Haze/IGN Blogs/Welcome!

Attention all you Playas and Pimps,

Hullo. My name is Rob Yescombe. God, that sounds like I’m at an AA meeting. Anyhoo, I’m the screenwriter on HAZE, which is the brand new First Person Shooter being developed here at Free Radical Design. As you may know, our founding fathers were the core team behind GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on the N64. We also made Second Sight, and the TimeSplitters series -

The founders of Free Radical (Steve Ellis, Dave Doak, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate) started the company way back in 1999. After the phenomenal success of GoldenEye and Perfect Dark they could have spent the rest of their days reclining on a velvet chaise longue, being fed solid gold grapes by the world’s most expensive callgirls. But that wasn’t the life for them – they wanted to keep creating.

So, with a team of only 18 guys, they produced and delivered the first TimeSplitters by October the following year. Since then we’ve been delivering First Person Shooters every couple of years, and now the company has grown to over 150 people. So, according to my math, HAZE should be precisely 8.5 times better than TimeSplitters – awesome! That’s how it works, right?

Alright, let me introduce you to the core team behind the game.

Dr. Dave Doak – (‘Double-D’)
Yes, he really is a doctor, but not in the Doogie Howser sense. He did a degree and D.Phil in Biochemistry, and then went on to work as a post-doctoral researcher and college lecturer at Oxford University. Coincidently, David found that the SGI computer systems he was using for molecular graphics were the same as those then in use for Nintendo 64 game development. That was the reason he approached Rare in the beginning. As well as taking a lead role in the design of TimeSplitters and TimeSplitters 2, David co-wrote the script for Second Sight - still considered one of the most involving plot-driven action games of recent times. Dave now acts as a kind of perpetual universal quality control – looming over everyone’s shoulders, and touching them with his Midas fingers. Wait, that came out wrong.

Karl Hilton – (‘Playboy Hilton’)
After joining Rare in October 1994, Karl combined the unique disciplines learned during his degree in Architecture followed by his masters in Computer Visualisation and Animation as the Background Artist on GoldenEye. His hard work and enthusiasm resulted in him leading the art creation and direction on that game. After GoldenEye, he was made Lead Artist on Perfect Dark.

After co-founding Free Radical Design, he led the direction of the game art in TimeSplitters and TimeSplitters 2, before becoming fully occupied with directorial duties during Second Sight and TimeSplitters Future Perfect. Karl now oversees the Art direction for HAZE when he’s not buying cars, thinking about cars, or drawing his dream car on a napkin.

Steve Ellis – (‘The Steve-1000’)
A genuine bona fide child prodigy, Steve first started programming at age 8 before completing his O-Level Computer Science at age 11, and then his A-levels at age 13. Steve produced the multi-player component of GoldenEye single-handedly. Hell, the guy even did the low-level programming on TimeSplitters 2 all by himself.

However, far from being some kind of monstrously giant-brained freak who has to live in a glass tube, Steve lives a normal life handling business development, finance, legal and general management.

Graeme Norgate – (‘Beefburger’)
Everyone’s favorite 36-year-old Goth is perhaps best known for his work on GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. However, Graeme actually began composing aged 12. He joined Rare in April 1994, where he worked on titles including Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong Land and Blastcorps.

After co-founding Free Radical Design, Graeme went on to be nominated for a BAFTA for his sound work on Second Sight, and is considered an industry authority thanks to his audio in the TimeSplitters series.

Contrary to rumours, he does not worship the Dark Lord.

Derek Littlewood – (‘Sizzlewood’)
Derek had an unconventional route into games – when he first came to interview at Free Radical, he was working at the bakery counter in a supermarket. However, the man had some very convincing thoughts on game design – convincing enough, in fact, for the company directors to hire him full time. Since then, Derek has played a vital design role in TimeSplitters 2, Second Sight, and now as Project Lead on HAZE.

Martin Keywood – (‘McFly’)
As Project Manager / Producer, Martin is the interface between us and UbiSoft. He makes sure everyone knows where they’re going and what they’re supposed to be doing there. He owes his job at Free Radical to a lonely night with a bottle of peach schnapps. After drinking below the label, he promptly decided to ditch his life as the Development Director for an IT company and sent a rambling, booze-fuelled email to Free Radical. The rest is history.

Rob Yescombe – (‘Please Insert Insulting Nickname Here’)
Me, I’ve been knocking around for a while. I started writing professionally ten years ago for Zee TV – an Indian television network. From there I did my hard yards in script reading before graduating on to format creation, co-writing and feature development. Oh, I also did a few months as a gag writer for radio and some TV presenting somewhere in there. To be honest, I was a whore who would do anything I was paid to do. Finally, I’m working on a labor of true love with HAZE and I’m excited about it.

But I won’t bore you with our history (any more). Let’s talk about the future. At the end of this year, we’re delivering HAZE on PS3, and right now we’re at red alert. By ‘red alert’ I mean that we’re getting perilously close to the last leg of development, and everyone on the team is desperately trying to cram in all the ideas that less determined men would suggest we leave for another day. But the guys here really don’t seem to have homes to go to, so why not, eh.

As for me, this week I’ve been directing some of the final voice sessions. Half the game is set in South America, so we made a decision early on that we wouldn’t have any actors ‘putting on’ accents. That is to say, all the actors playing rebels parts are from the region, which lends the whole thing an air of credibility. I hope.

The biggest problem that comes from working with native speakers is that English is their second language - sometimes a very distant second. In fact, the principal challenge of the last few weeks has been extracting performances from these guys that, while remaining authentic, are actually intelligible. You see, their accents are pretty damn thick. I’m sure you folks will let me know if it worked.

Right now, as I write, our UbiSoft producers are in the meeting room upstairs, waiting for me to finish this blog so we can get on with other stuff. I’d better stop here. But I will leave you with something special - Check below to get your first glimpse of Haze in motion in our first video developer diary.

Haze Developer Diary 1
Until next time…