Interview: Dan Taylor, mentor

A brief interview with Dan Taylor, one of the invited mentors for the Vancouver Game Jam.

Cody Church: So could you please introduce yourself? Your name and profession?

Dan Taylor: Sure. My name's Dan Taylor, I'm a game designer. I used to work at EA where I worked on Medal of Honour and EA Sports Interactive.


CC: So what kind of work did you do at EA?

DT: At EA I kind of ran the level design team on Medal of Honour, which was pretty exciting, and I did a lot of the prototyping for kind of sporty fitness based gaming on the Wii.

CC: Do you still do much of that now: more of the same?

DT: The last game I was working on was rather top secret, but I'm kind of a bit freelance now given the slightly fluid status of employment at EA.

CC: Yes, with the economy as it is, despite the industry doing very well there are unfortunately a lot of studios with very fluid work.

DT: Yes. Or fortunately so, depending on which way you look at it.

CC: So what's your opinion on the Game Jam? It's the first time it's come to Vancouver, despite the fact it's been done for several years around the world.

DT: Yeah, I mean it's pretty exciting. There's a really varied mix of people: you've got some quite experienced industry professionals, some really fresh university students and there's a lot of mingling and collaborating and it's really a kind of smelting pot for raw creativity, which is pretty exciting. I think the main challenge the teams are going to face is scoping their grand concepts down into something that they can make in 48 hours and people will gawk on first play. So you can make a game in 48 hours but whether people get it is, well "I'm moving there blocks, what's going on? I don't know . . . " It's going to be difficult.

CC: What kind of activities do you think really parallel the actual industry standard of game development that might be present in the Game Jam?

DT: Well, you're basically boiling down an entire product cycle into 48 hours, and I think that level of crunch is fairly indicative of working on a proper game team. People on game teams are very dedicated, very passionate, they put in the extra hours to make sure that their game is as awesome as possible and ships on time. This is going to be quite a good indicator of the level of stress. Also, we have the concept pitching phase, which is interesting. I think people underestimate how important it is to have the skill of pitching concept. Even not just for games, but the little bits of game design, the little game mechanics.

CC: Yes, conveying the essentials of your idea and maybe to capture not only the attention, but the respect or confidence of others to join you idea.

DT: And also there's the question of marketability as well. I mean, I'm probably going to be judging some of the games on Sunday, and I'll be looking for something that's got a unique hook to it that I think will have broad appeal. There's a lot of good games and ideas out there at the moment, and a lot of them are innovating and doing different stuff but if nobody understands the game or wants to play it then there's no point in doing it, really.

Miko Wilson, interjecting as he walks by: Exactly!

CC: You've been brought here as a mentor to really assist or give perspective to these participants. Is there anything you feel you'd really like to help them with? Something that's most important to their immediate efforts in the Game Jam?

DT: Well, we spend a long time at EA on one of the lat Wii projects I did prototyping game elements so we could really work out what was fun on the Wii using the physical controls. I think I want to help the teams get their prototyes into software as quickly as possible so they can try it and see what's fun. I think prototyping stuff on paper and playing games is going to be good for a certain amount of forward visibility, but really on such a tight time scale the more stuff you can get in code and the less stuff you can throw away the better. But at the same time they shouldn't be afraid to chuck stuff out if it doesn't work.

CC: One final thing: is there anything out of the ordinary you would be willing to impart to these fellows? Something that's not common knowledge that you've learned through your experience?

DT: You need to be a people person . . . to a certain extent. You've got to have a thorough understanding of who your game is for, and as a game designer you need to have a bit of a business hat so you've got to understand your market: who you're making for and what these guys want out of a product. At the end of the day, yes, you're making a piece of entertainment, but also it's a product that has to sell. I think that a lot of the younger designers I see at EA don't have that kind of product industry mentality. I'm not saying you shouldn't be creating something exciting and cool, but if you can do that and have your little business hat on - just a little one - because at the end of the day, if you want to get games made you need the funding, and the people with the cash: big businessmen.

CC: All right, thank very much, Dan.

DT: It's been a pleasure, Cody.