Interview with Harvey Smith

Interview with Harvey Smith, aka Witchboy,
Lead Designer for Deus Ex and Project Leader for Deus Ex 2.

Spoonman: First let me ask you some questions about how the project started. How was the DX team formed? Were there some teams that were embedded or was it completely new?

Harvey Smith: Warren Spector had been at the (Texas) Looking Glass office in Austin. After that, he was looking to start another studio (with some of the same people). They hooked up with ION Storm and started staffing up for what would become the hybrid action/adventure RPG called Deus Ex. I had worked with some of those guys (including Warren) at Origin in Austin. After Origin, I had moved to California to work on a game called FireTeam. After leaving California, I signed on to work on Deus Ex at the ION Storm Austin office.

Sp: Had this team made something (or maybe had ideas to make something) before the making of DX?

HS: The people on our team had shipped a number of games. Most of us had, in some way, contributed to simulation, science fiction, fantasy and RPG titles, specifically.

Sp: Well, let's get to the game...

Sp: Are there any differences between DX that you figured out at the start and DX that has hit the stores?

HS: Too many to list - games undergo massive change as they are developed.

SP Do you feel that you have lost or forgot something essential to the game that you planned to make during the development process? If yes, do you regret it?

HS:Overall, Deus Ex is a game that stayed true to its core design goals. Certain people may have wanted to see more or less of the elements in the game, but overall it was always intended as a hybrid of game-styles, with as much story, interactivity and freedom of expression as possible. We had some interesting ideas about what to do with secondary characters allied to the player that we eventually jettisoned, but beyond that most of the cuts were content - missions, weapons and characters.

Sp: Most Deus Ex players (I am one of them) think that you have reached almost perfect balance between all the weaponry presented in the game. Do you think the same? Was the balancing hard?

HS: I think the weapons and tools were well balanced for the needs of a *single player game* specifically. That is, they worked in the context of a single player moving through the missions, making choices about his character. But they were badly in need of mechanical balancing for multiplayer, which was handled by the DX mp patch team. Balancing the weapons for single player was time consuming and required us to understand the balance of the elements in the game (like types of ammo and strengths of various enemy units), but balancing for multiplayer was much more difficult.

Sp: Were the mods for weapons planned at the start or were they some kind of a tool for improving the balance?

HS: That concept was added much later. We liked it a lot because it allowed the player to further differentiate his set of character powers. We had plans for many more 'combinable' game objects, but we cut that feature, except for mods.

Sp: Was there any reason for making the storyline split majorly only in the last mission of the game? What's your favourite ending?

HS: Well, the earlier you split, the more you double or triple the size of the game, in general. I prefer the Join the Illuminati ending.

Sp: A spoiler please. Is there a way of getting Paul live from Hell's Kitchen?

HS: Yes. Don't sneak out the window of the apartment. Stand by your brother and fight your way out the front. Paul will live if you do that; if you slink away, he dies.

SP: Are you happy with the "level of freedom" you gave to the player, or do you think this was insufficient or superfluous?

HS: I am very happy with it overall. I'd like to have provided more character customization (like by providing a female character) and I would have liked the AI to have better supported emergent situations - we started on the AI too late in the process, I believe.

Sp: Now that DX is already in stores, can you see any things in the game that you would have made another way if you could?

HS: Oh my god, yes. I cannot look at the game without seeing all the things I wish could have been better. I like the game, but I have looked at it for over 2 years straight now.

Sp: Can you see any activity of the creative players encouraged by the release of the SDK and the multiplayer patch already?

HS: Some. We hope to see some awesome single and multiplayer work created by the mod community.

Sp: Somewhere here should be DX1 system requirements questions, but I won't ask them because of some reasons. I'll just ask you the last one. Are you happy with what are you doing?

HS: I love games. Specifically, I love ambitious, high fidelity world simulations that allow the player to create things and to express himself. So, yeah, I'm happy - I'm in the right place right now.

Interviewed by: Spoonman