mtmckinley

Hey, TheSlip,

Thanks for the kind comments! I really appreciate it. I have a deep desire to work on something that is a really good game, but understand that it may not ever happen. I try to find as much enjoyment out of each assignment I get as I can. For example, I actually really liked working on Blackwater because I was making weapons, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, and all of it is work that I'm actually very proud of. The game itself isn't that great, and you never really get to see the guns all that close while playing, but even so.

Sorry for the grammar mistakes! I'll try to do better in the future. As for writing more, I could expand on the things I've talked about. I did write a few books about creating game art that I didn't really mention that I could write some blog posts about. Maybe I'll do that soon. Also, if you or anyone has any questions about anything I talk about, I'm happy to answer as much as I can.

Thanks again!

@SharkEthic said:

@mtmckinley said:

@Captain_Felafel said:

It's from the dudes who made Blacklight Tango Down, so, you know.

Actually, the Blacklight team had nothing to do with it. The SAW team (also a part of Zombie Studios) made Blackwater. I should know, I was an artist on the SAW team and then the Blackwater team. The Blacklight team was made up of an entirely different team of people on a different floor of the building.

Sooo, you worked on this game?

Yep.

Yeah, I'm a little surprised too. It's not a big budget game by any means, but seems a bit news-worthy, even if it's just a knee-jerk reaction.

@iam3green: Glad you liked it! :)

Added a handy link to Part 1 of the blog for those just coming across this for the first time (most of you, I'm sure!)

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/mtmckinley/career-blog-part-1/30-80736/

Blackwater has been accused of a lot of things. There's a big forum thread in the Blackwater game page where people are going at it on the topic. :) I'd like to try avoid that in this thread if possible.

I'm a 3D Artist, making models, textures, animation, etc.

Year 12 2011 (continued)

E3 2011 comes around and we officially announce Blackwater to the press. To those who played the game at the event, the response is generally positive. In 99% of the comments online, the response is "Blackwater, the organization, is evil and therefore, this game is evil." Had I not just discovered who Blackwater was, I would have been surprised, but once educated it is just disappointing. The game, for a Kinect experience, I believe has some value. Toward the end of Blackwater's development, I am getting tired of the controversy. I appreciate having a job, of course, but working on titles that consistently court controversy and the ire of others is a bit difficult.

There isn't anything on the horizon as we near the end, so I start asking around about what is next. Maybe I could get reassigned to the Blacklight Retribution team? No, they're not needing a new artist right now. The only things that seem to be brewing are Facebook and mobile games. While I'm not against that, I just feel disappointed about that direction.

Soon, I'm offered a job by my old boss way back from iWin! If you've been reading this, you may recall my short job there back in Part 18 of this blog series. The new job is very experimental and kinda not in the game industry (but also kinda is). I decide that it's probably a good time to take it. In July of 2011, I take my leave of Zombie Studios and join a small, 4-person start-up. It's scary. It's risky. It'll most likely fail. But just maybe, it'll be that job I have been hoping for since I began 12 years ago. Looking back, I don't have the most stellar career. I couldn't say I made the next Halo or Final Fantasy or Bioshock. Or even came close. I can say that I've had a unique career up to now that I hope continues for another 12 years and beyond. I don't know where the next years will take me but hopefully I will be able to say that I'm doing the job I love, the work I love, providing for the family I love. If that's the case, if 12 years from now, if I can say that... then I consider myself a success, just as I do now.

Thanks for reading my career blog. I don't feel right necessarily writing about the experiences at my current position. If I should ever part from this studio and move on, I'll probably pick up again at Part 29! But until then, I appreciate your reading and I hope you've gained a little bit of enjoyment from this series of posts. Feel free to ask me anything you'd like about any of my experiences and I'd be happy to answer to the best of my ability.

Thank you!

Link to Career Blog Part 1

Year 11 2010 (continued)

As I begin work on the Blackwater project, I make the concerted effort to NOT critique the game to the extent that I did for both SAW games. Going through and meticulously analyzing the game's design when, in reality, it wasn't my job to do so, was causing me unbelievable stress. To give myself a break from the gnashing of teeth, I did my work and didn't analyze a thing. I was given the assignment to create all of the weapons in the game, something I've not had a lot of opportunity to do before, so I took the assignment happily. Unfortunately, Blackwater wasn't a First Person Shooter, so there was no need to get too detailed. The weapons would all be seen from a relative distance, from a third person perspective. So while I would have loved to dive deep, making crazy detailed weapons, the time constraints weren't there to allow it. On average, I spent about 2 or 3 days on each weapon. For larger props, such as an enormous anti-aircraft gun, I got a couple weeks to detail it out, so that was fun.

Throughout the rest of the year, I never even played Blackwater.

Year 12 2011

Wow, 2 Christmas's in a row where I've kept my job! Woohoo!

Blackwater is still in production and it's the beginning of the year. Time for employee evaluations. I've not mentioned evaluations before simply because they've been uneventful for me. To put it briefly, despite my reputation as being a "negative nancy," I'm praised for my work ethic and dedication to quality, regardless of the actual results. This time, I'm working for a new producer who, of course, has heard of my reputation. He, along with my previous producer, meet with me for my evaluation.

Their biggest complaint? That I haven't been commenting about Blackwater! Funny enough, I always thought my opinions were something these guys hated about me, but turns out they like to hear my opinions because I don't just say something "sucks" without giving at least a couple suggestions for making it better. They even admit to the fact that, they might not implement my suggestions due to lack of time, budget, or manpower, but they've always appreciated my honesty. And now, my new producer wants that same honesty for Blackwater!

While I'm happy to think that my reputation isn't quite as bad as I originally thought, the idea of delving back into the design of this game and critiquing it full blast makes me remember how unhappy I've been at work these last couple years. Since starting work on Blackwater and ignoring the game, I've been able to actually enjoy the challenge of creating the weapons and vehicles I've been tasked with, completely divorced from the game itself. I've not even played it yet!

But, I make the promise that I'll try to meet them somewhere in the middle and make arrangements to play the game on one of the Kinect systems we have. To my surprise, or at least, to my lowered expectations from my experience with SAW, the game is actually kinda decent! I'm not a big fan of the Kinect idea, or anything, but if someone were to own one of these things and wanted this kind of gameplay, the game wasn't too bad. It wasn't Modern Warfare or anything, but of course, we have a fraction of the development team and an even smaller budget then those guys. Not to mention less then a year to do it in.

Encouraged by this, I start making mild suggestions here and there. Nothing like the lambasting I used to give SAW I or II on a regular basis, but enough that I feel like I'm contributing. Some of my suggestions are even done, which is always nice.

Later, around mid-Spring, we start talking about achievements and the desire to use the Blackwater identity more within the UI and such. They ask us to look into it and give any suggestions.

For the first time, I actually look up who Blackwater is. I am not pleased with the result of that Google search... Until now, I had no clue who they were or what their reputation was... just figured it was a semi-famous PMC that must be known for something. Little did I know.

And here I was thinking that I'd be working on something lesscontroversial now that SAW was over with.

...sigh...

@Captain_Felafel said:

It's from the dudes who made Blacklight Tango Down, so, you know.

Actually, the Blacklight team had nothing to do with it. The SAW team (also a part of Zombie Studios) made Blackwater. I should know, I was an artist on the SAW team and then the Blackwater team. The Blacklight team was made up of an entirely different team of people on a different floor of the building.