latest F! True Gamer Story. Here's a clip: "The hours were long, sometimes putting in as many as one hundred hours a week, and he stayed in QA for a year before moving into development. From there he has worked on a variety of games since 1993, including Deus Ex: Invisible War, Deus Ex, CyberMage, and System Shock. Over the years, he has seen a lot, and believes the emphasis in graphics may finally be slowing down. 'We might be moving beyond the graphical arms race soon, focusing more on player-driven experience,' he said.""

4 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. Amazing. by keyne9 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    'We might be moving beyond the graphical arms race soon, focusing more on player-driven experience'


    I certainly goddamned hope so. When companies churn out exceptionally-graphicked games that play like crap, they're still crap. But if you have a good game, then it doesn't matter what the hell it looks like (within the realms of reason).

    It's the same reasoning in the movie industry, which has paralells to the gaming people. If you look at very, very pretty movies, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within for example, most people will tell you it's neat looking. Once you delve into the story, it's widely regarded as total junk. It failed as a storytelling device for most people.

    This is absolutely no different in video games. I sincerely hope that the industry finally realizes this.
  2. This man ruined DX: IW by Jonny_eh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All of the poor design decisions for DX: IW were made by this guy. Go back to QA. Oh and if good graphics aren't important, why does DX: IW run like ass, have small levels, and a weak story + disappointing gameplay. I'm gonna go RTFA now.

    1. Re:This man ruined DX: IW by johannesg · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I suspect the small levels happened because they wanted to support the X-Box (with its limited memory capabilities), and I furthermore suspect that this was not something he had control over. But other than that, I agree that Deus Ex: Invisible War represents something of a missed opportunity.

      One thing I find in games of this type that as soon as "you can go anywhere and do anything", it also means that it no longer really matters where you go or what you do. In that sense I prefer a strong story-driven approach, with real consequences to your actions. DX:IW failed spectacularly in this regard - no matter what you did, either party would take you back after minimal punishment, thus making the entire notion of choice irrelevant.

      Something that probably also turned a lot of people off, although I may be wrong about this, is the evolution of the game world. The original DX world was recognizable ours in the near future (and the missing WTC in the New York levels dramatically underscored this point). The DX:IW world is much further in the future, and too alien and unrecognizable to many players. It just doesn't click the way DX did.

      The small levels, the pathetic graphic performance, the dumbing down of the interface, and the somewhat uninspired architecture could have been forgiven if the previous two points had been fixed, but as it is it adds up to an underwhelming experience.

      However, I still have hope for future Deus Ex stories. One possible direction would be to return to J.C. Denton's time and play alternative storylines, i.e. look at the world from other viewpoints. One obvious candidate for a hero would be Paul.

      Alternatively, just declare DX:IW a bad dream induced by J.C. being hit on the head once too often, and make a _true_ sequel...

    2. Re:This man ruined DX: IW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      This is not the least insightful. Harvey Smith was the lead designer of the original and phenomenal Deus Ex. He knows his stuff.

      Things went wrong in the development of Invisible War, as Smith and other developers has admitted, and blaming it on only one person is unfair. I'd say the main problems were the new engine they developed and Eidos, the publisher. Invisible War clearly wasn't given the resources or time it needed.