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Harvey Smith (game designer)

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Harvey Smith
Smith in 2006
Born1966 (age 57–58)
Other namesWitchboy
Occupation(s)Video game designer, writer
Years active1993-present
EmployerArkane Studios
Known for

Harvey Smith (born 1966) is an American video game designer and writer, 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,[1] future trends and interactive narrative.[citation needed] 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.[2]

Early life

Smith was born and raised on the Texas Gulf Coast.[3] He grew up playing games like Pong[4] as well as Dungeons & Dragons.[5] He read books by Ursula K. Le Guin, William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov and Roger Zelazny, among others.[6] After six years in the U.S. Air Force,[3] Smith moved to Austin at the behest of a friend to try his hand at video game design.[7]

Career

Early in his career, Smith worked in quality assurance (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.[8]

After Multitude, Smith's game development career continued in Austin, Texas working with Warren Spector at Ion Storm as lead designer on 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.[8] 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.[9]

In 2008, Smith became partner and co-creative director of Arkane Studios in Austin alongside the company's president, Raphael Colantonio.[8] 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[10] and 2012 SPIKE VGA for Best Action/Adventure Game.[11]

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".[12]

Works

Video games

Year Title Role
1994 Super Wing Commander Quality assurance
System Shock
1995 Ultima VIII: Pagan (CD-ROM version)[13]
BioForge
CyberMage: Darklight Awakening Producer, designer, writer, voice actor
Technosaur (cancelled)[14] —
1998 FireTeam Designer
2000 Deus Ex Lead designer
2003 Deus Ex: Invisible War Director
2004 Thief: Deadly Shadows Designer
2005 Area 51 Designer, writer
2007 BlackSite: Area 51 Executive creative director
2009 Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor Quality assurance
KarmaStar —
2012 Dishonored Creative director, designer, writer
2013 The Novelist Quality assurance
2016 Dishonored 2 Creative director
2017 Prey Quality assurance
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Creative director
2023 Redfall Creative director

Book

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

References

  1. ^ "Harvey Smith's GDC presentation on Orthogonal Unit Differentiation".
  2. ^ "GDC: The Game Design Challenge: The Nobel Peace Prize". Gamasutra.
  3. ^ a b "Harvey Smith". www.amazon.com. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  4. ^ "Gamasutra - The Subversion Game: An Interview With Harvey Smith". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  5. ^ "Building a World with Dishonored 2's Harvey Smith". pastemagazine.com. December 21, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  6. ^ "Dishonored 2". Game Informer. Minneapolis: GameStop. June 1, 2016.
  7. ^ "Interview: Unmasking Dishonored's Harvey Smith | Rock Paper Shotgun".
  8. ^ a b c "The mirror men of Arkane". Polygon.
  9. ^ "Confirmed: Harvey Smith Leaves Midway". 1up.com. November 30, 2007. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011.
  10. ^ "BAFTA Awards Gaming 2013". BAFTA.
  11. ^ "Around the Web: Award Season". The Bethesda Blog.
  12. ^ "Best in Indie Books 2013". Kirkus Review.
  13. ^ Gillen, Kieron (November 23, 2007). "The Making Of: Harvey Smith". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Gamer Network. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  14. ^ "Technosaur [PC – Cancelled]". Unseen64. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
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