Here is a brand new interview right from inside the gaming industry and Microsoft Game Studios! Did you remember the ending credits in Fable? Yeah, the ones you HAD to see if you wanted to keep on playing with your character. Credit where credit’s due, no whining! And here is one of the names in that list. And not only that, of course! Keep on reading to know how testing works inside MGS.
Ladies and gents… Please welcome Justin Robey aka Robeyone.
Z: Can you introduce yourself? Who’s the man behind the gamertag?
R: My name is Justin Robey, and I am a 29-year-old Lead Software Design Engineer in Test. I work for Microsoft Game Studios on a small title called Too Human with our fantastic partners, Silicon Knights, up in Canada. I have been working in games now for about two years and have helped ship titles like Fable, Fable The Lost Chapters, PGR3, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, Age of Empires III: Warchiefs, and now, Too Human. I am an avid gamer in both the PC and console space, as well as a lover of exotic cars, board games, and my newest treat: motorcycles.
Z: How did you come up with your Xbox Live gamertag?
R: My friends in high school used to call me Robeywankenobi, or just Robeyone. So it's a tag I have used from the early days of EQ. It's a bit of a legacy. Hell, if you Google Robeyone, you will see how much it touches!
Z: Can you tell us a bit about your job at MGS? What’s your typical working day?
R: Well, I am the second lead in test on the project for Too Human. I attend a lot of meetings and talk about various things with our game, with what I do for Microsoft Game Studios, and about what we can do to improve our lives here in what is called "the Games Test Organization" or "GTO". I work with a lot of really technically-gifted, and creatively-gifted people, so I enjoy coming to work every single day. I do a lot of management of resources, deciding who is working on what, and reporting the status of Too Human to my internal team and to upper-management. It's really amazing that people think we just play games all day, but honestly, we spend a lot of time coding and working on automation to help us test the product. I do get to play games, yes. But it's for very focused reasons. I, for instance, own game balance and fun for my team, meaning that I work with the designers on giving feedback and what we can do to make Too Human the best it can be.
Z: What are the pros and cons of your job as a tester for a passionate gamer like you?
R: There are a lot of pros for what I do at Microsoft Game Studios. For one, our testers are more like developers in test: most of us have degrees in Computer Science or the like, and we write a lot of code and automation to test our products. You could think of us as the think tanks of test and we have teams who do a large but of the low level testing. I get to work on a large variety of games being in test for a publisher, and I get to touch a lot of parts of those games. Test for Microsoft is a good source of feedback for the design of a game, and we give a lot of design feedback to help make that particular game better. It's the perfect place, for a technically-gifted person who loves game, to work.
Cons is difficult. We have some really quirky hours, and when the game is in bad shape, we have to work a lot. You also have to manage a lot in terms of trying not to get side-tracked by all the things that can end up on your plate.
Z: Oh, be honest.. There are no cons in your job! So are you and the rest of the team happy with the system (Xbox 360) that will finally be able to get Too Human to life?
R: We are passionate about the 360 and about the technology behind it. It makes games like Too Human possible with an easy-to-access community to make the co-op portion of Too Human a reality. The Xbox360 makes games like Too Human that much better by allowing us to tap in to the juggernaut that is Xbox Live. This helps breathe life into the online components of our game. If you have seen the screenshots of Too Human, you can see that the Xbox360 has the technology to make our game look good and gives SK the developer support it needs to make the game they envisioned. I am very proud of the Xbox360 and the team here at MGS is as well.
Z: So part of your job is to make the game fun to play. What do you think makes this title stand out, speaking of the gameplay?
R: This is a hard question to answer because there's no one thing that makes this game enjoyable. I like to focus my feedback on what the developer may be asking for at any one time. Like weapons or items, or how combat feels, or if a certain feature feels right. It's very open, and I get a lot of good dialog going about what I might do to make the game better. I have been in conversations with Denis Dyack (President of Silicon Knights), Henry Sterchi (Design Director of Silicon Knights) and Greg Murphy (Design Director at Microsoft Game Studios) about what I think about certain features, and I've given feedback on items as they come into the game. It's very exciting to have your feedback heard, and to know that your feedback is making Too Human better.
Z: What was your role in the production and launch of Project Gotham Racing 3?
R: Liverpool was probably one of the best experiences of my gaming career. I got to head out to help the very-talented Bizarre Creations ship Project Gotham Racing 3. I was onsite in Liverpool for about 8 weeks communicating with both their team in Liverpool and our team in Redmond. I managed to get items into the build from Liverpool based on what Microsoft was hoping to look at back in Redmond. I also helped the team in Liverpool with a variety of tasks they needed and got to ride around in some very sweet cars (which you can read about in detail in my blog at http://spaces.msn.com/robeyone. Just look at the fast cars in the UK photo album!
Z: I can’t look at it.. I’m jealous! You’ve also been part of one of my favorite projects / games of all times: Fable! Tell me something unique you did for it, so I know what I can thank you for!
R: Well, I was the integration guy for that game, so the fact that it worked so well was all me! Just kidding. But that's what I was focused on. Also, if you got that spectacular Prima guide, I was the man who helped Prima put all of that together as well. Fable is absolutely one of my favorite games, and I am really excited to see what Fable II has in store for all of us. But my lips are sealed on that!
Z: Are you somehow involved in the Fable 2 development as well (if you can tell us without being fired, that is)?
R: Unfortunately, no, I am going to be working on our new upcoming Marvel MMO. So stay tuned for details on that later!
Z: Will do! Now let’s talk a bit about “the man”. How does you life go outside the office?
R: Well, I am married with my first child on the way, and we just found out it's going to be a baby girl! Let's see: I love to play golf. I play a lot of video games - more recently of the console kind. I also played a lot of World of Warcraft, Eve Online, Anarchy Online, EQ, Dark Age of Camelot, and RTS's in general. So I game, golf, drive, and hang out with my family (mainly, my very cool and wonderfully-supportive wife!).
Z: How many consoles do you own? Which one do you play the most?
R: I own a Wii, PS3, Xbox360, Dreamcast, Gamecube, PSP, Nintendo DS, N64, Game Boy Advanced, Virtual Boy, SNES, NES, Turbo Graphix 16, Turbo Express, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Sega 32x, Sega CDX, Game Gear, Super Famicom, and an old Pong System. I play my 360 the most, followed by my PC, then PS3, and then my Wii which I haven't turned on in months. Though, while traveling, I do play a lot of DS and PSP.
Z: Wow, I’ve never seen that many consoles toghether, even at a store! So in your expert opinion, what do you nominate as best game of all times?
R: My best games of all time are going to go old-school. I loved Out of This World by Interplay, Quest for Glory (Series), Space Quest (Series), with Monkey Island up to number 2. Recent games? Knights of the Old Republic, Fable, Final Fantasy VII, Crackdown, and Viva Pinata!
Z: Worst game of all times?
R: Eragon, Superman for the N64"¦ I don't know. Erased them from my memory!
Z: Best console of all times?
R: Xbox360: I love the live integration and all the things I can do with the console: listen to music, rent movies, HD-DVD, friends.
Z: Can you describe your gaming setup?
R: Yep. Currently, I am connected to a 56" HD 1080p TV by Sony with a Sony 5.1 Surround system. I have my 360, Ps3, and Wii connected to it.
Z: What do you like the most about the Xbox 360?
R: Achievements!
Z: Of course you do, look at your gamerscore! And what about Xbox Live?
R: Live Marketplace.
Z: Any other passions in your life?
R: I love golf and exotic cars, and maybe someday I'll enjoy both at the same time!
Z: LOL! Good luck with that. Thanks for your time Justin, game on!
