The Too Human Side of Denis Dyack, Part Two

A candid chat with the president of Silicon Knights
3/13/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Crispy Gamer: What's it like to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel? Is this what you eventually wanted?

Dyack: Yes, the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train. Yeah, it's awesome, actually. I can't describe it. Morale is really, really picking up -- internally, people are starting to see the potential of the game, and it's such a big project that it's hard for something like that to occur to you until you're near the end. The reception that we got from GDC, on top of all of the focus testing results that we have -- people say, Wow, this is really good -- and there are a lot of elements missing when we focus test. All of those things together make us think that we really achieved what we set out to do. In the end, whether we're crucified or people love the game, we feel really good about what we've created, and it's going to be a real watermark for the company when this comes out. I've always said, when you release a game there's no feeling like it. It's not like when you graduate from school. I don't have any children -- it's probably similar to having children, but it's not quite that important. I think this is going to fall on the higher end of the scale of really big moments for Silicon Knights, and I think it'll be a defining moment for us.

Crispy Gamer: Originally on the Xbox 360 you were building it with the Unreal technology, and then you switched it to the Silicon Knights engine -- how much did this change set you back time-wise?

Dyack: Quite a bit of time. We generally don't want to talk about that stuff because it goes into the litigation. It was a significant setback. Props to Microsoft and our other partners for seeing us through the problems that we had with the engine. I think that through all the hard effort, we came through it. Considering the way the game turned out now, we managed to create the game we originally set out to make.

Crispy Gamer: Can you say where things are right now with the suit with Epic and can you say how much longer this is going to be?

Dyack: I cannot. I'm sorry. I can't comment on the litigation.

Crispy Gamer: Back at X05, I went to dinner with you and Mark Rein -- are you guys on talking terms, at least?

Dyack: I would like to say that Silicon Knights is always on talking terms with anybody. So, sure.

Crispy Gamer: Silicon Knights is growing quite substantially right now. How large is the company?

Dyack: We're about 175 people. We expect to grow by another 60 to 70 people over the next several months. We expect to grow quite a bit.

Crispy Gamer: Will the whole trilogy be published by Microsoft?

Dyack: I think so. I don't see why not. There are no plans otherwise and the same question comes up -- "Will we be able to finish it up on the 360?" -- and the answer is yes.

Crispy Gamer: Speaking of the trilogy, now that your engine is where it is, you guys are putting the final touches on the first game. How fast do you think you'll be able to release the second and third part?