Harvey Smith (game designer)

Harvey Smith

Harvey Smith, Seoul 2006
Born 1966 (age 49–50)
Occupation Video game designer, writer
Employer Arkane Studios

Harvey Smith is an American game designer and writer, currently working at Arkane Studios.

Smith has lectured in various places around the world on topics such as level design, emergent gameplay, leadership, game unit differentiation, future trends and interactive narrative. At the Game Developers Conference in 2006, Smith won the Game Designer's Challenge: Nobel Peace Prize, for his design featuring a mobile video game that facilitates political social action.[1]

Early life

Smith was born and raised on the Texas Gulf Coast. His mother overdosed on drugs in front of him when he was only six years old. He grew up playing games like Pong as well as Dungeons & Dragons. He also read books by Ursula K. Le Guin, William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov and Roger Zelazny, among others. After graduating high school, he worked at a gas station for a short time. Having grown tired of his environment, Smith joined the U.S. Air Force. During his six-year enlistment, Smith spent time in Germany as well as Saudi Arabia. After his discharge, Smith moved to Austin at the behest of a friend to try his hand at video game design.

Career

Early in his career, Smith worked in QA at the Austin-based Origin Systems, where he became the QA Lead for System Shock. In 1995, Smith became an associate producer for Ultima VIII, working with co-founder of Origin, Richard Garriott. After leaving Origin in 1996, Harvey Smith went to work at Multitude where they released Fireteam.[2]

After Multitude, Smith's game development career continued in Austin, Texas working with Warren Spector at Ion Storm as lead designer on the award-winning Deus Ex as well as its sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War. Smith left Ion Storm to work at Midway Games as lead designer on BlackSite: Area 51.[3] On November 29, 2007, Harvey Smith, as designer of BlackSite: Area 51, came out publicly to announce how unrealistic the game's development schedule was and through mutual agreement left Midway a day later. He claimed the schedule caused the low reviews due to the fact they were not able to test the game properly.[4]

In 2008, Smith became partner and co-creative director of Arkane Studios in Austin alongside the company’s president, Raphael Colantonio.[5] They went on to release the stealth-action game, Dishonored in 2012, which won many Game of the Year and Best Action/Adventure accolades including the 2013 BAFTA award for Best Game[6] and 2012 SPIKE VGA for Best Action/Adventure Game.[7]

Smith's novel, Big Jack is Dead, was released on April 2, 2013 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. That same year it was on Kirkus Review’s list of “Best Indie General Fiction”.[8]

Credits

Video Game

Year Title
1994 Super Wing Commander
1994 Ultima VIII: Pagan
1994 System Shock
1995 CyberMage: Darklight Awakening
1995 Technosaur (cancelled)
1998 Fireteam
2000 Deus Ex
2003 Deus Ex: Invisible War
2007 BlackSite: Area 51
2009 KarmaStar
2012 Dishonored
2016 Dishonored 2

Book

Year Title Category Publisher ISBN
2013 "Big Jack is Dead" Fiction CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN 1482563657

References

  1. ↑ "GDC: The Game Design Challenge: The Nobel Peace Prize". Gamasutra.
  2. ↑ "The mirror men of Arkane". Polygon.
  3. ↑ "The mirror men of Arkane". Polygon.
  4. ↑ "Confirmed: Harvey Smith Leaves Midway". 1up.com. Nov 30, 2007.
  5. ↑ "The mirror men of Arkane". Polygon.
  6. ↑ "BAFTA Awards Gaming 2013". BAFTA.
  7. ↑ "Around the Web: Award Season". The Bethesda Blog.
  8. ↑ "Best in Indie Books 2013". Kirkus Review.

External links

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