1) Your experience as game designer covers extremely heterogenous contexts... What's your secret? A combination of luck and flexibility. I wasn't really excited by the idea of designing a new sports game when I created the first CD-ROM edition of John Madden Football, but I realized that was what my company needed, and it would be an opportunity to do SOME kind of design, which would be worth it. Similarly when I went to Bullfrog -- I didn't worry that much about WHAT they wanted me to do; the chance to work there was worth it no matter what the work was actually about. 2) In your web space, you defined your design philosophy by using three major principles (computer games are made to fulfil dreams; interactivity is the raison d’être of all computer gamin; a game takes place in a world): how did you conceive them? My first experience of playing computer games required a great deal of imagination (it was on a slow printing terminal attached to a mainframe). I played a Star Trek game in which I got to be Captain Kirk, and give orders and see the results. This was a dream for me, so I realized that the whole point of gaming (large games, anyway) was about fulfilling a dream, making something real even if only inside my head. The rule about interactivity I realized when Hollywood tried to get into the game industry in the early 1990s, and they thought that interactivity is just something you "put in" to a game -- an afterthought. They were seriously wrong, and the games they made at that time reflect it. I also realized that they weren't making an effort to understand the player's wishes: the desire to act, not merely to watch. The third idea is simply an outgrowth of Huizinga's Magic Circle: it combines the idea of the Magic Circle (the make-believe place we go when we agree to play, and to obey the rules) with the imaginary aspect of the setting, a physical location that we feel we are part of. 3) Why did you decide to write "The Designer's Notebook" column for Gamasutra? I was an employee of Electronic Arts at the time, and although I liked my job, it didn't give me a platform to discuss my design ideas with my colleagues. So I thought it would be a great way to tell people what I was thinking about. Also, they pay me! 4) In your essay named "Sex in Computer Games" - almost five years ago - you expressed some preoccupations about "the way the First Amendment is interpreted for years to come". In which way did the situation advance? Fortunately, the news is pretty good. A few low-level courts have ruled in favor of restricting video games, but they have generally been overturned by the high-level courts. So First Amendment protection for video games seems fairly solid at this point... although that doesn't stop our critics from continuing to try. There's a state representative in California who keeps trying to get censorship bills through the Califoria state legislature. The Supreme Court Justices who were said to be retiring back then did not retire as predicted. 5) Your presence is very strong in USA and European Academic fields. Can you describe in what does your commitment consist? I'm supportive of efforts to study our medium and find out what can be done with it. Most game companies don't have the time for that, so I believe the academy is a valuable resource. I also feel that the academy allows opportunities for creativity that the game industry, constrained by commercial considerations, doesn't. So I hope to see a lot of imaginative work coming out of the academy in the future. That's I try to maintain connections on both sides of the divide. 6) Can videogames be (potentially or not) defined the "Gesamtkunstwerk", total artwork, as Richard Wagner did intend? I certainly don't think Wagner would recognize the Gasamtkunstwerk in today's video games; they don't contain the breadth and depth of vision that he expected of himself. Could they perhaps be a Gasamtkunstwerk in the future? I'm not sure. We have to remember that Wagner lived in the days before motion pictures, before recorded sound, and in a time when all art was presentational, not interactive. Therefore Wagner's own intentions were informed by an assumption that drama would be live action performed by real human beings directly in front of other real human beings. Because video games do not (and generally will not in the future) include an element of live performance, I don't think Wagner would recognize them as Gasamtkunstwerk. And I think he would have thought it very strange that the audience might participate in the experience of the work, as we do when we play a game. So I think they will never be as Wagner intended. But we could perhaps redefine the term for the modern era. Videogames may be the Gesamtkunstwerk of the 21st century. [Great question!] 7) Gossip: because of your partnership with Elixir Studios, you do know Demis Hassabis very well, I suppose. Which idea do you have about him? Actually, I don't know him very well. We only met once during my work there -- he was busy with other things. I get the impression that Demis is a simulation-oriented designer: he thinks in terms of underlying algorithms and how to build large, simulated worlds. 8) With the new generation of handheld consoles (Nintendo DS and Sony PSP), will videogamers' experiences change? If yes, in which way? Not much. The games will be be richer and better looking, but that has been a familiar sort of advance for the last 20 years. The physical format of handheld devices places limits on what you can do with them. They necessarily have a small screen and limited input controls. They're not really designed to be used with an Eye-Toy or a SingStar or a dance mat. (Those are the items that have really changed gaming a lot recently.) Wireless connectivity is also very important; it allows the creation of games not yet seen in the handheld market. That's showing up mostly in mobile phones, though. 9) What about your current projects? I'm consulting with THQ on their forthcoming game S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and with a company in Canada about doing a game with the film director David Cronenberg. I have also given some advice to an Australian firm working on augmented reality devices, and I have a number of smaller clients who have asked for my help with web-based games and specialty products. I hope very soon to start working on a textbook edition of my book, Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. I'm currently in discussions with my publishers about that. Apart from that I spend a good deal of time teaching all around the world. I'm frequently invited to be a keynote speaker at conferences, and I give game design workshops on a variety of subjects -- basic principles of design, narrative games, character design, and so on. 10) Thank you for this interview. It has been a pleasure.
|