Dev Box Interview: Nitro Games’ Lead Designer Kim Soares

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. This week we are letting Nitro Games’ Kim Soares take a break from working on “East India Company” and give him a chance to get on the Dev Box and tell us a bit about himself, and what he thinks about the games industry.

Name: Kim Soares
Title: Lead Designer, Nitro Games
What you do:I’m responsible for the overall vision and design of the games
our company develops. I also write and design myself.
Most recent game worked on: East India Company

1. What game has most influenced you, and why?
I play so many games, it is hard to say what has influenced me most as a designer. Experience on pen & paper RPG’s and boardgames has proved valuable, as in those games you can see all the game mechanics exposed and learn from them.

2. What are you playing right now?
I recently started to play “EVE Online” again. Other than that, the latest game was “Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.”

3. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about game development?
A lead designer does not have to come up with all the ideas himself: He has to identify them and implement them to the overall vision, no matter from who or where they come from.

4. What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Trust your instincts.

5. What do you think is the biggest problem current games suffer from?
For me, on a personal level as a gamer, it is that visual “bling” seems to be overvalued as opposed to content.

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• May 27, 2009 -- Dev Box Interview: Fallen Earth’s Colin Dwan
• April 29, 2009 -- Dev Box Interview: Paradox Interactive’s Producer Johan Andersson
• February 18, 2009 -- Dev Box Interview: Ntreev’s Operations Manager Daniel Noss
• January 28, 2009 -- Dev Box Interview: Jumpgate Evolution’s Art Director Darrin Klein
• January 7, 2009 -- Dev Box: Jumpgate Evolution’s Programmer Josh Stefanski