The Prototype Eric Holmes Interview
You may not know the name Eric Holmes just yet, but odds are good you’ve heard of his work. As a Lead Designer at Radical Entertainment, Eric was a driving force behind the The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, one of the best comic-based video games in recent memory. Now, Eric is hard at work on Activision’s next big original IP, Prototype. I managed to pry him away from the latest round of testing and development for the game and talk to him about just how involved the design process is, what gamers can look for in the upcoming sandbox adventure, and what kind of pressure there is on the development team to succeed.
Crispy Gamer: Hey Eric. I know things are nuts with the development of Prototype these days. Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to talk. Okay, so for those that may not know, you’re Lead Designer over at Radical Entertainment. First and foremost, what exactly is your role in the development of the game?
Eric Holmes: That means I get to work with all sorts of talented specialists on a great next-gen game. The Lead Designer role is all about where we’re going, what the game overall is – and then working with specialists much smarter and more talented than you are to actually get there.
CG: For all those people out there gunning for your job, or one like it, what kind of background do you think a person should look at before trying to jump into the role of a game designer?
EH: I think you need to come in with a LOVE for games and gaming and a passion to create. The rest is quite open to interpretation. This project is the first time we’ve had “for-real” Game Design Graduates come onto our team and that has been a huge success for us. We’ve also got a lot of experienced designers on our team, and the backgrounds are beyond mixed. Let me think … one fellow has a BSc in Zoology followed up with a PhD in CompSci, another has a background in tabletop RPGs, another is an artist that made the leap. Another made technically challenging PC game mods and came knocking on our door at exactly the time when we needed someone like that. More than one made the leap from QA by getting onto a team then getting involved … there’s a broad mix.
The common element with all of these guys is that you have to LOVE games and have buzzing through your mind a lot. Study games, books, comic books, movies … analyze , have an opinion, figure out how to make things better… and keeping that passion once you’re there.
CG: So, based on your experience, what do you think is the most important element in the design of a quality game?
EH: If a game isn’t fun, the rest doesn’t matter. It has to be fun from the moment you have that controller in your hand.
CG: There’s been a lot of talk going on by developers and publishers about the whole process of reviewing games, including ditching percentile-based metascores. What are your thoughts on the review process and what do you think should be changed?
EH: Interesting question. I guess we have to consider what reviews are for. Generally reviews are for consumers to decide whether or not they’re going to buy a game. If scores help with that, what’s the problem? There is a lot of focus on the numbers, but I really don’t mind it. It’s an abstract metric, but if it helps people decide whether to make a purchase or not, then who are we to fight it?
Sometimes I’ll buy a game that’s out of my area of interest just because it scores high and I want to see where the high watermark is in that genre. For that reason alone, I kind of like scores.
Publisher Pressure and Paul Jenkins –>
