Harvey Smith Knows the Secret to Magical Games

The Fourth Curtain

Our guest this week is the co-creative director of Arkane Studios, Harvey Smith. Starting out in QA for System Shock and other games, he went on to be lead designer for Deus Ex and ultimately made Dishonored at Arkane. We talk meeting your heroes, recombining systems and the secret to making a magical game this week!
[00:00:00] - Harvey Smith discusses his first encounter with a game that sparked his passion, System Shock, comparing it to seeing one's first love in a movie.
[00:45:00] - Harvey recounts his experience with Ultima 8, explaining how he created a list of 100 ways the game could have been improved and how he was eventually given a team to fix these issues.
[01:05:00] - Harvey shares the development of Deus Ex, discussing how the team decided to extend the development period by six months after realizing the game could be significantly improved.
[01:13:00] - Harvey emphasizes the importance of having additional time for game development, citing examples like Deus Ex and Dishonored, where extra time made a substantial difference in quality.
[01:17:00] - Harvey and Alex discuss the challenges and rewards of working in the game industry, touching on topics like QA work, the grind of production, and the passion required to succeed.
[01:25:00] - The episode wraps up with thanks to the listeners, information about the production team, and a call to action to visit the podcast's website and follow on various platforms.

Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life!
Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin
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Featuring the music track Liberation by 505