Dev Box Interview: Hidden Path Entertainment’s Co-Founder Michael Austin

Written by 2.o | October 1, 2009

Defense Grid Dev Box

It usually takes a small army to create the video games that we play, and, most of the time, all of the focus gets put on the game itself, and not on the people that came together to make it. Our Dev Box interview series takes a look at some of the unsung heroes that have committed their lives to entertaining all of us. In this week’s expanded Dev Box we are letting Hidden Path Entertainment’s Co-Founder and CTO Michael Austin provide us some insight into who he is as a gamer, and how he ended up working in the game’s industry.

Name: Michael Austin
Title: CTO / Co-Founder
Company: Hidden Path Entertainment
Job Description: When you run a small company, you do everything.
First title worked on: “Amped”
Most recent title worked on: “Defense Grid: The Awakening”

What game has most influenced you, and why?

After playing games for 30 years (yipes!) it’s hard to pick one out. In my early years, I think it was the original “Zelda.” It was so different from the other types of games—you could go anywhere, explore, it had secrets to find.. a huge step up from “Asteroids” and “Tank.” I think the games that come closest to my dream game were “Morrowind” and “Oblivion” — I love the feel in a game that you can go anywhere and play it however you want.

What are you playing right now?

I’ve been playing a lot of “Defense Grid,” trying to get on the high score lists (and not doing as great a job as I should, since I was the lead designer J). I also play “World of Warcraft” (Go druids!), “TF2″ and “Counter-strike,” and recently finished “Shadow Complex.”

What was your first break in the games industry?

I had a friend who was working at Access Software back in.. ’99, I think? He said I should come apply for a job (I was working at IBM in educational software), and I fortunately was offered a position. I don’t think I realized how lucky I was to break in. Even then, it was hard, and it’s much worse now.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

I like these interview questions. I was with some of my business partners many years ago, and we were talking about ‘pronoia’.. the idea that someone, somewhere wishes you well. (The opposite of paranoia, I suppose). There are a lot of attitudes in life that are self-fulfilling. If you go around expecting disaster, you’ll run into it. If you go around expecting betrayal, you’ll find it. Be optimistic, and believe things will work out, and that others want you to succeed, even when everything is going wrong, and you’ll find yourself much happier (and make the people around you happier).

Michael Austin Where do you look for inspiration?

Everywhere! Anywhere there is passion. When someone has passion for what they do, magical things happen. I’ve found that any hobbies that people have that seem particularly mundane, boring, or outside my interests, if I look deep and really talk to them about it, I can see what they love and catch their passion. Really in games, that’s what we’re about- igniting people’s passion and getting them to love the worlds we create as much as we do creating them.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about game development?

Mark Terrano once relayed to me a story- he said ‘Look at all those games up on your shelf that you stopped playing and never picked up again’. ‘Now tell me how many of those are up there because they were too easy’. Of course there were almost none. I think there’s a really important lesson there- people play games for a lot of different reasons, and there’s no better way to alienate people than make a game frustrating or too hard. It’s really difficult to design a game that people who play casually will really enjoy, while presenting an additional layer of challenge for those that want something harder.

Who do you think will come out on top this console generation?

I’m not sure – it’s easy to argue either way that Microsoft or Nintendo is in 1st or 2nd, and while Sony has a lot of catching up to do, they are a great company with a lot of resources.

What do you think is the biggest problem current games suffer from?

Because teams are so big, having all the parts of the game work together as one coherent vision is very difficult. Having the audio, controls, and gameplay all work towards the same aesthetic is something only a few companies do well.

What is the most important thing that has happened to gaming in the last 10 years?

The most important thing that has happened to gaming is the audience I think. The gamers that were playing 10 years ago didn’t grow out of it; they are still playing. 10 years ago, my parents didn’t play video games.. now they do. Just think about what that means.

Where do you see gaming in 5 years?

I still am waiting for my holodeck! Really, though, I think they’ll be a lot more focus on gameplay and less on technology in the next 5 years. Instead of ‘better graphics than ever’, it’ll be about the scope and quality of the experience. It’s also interesting watching gaming become more active- “Wii Sports,” “Guitar Hero,” Natal.