Interview with Erin Daly
Pax interviews Relic’s other Erin.
1. What is your name?
I usually go by my stage name “Reveen”, but you can call me Erin Daly. And NO, Erin’s not just a girl’s name. It’s Irish, dammit. So quit yer squawkin’ before I drink you under the table.
2. What is your quest?
I’d like to make a game my mom could really enjoy. No kidding.
3. What is your favourite colour?
Blue.
4. Now that the Holy Grail portion of the interview is over, it’s time to get down to some relatively relevant questions. First off, what are you working on right now? Feel free to be as general as necessary.
I supposed it would be too much of a red herring to say that it involved Linux, an ASCII renderer, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
5. After working on Homeworld for a loooooong period of time, what’s it like for you to look at the finished product?
It’s like warm apple pie.
6. Do you have any idea what’s going on with this HW: Cataclysm pseudo-expansion?
I do, but if I were to say anything, harpies would tear down from the skies and claw my eyes out. Actually, Alex would just blow a big hissy. But those two things are pretty much the same.
7. There’s been a few references lately to the fact that Relic has two projects on the go at the moment. Obviously, one is the NSP, but what’s the other? If you say HW: Cataclysm, I’m gonna have to call shenanigans.
Let’s be very clear about this: Barking Dog Studios is making HW: Cataclysm. Relic’s other project is unnanounced. At this point it’s called the NPFTMP internally, which stands for Next Project Featuring Texture Mapped Polygons.
8. How did you get into the games industry? Along similar lines, how’d you hook up with Relic?
I got into the game industry through the hallowed tradition of nepotism. I met Alex Garden (now CEO of Relic) in high school. He was doing about 3 blocks of Computer Science, and I was in one of them. Since he was so far ahead of everyone else, the CompSci teacher occasionally let him teach the class, but Alex talked to fast that most people didn’t understand him :). Me, I was into computers almost exclusively for games. I’d been a hardcore gamer all my life, starting in grade 3 with a C64 (best computer I ever owned). In high school, Alex and I used to hang out at my place at lunchtime and play games on my Amiga. Our favourite was ‘Tech’, this game about the motorcycle racing in TRON.
In the senior year of high school, Alex moved back to Manitoba and I lost touch with him. Years later, I ran into him again. I was attending the University of British Columbia and had a summer job as a security guard. I received an odd assignment: a one-night stint at a new apartment building downtown which had just been completed. Lo and behold, as I wandered the halls looking for scofflaws, I ran into my old buddy Alex. He and his girlfriend had just moved back from Manitoba. We hooked up and started hanging out again. Alex was working at Radical Entertainment on a game for the PlayStation, an amazing new console from Sony that hadn’t been released in North America yet.
About a year later, Alex told me that Radical Entertainment was looking for a level designer for one of their new teams. Alex was always extolling the virtues of the game industry, and it did seem like a good opportunity. I decided to go for it. After a year of working at Radical, Alex (now at Electronic Arts) asked me if I wanted to join a new company he was starting up - doing the game design on a crazy-sounding game that was a mix of C&C and Star Wars. It was a super risky venture, but the deal was great and the other people Alex had lined up (Aaron Kambeitz, Rob Cunningham, and Luke Moloney) were really talented. I took the plunge and quit my job to help found Relic.
9. If Relic’s offices were transformed into some kind of killing field, who would emerge victorious?
Hmmm.. I’d have to say Shane. He’s a Tae Kwon Do master and he knows 89 ways to kill a man without a single sound.
10. Can you provide any hints as to what the NSP is? Or do I have to break out the probe?
I can tell you with complete certainty that the NSP is the only game ever, in the history of electronic entertainment, to have created this much hype without ever revealing a single detail of its content. Noteworthy, indeed.
11. What’s your current game of choice? Are there any particular titles you’re salivating for?
I just finished Grim Fandango while on vacation. Really enjoyed it. I also finally forced myself to finish Goldeneye on the N64. Probably the hardest game I’ve ever played. I’ve never thrown my controller so many times in my life. There’s something rattling around inside it now. I have a really, really obsessive personality when it comes to games. I get addicted really easily. A lot of people are playing Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 here at work, but I can’t touch either of them. I know if I do I’ll never stop - I learned my lesson with Quake 1 and 2. So I refuse to install them, despite the urgings of my co-workers. As for upcoming games, I’m looking forward to Black and White, from Lionhead.
12. What’s it like being one of the premier developers in Canada?
I don’t think putting out one decent title makes you a premier developer. :)
13. Anything else you’d like to add? Perhaps an inflammatory political statement deriding the military-industrial complex?
I’d like to put our collective brains to work on this little conundrum: why is it that Old Man Murray is blessed with such comic genius, but have yet to achieve the widespread industry acclaim they so richly deserve?