Designer Notes

Designer Notes 72: Harvey Smith

Jan 10, 2023

02:38:58

Creator website

Highlights

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Episode notes

You Make It Up as You Go Along Yeah Yeah, Yeah, You're a Programmer.

04:08

Atari 2600 Cartridge Adventure by Warren Robinette

01:44

Deus Ex - A Great Challenge, Right?

03:59

Introduction

2min

I'm Just Ground Up the Quarters for Arcade Game

2min

Atari 2600 Cartridge Adventure by Warren Robinette

2min

D&D - The Biggest Influence on My Life

2min

ADD Distraction Anxiety

3min

Is There a Moment for Level Designers Who Work in Immersive Sims?

4min

Early Gamer's Anecdote

2min

Game Designers Think That's a Bad Idea

1min

Sleeping Better

2min

10.

I Was a Chemical Plant Worker and I Was Like a Barber and I Would Take Anything

5min

11.

How to Get a Game Designer Job

2min

12.

Did You Just Bumble Into It?

3min

13.

I'm a TDA Technical Design Assistant

2min

14.

The Three Things Are Killing Us Right Now

2min

15.

QA in the 80s

4min

16.

I Was a Tester and I Was an Associate Producer

2min

17.

Deus Ex: The First RTS Game I've Played

1min

18.

Deus Ex Half-Life One System Stolen

5min

19.

Deus Ex - What Was It All About?

3min

20.

Deus Ex - How to Motivate a Team

4min

21.

Strategy Games

4min

22.

Level Design Immersive Sims

3min

23.

Deus Ex Levels

6min

24.

How Many People Played Dishonored Without Killing Anyone?

5min

25.

Getting Too Philosophical About a Game

3min

26.

Level Design - The Simplest Dumbest Thing in the World

3min

27.

How Much Is Necessary for the Players to Have Fun?

2min

28.

Mudlark in Dishonor

1min

29.

How Do You Know if You're a Billionaire?

4min

30.

Game Development Tools Can Change Your Game

3min

31.

Is Your UI Invisible?

3min

32.

Deus Ex - The First Mission

2min

33.

How Many People Do You Have?

2min

34.

Level Designers Are Empowered, Right?

3min

35.

The Second Half of Dishonored

2min

36.

How to Make a Multi Platform Game Work for All Platforms

2min

37.

Deus Ex - A Great Challenge, Right?

4min

38.

A Game Based on the Movie Heat by Michael Man - Uh, You Steal From the Future to Pay the Present

2min

39.

Arkane - What Was Your Goal the Project Like?

3min

40.

The Dark Messiah - A Game of Thieves

4min

41.

Is There a Better Way to Play the Game With a Sword and Blink?

3min

42.

The Heart of the Empress

2min

43.

The Heart of Dishonor 2 - A Game Design Trick

2min

44.

Arcane - Is That Too Heavy-Handed?

2min

45.

How Do You Approach This Type of Brand Chain in a Game?

3min

46.

Dishonored to - The Heart Again

5min

47.

Deus X2 - Text to Speech

2min

48.

Redfall Is a Pandemic Game

3min

49.

Video Games and the Pandemic and It's Cool

2min

50.

You Know, I Don't Have a Degree

4min

51.

Um, I'm High Right Now Because I Love Games

4min

52.

I'm a Writer and Editor and I've Been Around the Block a Few Times and I Was Like, I Never Said That

4min

53.

You Make It Up as You Go Along Yeah Yeah, Yeah, You're a Programmer.

4min

54.

The Importance of Getting Feedback From the Audience

6min

55.

I'm Coming in on the Beginning of a Story Um, Yeah, Cool.

2min

In this episode, Soren and Leyla interview veteran game designer Harvey Smith, best known for his work on the Deus Ex and Dishonored series. They discuss what TDA stood for at Origin, if Dishonored is just Thief but faster, and why it is sometimes better to be heavy handed. This episode was recorded on March 23, 2022.

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