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Feature
Candid moments of the ‘who’s who’ at gaming’s red carpet event
John Romero (Doom creator) and Brenda Romero (Wizardry) are teaching and inspiring young people to create games. They say everyone is working on virtual reality games -- except them.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi/GamesBeat
The Dice Awards are like the Oscars of gaming. Well, at least we like to say that because it tells you how important they are to video game makers and their fans.
The awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences were the climax of the 15th annual Dice Summit, the elite game industry event in Las Vegas last week. And to make it feel like the Oscars, the event preshow features a red carpet walk, complete with paparazzi and a lot of game press with expensive-looking video cameras. I enjoy chatting with the developers and celebrities who walked by. But it’s always a little challenging to figure out what to talk about in a 30 second or 1 minute interview.
Here’s everybody I talked to on the red carpet and the pictures to prove it.
Al Alcorn, creator of Pong at Atari, mentors junior high students to become “nerds.” “It’s rewarding,” he said. He received a pioneer award.
Civilization: Beyond Earth lead producer Lena Brenk told me to pursue the tech tree option of spreading miasma as the best research strategy.
Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, the man who brought it to the West, celebrated their game’s 30th anniversary. They said that friendship mattered the most to them from their experience.
Tom Kalinske, the former head of Sega of America, says he has lots of Nintendo friends now. But he was a fierce marketer back during the console wars of the 1990s.
Richard Garriott, the creator of Ultima, is excited about a revival of role-playing games. He’s making Shroud of the Avatar. He’s wearing an Order of the New Britannia Empire medal that goes out to the game’s biggest supporters.
Mark Baer (son) and Alex Baer (grandson) accepted the pioneer award for their father, Ralph Baer, who died at 92 last year. Ralph was widely credited with inventing the first video game. Mark said you never know how many ripples one person can create. “That’s a lesson for all of us,” Mark said.
Nick Wozniak and Ian Flood of Yacht Club Games created Shovel Knight. 8-bit games are back, they said.
Robin Hunicke of Funomena says she’s a big fan of indie hits Hohokum and Monument Valley. She isn’t talking about her own game yet.
Nathan Vella of Capy Games
John Romero (Doom creator) and Brenda Romero (Wizardry) are teaching and inspiring young people to create games. They say everyone is working on virtual reality games — except them.
Never Alone leaders Gloria O’Neill and Alan Gershenfeld want to work on more “world games” that explore indigenous cultures.
Martin Rae, the head of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, puts on the Dice Summit. He was pleased with all of the big talks.
Asher Vollmer of Sirvo created hit mobile game Threes!. It was ripped off by 2048, but Vollmer said he has gotten over that and is now flattered at getting credit for creating a new genre.
Feargus Urquhart, the CEO of role-playing game studio Obsidian Entertainment, had a load of fun making South Park: The Stick of Truth. His wife was appalled at the adult humor.
Ru Weerasuriya of Ready at Dawn Studios celebrated going gold with the shooter The Order: 1886. He wants the industry and universities to work harder on training new generations of triple-A developers.
Wargaming studio head Chris Taylor said World of Tanks Blitz is “absolutely my favorite game.” He has a 58 percent win rate.
Former EA chief creative director Rich Hilleman
Chris Roberts is working on Star Citizen and figuring out how to spend $72 million raised via crowdfunding to date. His forum has drawn more than 4 million comments. The game has 745,000 supporters. He likes a gamepad for games where you have to both fly and shoot.
Troy Baker [right] was a star voice actor in Shadow of Mordor, Infamous: Second Son, and Far Cry 4. He put Kevin Spacey (of Call of Duty) to shame. “I’m more here as a nerd,” Baker told me. He likes to make his voice different in his roles in games.
Voice actress Laura Bailey [left] appeared as Fetch in Infamous: First Light. Fetch’s voice is like hers, only more snarky, she said.
Glenn Schofield and Michael Condrey of Sledgehammer Games are proud of innovating with ideas like the exoskeleton in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. “We hear feedback, and make changes,” Schofield said. Condrey’s kill-death ratio is 0.95.
Telltale Games CEO Kevin Bruner (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead adventure games) said those endings where you don’t really have a choice are “tailored stories.”
Mark Grigsby, Abbie Heppe and other Titanfall team members hit the red carpet. Grigsby predicted big awards for Shadow of Mordor.
Michael Evans of Capcom was producer of Ultra Street Fighter V. He’s looking forward to the next one, which will hit PlayStation 4 and PC but not Xbox One.
John Watson, Arnie Jorgensen and Steve Escalante of Versus Evil say they’re working on Banner Saga 2. The first made a number of 2014 game of the year lists.
Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price says his team is finishing up a reimagining of Ratchet & Clank. His company recently released the hit Sunset Overdrive.
Michael de Plater and Kevin Stephens of Monolith collected eight awards for Middle-earth : Shadow of Mordor. They reminded me I could have stayed alive more easily by inspecting the weaknesses of my foes. Side quests also build up your skills.
Mike Capps, former president of Epic Games, says he’s busy being a dad. And advising game companies. He doesn’t want to start a new one, like his pal, Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski, has done with Boss Key Productions.
Bastion creators Amir Rao and Darren Korb won the Sprite award for Transistor, which they made with 12 people.
Don James, the executive vice president of Nintendo of America, collected awards for Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8. He says he’s looking forward to Splatoon.
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