by Dave Steinwedel

Screaming rockets, screeching zombies, howling winds, crackling fires, clanging swords—it's my job to create every sound effect you'll hear in Hellgate: London. It's also my job to integrate them into the game, record source material to design those effects, build and maintain our studio, and edit every raw recording into a useable library roll. Then there's the game mix, balancing every sound effect and piece of music to create a coherent soundscape. Since we have no tools for doing this, I also work with an audio programmer to create them. We also design ways to attach sounds to objects, to play sounds that don't correlate with an object, and we make systems to give me control over the parameters of each sound. Did I mention anything about music contractors? Oh yea, I also work with composers to create a fantastic score that keeps your heart pumping at high-adrenaline levels. That means designing a whole new set of music hooks, figuring out what type of score we want, translating our playback system from programmer-speak to composer-speak, and finally integrating the music coming back to us. Have I talked about cinematics? Dialogue? [Read More]

by Tyler Thompson

Staggering zombies, explosive fireballs, super-jumps, and lightning shotguns. The game programmer gets to play with everything. We combine all of the art, sound and code to craft an experience for you to enjoy.

This brings me to the topic of cooking. Yes, cooking. I love to cook, and like most people I find parallels between my hobby and my profession. So, indulge me for a little while as I point out how being a game programmer has some similarities to being a chef. [Read More]

by Eric Ingerson

As any game developer will tell you, the ramp up to showing a an early version of a game at E3 is a mad scramble to get in as many features as possible, making them feel and look as good as possible, all while maintaining the game's stability while all this grotesque pushing and pulling and prodding of the engine continues. That last item, the stability, I'm told is very difficult. Stability, though, is not my department. [Read More]

by Phil Shenk, Creative Director, Flagship Studios

After E3… after showing a game… I usually feel a tiny let-down. We had an amazing show, and there's so much immediate, insane, excited energy at the booth that coming home and relaxing feels like a bit of a crash. Not only that, but also leading up to it is almost a month of intense preparation; late nights and weekends of adrenaline (and caffeine) fueled crunch. Working like mad to get every little last bit of love into the game for its big debut. It's definitely all worth it though; it was incredibly fulfilling to see lines of people waiting to play our game. Equally cool were the fans that planted themselves in front of a screen to play through the... [Read More]

by Chris Lambert

It was a dark and stormy night. The clouds tumbled and rolled over what remained of a once-sleepy suburb. The pub was a shell of a building; half of the windows were shuttered, the other half pulverized as if by some terrible gust of wind. Where there had been a door, keeping out the cold while welcoming the thirsty, now was a gaping frame turning away nothing but inviting even less. The bent streetlamps cast long shadows from the giant, square moon in th-- Square? Crap. [Read More]