Blog 17 - Interview 3 Reflection

A screenshot of the game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a project on which my interviewee, Richard Lemarchand, was Co-Lead Game Designer. He was Lead Game Designer on the first and third installments of the game series.

The five-minute audio clip of my interview can be found here.

Transcript of the interview can be found here.

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?

I learned so much from this interview, so it's rather hard to narrow down what the most important thing I've learned from it. However, I think I can narrow it down to the few most important things (yes, plural) I've learned from my time speaking with Richard Lemarchand.

(Note: I will now refer to him as simply Richard from here on, as that's how I address him in real life.)

For one, I've learned that my personal preference to holding characters in video games as more important than their stories is a good approach towards narrative games; from the beginning, I've thought that more than anything, a game needs well-designed characters to remain interesting to the players. Story matters, but it pales entirely when the characters the player controls and engages with are bland and boring. Richard told me that good characterization is fundamental to great storytelling. We should craft characters that are recognizable for their human-like qualities, as that's what makes them more realistic and believable to us. 

Another important thing I've learned from this interview is that another portion of game design is considering who your audience for a game is. What's so enlightening about the conversation we had about this was that a game can be for a specific audience, yes, but that audience could be less general-- that audience could just comprise of one. It could solely comprise of you, the game designer, if you so wished. Games, as art forms, can be designed either for others or oneself. It's often seen that games should be designed to be sold to an audience and reap the benefit there-- but a game doesn't necessarily have to be for someone else. It can be more personal, it can be something that the designer wants that simply doesn't exist yet in the world.

2. How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

I believe my approach to interviews has stayed relatively the same throughout the course of the senior project, thus far. If anything, I've gotten better at brainstorming questions for my interviews-- I believe that's because I've narrowed down the focus on my project. It's made it easier to think of questions to ask my interviewee, since I'm not so overwhelmed with all the possible topics of discussion my interview can cross. 

I've definitely gotten better at it, though. I'm not so rigid nor reliant on the list of questions in front of me anymore. Rather, I let the interview flow in the direction it goes-- especially with Richard, this has proven to be very useful and enlightening. I'm happy to say that my interview with Richard was really quite incredible, and I'm very grateful that he took the time to speak with me.