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| Interview with Adam Pletcher |
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Here's a great interview that I (Orange) recently conducted with Volition's Adam Pletcher. He really answered some great (and some not so great..) questions with some great answers! Here begins the interview:
The usual beginning to our Volition Watch interviews: Tell us a little about your self. Who you are, where you went to college, what you like to do in your spare time, etc.
I'm Adam Pletcher, Art Director at Volition. I'm usually in a lead position on one of our projects, but I also take care of company-wide artist hiring and less exciting admin stuff. I have a BS in Computer Tech from Purdue University, and a minor in Fine Arts. I was going to be a programmer at one point in time, but (thankfully) I ended up landing an art position at what was Parallax.
I still play as many games as I can in my spare time. I like all sorts, and don't really stick to one genre over another. I'm currently playing Zeus, which is very fun, and brushing up my Worms Armageddon skills for this Volition tourney Baranec ("Help me, DaveB!!!") is organizing.
I have a rowdy six month old son, so playing with him is really my main hobby. :)
What does it take to become an artist for a game developer, and what would you have to do for your job?
It's hard to give specific advice on how to break into game art, since there are many ways. The best advice would be to go to an art school, if possible. One that gives instruction in one or more of these areas: 3D modeling/texturing, life drawing, industrial design, multimedia, character animation, architecture, etc. Having a knowledge of programming concepts is also very valuable for any artist.
Having projects outside of normal classwork is also a great thing to show. Pursue your interests.
I heard a rumor that to determine who was the Lead Artist on Summoner, they held sack races on consecutive Sundays until a winner resulted with all of the artists. Is there any truth to this? Um.. oh yeah, my real question is: How'd you get to be the Lead Artist?
Lead Artist positions vary from project to project here... it's really more of a role than a position. I was the Lead Artist on Summoner, but I may be doing something else on the next project. The real answer is, since I'm the Art Director, I make a lot of the art assignment decisions. Frank Capezzuto, for example, was the logical choice for the Art Lead position on Red Faction since he's got a great eye for mechanical designs, does amazing concept and texture work, and did a great job on his FreeSpace art.
It's really a mix of who's best for the job, and who did a killer job on the last project.
From what we ve seen so far in reviews of Summoner, the people reviewing the games said they have seen things that are "incomplete". Would you say this is true, or are those reviewers just not getting the right thing out of the game?
I assume you mean in terms of bugs? There's a few in Summoner, sure, but nothing game-breaking. Getting the timestamp wrong on the savegames doesn't hurt anything, but certainly makes the game look less polished than it could be. There's other areas of polishing we would have liked to do, but we were also very interested in making the PS2 launch. If we thought there was anything that debilitated the gameplay in for the average gamer, we would have held onto it and missed launch to make it right. I'm still proud we made our dates and have a massive and fun RPG.
You seem to have had a wide range of work at Volition. You pretty much wrote Descent: Freespace The Great War, and now you're a lead artist. Can we expect to see you taking on other positions in the future?
Oh, probably. Like most of the people here, I like to do different things, and work on different types of projects. Being an Art Lead is awesome, but very hard as well... I wouldn't mind doing something different on the next project. Being a Lead Designer is even harder, but it's definitely different, with all sorts of new challenges.
Do you think the Summoner team will immediately begin on a sequel for the Summoner franchise, or will they start on something new?
Sadly, I can't really discuss specifics, but we are interested in doing a sequel. When and if that starts, and when we take on other projects is something I can't really elaborate on right now. [Ed. Note. Shoot! I tried.]
It seems that Volition's been hiring a lot of new people lately. Are you planning on maybe having 3 development teams in the future as opposed to 2, or are you just expanding on your current development teams?
We are interested in expanding to three teams in the future. We're still in the idea/planning stages, but may be hiring a third team before too long.
Sorry, I m required to ask this: Tribes 2 or Halo?
Tribes 2, for sure. We played Tribes to death here at Volition, and I'm certainly looking forward to playing the sequel. Halo isn't much of a blip on my radar, I have to say. Too few specifics on the gameplay has been shown at this point for me to take much interest in it. [Ed. Note. Yay!]
Here's a question from a Canadian who chooses to remain anonymous. For the sake of the interview, we ll just call him "C. Czerneda". Wait, no, I like "Colin C." better. Anyways, he wanted me to ask about your "TOOL", so who/what/where/why/when/how is your "TOOL"?
My PS2 development TOOL is sitting next to me. It's been turned off for a few weeks, since the only PS2 stuff I've been doing is planning the final interface work for the PC version.
What is the future of Volition? With all the licenses THQ has been buying, some of the community is concerned of Volition making a game ala "Rugrats Adventure 2000, These Babies Have Geo-Mod"!
That's an amusing title, I think THQ is less likely to want us to make something like that then we are in proposing it. They would give consideration to any game idea we had, but they also know the types of games we're good at making. It's that ability and interest that makes us a valuable studio for them. Forcing us to work on something isn't going to happen, but assuming they did, it would be counter-productive for everyone involved.
I can imagine nothing worse than playing a game that was developed by an uninterested team. Developers have to be passionate about the game, and THQ knows this, without a doubt.
Don't be fooled by our competitors cheep still Adam Pletcher dolls! This one has Crazy Karate Chop ActionTM!!!
Viewer Submitted Questions.. be very scared:
Do you prefer white meat or dark meat on Thanksgiving?
White meat. I'm probably a freak, but like it dry, too. [Ed. Note. Probably!!!]
What was your favorite cartoon as a child?
Battle of the Planets. On most Saturday mornings, I could get about an hour or two of channel 32 out of Chicago. They aired that show at 6:00, and I was awake for every one of them. It was the first cartoon I saw that wasn't slapstick... it took itself seriously.
Some weird conversion of it called G-Force ran on the Cartoon Network recently, but it wasn't the same. They did new translations on it and they ruined the characters. Mark was called Ace or something, it was horrifying.
Who would win a fight to the death: Matt Kresge or Todd Miller?
Hmm. I'd have to say Kresge, assuming he'd had enough sleep the night before. :)
What would you fix in Summoner?
The savegame timestamps for one. That's pretty embarrassing. I would have liked to not limit the camera in some of the levels, since that's caught some flak.
What would you scream if you were stuck in traffic with someone crying about Freespace 3?
"Even WE don't know how it ends!!!"
Who am I and why am I here?
Uh. Rutabega
What's your favorite modelling program and why? Have you used many?
MAX. I haven't used many for long periods of time, no. I have spent some time in Maya, and used to know some Lightwave, but MAX has always struck more chords in me, for sure.
What part of modelling do you enjoy most?
Actually doing some. :) I don't do much, but I like the challenge of low-poly work the most, actually.
Everyone thank Adam Pletcher for the stellar interview! He answered all of our questions and did a great job! Thanks! :)
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