Scott Youngblood - Red 5 Q&A - Page 2

Scott Youngblood - Red 5 Q&A - Page 2

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Updated Wed, Jan 02, 2008 by Cody Bye

A Ten Ton Hammer Interview with Scott Youngblood - Page Two of Two

Micajah: How have you integrated with the Red 5 team so far? There have been murmurs throughout the web that you’re the “perfect fit” for the Red 5 team…what do you bring to the Red 5 team that clearly establishes you as the perfect candidate for your position?

Youngblood: I love MMO games, I'm passionate about what I do, and I try to bring new elements to every game that I work on. We're working on something that requires thinking outside of the box, and I absolutely love to face those sorts of challenges. If that weren't enough, I love beer and the Tiki bar in the office has plenty of that, so I'm doing my best to keep quantities from reaching an overstocked level.

Micajah: Have you gotten a chance to work with the team since you’ve been hired? What are your initial thoughts on the studio that Mark Kern, Bill Petras, and Taewon Yun have brought together?

The Red 5 Studios Logo

Youngblood: It's awesome! All game design should be like this. We've setup a designer pod with myself, Ed Stark, David Williams, Rob Garrett and Mark Kern sitting very close to one another. At any point during a typical day (and it happens quite often), we can just swivel our chairs around and carry on one of those "you know it would be cool if..." discussions. Even though there may be varying opinions on a given subject, everyone participates and there is no ego that comes into play. It's the most refreshing experience I've had for quite some time. Plus all these guys are smart as hell; it's very nice to be part of this design team.

Micajah: I’ve been a fan of the innovation you’ve brought to the multiplayer FPS scene with Tribes and the spooky thrills I got while adventuring through Majestic. These titles both featured some new and interesting spins on well-established genres…how are you planning on innovating the MMO genre?

Youngblood: I wish I could tell you exactly what we're doing right now... but I can't really give you any specifics at the moment. What I can say is that I've wanted to make a game like the game we're creating for a long time now and I'm completely thrilled to be part of the team here at Red 5 Studios. That was one of the major reasons that I was willing to walk away from a very comfortable existence with Sony in Bend, Oregon.

Micajah: In the opinion of many, MMOGs have stagnated, falling back on commonly used mechanics that have been known to work. What do you think needs to change in the next generation of MMOs to keep the players interested? What’s the worst problem you see in MMOs today?

Youngblood: A good swift kick in the butt, mix it up and do something that no one is expecting. Many of today's MMOs are pretty much clones of other games without significant improvements in genre or mechanics. Once there is a success story out there people tend to gravitate to "me too" modes of operation and end up giving you the same games that you've already played with slightly different wrappings. That's not to say that all MMOs have fallen into this category, but I can tell you that it will take something very fresh and new to really get me excited. What we're working on at Red 5 to me is very compelling... enough to get me to move from Bend! I can't wait until we can unleash it upon the world.

Micajah: On the other side of the coin, what’s the best feature found in current MMOs?

Youngblood: The community experience, being part of something large and persistent. Even though I spend a significant amount of time running around and doing my own thing it's nice to see other players and interact with them over time, building relationships that can last beyond the scope of the game.

Micajah: Even with the multiplayer elements of Tribes, Tribes 2, and Syphon Filter, the massively multiplayer online game is quite different from anything you’ve done in the past. How will you use your previous experience to help you in creating an MMO and what sort of background, if any, do you have with MMOGs? Do you play or have you played any MMOGs in the past?

Youngblood: I've played the majority of MMOs since Ultima Online and been part of "end game" guilds for the many of the games that ones I've played. I'm a big fan of these styles of games but can't turn off the game designer inside of me that is always saying, “it would be cool if they just did <insert idea here>”. Also I derive a lot of ideas from looking at things that other games have done poorly that piss me off. It's nice to be in a position now where I can feed off of these experiences to help this team craft something that solves many of the issues that players have with the current generation games and takes the genre in directions that no one is going.

Micajah: When you design a game, what are some of the integral factors you think about in your initial work? We all know that “fun” is important, but what other elements go into your design “melting pot”?

Youngblood: Well, it depends... if you're making a game in an existing genre you can compile a list of all the things that other games have done that you liked or disliked. Then you add to that the list of things that no other game has done that you want to try and get into this game. Typically, many of the ideas come from other team members as well; usually everyone has some degree of input on what they want to see in the game. This will add up to some huge list that is probably much larger than your time/budget is going to allow. The next step is to rank all of the ideas by importance and then start running and see how many of them you can squeeze in before time is up. I haven't worked on a game where a good 20% or more of the initial list wasn't cut before the end of the game. Hopefully if you do a sequel many of those ideas can eventually make it into the game. The nice thing about working on an MMO is that the likelihood of a really good idea eventually making it into the game is much higher than a boxed game that would require an expensive patch or update.

Micajah: Are there any elements to an MMO that are distinctly different from the standard design philosophies you might establish? For instance, designing a game with a community in mind isn’t something you’d typically do – even in a game like Tribes. You don’t have to worry about tracking inventories for the long term or anything like that. Are there any other design elements you have been thinking about?

Youngblood: There are many elements that are foreign to me with respect to MMO design. Games like Tribes had very short game instances that constantly repeat and are very quantifiable with respect to game balance. MMOs are continually introducing new elements with constantly evolving player capabilities that confuse balance issues. That is something that I've only experienced from the player side and not from the developer side... luckily though there are people here at Red 5 who have done this before and we'll be counting on their experience to make sure that the end product is everything that it possibly can be.

Micajah: Finally, what’s the one thing MMO fans should know about Scott Youngblood and why should we trust your talents with our newest upcoming MMO?

Youngblood: For me personally, you can trust in the fact that I'm a huge fan of MMO games and I want to fix many of the things that gamers are currently complaining about the current generation of games. My passion for gaming and my drive to innovate isn't lost on Red 5 and I'm very excited to be here. It's not just me, though; there is an exceptionally talented group of designers here that all bring something unique to the table. This collection of talent allows us to feed off of one another and craft something that will provide a very fresh experience to the MMO scene. Everyone at Red 5 is completely jazzed about what we're doing... when you have that level of energy great things will be accomplished!