The next interview I did was with Martin C. He is in Product Development at Sega and has worked there for about four years. Here is what we talked about.

Q: What is your job here at Sega?

A: I’m an Associate Producer. So my job is to crack the whip over every part of the development process. I basically work with external and internal teams to make sure that a project gets shipped on time, on budget, and to high quality.

Q: How long have you worked at Sega?

A: I’ve worked here for about 4 years now. And Sega has changed a lot. I used to be a localization producer and that’s pretty much all that we did back when I started. We just took Japanese games and localized them. Now we have a whole western development department that is doing great work.

Q: What other jobs have you had prior to this one?

A: Prior to this one I was working for government intelligence agencies designing games for them, so kind of more serious games. I had security clearance and all that. I can’t really talk much more about it but it was a very interesting job. And before that I was in the first dotcom boom and then bomb. I worked for Netscape when they started and then I worked at AOL. I worked for a company called WAIS which was the first text search for the web that got bought by AOL and then made out like a bandit and then spent it all so now… . You know honestly that wasn’t really my thing. Ever since I was a little kid I’ve wanted to work with videogames so now I’m in my dream job.

Q: What kind of educational background do you have?

A: I have a college degree in creative writing and studio art so I was a painter and a writer. And then I got into computers, kind of before it was possible to get a career dong computer work. This was back when you had to use PPP to get onto the internet and the only browser was Mosaic. But it’s really just my passion for games of all kinds. I created a role playing game with my friends and published a bunch of books with White Wolf and that’s what really got me in the door. So it was really about being an entrepreneur, creating games not even on the computer and just having a driving passion for games. If you really want to get in the game industry it’s really about who you know. You can be really skilled and have lots of good ideas, but you really need to be able to play well with others both on a collaborative and business sense. I mean I knocked on the door of the industry trying to get in for a long time. Probably six years. And I finally got my break so Sega ain’t getting rid of me any time soon.

Q: What kind of projects are you working on?

A: I just finished Happy Tree Friends on XBOX Live Arcade. Sega’s first game made exclusively for XBOX Live Arcade: a mature title with very interesting development. It was with a company in the Isle of Wight. So I got to travel to the southern most portion of England a couple times travelling by train, plane, ferry, automobile, and taxi. Good guys there at Stainless Games. So that’s pretty exciting, it was kind of one of my first games that I did from start to finish. Right now I’m working on Golden Axe: Beast Rider on XBOX 360 and PS3 and that is with our first party studio Secret Level. That one is nearing completion.

Now is kind of an interesting time though because most of the things I have been working on are done or almost done. So now we are going through this process called A&R or artists and repertoire. So basically we have folks that take pitches from game studios. And the thing is a lot of people, since I’m a producer, come up and say to me “Hey I got this great idea for a game!” Well, that’s not good enough. You need to have more than just an idea. You need to have a prototype that you have spent 3 months to 2 years making with a team and then you can come to us. And if it is really fun to play and it fits in the market and the time frame and you can make it come out on time; that is when you get a deal signed and get millions of dollars to make a game. You don’t just come with an idea. You have to have people together, you have to have the game together, and you have to have a prototype. So that you can demonstrate that you are a team that can make a game that’s fun, on time, and to high quality. It kind of makes me feel bad to tell people that. But we aren’t just going to sign a deal with someone who’s just got an idea. It’s really one of the more fun parts of the job. You get to see a lot of different games, meet a lot of different teams and travel. It’s really an interesting part of things, the A&R process.

Q: Do you have any projects that you are particularly proud of?

A: Yeah definitely! Condemned 2 is probably the best game that I’ve worked on. I was the associate producer on that from start to finish under my current boss, Constantine Hantzopolous, a senior producer who is just amazing. And then we had an amazing team working with Monolith in Seattle that worked on Condemned 1 which I also worked on. But Condemned 2 was the one we really wanted to make. We had all the time we needed, the money we needed, and the team which was dedicated to quality and really good at what they did most of them having five to ten years of experience. We made a game that was really scary and we reinvented 1^st person melee combat and did it in a way that nobody else had done it and did it right. So it just felt brutally awesome to brutally beat down monsters and homeless people. I learned a lot working on that one and it’s one of the highest rated Sega games probably in the last few years.

Q: How would you define a gamer?

A: A gamer is a person who’s tuned into the future of entertainment.

Q: Are you a gamer yourself? What kind of games have you been playing?

A: Yes very much so. Lately I have been playing a lot of prototypes stuff that your readers probably aren’t going see for a few years. I can’t really talk about them but at home I actually played a lot of Braid this weekend which I really liked because of its sensibility. Obviously the tone and style was very well thought out. And the feeling of the gameplay reflected the overall creative vision of the game. So it’s like the idea of moving time forward and backward and having regrets and what happens in a relationship was great and interesting and I would really love to see more games like this. That sort of takes on more then just, although it’s fun, just going around killing some fools. It’s definitely a plus to have games that sort of contemplate the human experience in different ways.

I also like playing a lot of board games and table top role playing games. I’ve been playing a lot of fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons with a group. It’s a pretty big change from D&D I mean I have been playing since I was nine way back in the 70’s. It’s interesting because it’s a much more tactical game now. I’ve been playing some GTA IV and some Call of Duty 4 multiplayer. I’m a big Warhammer 40k tabletop gamer.

Q: Do you have a favorite game of all time?

A: That’s hard I mean I could give you my favorite new school and old school games and the ones that are pushing things that I would like to see more of. I had an amazing experience with Mario 64. That’s when 3D really worked well. Props to Shiggy! More recently a lot of the hits have been justifiably great. You know Bioshock was weak in some areas, it got 10’s across the board but it did have a lot of weaknesses, but the things it did get right it got really right. Things like making you feel really immersed in the world and making you want to explore and the story it’s just fantastic. They did a good job with Bioshock it’s definitely one of my favorites over the last few years. But I would have to say Warhammer 40k, tabletop miniatures because I’ve spent way more money on those than I have on videogames. I need to justify my expense by saying it’s one of my favorite games *lol*.

Q: Do you have a favorite platform?

A: Well as part of my very important job related research I need to have all of the platforms and be able to play all of the games. As an overall philosophy I don’t think that platform is important. I mean there are fanboys for every platform of course. But the important thing for me is “does the game deliver an amazing experience?” It could be played on a rubber band and some bubblegum and if the game is amazing then that’s all that matters.

Q: What is your favorite part of your job?

A: The paycheck *lol*. Well aside from that I would say that it’s really the people that I work with. I feel very fortunate to be a part of the PD department at Sega. It’s really unusual that there is no backstabbing or corporate (nonsense). It’s really just a bunch of people who love games and are just dedicated to making good games and also mentoring people. It’s a really good environment to do good work in. Also I would say the important research that I do…playing a bunch of games and downloading a bunch of Rock Band songs *lol*.

Q: If you could change one thing about the videogame industry what would it be?

A: I wish that there was an unlimited amount of processing power. So the idea would be that there is just one gaming machine.

Q: What do you like to do outside of videogames?

A: I like hanging out around San Francisco; just going around to different places. I like traveling and going to beaches and watching movies. I also like to do video editing, that’s always a lot of fun. I love to go to underground parties and just hang out with friends.

Q: Do you have any advice for people that would like to get into the videogame industry?

A: Make a board game. Nothing is easier because you can do it with paper. You don’t need any kind of crazy computer. You will learn a lot about what it takes to make a good game if you make a board game prototype and play with your friends and they say that it’s good. Otherwise, just keep knocking on the industry’s door – look online for entry-level QA or Marketing positions at publishers and developers and eventually you’ll get your shot. Just don’t screw it up once you get it!