Irrational Games » Featured Employees

Featured Employee: Shane Mathews

IG.Ratana — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:03:16 +0000

Here’s why we think Shane is swell…

John Abercrombie, Lead Programmer: Shane has worked all over the map in terms of programming. Whether it’s a new feature or a hard-to-find bug, he’s able to jump right in and figure out what needs to be done. He has a lot of unique interests outside of work, including classical music and opera as well as cooking. He’s a great person and a tremendous asset to our team.

Your title is Game Programmer. What does that mean?

Shane Mathews: For me, it means working to ensure our content creators and QA have everything they need to ship a game which will meet or exceed our players’ expectations. Making an “Irrational Game” (like BioShock Infinite) is really tough for everyone involved, but if I perform my job well, then anyone working with my systems should feel empowered to help make the game great.

What games have you worked on?

SM: The BioShock Challenge Rooms. It was a downloadable add-on originally released for the PS3 version. I wrote the logic for the achievements, UI, and a little bit of gameplay. I also fixed some bugs and played a lot of ping-pong. It was a very gentle introduction to real game development.

These are now also included on the BioShock Ultimate Rapture Edition for PS3/360.

I also made some amateurish games in college, and added a system for 3D slide animations to OpenOffice.org (now also forked into Go-oo and LibreOffice).

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

SM: It’s about passion.

What is your favorite game of all time?

SM: By time spent, the PS2 version of Bully is probably the game I’ve put more time into than any other. I’ve gotten 100% completion twice in that game so far. Now that BioShock Infinite is done, I’ll hopefully complete it again. However, by number of times completed, Portal is probably the game I’ve beaten the most, with at least half a dozen times on PC and another half dozen on the 360.

What is your favorite movie?

SM: Probably either the 1939 film Goodbye, Mr. Chips or Casablanca. It could be just survivorship bias, but to me the best movies seem to be in black and white.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

SM: I cook, walk my dogs, pick produce, roast coffee, hike, listen to jazz, attend the symphony and the opera, help some of our QA with their personal game projects, visit my family, read, solve puzzles, and play board and card games.

Nothing particularly exciting, but I try to take everything to a crazy level.

One of the more involved hobbies I have is building up my larder. There’s an organic pick-your-own farm nearby so I spend a lot of time in the summer and fall picking and canning as much produce as possible. I have a pretty heavy-duty pressure canner which gets a lot of use.

Do you ever share these wonderful pickled items with the Irrational Games staff?

SM: Sure, when my basement gets too full with one particular thing, or I make something which I feel the need to brag about, I’ll bring it in to work. So far I’ve given away sparkling hard apple cider, peach jam, home-roasted coffee, crushed tomatoes, and pickles. It’s nice when other people get to enjoy something you’ve spent a lot of time trying to perfect. My peach jam got the best reception of the bunch, but it still can’t compare to our Level Designer Alexx Kay’s fresh June strawberries that he shares every year. People go nuts for those, or at the very least I do.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

SM: My memory isn’t very good, so most stories are lost to me very quickly after they happen, but I do have some very special memories over the years. The excitement of hearing Ken Levine make the pitch for BioShock Infinite to the studio. When you work at a studio on a great product with passionate people, you’ll constantly make memories you’ll want to keep.

Featured Employee: Grant Chang

IG.Ratana — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:02:35 +0000

Here’s why we think Grant is swell…

Shawn Robertson, Animation Director: Grant has been with Irrational since early on in production for the first BioShock. He came to us with a wide range of experience, including some work on the military Osprey aircraft and a stint with stop-motion animation in a post-Soviet Bloc, Eastern European country. Come to think of it, Grant may actually be a spy. When you chose to harvest or save Little Sisters in BioShock, those were Grant’s animations you were looking at.

During production on BioShock Infinite, Grant took over the Lead Animator position. This put a ton of responsibility on his shoulders, but when the game comes out, I think you’ll see he’s managed the job swimmingly. Whenever you see an AI dodge out of your line of fire, you can think of Grant filming video references for those moves, running around the kitchen upstairs, plowing through surprised devs who were trying to eat. Come to think of it, that is something a spy might do.

Keep calm and Chang on.

Your title is Lead Animator. What does that mean?

Grant Chang: I keep the animation team tasked with (hopefully) clear direction. I also work closely with art, design, and programming to get AIs working and behaving correctly. With Infinite being such a huge project, I worked with a bunch of outsourcers and directed mo-cap sessions. I also got to do some animating.

What games have you worked on?

GC: BioShock, BioShock DLC, and BioShock Infinite. I also did the Saladin animations for Civilization Revolution. Before Irrational, I worked at a small production studio called Red Eye in Rochester, NY. We made the FMVs (cutscenes) for Crash: Twinsanity, Crash: Tag Team Racing, and Spider-Man 2 for the PSP.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

GC: It’s intensely awesome!

What is your favorite game of all time?

GC: Back in grad school I’d play Soulcalibur every day with my best friends, who were also my roommates. We never got tired of it.

What is your favorite movie?

GC: Raging Bull

What are your hobbies outside of work?

GC: One of my first loves is stop-motion. After college, I interned at Nukufilm, a stop-motion film house in Tallinn, Estonia. I did small tasks for them, and they gave me free rein with the studio’s resources. I made a film called Morning’s Broken that you can check out on YouTube. I’m planning a new film project this year.

I’m not sure if this counts as a hobby, but I’ve been doing a lot of home improvement. I’m learning a lot, but I’m still no handyman. (I can’t believe I just said that…Infinite’s infected my brain!)

I like playing soccer, tennis, and have recently gotten into mud runs.

What’s a mud run?

GC: It’s an obstacle course where you wade through muddy pools, climb over walls, and crawl under barbed wire. Different races have different and insidious torture stations. If you messed up a station in the Spartan Race, you had to do 30 burpees. If you don’t know what a burpee is, look it up. They’re not pleasant.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

GC: I was the first animator hired by Shawn, our animation lead, when Irrational was ramping up for BioShock. I’d never animated for games before or used 3ds Max (I was a Maya guy), so I was a little anxious. When I first arrived, Shawn wasn’t in the office. My first week happened to coincide with a mo-cap shoot in Chicago that kept him away the rest of the week. I wasn’t sure where to start, but I figured I better learn Max as fast as I could. I kept a low profile for a day, then our lead programmer rushed in to request a new animation and get it in-engine. Our system was pretty new and nobody in the office knew the animation export process. I thought I was going to get canned, but after an hour Shawn called me and told me not to worry about it. Everything worked out okay, as I’m now in my seventh year at Irrational. It started out a tad rocky, but the past years have been an amazing ride.

Featured Employee: Amanda Cosmos

IG.Ratana — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:21:52 +0000

Here’s why we think Amanda is swell…

Robert Tzong, Quality Assurance Manager: Amanda is the owner of a key component of the development process on the QA side. Before any significant changes are introduced to the game, she and her team perform a set of testing procedures on those changes to make sure they don’t break our game or our development tools. Sitting in her quiet little corner, she and her team are some of the most critical members of our studio.

Hers is a particularly tough spot to be in since she is not just the gatekeeper to protect the team from catastrophic game breakage, but also one that ferries out new features the team is waiting for. Don’t spend enough time and you might miss a crash. Take too long and the team can’t move forward with making the game. Striking the balance between finishing quickly and testing thoroughly is a talent that she has honed to near perfection. It’s because of this that I am able to trust that any new set of changes can be delivered to her and she will take care of everything else. And what I love best is that she’s constantly looking for ways to do that work even better, not just for herself but for everyone else involved. The Excel document she created to inform this testing is a work of art.

I’ve met very few people quite as passionate about games and the game community. Outside of being a swell Irrational employee, she’s just a really cool person to hang out with. If you ever bump into her, ask her about Palewife.

Your title is Quality Assurance Lead. What does that mean?

Amanda Cosmos: Being QA Lead means I’m directly responsible for tasking a team of QA testers, and I coordinate with the other QA Leads and QA Manager to determine the best allocation of QA resources at different points in a project. My team deals with approving new code builds before they are released to the rest of the studio, so this means digging through a lot of crash dumps and working directly with programmers. I have a long and diverse well of QA experience that I can draw from when determining answers to tester and developer questions and troubleshooting problems.

What games have you worked on?

AC: Before Irrational, I was a QA Tester at Turbine on one of their MMORPGs, The Lord of the Rings Online. I was there for two years working up to become an acting representative of QA to the dev team and ensuring my assigned deliverables were as bug-free as possible. I came to Irrational as a Senior Tester, and BioShock Infinite is the first console game I’ve worked on.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

AC: Passion and prestige.

What is your favorite game of all time?

AC: Xenogears. I was a huge JRPG nerd growing up, but definitely a latecomer since Final Fantasy VII was the first one I played, so my tastes lean more modern. The game’s expressive sprite graphics gave it a lot of character, and as a result it’s aged really well. It has a mix of humor and seriousness that doesn’t grate. The combat’s deathblow system flows and feels satisfying. Mitsuda’s soundtrack is haunting and I love the extensive amount of thought put into backstory

What is your favorite movie?

AC: Princess Mononoke. My dad took me quite a ways to see it when it came out in a limited amount of theaters back in 1999. As a teenager I thought San was really cool—still do. And my dad also liked the movie so much I bought the DVD for him that following Christmas. Seems like whenever we talk on the phone now he asks me about Miyazaki films.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

AC: I’m trying to catch up on my fiction reading, working through Dune right now. I also have an extensive library of books about the study of mythology and folklore that I am reading through. I constantly try to catch up on my giant backlog of games, but my attention span is not what it used to be. I also dabble in the creation of interactive fiction, visual novels, and other hypertext-style experiments. Nothing published yet, but I hope to finish something once work slows down. My boyfriend and I are also beer snobs so we like to go to dinners and festivals that serve unique brews.

Can you tell us a little about what you’re working on?

AC: I’m working on a text-based game where you get trapped in a train station that shouldn’t exist. I ride the subway a lot and wanted to make something that captured the feelings of being a city commuter but had a Narnia twist to it. It’s still in the early phases, and I’m figuring out how exactly I want to present it. I’ve rewritten the beginning in different systems quite a few times already, most recently transferring it from Inform to Twine. I presented an early build of the Inform version at a friend’s conference a couple of months back when I was jamming on it, and the feedback I was getting was surprising. People were excited and encouraging me to finish so they could play! Was definitely a good morale booster and pushed me to keep going with it. I’m hoping to spend some time on it over the holidays.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

AC: I want to tell you about My Favorite Bug. It was when we were working quite tirelessly leading up to the E3 demo. I was doing a run-through to familiarize myself with the beats. At the beginning of the demo, Booker and Liz are in a gift shop and Liz is doing all kinds of wacky things with assorted items in the shop, like showing off faux-gold souvenirs and messing around with a Lincoln mask. As I was walking through, I found I had accidentally done something amazing. I had to pause the game because I was crying from laughing so hard. I had gotten the overblown, cartoony Lincoln mask stuck on Liz’s face past when it should have been taken off. I’m watching through my tears and gasps as a papier-mâché Lincoln stares at me instead of Liz during the dramatic tension of the Songbird sequence. The other testers started gathering around me to see what was wrong and a ruckus went up. I luckily captured a video that went all the way through the iconic New York scene, but unfortunately the rogue accessory culled off her soon after that. My resourceful testers eventually figured out how to get her masked all the way to the final scene. I love showing new employees that video.

Featured Employee: Nicole Sandoval

IG.Ratana — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:39:06 +0000

Here’s why we think Nicole is swell…

Adrian Murphy, Senior Producer: To put it quite simply, everybody loves Nicole. Everything she does, she approaches with such a refreshing and happy attitude that even the most quiet or reserved people find themselves cracking a smile and laughing along when in her presence. That’s not to say she is just a good people person. Associate Producers are regularly asked to jump around and handle a diverse array of tasks across the entire studio, and Nicole is able to jump right in, get the lay of the land, and quickly whip things into an organized and effective plan without really bothering anyone, which is quite frankly amazing. (Try making a plan that everyone is happy with and you’ll know what I mean). No detail goes unseen and no question unanswered when you work with Nicole. She even keeps me on my toes on the rare occasions when I forget something! (And she relishes the opportunity…)

At the end of the day, we think Nicole is swell because she is hardworking, smart, and easy to get along with, but what truly makes her shine is that her enthusiasm for her work is worn loud and proud on her sleeve. That reminds us all that we get to spend every day doing something we love for a living, which can be all too easy to forget in the day-to-day craziness.

Your title is Associate Producer. What does that mean?

Nicole Sandoval: I am a FACILITATOR. I solve problems, unblock people, and basically do my best to make it easier for the development team to make this game. More specifically, I work with the Programming and VO departments, so my job varies between the two departments. Programmers are really self-sufficient, so the best thing I can do is help keep interruptions to a minimum. Usually that means fielding programmer bugs, making sure there is enough info in the bug, that it goes to the right person, and more importantly that it’s actually a programmer bug. For VO, it’s all about moving information—getting information from the Narrative team, moving it along to the VO team, and then from VO to the other various departments that need it.

What games have you worked on?

NS: This is my first real game job. Although I did have an internship in California where I worked on Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2011—not nearly the same as working on a BioShock game.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

NS: Full of surprises.

What is your favorite game of all time?

NS: I have a few favorites, but The Suffering is one that always comes to mind first. I love being scared, and that game scared the shit out of me. I would play in the dark and get so scared that I would run into my roommate Charisma’s room and hop onto her bed just to shake it off.

What is your favorite movie?

NS: This is a harder one to answer than the game one. I would have to go with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. I remember watching it with my grandmother when I was little, the both of us covering our eyes and squealing. It was awesome.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

NS: I do SPFX makeup. It’s a really time-consuming and expensive hobby but I love it. Since I’ve moved out here, I haven’t had too many opportunities to make people up like I did in L.A., so if you come to a party at my house and “fall asleep,” beware—you might be walking home with a new face in the morning.

How long have you been doing SPFX makeup?

NS: Eleven years. I went to an acting school in L.A., and that’s when I realized I didn’t really want to do that forever (a school full of actors will do that to you). That is where I met Scott Ramp; he was the makeup teacher there. He asked if I wanted to work with his team during Halloween and do monster makeup. I of course said YES and have been a proud member of the Scream Team since. In L.A. I lived down the street from his shop, and so I would spend a lot of my free time with him doing awesome photo shoots all around town. The best was when we did a HUGE zombie photo shoot in Old Town Pasadena. We had been up all morning, he and I, making up eight actors, and then we took them into Old Town and just started shooting away (pictures, of course!). After a long day, everyone was starving so we just packed up and headed to the nearest restaurant/bar with our school of zombies and asked to be seated. It was awesome.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

NS: Mustache March. That whole month was pretty awesome. The studio had decided to hold a mustache contest and raise money for the American Cancer Society. People could “sponsor” a ‘stache. When I saw my name on the nominee list, I was totally down. The rules were pretty simple: either you grew a mustache, or if you couldn’t, you wore a mustache. But if you were wearing one, you HAD to wear it all day every day, from the moment you walked in the door to the moment you left. I was mainly painting mine on, minus a few days where I made a couple from fake hair. I wore a different one every day and I took the rules very seriously. I would put on the ‘stache at home and go about my day—if I went to get coffee or lunch outside the office, the ‘stache stayed on. Needless to say, I got some pretty strange looks and surprisingly even a few compliments. Steve Ellmore would even come check my face every morning to make sure I was sticking to the rules. At the end of the month, they had a big shaving party and awarded trophies. I won “MOST MAGNIFICENT MUSTACHE,” my trophy is almost as tall as I am and I still have it on my desk. It’s like my landmark—can’t find me? Look for the trophy.

Featured Employee: Jonathan LoPorto

IG.Ratana — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:26:18 +0000

Here’s why we think Jon is swell…

Leonie Manshanden, Interim Director of Operations: Jon is one of the most selfless people I know. I have rarely met a person who is so driven to make other people be successful and have their moment to shine. We are truly lucky to have him on board. As our Operations Manager, he is the guy that keeps our studio humming like a fine-tuned machine. He and his team keep us supplied with all of the material things we need to do our job, day in and day out—while also making sure we’re fed, caffeinated, safe, and happy on top of it all. He ordered us 26-pound gummy bears, he brings in bubble tea after a long week—when it comes to taking care of our team, he does not mess around! Most importantly, he lets me call him J-Lo, and any dude of over 6 feet tall who lets me get away with that is pretty swell.

Your title is Operations Manager. What does that mean?

Jonathan LoPorto: My main responsibility is to handle the day-to-day operational needs of the office. Pretty much “make sure things are working.” I also work with the Operations team to put together outside events and company perks. Right now, we are supplying everyone with the fuel and love they need as they work through the final stages of making this game.

What games have you worked on?

JL: BioShock Infinite will be my first.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

JL: New Job Everyday

What is your favorite game of all time?

JL: Easy, Half-Life. No question.

What is your favorite movie?

JL: Fight Club or American Beauty. Both are pretty much about the same thing, just saying it in two very different ways.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

JL: I play guitar and like to box. I help out teaching boxing classes at a local boxing gym and at a youth center in Dorchester. There’s something about getting hit in the face that makes all of the worries of the day disappear. It’s also a good exercise in focus: all hell is breaking loose and if you get swept up in it, you’re going to get hurt. You need to stay calm and loose, and focus on what the other guy is doing. It’s very Zen. As contradictory as it sounds, I’ve chilled out a lot since I started fighting.

Have you ever knocked anyone our or been knocked out yourself?

JL: No, but one of the first times I sparred, I was way out of my league. This nicely dressed guy walks up to me while I’m warming up and asks if I’d like to spar. He was very polite about it. “Excuse me, Mister? I was wondering if you maybe wanted to spar?” I had never sparred with anyone before. I would usually just jump-rope and hit the heavy bag. But that day I was feeling adventurous, so I said “sure,” grabbed some headgear, and got in the ring. He went into the bathroom to get changed and came out wearing personalized shorts with tassels and no shirt. This guy is jacked. He gets in the ring with me, then turns around to talk to his trainer, and across his back he’s got the gnarliest prison tattoo of a shotgun. No joke. It looked like a fourth grader drew it. It was terrifying. Chills ran down my spine.

The bell rang and he came on strong. It was like being in the ring with a Cadillac. There was nowhere to go. He kept hammering me. He’d back up a bit, give me a second to comprehend the trouble I was in, then come back in and go to work. At one point he smiled and said, “Loosen up, man. It’s alright.” I remember that pissing me off so much in the moment, like he was patronizing me in my time of desperation, but he was telling me the truth. He was trying to help me. The more he came in, the more I started to get used to it and things didn’t seem so crazy.

After three rounds of just mayhem, he gave me a huge hug, and now whenever we see each other at the gym, we always take the time to catch up. Life lessons were learned that day.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

JL: In May 2011, just a few weeks before E3, we hosted an event to show BioShock Infinite to a large group of global media outlets. We rented out some meeting space in a swanky hotel in Santa Monica, and the night before the event, we were still hustling to get everything ready—making sure the sound and video were perfect, that the rooms had the right atmosphere. We sat through endless play-throughs, ensuring everything was exactly as it should be. The team was anxious about how people would receive the game, which so many people had been working hard on to complete in time for this event. Ken was deadpan and very short-spoken the whole time. His baby was going on display to the scrutinizing eyes of the global media community; he had every right to feel some nerves. I was worried for him and wanted to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible

The next day, our guests arrived and took their seats in the theater room that we had created, followed quickly by Ken. I closed the door behind them and turned to prep the other rooms for interviews and whatnot. I began to hear the sounds of explosions through the wall, the yelling of Elizabeth, the grunting of Booker. Twenty minutes later, all I heard was applause—a lot of it. Then the door swung open and a herd of gushing people rushed out, followed quickly by Ken smiling ear-to-ear. We had something good on our hands. Now, a year and a half later, seeing how the demo has evolved into a full game makes me feel very proud to be part of the Irrational team.

Featured Employee: Adrian Balanon

IG.Ratana — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:22:46 +0000

Here’s why we think Adrian is swell…

Clint Bundrick, Combat Designer: We knew Adrian was awesome within the first 30 minutes of his interview. During that interview, we asked Adrian to tell us what he thought about Sky-Lines and how we could fix them. We had been trying to wrap our heads around them for months, and it hadn’t quite clicked yet. Adrian walked in the door and without hesitation picked up the controller and redesigned portions of the system on the fly. By the end of it, he had effectively solved many of the problems with which we had been struggling. We knew instantly that he was the Sky-Line guy. Equally famous for his lustrous hair and unwavering work ethic, Adrian has become much more than just the Sky-Line guy, and is now the go-to team member when it comes to any and every system in BioShock Infinite. Chances are, if you can interact with it in BioShock Infinite, Balanon was involved.

Your title on BioShock Infinite is Senior Systems Designer. What does that mean?

Adrian Balanon: It means I’m responsible for some aspect of gameplay, whether it is player abilities, weapons, AI behavior, movement, or controls. Systems Designers are at the forefront of what the player is able to do and how he is able to do it.

In a nutshell, we take abstract concepts and rules and work with the creative direction and all the departments to translate that onto the screen. When a Director says, “This gun sucks,” it’s our job to figure out how to make it not suck. The solution could be one of many factors such as rate of fire, how long it takes to reload, the animation of the weapon when it reloads or fires, the glow of tracer and muzzle-flash visual FX, the sound of it firing, the length of the reload, its damage output. We touch all those pieces.

What games have you worked on?

AB: I have worked on Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 3, Kung-Fu Panda, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and two unannounced projects that were cancelled. The best part about my career thus far is that I have gone through Dev Team Quality Assurance, Production, Level Design, and Systems Design.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

AB: Always be closing.

What is your favorite game of all time?

AB: Oof, that’s a tough question. As a gamer, I’d have to say MechWarrior 2. It has all the things I love: giant robots, giant robot customization, the feeling I’m in control of a giant walking robot, lasers, and explosions. It probably did not help that I read all the MechWarrior novelizations as a kid.

However, as someone working in the industry, I’d have to say Spider-Man 2. I learned so much working on that project. While I was a QA Tester/Lead on that project, I was with the development team and was able to learn how development works from the ground up, and how to approach player mechanics and combat design. Honestly, I think people who get into the industry will always consider their first project as something special, and that was mine.

What is your favorite movie?

AB: This is always a difficult question for me because I enjoy a lot of movies, and two always crop up. It is either Lawrence of Arabia or Blade Runner. However, since you are putting me on the spot, I’d have to choose Lawrence of Arabia.

I chose that one because when I was in junior high, my world history teacher showed the movie spread out over a week, and even though it was a CRT television, I was awed by the story and the beautiful wide shots.

When I got to high school and the first few years of college, I had a friend who had a very infectious love of movies, and I started watching them in the many revival houses around Los Angeles. Let me tell you, watching Lawrence exit the Nefud Desert in 70mm after he went back in to rescue someone who got lost in the initial passage is an incredibly memorable movie moment that everyone should experience.

Whenever I see Lawrence of Arabia pop up in a theater schedule, I try to make sure that I can go watch it.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

AB: I probably have way too many interests and hobbies. Some are passing fads, but the things that have stayed with me are games, reading a lot of nonfiction, and photography.

I’ve already talked about my favorite game; needless to say I try to stay informed about all game genres. I enjoy plenty of FPS games, RPGs, fighters, and action games, but for niche stuff, I enjoy war games and point-and-click adventure games. The two I have on the docket now when I have time are Gary Grigsby’s War in the East and Jane Jensen’s Gray Matter.

In terms of nonfiction, I’m reading Barbarossa Derailed by David Glantz, which is about the operational history of the Eastern Front of World War II, and I just completed Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden. I am biased toward nonfiction because history fascinates me. It comes from two different influences.

In elementary school, we had a library in the building, and we were required to check one book out each week and read it. The one I remember distinctively from that time was a book about the USS Nautilus and its trip to the North Pole, written for children. At that point, I said to myself, “America is pretty awesome, I wonder what else happened?” This line of thinking eventually took me to Rome and Greece, but that’s another story.

The second influence would have to be my father. He enjoys Civil War history, and we watched Ken Burns’ Civil War when it first aired. I try to watch that series once each year. I own the soundtrack, it’s amazing.

Lastly, I’m into photography if for no other reason than it gets me outside. It’s probably the hobby that is able to get me to relax and forget about the world. I shoot with a Nikon D7000, but I still feel like a noob because I’m also a little impatient. If there is a lesson I can personally take away from photography, it is that you have to just stop and look around.

Where do you go and shoot with your camera?

AB: I’ve only been in Boston a little over a year, so I take one day out of my weekend, get up, get on a train, pick a random station in the city, and start walking. Eventually, like any tourist, I wind up on the Freedom Trail. It’s incredibly relaxing. I was from the West Coast previously, so having access to public transportation has been an eye-opener.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

AB: The short version of the story goes like this: I was still pretty new to the team, and I was sitting at my desk tuning some numbers and Ken Levine walks by and drops off a banana cream pie. He heard I liked them, so he wanted to get me one in appreciation for something I had done earlier in the month. He didn’t know why I liked them, but people I had worked with previously had told him that he should get me pie if I did something good. It was pretty awesome and the pie was delicious!

The long version of the story: On one of the projects I worked on, I bought pie for some people working late and there was one whole pie left, which was banana cream. I took the pie and put it in my mini-fridge and wrote a note in permanent marker on a notepad to remind myself about the pie.

The handwriting was squirrely, as if I was holding the pen with a closed fist, and the note just said “EAT PIE.” Needless to say, when I got to work the following day, I realized that I still had pie and that I probably worked way too late the previous night. I wound up keeping the notepad through through the years as a souvenir and placed it on a wall in my work area. Every now and then, people will ask, “Why do you have a note to eat pie?” Usually, I would respond with, “if you had pie, wouldn’t you want a reminder to eat it?

Featured Employee: Jim Bonney

IG.Ratana — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:52:14 +0000

Here’s why we think Jim is swell…

Patrick Balthrop, Audio Director: Crack the door to Bonney’s office on any given day and you will no doubt hear something you’ve never heard before. Jim is approachable and loves to field ideas from the entire development team. He brings to Irrational a broad spectrum of musical talent, relentless enthusiasm for his craft, and a passion for making games sound great. Jim’s instrumental expertise, knowledge of diverse musical styles, and passionate commitment to music direction enable him to tackle even the greatest challenges at Irrational Games. His music direction makes the game sound better every single day.

Your title on BioShock Infinite is Music Director. What does that mean?

Jim Bonney: Basically, I steward Ken’s vision for music in BioShock Infinite into reality. Sometimes he knows exactly what he wants from the get-go; other times I’ll do the exploration to find the right music, or to push it further. I act as liaison to license tracks, I give creative direction/translation to composers and musicians, and sometimes I’ll write and record myself to get the results we want. I’ve also done some sound design, directed voiceover sessions for bit characters, and I help out with the technical side of the sound department – speccing out gear and recording studios, making sure our recording sessions run smoothly, and producing both of Irrational’s podcast series.

What games have you worked on?

JB: Slugfest, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, John Woo Presents Stranglehold, Ballers, Blitz: The League, and – like a lot of game developers, I’ve worked on a couple games that never shipped.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

JB: Constant creative challenge. (Which is a very good thing!)

What is your favorite game of all time?

JB: I’m going to say The Dark Eye. It was this odd game with a storyline based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. It had clay puppet animation, the music was composed by Thomas Dolby, and voice talent included William S. Burroughs… It was strange and creepy and remains in my memory as a very unique game experience.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

JB: I was going to say Limbo, but I played Journey for the first time last week and was absolutely blown away. Both were executed so simply and so well, and they both have amazing music and soundscapes… but if I’ve got to pick only one game for everyone, it’s got to be Journey.

What is your favorite movie?

JB: It’s almost impossible to decide… but let’s go with Rear Window. Alfred Hitchcock was a genius, and I learn something new every time I watch that movie.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

JB: Honestly, I’m pretty much a giant music geek, so work and play are kind of the same thing for me. I compose music, and I still play guitar regularly. I’m trying to teach myself mandolin and clawhammer-style banjo. I still suck at both, but it’s an enjoyable challenge. And I listen to a LOT of music. In the summer I also like getting my barbecue on… though I bow before Irrational’s Senior Producer and resident grill-master, Adrian Murphy.

You’re a guitar player – did you play in a lot of bands?

JB: I’ve played a lot of gigs, but I’ve actually never been in a band that got past rehearsals or jam sessions in somebody’s basement or garage. The only gig with an actual rock band was a talent/no-talent contest in college. I played drums. We had one rehearsal beforehand, which was the first time I’d ever tried to play the drums. You can probably guess where we were on the spectrum of talent/no-talent.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

JB: Ken was producing a voiceover session with our two lead voice talents, Courtnee Draper and Troy Baker. I was there to communicate with the house engineer and make sure that everything technical ran smoothly. Ken asked Courtnee to sing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” – he had heard her sing and knew she had a beautiful voice. Troy asked if he could borrow a guitar – I don’t think anybody knew what an accomplished and versatile musician he was until he started playing and coming up with vocal harmonies on the spot. We were all gathered in the large main studio, and they sounded absolutely fantastic. Suddenly I realized there wasn’t a single microphone anywhere near them – all of these great takes were vanishing into the ether! Ken coached them on the style of performance he wanted to hear and then sent them into their separate isolation booths. They put on their headphones, and the engineer and I quickly positioned mics in front of them both. I was quietly freaking out, praying that we hadn’t missed their one magical take of the day. But Troy and Courtnee are both total pros, so it just came out sounding even better.

Featured Employee: Jeremy Lerner

IG.Ratana — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:27:23 +0000

Here’s why we think Jeremy is swell…

Steven Ellmore, Lead Engineer: Jeremy is fearless. I don’t mean “Russian Roulette” fearless. That’s just stupid. Jeremy is “boldly go where no one has gone before” fearless. And that’s a good thing, especially if you like video games, because having people like Jeremy on the team lets us experiment with new technology and try out brand-new things. Risky things. Incredible things. In fact, Jeremy is currently working on some cutting-edge features that are so super-secret that we can’t even tell you about them yet.

Jeremy also has one of the world’s best collections of ironic/funny T-shirts. You can tell when he’s running low on laundry because he’ll come in wearing a T-shirt that’s great. But compared to the amazingly awesome T-shirts that he normally wears, a great T-shirt is a disappointing letdown.

Your title is Tech Programmer. What does that actually mean?

Jeremy Lerner: I write a lot of systems code in the engine and tools, mostly to support our level designers and level builders. Depending on the day, that could be anything from workflow improvements in the editor to enhancements for the lighting system.

What games have you worked on?

JL: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

JL: Always an adventure.

What is your favorite game of all time?

JL: I couldn’t possibly pick a single favorite. Right now I’d lean toward the Mass Effect series, which got me invested in my character like no other game. But for purely nostalgic purposes, I’d have to say the original Legend of Zelda, and by sheer playtime, Rock Band.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

JL: Portal. The writing’s fantastic, of course, but judging by a friend who never heard any dialogue because his sound card was on the fritz, the gameplay holds up without it. The transition from training to full-on puzzles is handled so smoothly, it makes what could have been an overly complex game completely accessible.

What is your favorite movie?

JL: Dr. Strangelove.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

JL: Video games, more than anything, but I’m also a music lover, board gamer, and craft beer enthusiast.

So you make your own beer?

JL: Nope, I’m not a home-brewer, I just enjoy a lot of microbrews. At a good beer bar, odds are I’ll be drinking out of a goblet or a snifter more often than a pint glass.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

JL: When it comes to forming inaccurate mental images of people at the studio, there’s no better time to start working here than the last week of Moustache March.

Featured Employee: Mauricio Tejerina

IG.Ratana — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:07:52 +0000

Here’s why we think Mauricio is swell.

Shawn Robertson, Lead Artist: I have been working with Mo for nigh on 12 years now. You would think that 12 years in close proximity to a native Spanish speaker would rub off on me, but according to Mo, speaking to me in Spanish is like “talking with a fucking 2-year-old!” Aside from being bilingual, Mo also has multiple talents in the art department.

He built the weapons you see in BioShock and BioShock Infinite, along with concepting them too. That cool Murder of Crows vigor bottle? Mo. The Rolston Repeating Rifle? Mo. The voice from Ammo Bandito in BioShock? You guessed it. The list goes on.

Most people aren’t aware that Mauricio is also an accomplished landscape painter as well as a kick-ass photographer. That’s the great thing about Mo, despite his many talents; he remains a humble and gracious artist.

Your title is Concept Artist. What does that actually mean?

Mauricio Tejerina: It means I create art assets for the game. I get to do concept work, and then I translate those ideas into 3D models with corresponding textures. It is a creative job where the freedom of creating an interactive game object starts at zero and develops into a full-rounded work of art. There is also a way of learning from the process of creating ideas. All the research makes you a little more aware of what’s out there; I study how things work. It amazes me when I find charts/blueprints of random artifacts.

What games have you worked on?

MT: I have worked on System Shock 2, Flight Unlimited III , Lost (unshipped), Tribes: Vengeance, BioShock, BioShock DLC, and now on BioShock Infinite.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

MT: Awesome Sky-Line ride.

What is your favorite game of all time?

MT: This question brings me memories of going to the arcade when I was growing up in Spain. Star Wars (by Atari, 1983) and Rygar (by Tecmo, 1986) were the ones that I really liked.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

MT: Call me old–fashioned but it is Twister.

What is your favorite movie?

MT: This one is a tough question. I like Jean-Pierre Jeunet films (Delicatessen, Micmacs, City of Lost Children) and Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands). I am also a big fan of Die Hard and Indiana Jones. Also anything with Chevy Chase.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

MT: I am an avid photographer (do a lot of film in 35mm and medium format). I also paint (just got back to en plein air painting), sculpt, and sketch. Lately I’ve been enjoying aquariums (I have one next to my desk) and terrariums.

Do you favor film photography over digital?

MT: Digital photography has become so fast that people don’t stop to compose and understand light. When I have a roll of 36 shots in a 35mm camera, or even 12 shots with a medium format camera, I take my time to explore what I am seeing. I also like the anticipation of having to wait for film to be developed. I also like to collect vintage cameras…something that works. My favorite right now is a Rolleicord VA.

Tell your favorite story about life at Irrational.

MT: I have been working at Irrational for 14 years. Too many stories come to mind. I am sure that the old-timers at Irrational would have many anecdotes about me. But one of them stands out. That is the day I decided to make churros at work. Someone brought in a big deep fryer. By the time we finished, the entire floor smelled like a churreria (a place where you buy churros) for two days. After that day, people kept saying “I need to put churros in everyone’s mouth”.

Featured Employee: Joe Fielder

IG.Ratana — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:33:09 +0000

Here’s why we think Joe is swell.

Tim Gerritson, Director of Product Development: Joe Fielder is one of our intrepid producers here at Irrational Games, and one of the cat-herders who helps wrangle the game from concept to completion.

The first thing we need to address is Joe’s look. He doesn’t look like a producer. He looks like one of those male cigarette models from the 1960s.The kind of guy who rides that razor-fine line between super suave and hopelessly square. That has made him our de facto internal Irrational Games spokes-model. He has a look that is tailor made for Photoshop mash-ups, and so the office is festooned with images of him on faux Jazz CDs, or hawking non-existent brands. But the thing is, he’s a consummate gamer and a quintessential geek in the best sense of the term – he just doesn’t look like one, which is why he strikes us all so.

He has a depth to him that the look belies, and it serves him well. He exudes a calmness, even when he’s freaking out, that’s infectious. He makes you feel better about things, and disarms even the tensest moments. He’s also extremely creative, with talents spanning across music promotion, comic book writing, and general writing to name but a few. He really is a creative (and I mean that as a noun- ‘A Creative’), which also makes him “one of us” in a studio where everyone lifts their creative shovel. This earns him the respect he’s garnered within the team.

So whether you need a really awesome cocktail party or a host of assets to be delivered by Friday afternoon, Joe can get you both, with a wink, a nod and a can-do attitude.

Your title is Producer. What does that actually mean?

Joe Fielder: Producers make sure all the little details are followed up on, that developers get everything they need to do their jobs, and deadlines are hit. At Irrational, it also means that we keep an eye out to never let anything slip by that’s just “alright.” Everything needs to hit the studio’s quality bar or we don’t do it.

For myself, I don’t feel like I’ve done my job at the end of the day each day if I haven’t made an improvement to the project in some way. Whether that’s corralling developers to work out a direction for a part of the game that’s giving the team trouble, helping problem-solve a tough scheduling issue with our production staff, following up with a contractor to make sure an asset will be ready when others need it, or setting up a recording session that somehow navigates the arcane schedules of six to eight different people at once.

When I started working in development, I felt a lot of personal responsibility to ensure the project went well in every regard, but didn’t have much voice in it. So I became a producer.

You can probably tell that I grew up reading a lot of Marvel Comics.

What games have you worked on?

JF: I was a designer, producer, and/or writer on EA’s Medal of Honor: European Assault, Medal of Honor: Vanguard, Medal of Honor: Heroes, Boom Blox, and a cancelled project. Before that, I was a writer and editor over at GameSpot and Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

JF: Intensely challenging/rewarding.

What is your favorite game of all time?

JF: Tough one. GoldenEye 007, Catan, Half-Life 2, Bushido Blade, Civilization Revolution, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are probably the games I’ve logged the most hours on. Wizard of Wor gets the nostalgia vote.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

JF: Half-Life 2. I think that the way they introduce new gameplay elements is elegant.

What is your favorite movie?

JF: I flip between Seven Samurai, The Last Picture Show, and Army of Shadows. My favorite movies from the last few years are Attack the Block and House of the Devil.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

JF: I keep pretty busy. I write comic books, contribute to the music web-site radiofreesilverlake.com, help put on concerts, read, run and drink increasingly powerful brands of whiskey.

You write comic books? Do you have any favorite writers that inspired you to do that?

JF: For comics, I’m a big fan of Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, Jason Aaron, and Grant Morrison. For crime novels, it’s all about Edward Bunker. For movies, Paddy Chayefsky and Dan O’Bannon are kind of my heroes. For non-fiction, I like Mark Bowden, Peter Biskind, and Hampton Sides. For fiction, I heart Robert E. Howard, Jack London, Cormac McCarthy, and Ernest Hemingway.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

JF: I can’t because it contains spoilers, but I remember being on the phone with Ken as he was driving to the office right before we were going to record the voiceover for Saltonstall for the first demo. He rattled off the character’s entire speech, nailing it seemingly just off the top of his head. I wrote it out, we recorded a few minutes later with our actor, and the lines made it into the demo without needing any further edits.

For comics, I’m a big fan of Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, Jason Aaron, and Grant Morrison. For crime novels, it’s all about Edward Bunker. For movies, Paddy Chayefsky and Dan O’Bannon are kind of my heroes. For non-fiction, I like Mark Bowden, Peter Biskin, and Hampton Sides. For fiction, I heart Robert Howard, Jack London, Cormac McCarthy, and Hemingway.

Featured Employee: Jamie McNulty

IG.Ratana — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:18:25 +0000

Here’s why we think Jamie is swell.

Shawn Robertson, Lead Artist: Jamie was here for the original Bioshock. Remember Andrew Ryan’s office? Jamie sat down with a theater lighting book and learned how to manipulate the lighting in-engine in order to squeeze every possible ounce of drama out of that scene.

After Bioshock, Jamie went to another game company but we later found out he wanted to come back to Irrational. This was before we had even announced BioShock Infinite. We were so psyched to have him back that we failed to mention one little detail: what we were actually working on. Jamie showed up on the first day of work without a clue what the project was, or even his exact role. Regardless, he’s been kicking ass ever since. That’s what I like about the guy. He just jumps in, knowing he’s got it covered, and he’s got the chops to back up his confidence.

Your title is Level Builder. What does that mean?

Jamie McNulty: A lot of the time it means you wear many, many hats. You have to be an architect, a level designer, a concept artist, and a lighting ninja all at once. Generally, I have to take a basic idea of a level and figure out how to make that visually interesting and relatively fun to be shooting splicer dudes in. I get to make the layout for levels and then make them purrdy. It’s a lot of fun.

What games have you worked on?

JM: I worked on a mish-mash of stuff before BioShock. I also worked on a bunch of cancelled projects early in my career; an MMO, a platformer, a superhero game, a big story RPG, and a couple shooters. The published ones I worked on were several ports for old games from Konami, Open Season, and of course BioShock.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

JM: A bit loony.

What is your favorite game of all time?

JM: I would have to say Another World (or Out of this World). I played it on my cousins Amiga 500. It’s so good. It was probably the first game that ever transported me to a place and really got me into it. It was like reading a good book but I got to play it out myself.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

JM: Just one?! Seriously? Well here is a good one: I doubt you can still find this to play nowadays but I would say Karateka. Probably one of the earliest, if not the first, story based game ever and it was tough as hell.

What is your favorite movie?

JM: Kickboxer. It’s a bad Jean Claude Van Damme movie, but for some reason I love it. I think it dates back to my pre-teen years and being a martial arts fanatic. I loved anything where people would kick the living bajeebers out of others or inanimate objects. Ahh life was good.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

JM: I have been working on a creator-owned comic in my spare time for forever. I don’t know if I will ever finish it because I keep redesigning it over and over. I also do Kenpo for the 1980s ninja fan in me.

Comics? Kenpo? What inspired you to get into those things? Does one have anything to do with the other?

JM: I did martial arts from age of 14-22 and I taught some basic self-defense classes when I was in college as a way to work out. I have always loved martial arts in any form more than any sport or physical activity. I stopped for a long time due to work. I’ve only recently gotten back into it and it feels awesome to be doing it again.

I used to draw comics with buds in high school. We used to play this tabletop RPG game called Marvel Super Heroes (the old version with the crazy one chart to roll them all!). We used to make our own characters, draw them up and/or create comics based on them. Now when you create art for a living, it’s difficult to do your own thing when you come home. This new comic is a way for me to work on my skills and have some fun while I am at it. Rest assured though, there will be some form of martial arts ninja action of epic proportions in the comic.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

JM: So Ken Levine is one of those guys that is a bit unpredictable when it comes to what he might like. Often, we have to review our work with him, and he gives us feedback on things and challenge us on what we made. During one particular moment, I was sitting at my desk and they (the powers that be) brought Ken over to review the level I was working on because I was trying out something different.

Now, you have to understand when Ken usually reviews things, you can instantly tell if he likes something or if he hates it. This time though I was a bit unsure, until after I was done explaining things and maneuvering around the level to show him. He appeared to be pleased though but then he turned to me and said, “so…do you wanna make out?” He had this devious smile on his face and I was so caught off guard that I stuttered through my reply and said with a shocked and flabbergasted expression, “um…uh…like right here?”

Anyway, it was awkward and funny. And no, we never made out.

Featured Employee: Shane Smith

IG.Ratana — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:13:23 +0000

Here’s why we think Shane is swell.

Emily Brinkert, Operations Director: Shane is fairly new, but out of the gates he is clearly a badass. He immediately took the lead in making sure our team has all of the technology and infrastructure that we need in order to make a groundbreaking game. He is upgrading left and right and using his Southern charm to get the job done. Most importantly, he has an amazing Donkey Kong painting in his office, which in and of itself has raised the class level of the operations department. Now, if we can just teach him how to drive in the snow, he’ll be golden.

Your title is IT Director. What does that mean?

Shane Smith: I help manage the process that keeps the bits flowing so the developers can focus on making great games. I help make sure just about everything with a plug or a battery is working. My role requires a love of technology and a desire to support creative people. Every now and then, I get a chance to script or design — and “pretend” to be a programmer too.

What games have you worked on?

SS: The entire Gears of War series, Unreal Tournament III, Bulletstorm, Shadow Complex and Infinity Blade 1 & 2.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

SS: Very passionate people… well, that, or “I’m on fire.”

What is your favorite game of all time?

SS: I’m hoping to not catch a bunch of grief from my new coworkers with this answer. Even though I’m not very good, I have a lot of good memories playing StarCraft in college. Not much has changed; I play SC2 now and I still suck.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

SS: I’m sure it’s cheating to say BioShock . It’s hard to say: I grew up with so many great games, it’s hard to choose the one that got me excited playing them. I’m going to say Pong. If you play that, you’ll have to appreciate all the amazing games out now and how far we’ve come.

What is your favorite movie?

SS: Again, at the risk of getting made fun of… Amélie.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

SS: Hiking, road biking, running, gaming, live music, attempting to play guitar and banjo, and tinkering.

What sort of tinkering have you done? Have you built anything you’re particularly proud of?

SS: I’ve made a lot of furniture. Most of it was old furniture that I’ve repaired and restored. I just like fixing and building things. I also fix old electronics, like classic arcade cabinets. Like a boss.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

SS: I just got here a few weeks ago, so I can’t say that I have a favorite story. However, I can remember when I was in a meeting about BioShock Infinite. It was a pretty amazing feeling to realize I could give feedback and that it was valued. It’s a simple thing, but it’s nice to realize I was part of such a talented team.

Featured Employee: Scott Haraldsen

ig.eduardo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:05:44 +0000

Here’s why we think Scott is swell

Jim Bonney, Audio Director: Scott is hardcore about pretty much everything. Whether it’s sound design, game development, ping-pong… you name it, he hits it hard. As the Audio Lead, Scott is both enforcer and advocate – making sure we get the job done, on time, and then representing our department to the rest of the dev team. Since we’re a small team, Scott is also constantly getting his hands dirty: doing field recordings, creating sound effects (like the zeppelin rocket barrage in the E3 demo), and authoring our most complicated technical audio systems. Besides being an accomplished musician and sound designer, Scott is an experienced programmer, and we all rely on his advanced technical expertise on an hourly basis.

Scott is also responsible for enlightening us with most of the “inside jokes” we continue to sling at each other day after day in the sound department – so in that way, he brings a lot of “depth” and “culture” to the group.

Your title is Audio Lead. What does that mean?

Scott Haraldsen: I actually wear quite a few hats as the Audio Lead at Irrational. Aside from the regular managerial tasks that every lead has to perform, one of my main duties is to work with the tech team to make sure we have all of the audio technology we need to make the game sound amazing. On top of that, you’ll typically find me creating sounds, implementing audio into levels, field recording or doing post-production on voice-overs.

At the end of the day though, my main duty is making sure that the work the audio department does is of high quality and delivered on time. I’m kind of like Patton going through Africa. Hell or high water, it’s going to get done.

What games have you worked on?

SH: Bully: Scholarship Edition, Empire Earth, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, Star Trek: Legacy, Rise & Fall and Natural Selection.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

SH: Un-f%@*ing-believable.

What is your favorite game of all time?

SH: I was going to say Team Fortress 2 but in the end I’d have to say Diablo II. It has everything, an amazing story, addictive gameplay, great music and it’s a game that never gets old. It’s as fun today as it was when it was released over a decade ago.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

SH: E.T. for the 2600. Anyone who plays that game more than once needs their head examined.

Seriously though, the one game that I recommend to everyone is Beyond Good and Evil. I don’t think many people played it on release, which is a shame because it has some of the best characters ever created in a video game. They recently re-released it in HD for the 360 so if you haven’t, play it. NOW!

What is your favorite movie?

SH: I’d have to go with Blue Velvet since it’s the one movie that has influenced my career as a sound designer the most.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

SH: Music and Mixology. The nice thing about those two hobbies is they go great together.

Music and Mixology? What do you play? Are there any concoctions you have made that goes well with the music you’re playing?

SH: I mainly play organ but I also play guitar and bass from time to time. Also, I’ve found that certain drinks better suit the different styles of playing. For example, if I’m playing blues, I like to go with a whiskey based drink like a Manhattan or Sazerac. For jazz it’s Martinis all the way. For funk I prefer a cognac drink such as the Sidecar or Vieux Carre. It’s a beautiful thing.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational

SH: The early stages of a project are both the most difficult and the most fun for the audio department. It’s difficult because we have no idea what we’re going to need two or three years down the road when the game is in full production, but also fun because it gives us a lot of time to experiment and try new ideas.

The one thing we knew we would need back when BioShock: Inifinite was conceived was a lot of wind recordings. And not just your typical everyday wind, we needed something that was new and strange since that is what Irrational does. Jim Bonney, our Audio Director, and I had gone out a number of times to different locations trying to get the sound we wanted but at the end of the day the recordings we got just ended up sounding like wind. They were technically great recordings, but they just didn’t have that strange sound we were looking for.

After experimenting a bit, we finally found something that we liked. We had recently purchased some contact mics (microphones that pickup vibrations through solid surfaces), and we wondered what kind of results we would get if we recorded the sound of wind affecting a solid object rather than just recording the wind. So when a gusty day eventually rolled around, we trekked out to different locations and recorded the sound of the wind affecting things such as aluminum framing and high tension wires. The results were amazing and we’ve used those recordings in a number of the sounds that you’ll hear in BioShock: Infinite. It was, by far, one of the most productive field recording trips that I’ve ever been a part of.

Featured Employee: Dustin Vertrees

ig.eduardo — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:30:45 +0000

Here’s why we think Dustin is swell:

John Abercrombie, Programming Lead: Dustin’s passionate about game development and laid back at the same time, which makes him one of the easiest and most effective people to work with anywhere. As an animation programmer, he has his hand in nearly every aspect of the game systems we make, including the systems and AI behaviors on top of the animation system for our complex AI. He shoots from the hip, constantly seeks perfection, is a seriously smart and talented programmer, and is an all-around great guy.

Don Norbury, Senior AI Programmer: What should you know about Dustin? His drumming skills make him a first-pick in company Rock Band competitions. You’d never know that he’s an Indiana native… until his second glass of Jack Daniels and a wild-eyed homage to the Oregon Ducks, followed by a description on the particulars of corn-husking. And most importantly? You never — ever — want find yourself on the painful end of his weapon in a Halo match.

He’s also been known to program on occasion… Dustin is our animation tech incarnate: He eats, sleeps, and breathes blend-networks, character-state representations, artist pipelines, and all sorts of nerdy crap he worries about so you don’t have to. Dustin also moonlights as an AI programmer and if he wasn’t busy running our animation, he’d probably take over all our AI work as well. (And we would love him for it.)

Irrational Games is Dustin’s first studio and we’re amazingly lucky to have nabbed him straight out of Digipen.

Your title is Animation Programmer. What does that mean?

I handle the majority of the animation programming and occasional AI programming, interfacing with Morpheme and setting up systems that the rest of the AI team uses to make things happen on screen.

What games have you worked on?

Just this one. When I started here we were working on an unannounced project, but that was only for a few months and then I transitioned onto BioShock Infinite from the start.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

Opportunistic, awesome, and challenging.

What is your favorite game of all time?

I spent a lot of time on Halo MP but if I had to go with one I would say The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

Shadow of the Colossus. I played it well after it came out and it was still unlike any other game. It’s on a whole other level of entertainment.

What is your favorite movie?

The original Matrix is good but I would pick Braveheart. I saw it when I was younger and it was epic.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

I play soccer. I just had a game last night.

Are you any good?

I ‘m the goalie and it was 6-0, so I guess so.

How long have you been playing?

I played a lot when I was younger, then played in a league in middle school. My hometown didn’t have a high school team so I didn’t play at all from middle school until college. When I came here, there was a game developer league for a little while so I was paying with the Irrational guys. That eventually disbanded and now I play with Ray (our systems admin) in another league.

Did you ever win a championship?

No, my middle school team wasn’t very good.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational

When I started, I was on an unannounced project. When we transitioned off of that, we did a lot of sitting around and talking about what we wanted the game to be. I got to sit in on a lot of those conversations, so I was getting to listen to Ken, Nate, Shawn, Kline, Bill and all the other original BioShock guys hashing out what they wanted the new game to be. I even got to chime in every once and awhile. That was a really awesome experience.

Featured Employee: Gavin Goulden

ig.sarah — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:26:01 +0000

Here’s why we think Gavin is swell:

Lead artist Shawn Robertson: Here are some things you should know about Gavin. He looks like he should be driving a 1932 Ford Roadster. He postponed his start date here at IG so he could finish his tattoo sleeve (a ballsy move). And he can probably model a fully detailed character, rigged, complete with multiple materials, in the amount of time that it took me to write this paragraph.

Gavin came to us as a simple character modeler but quickly grew beyond his job description. If you look at our recent demo, you can see Gavin’s touch everywhere. From character rigging, to facial animation, down to the hats that our NPCs wear, Gavin was involved. Not bad for a quiet artist with a raging battle between a waitress and a horde of zombies depicted on his arm.

Your title is character artist. What does that mean?

Gavin Goulden: I model and texture characters and creatures, or objects that are related to characters (like statues, or hats and props the characters can hold). Most of my work the public has seen so far has gone into making citizens and enemy characters. I also try to help out on the tech art side where I can–assisting with pipeline development, weighting character meshes, and toying with our facial animation system.

What games have you worked on?

GG: Before joining Irrational, I was a character artist on Dead Rising 2 and The Bigs 2. I also contributed to Dragon Age, F.E.A.R. 2, Damnation and a few other titles including everyone’s favorite target shooting game, NRA Gun Club.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

GG: Stepping into darkness.

What is your favorite game of all time?

GG: Doom. I spent countless hours as a kid both playing and creating fan art for that game and consider it my biggest influence for actually wanting to make games.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

GG: I think everyone should play the original Fallout at least once, even if the graphics are considered dated. I mean, drug addiction and point blank shotgun blasts to the eye in a post apocalyptic setting–what more do you need?

What is your favorite movie?

GG: Reservoir Dogs.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

GG: I’m Canadian. I do what an average Canadian likes to do in his spare time: saving baby seals from the toothy maw of an orca whale, hunting bears with a spear, taming the wild moose of Cape Breton for our world famous Glooscap Parade, taking in a game of our national sport lacrosse, listening to the extensive catalogue of Celine Dion, playing high stakes poker, racing polar bears, snowshoeing from coast to coast. Other than that, I’m just a regular guy who likes tattoos, whiskey, and a nice cigar every now and then.

Can you tell us more about the tattoo hobby? Do you have favorite artists? What’s your decision and planning process for each new piece?

GG: For current guys, I have a strong bias toward the artist who has done the majority of my work, Breadman–a.k.a. Steve Cole from Sacred Heart in Vancouver. Lately, I’ve been following Shawn Barber, Vinny Romanelli (the artist who did my knuckles), and Marcus Kuhn, an artist Shawn recommended to me. In general, I’m a fan of old-school, traditional Americana style.

Very little planning goes into my own pieces. I like to give the artist a rough idea and let him run with it. I have full confidence that the artist knows what to do and, given the freedom, will make a piece he really wants to make. I research the artist’s work heavily before committing, so my trust is already built up. My Alice sleeve started with a simple idea of a few different elements–Alice, the Hatter, and the Cheshire Cat. It’s a fairly iconic story, so it was easy to tie in different ideas. While we were getting that done, Steve and I started talking about a zombie sleeve and more or less had it all planned out before my first sleeve was done.

What’s your favorite story about life at Irrational?

GG: My entire interview and new hire process was an epic journey. After meeting the team and seeing the project, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be part of Irrational, but the actual process of picking up and moving from my home of 10 years was a crazy experience. Within the course of a month I had finished an art test, travelled from coast to coast (Vancouver to Boston) three times, switched jobs, finished my zombie sleeve, gotten married, gone through the visa application and immigration process, and leased a new apartment. It was a ton of life-altering events in one month. It was stressful, but totally worth it.

Featured Employee: Kayla Belmore

ig.sarah — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:08:43 +0000

Here’s why we think Kayla is swell:

Director of product development Tim Gerritsen: Kayla is so relentlessly positive that you can’t help but find yourself suddenly smiling when around her.

If I could have written the perfect recipe for my personal assistant, she would be it:

Two teaspoons funny
One teaspoon spaz
One tablespoon geek
1/3 cup energy
Add a pinch of relentless
Throw in a dash of cosplayer
Blend until amazing

I never had a personal assistant before Kayla, so it’s been a journey of discovery for both of us. I don’t know how I got by before her–she gets me where I need to be, keeps me scheduled, and is the perfect foil for my witty banter.

Plus, I’m apparently stuck with her since, like a puppy, if you feed her once she just keeps coming back.

Your title is “Administrative Assistant.” What does that mean?

Kayla Belmore: My job here at Irrational has two parts. First and foremost I am the assistant to Tim Gerritsen, our director of product development. That means I manage Tim’s schedule, book his meetings, and make sure he has all the things he needs to be awesome. The second part of my job is the administrative part. I help out all around the studio doing things like booking travel, logging tasks, and taking notes.

What games have you worked on?

KB: BioShock Infinite is the first game I have worked on. I’m pretty excited about it.

Describe life at Irrational in three words or less.

KB: Amazing, challenging, experience.

What is your favorite game of all time?

KB: It’s definitely a tie between Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. I refuse to choose between my two greatest gaming loves.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

KB: I think everyone should give Portal a try. It’s a great game for people of all levels of gaming experience, and I have yet to play anything else with such fun and witty dialogue.

What is your favorite movie?

KB: I have a shameless passion for Japanese cult slasher movies. My current favorite is “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl.” Here’s my synopsis without giving away too many spoilers: What happens when the most popular brat in school is crushing on you AND the mysterious transfer girl gives you a suspicious chocolate on Valentine’s Day? Maybe the Kabuki mad scientist and his assistant the sexy school nurse can help resolve this cat fight….

What are your hobbies outside of work?

KB: Playing video games, cosplay, running, and bento. [Some of the fruits of Kayla's cosplay expertise were on display during last year's Halloween Spooktacular, which included Kayla and fellow Irrational employees Sarah Rosa and Phil Frechette dressed as BioShock splicers.]

Explain what you mean when you say one of your hobbies is “bento.”

KB: Bento is a Japanese style packed lunch, usually in a fun container called a bento box. I started getting into bento-making because I wanted to start eating balanced non-frozen meals but hated the idea of cooking. When I saw bento boxes on the Just Bento blog, I thought, “These adorable boxed lunches don’t seem at all the same as the unsavory chore of cooking.”

My favorite things to make are fun-shaped onigiri (rice balls) with colored furikake (savory rice sprinkles). My favorite ingredient to cook with is Sake (although not all of the Sake ends up in the food). I watch a lot of Iron Chef America, so admittedly I do dance around my kitchen pretending to be Chef Morimoto.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

KB: As an assistant I get to go on some fun adventures as part of my duties. My favorite so far has got to be working our booth at PAX East this year. I got to stand next to the giant Songbird statue, take wacky photos, throw t-shirts, and talk to fans.

It was pretty amazing, and I got to meet some really swell people. I had the opportunity to work the whole weekend at the booth meeting people and having a great time (and occasionally sneaking down to the show floor to buy dice). Every so often I’d just smile and think, “OMG, this is my job.” It’s a pretty great feeling.

Featured Employee: Dan Johnson

ig.sarah — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:30:31 +0000

Here’s why we think Dan is swell:

Quality assurance lead Robert Tzong: Dan joined the team with prior testing experience, but it wasn’t yet enough to tackle the demands of being an Irrational Games QA tester. He’s not one to back down from a challenge, though, be it virtual (read: World of Warcraft) or otherwise. Dan picked things up quickly and is now one of our many superstar testers. He’s learned the ins and outs of the Unreal Engine from next to nothing and now creates maps for us to isolate game functionality for testing purposes.

To avoid any confusion between him and the dozens of other Dans at Irrational, we call him DJ.

Your title is “Quality Assurance Tester.” What does that mean?

Dan Johnson: The easy answer is “tester,” but the more important half is “quality assurance.” We’re responsible for making sure that everything that goes into the game works – both functionally and in the sense that it results in a fun experience for the player.

What games have you worked on?

DJ: I worked on Frontlines: Fuel of War at Kaos Studios; Rock Band 2, The Beatles: Rock Band, and LEGO Rock Band at Harmonix; and now Bioshock Infinite here at Irrational.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

DJ: Great conversation starter!

What is your favorite game of all time?

DJ: Honorable mentions: Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Uncharted 2, Red Dead Redemption, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Beyond Good & Evil, Super Mario Galaxy.

The winner: Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the original Game Boy. It’s one of the first games I ever played, and it’s still a memorable experience for me.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

DJ: Limbo. Beautiful visuals, flawless gameplay, and just enough world and story to draw you in and get you filling in the gaps on your own. I have to mention Portal as a runner-up, though, for its puzzles and awesome script. But first-person games can be daunting to non-gamers, which is why Limbo won out. Both games shine for the clarity and brevity with which they present their core concepts to the player.

What is your favorite movie?

DJ: When I was 13 and planning my future in Action Paleontology, I ran out of the room every time a commercial for Jurassic Park came on TV because I didn’t want to know anything about it before I saw it in the theaters. (I still do this with trailers. -IG.Chris) It blew me away in the theaters, and 17 (wow, 17) years later it hasn’t lost a scrap of what made it so impressive.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

DJ: I’m a raid leader in a casual World of Warcraft guild, which leaves time for Xbox and PS3 games as well – generally single-player or cooperative. I snowboard or bicycle as the weather permits, I spend time with my Italian Greyhound and Schipperke (look it up; they’re adorable), and meet up with six friends about once a month for Dungeons & Dragons.

Tell me about life managing a WoW guild and balancing your hobby with work.

DJ: To be honest, when I first started playing World of Warcraft, I definitely played too much – four to six nights a week, four-hour raids, the works. Shortly after I got my job at Kaos, I reduced my playtime by a lot, and I canceled my account completely when my girlfriend and I began looking for work in Boston. After several months at Harmonix I started playing again, but I dialed back my playtime even more to make sure I still had time for other things, like necessary chores or evenings out with friends.

I think I’ve found a good balancing point for WoW. I enjoy the game a lot; I’ve made strong friendships within my guild (by sheer coincidence, my guild leader is also in Boston and he and I are good friends), and I’ve learned a lot about working with people through leading raids. Most recently, I’ve been making sure to find more time for other games; in the last month I’ve polished off four that I’d played three-quarters of the way through but never finished. I think it’s important in this industry to have experienced a wide variety of games.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

DJ: Shortly after I joined the company, we had a large picnic event in a park near the office. Significant others were invited; it was an all-day-you’re-getting-paid-to-eat-hamburgers-and-play-frisbee event. The whole deal. The office team put together a monstrous triple-decker cheeseburger for Ray in IT, who was playing shortstop in the softball game. Not only did he accept and consume the whole thing, but he actually made a play mid-burger.

It’s a pretty accurate description of both Ray and Irrational: sometimes you need to – and get to – make a play mid-burger.

After the picnic, several of us adjourned to a nearby bar, which was having Wednesday afternoon Bring-Your-Kid-To-Karaoke. We’re talking seven-year-olds in little princess dresses. One of my coworkers got up and kicked the crap out of “Ice Ice Baby.” That’s a pretty good representation of life at Irrational, too.

Featured Employee: Adrian Murphy

IG.Chris — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:10:35 +0000

Here’s why we think Adrian is swell:

Associate producer Adrian Murphy came highly recommended from folks he’d worked with at Luxoflux who cited his strong work ethic, love of games, and the fact that “he just gets it.”

Over the last year-plus Adrian has been at Irrational, we’ve seen all three evidenced in spades.

Adrian excels at making sure that progress is constantly being made on the most important tasks, that vital creative calls from our leads and directors never get lost in the cracks, that members of the team get all the info they need to do their best work.

As tech lead Steve Ellmore puts it, “He’s persistent – in a good way.” Art lead Shawn Robertson says he has a great memory for following up on items others have forgotten. He’s the office nexus of World of Warcraft expertise and discussion. And producer Joe Fielder says, “Adrian’s a really good bullshit detector. He keeps us all honest.”

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Adrian pops a collar with the best of ‘em.

Your title is Associate Producer what does that mean?

Adrian Murphy: Depending on what company you work at, this position can mean 100 different things. Here at Irrational, I work with the design department to help support their needs. That ranges from long-term scheduling to following up on issues blocking the designers so they can continue working. At the end of the day my job is to make sure design has everything it needs to work efficiently and provide the other departments with whatever content they may be waiting for.

What games have you worked on?

AM: Kung Fu Panda and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, both for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or fewer.

AM: Blood, sweat, tears. (Order optional)

What is your favorite game of all time?

AM: The original X-COM: UFO Defense. I lost an entire summer to just this game. My family even went on vacation to visit relatives in Ireland, and my only concern was getting a suitable power converter for my laptop so I could keep playing. This game is still incredibly deep by today’s standards, despite its age. Base building, research trees, turn-based strategy, meta-resource management–it has it all.

There’s also the ability to name your soldiers, which was hilarious when your custom-named A-Team of you and all your friends got all decked out in the best gear, only to be completely obliterated doing one mission.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

AM: Shadow of the Colossus. It’s such a fantastic example of restraint. The premise of the game is decidedly simple, but the overall experience is much greater than the sum of its parts. The 13^th colossus in particular is a high watermark of an amazing gameplay experience I have yet to see outdone.

What is your favorite movie?

AM: Batman Begins. I have been a Batman fan my whole life. After the disastrous previous film adaptations, I was hoping for a lot from this film, and it delivered in spades. Nolan did a great job taking what many considered to be a dead movie franchise, reinvigorating it for a new audience, and wiping away the shame of past films.

The real genius is the level of detail. The suit, the car, the gadgets–none of them were unexplained background elements. They each had a specific and believable reason for existing. It’s a lesson all entertainment media should heed, because no matter how good the core elements of a story are, those minor immersion-breaking details can ruin the whole experience.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

AM: Mostly (read: sadly) playing video games. I try to play as much as I can of a wide variety of games. I’ve also recently gotten back into sculpting. Other than those hobbies, most of my time outside work is spent trying not to freeze to death during record New England winters.

You’re well known for your popped collars and bold fashion choices. Would you like to share some of your clothing wisdom with the world?

AM: The popped collar thing actually started with playing rugby in college. You just naturally put the collar on a rugby jersey up to help keep dirt from going down your shirt during a game. I got so used to it, and the associated awesomeness of how cool popped collars are, that I kept with it. I do love that I work in an office environment where I can wear what I want how I want, because a button up shirt and tie would look very strange with a popped collar. (That said, I’m starting this look too. It’s going to be known as formal collar.)

At the end of the day, no matter where you work, you have to be yourself and go with what you like. If that means popped collars and purple socks, then so be it. But try to convince others to pick up on the trend, so you don’t look dumb all by yourself.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

AM: Right after we released our demo, watching the press reaction to our announcement and what we had accomplished was amazing. I don’t think prior to that I had as concrete an understanding of how much the BioShock franchise means to the modern video game landscape.

The highlight was watching our metric tracking software for social media and seeing at the end of our announcement day that we were the highest trending topic on all of Twitter for that 24-hour period. Take that, Bieber

Featured Employee: Pat Balthrop

ig.sarah — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:05:01 +0000

Here’s why we think Pat is swell:

Audio director Jim Bonney: It’s hard to decide where to begin when it comes to summing Pat up, but the most striking thing about him is that he seems to have no ego whatsoever. All Pat wants to do is work with the team to make the game sound kick-ass–and he’ll go to just about any length to do it. From drowning to electrocution, he’s subjected himself to all varieties of self-induced abuse in the name of creating authentic sound design. He perpetually maintains a positive attitude, a tireless work ethic, and a fantastically creative mind. We’re trying to figure out how to clone him.

Your title is “audio principal.” What does that mean?

Pat Balthrop: As audio principal, my time is shared between conceptualization and content creation. This means that I explore new ideas, new methods, and even new systems for making our games sound unique and exceptional. The fact that my position even exists at Irrational Games is proof of the studio’s appreciation for the way sound can bring interactive experiences to a new level.

What games have you worked on?

PB: Some of the recent games I’ve shipped include BioShock, and Harmonix’s games Rock Band 2, The Beatles: Rock Band, Rock Band 3, and Dance Central.

Pat creates sounds during a field recording session.

Describe life at Irrational in three words or less.

PB: “Sound designer’s dream.”

What is your favorite game of all time?

PB: This is an impossible question. If I measure this by which game I play the most, it’s Team Fortress 2. I’m already in your base, and you got blood on my suit.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

PB: Can I get away with saying The Orange Box? [Sure. -Ed.]

What is your favorite movie?

PB: My favorite movies tend to correlate with my favorite sound professionals. To name just two out of many, Randy Thom and Walter Murch have had a huge influence on how I think about and approach use of music, mix, voiceover, and sound design for media. Apocalypse Now, The Incredibles, Ratatouille…every time I hear these films, I learn something.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

PB: I enjoy producing electronic music and playing in my band The Hole Punch Generation. I like writing and collecting standalone programs and patches for audio software Reaktor, Max/MSP, and SuperCollider to design my sounds. Lately I’ve been dabbling with open-source platform Arduino in the hopes I will start building custom hardware controllers.

Tell us your favorite story about life at Irrational.

PB: This is a tough one, but a really defining moment for me as a sound designer was finishing the BioShock X06 demo. The sound team worked pretty hard leading up to finishing it. Ken called the whole studio into a conference room to watch the demo. The audio team stood back and listened to the demo with the rest of the team, and it was at that moment when we realized we were on to something–that we had done something really unique.

Featured Employee: Tim Austin

ig.sarah — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:28:14 +0000

Here’s why we think Tim is swell:

Design director Bill Gardner: As a former programmer, Tim brings over a decade of coding experience to help bridge the gap between design and programming. “Daywalker,” “Hybrid,” “Zed” — whatever his friends here call him, history will look at Tim’s time at Irrational and call him “The Great Gap Bridger”–only some historian will probably have a fancier name. He’s played a huge part in helping designers stay on the same page as the programming department, all while coming up with awesome gameplay mechanics and squeezing the most fun possible out of our engine.

An obsessive gamer, Tim plays everything short of Michael Jackson: The Experience. Seriously, this dude is a savant — and it’s not just video games either. He’s about as avid a board gamer as you can imagine. Tim channels all of this experience and passion into helping develop the best games possible, while creating Excel-based design documents that would make an accountant’s head explode.

You’re a designer. What does that mean?

Tim Austin: It means we make the game fun!

Specifically, my job is on the technical side of design: working out the math behind game systems, translating wacky ideas into a specification that can be implemented, and making many colorful spreadsheets comparing one thing to another.

What games have you worked on?

TA: I started making games around 25 years ago, bedroom coding for the Apple II and the BBC Micro. Since then I’ve worked on a number of games, large and small, from most genres: racing, sports, platformer, RTS and FPS.

I’ve worked on several critically acclaimed commercial failures, including Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising for PC and Cold Winter for PS2.

With BioShock Infinite, I have the opportunity to help make an awesome game that will get the recognition it deserves!

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

TA: “Inspiring to greatness.”

What is your favorite game of all time?

TA: X-Com: UFO Defense (or UFO: Enemy Unknown, as I knew it). When I first discovered this game, I ended up playing in shifts with a friend. One of us slept while the other played, as we only had one PC to play it on.

The way your troops turn from bags of random stats into strong personalities though the stories they share with the player is still unmatched.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

TA: Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising. It’s a rare blend of FPS and RTS gaming, with an interesting story told in an unusual way. It’s a huge shame it’s almost unheard of, and I’d like to see more people get to experience it.

What is your favorite movie?

TA: The Princess Bride, of course. It is the best film of all time, after all. There’s so much subtlety and self-referential humor in the dialog and performances. Each time I watch it I notice things I’ve never seen before.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

TA: Gaming, gaming and more gaming–board games, card games, roleplaying games. I have had an ongoing MMO playing hobby since I first played EverQuest in 1999 (how we miss you, Veeshan). I’ve played dozens since then, but only EverQuest and now World of Warcraft have held my interest for more than a month or two. I play much more casually now, but several years ago, I helped lead a guild that was in the top 50 worldwide WoW raid guilds.

What recent board game have you loved? What do you look for in a new game?

TA: Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game. It’s a cooperative game in which all players must work together to survive a journey on extremely limited resources. Except…some of the players are Cylons. Their job is to sabotage the other players’ efforts without getting caught doing so. The atmosphere of mistrust and paranoia this dynamic creates is wondrous.

When seeking out new board games, I look for interesting new mechanics–different ways of interacting with the game and with other players.

Tell us your favorite story about life at Irrational.

TA: Just after joining Irrational, I went to my first game design meeting. Ken Levine explained the philosophy of BioShock Infinite, then he told us: “If there’s one thing I can teach you designers, it’s this…”

What that thing is will have to remain a secret!

Featured Employee: Matt Helbig

ig.sarah — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:58:24 +0000

Here’s why we think Matt is swell:

Lead programmer John Abercrombie: Matt is the guy who implements amazing game features and has a great time doing it. Then he puts hilarious comments on his submissions. For example: “I was trying to be cute and use \n in my debug messages. I got a crash somewhere else that was using them so I decided to stop being cute and write them like a normal person.”

Matt also has inspired programmer animation (a move known as “the Helbig”), and excels at Beer Pong (with a certificate to prove as such).

Your title is “gameplay programmer.” What does that mean?

Matt Helbig: It means I program everything that has to do with what the player does in the game. The design team comes up with ideas and I make them functional. Some examples of my work in the demo video are the powers Telekinesis and Murder of Crows, and the sniper rifle.

What games have you worked on?

MH: Previously I worked at Big Huge Games on their upcoming title Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Before that I made a game called Marble Mayhem for a school project with a fellow Irrational employee, Dustin Vertrees.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

MH: “Fun-filled adventure.”

What is your favorite game of all time?

MH: Halo: Combat Evolved is one of my favorites. I remember hilarious nights playing it over a LAN in high school with my friends. Also, playing the co-op campaign straight through with my best friend was a great experience.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

MH: A recent game I think almost anyone would love is Q-Games’ PixelJunk Monsters on the PS3. It’s good clean fun.

What is your favorite movie?

MH: One of my favorites is V is for Vendetta. It is an awesome action movie that has deep meaning. Plus, Natalie Portman is smokin’. <3 <3 <3

What are your hobbies outside of work?

MH: Outside of work I like to play soccer, run races that include obstacles, and have fun adventures involving alcohol and my co-workers. For example, getting face tattoos with Sharpies and ruining couches and dogs.

At work I like to flex at IT guy Ray, make fun of fellow programmer Dan Scholten, and bounce on exercise balls while thinking.

You listed ruining couches and dogs as a hobby, I’m scared to ask but how many dogs and couches have you ruined and how?

MH: Okay, so I’ve only ruined one dog and couch that I remember have heard about so maybe it isn’t technically a hobby. Here’s how it all went down. We were having a Mexican night at fellow employee Don Norbury’s mansion with yummy food and Tequila shots all around. Halfway through the night, Ian Bond convinced everyone we should tattoo my face with a sharpie. Mike Monsalvatge, an amazing artist from Harmonix, did a rendition of Mike Tyson’s tribal tattoo.

Anywho, part way through the night, the Tequila and time started to get to me. I forgot all about the tattoos and started lying down on things and dying them blue. Including poor little Dixie! The three tears on the side of my face are for the men I killed…

Obstacle runs sound pretty hardcore. What got you into it?

MH: My girlfriend did, actually. She’s a combat medic in the Army reserves and she somehow convinced me it would be fun. About halfway through I was thinking that we may have different interpretations of the word “fun.” Afterward, there was beer and endorphins though, so she was right as always.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

MH: There are so many that it’s hard to choose one. I enjoyed the night of our announcement in New York. We all gathered around at the office and watched the press unveiling on a live stream with Nate Wells cracking jokes the whole time. After the unveiling we had food and festivities. I destroyed fellow programmers Dan Scholten and Dan Amato in beer pong. The next day, I made a cheesy Microsoft Word certificate so they can never forget.

Featured Employee: Jorge Lacera

ig.sarah — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:34:16 +0000

Here’s why we think Jorge is swell:

Lead artist Shawn Robertson: Jorge is a talented artist–and not to be trifled with in any fighting game arena.

Little known fact: Jorge was the first person to actually create art assets for BioShock Infinite. He was tasked with doing a couple of character sketches of people from the early 1900’s. We didn’t tell him what he was working on at the time, but I am pretty sure that he’s figured it out by now.

We originally hired Jorge to be our storyboard artist, but since then his job has expanded to fill a concept role as well. If you liked the Bioshock Infinite pre-rendered trailer, you can tip your hat to Jorge and his storyboards.

Your title is “storyboard/concept artist.” What does that mean?

Jorge Lacera: I’m pretty damn lucky. I get to be a part of the planning process as a storyboard artist—plotting and visualizing each cinematic moment. And as a concept artist I’m able to create unique character designs, props, and worlds for the game. I get to exercise my creative chops, visual chops, and my intellectual, strategic side. It’s an awesome combo of left-brained and right-brained work. I’m an integral part of designing and detailing the narrative of the game.

What games have you worked on?

JL: None! Well unless you count Sushi Pack: Beat the Heat. Which you probably don’t. (This game is pretty fun! -Chris) I come from an animation/ licensing background, so I had to learn games in a trial by fire.

Describe life at Irrational in three words or less.

JL: Talent + Caffeine = Awesome

What is your favorite game of all time?

JL: Mega Man 2. I got it for Christmas when I was 9 and I remember clearly the euphoria of playing that game nonstop for hours on end. This song is now embedded in some groove in my brain for life.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

JL: Psychonauts. Specifically, “The Milkman Conspiracy” level. Also, play any Street Fighter on an arcade machine. Your life can’t really be complete until you’ve grappled with the existential angst caused by losing to a ten-year-old…

What is your favorite movie?

JL: A toss up between Akira and Pulp Fiction.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

JL: I’m a big movie buff. I like tracking down obscure foreign films or indie flicks. Most of the time you end up walking away feeling disappointed (or confused), but it’s all worth it when you find a great one–Let the Right One In being that most recent great one.

*One of my favorite things about you is that even when you’re not at work you’re off doing fun art and posting things on your blog just for fun. Can you tell us a little about the blogging you do, and why you choose to do it?***

JL: I started blogging in 2005. I was about a year out of art school and I realized that there was stuff I was not getting to do at work, and techniques I was learning from my full-time gig that I wanted to apply to my own artwork. So it started as a way to creatively vent and has now turned into a running diary of my creative process.

It’s a great way to try things out and get feedback from friends and colleagues. It’s also been a fantastic networking tool and has connected me to all sorts of talented folks on the interwebs. Check it out at: http://lacera.blogspot.com/

Do you have any tips for the aspiring art students out there?

JL: For those trying to get into games, keep your focus on traditional drawing and painting skills. Those lessons apply to everything else you do in any art-based career. But really, the biggest thing is to fully commit to what you’re passionate about. It shows in your work and will make you happiest in the long run.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

JL: That would be my interview. When I first applied to the position, I was excited but slightly skeptical of the whole thing. Driving into Quincy conjures up a combination of history and grime. The vibe at the studio was laid back and casual. The art “pit” as it was called back than had a college dorm feel, complete with obligatory fake rose for “decoration.”

Then I was taken into a small room and shown what the studio was working on. I was blown away, but I still wanted to play my cards close to my chest. Throughout the day, with every new person I met I realized the level of talent, imagination and brainpower was unusually high.

As I waited for my flight home, I realized, “Shit, I really want this job.” All at once I was back sitting in high school wondering if a girl likes me too.

It all worked out for the best and I’m honored to be part of such a bad ass team of girlfri–errr…developers.

Featured Employee: Keith Shetler

IG.Admin — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:12:06 +0000

Here’s why we think Keith is swell:

Keith is a human Swiss Army knife – the kind with the tweezers and the saw blade and the magnifying glass. His ability to complete any and every task that would otherwise fall through the cracks is, quite frankly, a bit spooky.

Need a video edited? Done. Need someone to build a tool in PHP? Done. Need someone to crack open the editor and quick-fix a level? Done. Need someone to record a podcast? Done. Keith is a runaway problem-solving machine, and his contributions since arriving here at Irrational are too numerous to catalog. His dedication and immense value to the team have not gone unnoticed by his co-workers. We are thrilled to have someone like Keith on staff, even if we’re a little freaked out by how many different things he can do.

And as if that weren’t enough, the man wears a mean kilt.

Your title is ‘Associate Producer.’ What does that mean? And does the job change depending on the department you assist?

The title Associate Producer, or AP, can be difficult to define here at Irrational, but the primary goal is to assist the team with the development of the game. Of course what ‘assist’ means changes on a daily basis and can range from doing things like taking notes in meetings and tracking developer tasks, to flying out to California to hand deliver the game to the manufacturer.

At Irrational, each AP is assigned to a department to assist them with their particular needs, as well as being responsible for general production tasks. During my five years here I’ve performed my AP duties in some capacity for basically every department (Art, Programming, Design, Audio). Each one has its own specific needs, but I’ve found them all to require some degree of technical knowledge in that department’s specialization. I think Irrational is unique in that, as an AP, I’ve actually done a great deal of development work that has made it into the final game.

What games have you worked on?

I playtested The Lost for a few weeks when I was in high school… does that count? My first full development game was BioShock. I’d say it was a good start!

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

Challenging but rewarding.

What is your favorite game of all time?

I have a soft spot for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was the first RPG I had ever played. I just wasn’t aware prior to playing it that that kind of depth could exist in a game.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

I can’t really suggest one because games are highly subjective. Play one that your friends, kids, or significant other enjoys playing.

What is your favorite movie?

Movies are like games for me, in that I don’t internally rate good movies over others; they just exist in a mental list of movies I liked. If you force me to choose, I might say Spirited Away, No Country For Old Men, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, or Garden State, depending on the day.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

Other than gaming and watching movies, I enjoy spending time with my fiancée Heather and beagle-basset named Hazel. I also dabble in web development and aspire to ride my bike more.

Can you tell us about the joys of web development for fun?

Web development is a lot like game development: you get to create something that a wide audience can interact with. I have a CS degree so messing around with Ruby on Rails is a good outlet for my technical abilities, and the design side feeds my visual creative needs. Also it’s just fun to pull something from your head and have it exist in the real world.

Inquiring fans wants to know: when do we get to see a picture of you in the field hockey outfit?

Haha… well I scoured photo albums for some, and couldn’t really find any images better than these:

I think the picture on the left is the one they used in the year book so it ended up being a 20th of the size of the other player pictures. I regret not having had more pictures taken of me at the time.

What’s your favorite Irrational story?

Our original office space flooded about two winters ago while most of the office was out on vacation. It created a bit of a headache as the space was practically unusable. But in classic Irrational fashion, we didn’t let that stop us from working on kick-ass games.

Many of the crew moved into a make-shift office space at a nearby hotel for what was only supposed to be a short stay. It took much longer than expected to repair the original office space, so we decided to take over a recently vacated space on the floor below while we waited out the repairs. Once the office was de-funked and inhabitable again we moved back upstairs. We liked the lower floor space, and because we were growing, we decided to permanently make it part of our Irrational home where most of the Irrational crew now resides.

While the delays, moving and uncertainty of that period might have sunk other companies, we soldiered on and turned lemons into awesomely-styled lemonade.

Featured Employee: Jeff Seamster

IG.Admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:45:50 +0000

Here’s why we think Jeff is swell:

Irrational’s four-person audio team may be small, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in talent, dedication and heart. “Talent, dedication, and heart” – that sums up Jeff pretty well.

When he isn’t doing spot-on vocal impressions, kicking ass in any number of video games, or bringing his co-workers to tears with his wonderful sense of humor, Jeff can be found hard at work making our games sound oh-so-sweet. Armed with vast skills and a devilishly handsome smile, he comes through no matter how thorny the problems he faces. And we can always count on Jeff for an honest, unvarnished opinion on any subject, audio or otherwise.

He’d be a incredible asset to any team, but he’s ours.

All ours.

You can’t have him.

Your title is ‘Senior Sound Designer.’ What does that mean?

I design, author and implement sound effects for all aspects of our games. These range from one-off sounds for things like weapons, Foley and explosions, to more complex subjects like ambients, animations, and full-blown cinematics.

What games have you worked on?

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Blitz: The League 2, SimCity Societies: Destinations, SimCity Societies, Caesar IV and Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

Inspiring beyond measure

What is your favorite game of all time?

You know that question is totally unfair, right? At least have the decency to ask for a Top 3. But if I must pick an all-time favorite, a game that I can always come back to, it’s Beyond Good & Evil. It delivers the total package with beautiful and unique environments, charming characters, an amazingly diverse soundtrack, and a nice variety of gameplay. It continues to inspire my work to this day.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

Fallout 2. Trade in your lousy paper money for caps and start your journey into the wasteland.

What is your favorite movie?

Ameliebladerunnerjaws. Did I get away with that? I could honestly watch those movies every day of my life.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

I was a musician before I was ever a sound designer so I continue to write and play music whenever there’s time. From time to time I can be spotted on a Geocaching hunt, and I also love to cook.

Geocaching? That must result in some ridiculously nerdy adventures.

Geocaching is a bit nerdy with all the sneaking around in broad daylight, but it seems to be gaining traction now that almost every mobile phone has a built-in GPS. My adventures in Geocaching have ranged from creepy to hilarious. Creepy: finding a monument buried deep in the woods of Massachusetts left in memoriam of a town that was all but wiped out by smallpox in the 1600s. Hilarious: running into a person or group on the hunt for the same Geocache as you. You pace back and forth for 15 minutes trying to be inconspicuous and eventually someone says, “Ok ok, we’re both looking for the Geocache, right?” If the person just stares at you, the best option is to run away serpentine as though you’re being chased by a crocodile.

You confess that you like cooking. Any recipes you could recommend to people that are challenged by the culinary arts?

As a native of New Orleans, I had to bring some Creole cooking with me to Boston. I’m also studying up on classic French cooking which not only starts off relatively easy, but also leads to natural improvisation with recipes. For those feeling noobish in the kitchen but interested in some authentic New Orleans fare, start off with Red Beans & Rice. It’s easy and almost impossible to screw up. Once you’ve mastered that, forge onward and keep your knives sharp! Holler at me on the Community section when you’re ready to take on the Seamster gumbo recipe.

What’s your favorite Irrational story?

My favorite story so far comes from my first day on the job. As soon as I walked through the door, our audio director grabs me and says we’re going out to record the Fore River Bridge between Quincy and Weymouth. He’d gotten a tip from our art director that it was going to be raised so that a large ship could pass underneath. The recording gear was packed up and we hauled ass to make it down to the bridge in time. We readied ourselves for some great throaty metal sounds because this bridge is a hulking beast of steel. The warning gates went up and the bridge began to move.

Believe me when I tell you that this bridge must have been designed by a squad of ninjas and padding specialists because it was utterly silent. Not even a peep when the bridge came to rest on what I speculate to be a bed of marshmallows. The only sound that truly stood out during this experience came from a deckhand on the passing ship who whistled Suicide is Painless (the theme from M*A*S*H) as the vessel lazily drifted by. So, if you need a recording of a silent bridge, now you know where to go.

Featured Employee: Alexx Kay

IG.Admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:39:46 +0000

Here’s why we think Alexx is swell:

Alexx Kay, a.k.a. ‘A-kay’ or ‘AK-47,’ has been a fixture at Irrational for many a console generation. His ascent to greatness began in the pits of QA, where his prolific bug-finding skills on Thief and System Shock 2 were unmatched and unrivaled. His keen mind for game design and his near-neurotic attention to detail led him to become co-Lead Designer on Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich, where he helped bring life to the Freedom Force universe – and not just with his design skills. Alexx also boasts an impressive set of pipes, and so lent his voice-acting talents to a variety of characters including the devious Mr. Mechanical. Just ask him to “do the voice,” and you’re guaranteed a chuckle.

Most recently he worked on BioShock as a level designer and all-around smart guy. His technical acumen makes him a natural liaison with the programming team, and he now plies his trade as a Senior Designer and general font of wisdom. We hope he fills the hallowed halls of Irrational with his jovial laugh and design insight for many years to come.

Also, his beard kicks ass.

Your title is ‘Senior Designer.’ What does that mean?

I wear a lot of different hats, depending on what needs to be done during different phases of the project. The job of a Designer is, broadly speaking, to make sure that what we’re building is fun for the player to experience. Being a Senior Designer means that I’ve got enough proven experience that people trust my ideas and instincts. It also means that I sometimes get given responsibility for entire systems at once. (What those systems are remains, sadly, Top Secret for now. I really wish I could talk about them!)

I hear that you do some acting every now and again. Would you like to share anything about that?

I did some acting in high school, and then later as part of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Last year, a friend of mine talked me into participating in his production of Shakespeare’s Henry V, which was lots of fun. Well, at least up until the point where, during the preview performance, there was an error in the fight choreography, and I took a sword blow to the head. Head wounds bleed like nobody’s business, but my costume had a red hat, so it wasn’t immediately apparent to the audience. As soon as I got offstage, I got it quickly bandaged. I’m very proud to say that I finished the performance before going to the ER, and most of the audience never realized what had happened. The show must go on!

What games have you worked on?

I started in the industry doing QA on Thief: The Dark Project. Then I did QA on System Shock 2, but by the end of the project had moved onto ‘Additional Design.’ I was an Associate Producer during the early days of the (never-completed) Deep Cover and The Lost, and did some voice acting on the original Freedom Force (“Tremble before the might of MISTER MECHANICAL! AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!”). I parted ways with Irrational for a time, and did another QA gig at Impressions, working on Zeus: Master of Olympus. Did some contract work designing an educational MMO for a dot-com bubble company that has since vanished into the mists of history. Came back to Irrational to work as a Designer on The Lost, and then Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich, where I got promoted to Co-Lead Designer. Then I was a Designer on BioShock, and the BioShock DLC for PS3. Since then, I’ve worked o– mmmmph! Mmrrrgg! [further sounds of struggle, as the powers-that-be keep Alexx from spilling secrets...]

Describe life at Irrational in three words or less.

Always challenging

What is your favorite game of all time?

Measuring by sheer quantity of fun, it’s got to be World of Warcraft. Though I think the most concentrated fun I ever had was in Thief: The Dark Project.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

Passage, by Jason Rohrer.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

Gaming, naturally. Reading, in a variety of genres. Comics. Theatre, Elizabethan and/or experimental. Maintaining The Dragaera Timeline, an obsessive cross-referencing of the fantasy works of Steven Brust.

What is your favorite movie?

Time Bandits.

You’ve been in the industry for a long time. Do you have any design wisdom you’d like to impart to aspiring game designers out there?

Decide first if you want to go big or go small. Do you want to be part of a team making huge games of astounding scope and spectacle? Or do you prefer the purer artistic vision that can be achieved by smaller teams? If you want to go big, learn to specialize. Having knowledge of lots of disciplines has value, but big companies are rarely looking for jacks-of-all-trades; they want someone who can deliver high-quality work in a tightly-focused specialty. Conversely, if you want to go small, learn to do as many different kinds of tasks as you can, because there may not be anyone else to do them.

Learn enough discipline to bring projects to completion. This is a skill that will serve you well in every aspect of the gaming industry — and in life outside the industry.

What’s your favorite Irrational story?

While we were working on Freedom Force, we were approached by an outfit called Electric Playground, who wanted to do a preview story about it. EP was a cable-based TV show about gaming, sort of like XPlay these days, only with a much smaller audience.

Their shtick was that they liked to stage live-action versions of the games that they reported on. So their reporter came in a superhero outfit, and they brought another one (mostly in white) for Ken Levine to wear as “Captain Irrational”. Being well-noted for my super-villain hamminess already, I got to wear a mylar cape as “Dr. Sno-cone”. A couple of our more ethnic-looking employees were chosen to be my minions.

This was when we still had the South Boston office. There was a dilapidated garage next door that was the scene for the epic battle. Ken and I pretended to toss power beams at each other, and the actual beams were Photoshopped in (badly) during post. They even did some filming from the roof of our building, to get the “isometric top-down view” thing going.

After the fight scene, they interviewed me and Ken, still in costume, and in character. (Fun fact: in early builds, Ken Levine recorded temp voice for Minuteman.) It was a wonderfully silly day, though Ken was embarrassed by the whole thing. Years later, I actually ran into someone who recognized me from that show, so I guess it did get on the air. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to have made it onto YouTube. Ken’s probably just as glad

Featured Employee: Kate Baxter

ig.sarah — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:45:22 +0000

So, your title is Junior User Interface Programmer. What does that mean?

I’m the programmer in charge of making menu screens, and making the HUD work. I go to lots of meetings to talk about the UI, and then write all the code that makes it go. Luckily, the only art they have me do is prototype art. You don’t even want to see the UI elements before the artists get to them!

We hear that you read textbooks for fun. Any interest in confirming or denying such a vicious rumor? If it’s true, what’s your favorite?

Okay, I might enjoy studying math in my free time, and get overly excited whenever I get a new textbook. I’m taking a class right now that’s using Otto Bretscher’s Linear Algebra with Applications, and I’m definitely a big fan. For anyone interested in a beginner programming textbook, I highly recommend Starting Out with C++: Early Objects by Tony Gaddis.

What games have you worked on? I know we hired you right of school, so do you have any student projects you’d like to mention, with maybe a small description?

I did an internship at Tertl Studios, where I worked on a game designed to teach kids programming, algebra, and geometry.

In my senior year of college, at the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College, I worked on serious games. One was called CIMIT RIPS, which is a giant acronym for “Center for Integration of Medical and Innovative Technology Real-Time Incident Preparedness Simulator.” It’s a simulation/game for training teams in how to respond to large-scale disasters. I also worked on a game about soccer, designed to help stop violence against women in developing countries.

Most recently, at Global Game Jam 2010, I worked on a game called Quest for Stick!

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

Best job ever.

What is your favorite game of all time?

Banjo-Kazooie, for sure.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

Portal! It’s fun, hilarious, and not even very long.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

In the winter I snowboard as much as I can. In the summer I like running, sailing, and scuba diving when I can get somewhere a little warmer. And twice a week I take a class in Capoeira, which is a Brazilian martial art that can only be described as break-dance fighting. I’m not very good yet, but it’s a lot of fun!

What is your favorite movie?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but with the audio replaced by Brad Neely’s hilarious “Wizard People, Dear Reader” narration.

You’ve done a few Magic: The Gathering tournaments, correct? Any advice for your fellow players?

Yeah, you got me, I have. I’m no expert, but I’ve gotten into drafting recently, both online and at my local card shop. My advice: more swamps mean more death.

What’s your favorite Irrational story?

My favorite story is actually about my interview here. It was just before I graduated college, and it was my first “real” job interview, ever. I went and bought nice clothes, rehearsed what I wanted to say, and worked on presenting myself professionally so I’d be taken seriously. I was super nervous. Then when people actually sat down with me for the interview, they were almost all wearing T-shirts, and they swore a lot. It was not what I was expecting from a job interview at all!

Here’s why we think Kate is swell:

Kate is one of Irrational’s talented UI programmers. Fresh out of college and a newcomer to the industry, she impressed the entire team with her mad skills and infectious enthusiasm. And while others may shy away from the difficult task of coding for the end-user experience, Kate embraces it with gusto. She has a great time doing a tough job, and with her propensity for smiles and jokes, everyone around her knows just how much fun she’s having.

Ms. Baxter plays lots of games – probably more than most folks in the office. Card games, video games, board games; you name it, she plays it.

Kate was also a fiercely loyal customer of the late lamented Little Q Mongolian Hot Pot Restaurant. You never had to ask where she wanted to go for lunch. You just knew.

Featured Employee: Ray Holbrook

ig.sarah — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:19:34 +0000

You’re the ‘IT Assistant.’ What does that mean?

I hate that title, actually. I don’t take calls for my boss Geoff, or get his laundry. I have been trying to think of a new title for myself and will be taking suggestions. I think of my job as ‘the stuff Geoff doesn’t want to do anymore and gives to me.’ (No, just kidding.)

Irrational’s I.T. is a wolf-pack of two. Geoff is the I.T. guru for back-end servers, SANs and Cisco firewalls. The simple explanation would be that I am in charge of supporting everyone and everything electronic in the studio. I build, order and maintain all the PC’s we have in the office. I purchase all the equipment we use (like monitors, TVs, phones, etc.) and I also keep track of our software licensing, McAfee, off-site backups and anything else that may go wrong throughout the day.

What is the worst thing you’ve seen happen to a computer here?

I wish I had some cool fire story to tell, but nothing that severe has happened. The biggest disaster was the flood in the office a couple of years ago. There is nothing like the sight of gallons of water falling onto my PCs and TVs. My heart was in my throat watching that one. Also during the flood we moved to a local hotel while they cleaned up the damage. I dropped my PC right on the cement, shattering it into pieces, but somehow it still worked! I also witnessed someone dropping a monitor during that same move.

What games have you worked on?

Irrational Games and BioShock are my first taste of the gaming industry.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

Dream Come True!

What is your favorite game of all time?

Hands down: Final Fantasy VII and Call of Duty 4.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

So many good games, but if you love puzzle games: Adventures of Lolo for the NES. I’ve always loved that game for some reason.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

Outside of work I try to keep myself motivated and active by going to the gym during the week, and playing in a basketball and soccer league. Also here and there I play goalie for my roommate’s roller hockey team. After the gym I will sit on the couch and play a whole bunch of Call of Duty until about 2:00 A.M.

What is your favorite movie?

The Hangover, since I can relate to those guys. I recently went to Vegas and I have scars on my hand and my knee, with no idea how they got there! Oooh, Vegas!

You’re a dedicated gym rat. Can you share Ray’s Insane Workout Tips with our readers?

No soda, and protein is a must. Eating well and mixing up your routine will get you to your goals the fastest. Every person has a different goal in mind when working out, but if you want to get into shape and become “cut,” then whey protein and creatine can be your best friends at the gym. They help muscle recovery and build stronger, healthier muscle. Don’t go to the gym with the same routine every day because you and your muscles will get bored with it; you’ll end up quitting the gym and not reaching your goals. You quickly end up going back to your old ways of fast food, Smartfood and soda every day.

What’s your favorite Irrational story?

We had just hired an employee who was getting on in years. They would call Geoff or myself early in the morning because their computer wouldn’t turn on. We would walk in their office and press the button on the computer and Voilá! On it went.

After the fourth day of early morning calls I decided to ask them if they could show me how they turn on the computer. It turns out they were hitting the button on the monitor, thinking that would do the trick. And it gets better! After I showed them that they had to open the door on the computer case and press the button on the computer, they proceeded to write “POWER ON” on a sticky note next to his computer tower button. I thought I had seen it all working here, but I guess not!

Here’s why we think Ray is swell:

He’s the Rayman. The Ray of Light. The STINGRAY. Ray is the grease that keeps the wheels of Irrational Games rolling. Everyone in the studio knows him (because he is constantly fixing their problems) and loves working with him. He’s got your back. When you make games of this magnitude, you need an expert troubleshooter when your stuff goes sideways, and Ray is the Man. Oh, and you do not want to run into this guy in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer. Trust us on this one.

Featured Employee: Robb Waters

ig.sarah — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:03:52 +0000

Position at Irrational:

Artist

So your title actually gets to be “Artist?” In the videogame world what does that entail?

I guess that entails putting pencil to paper and defining the face of game being created. I’ve always been drawn to character concepting work. I know this comes from growing up loving the larger-than-life characters of the movies and comic books.

How is the art you do here for work different from the art you may do for yourself at home?

The art I work on at home is not all that different from the stuff I work on at Irrational in that, once again, it mainly revolves around characters. The one main difference is that I work in traditional mediums at home. I really enjoy large-format painting as well as sculpting. I hardly ever fire up my home computer to make artwork. Currently I am finishing up a toy portrait series I’ve been working on for a while. The series is composed of several large oil paintings of some of my favorite vintage character toys. Most of these portraits are pretty whimsical. They range from a soulful-looking Ben Grimm to a shameless, bubble headed Darth Vader knock-off. I also really enjoy sculpting little campy characters in clay and then reproducing them in resin. I’ve always been fascinated with schlocky hit-and-miss qualities of cheaply manufactured character toys.

What games have you worked on?

System Shock, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, Flight Unlimited, Thief, Akuji the Heartless, Freedom Force, Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich, The Lost, BioShock.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

Barrel o’ fun.

What is your favorite game of all time?

Tron the arcade game! Light cycles! Electric blue, light up joystick!

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

Freedom Force. Ha!

What are your hobbies outside of work?

Art, candlepin bowling, terrible B-movies.

What is your favorite movie?

Alien. Nothing beats the stark horror or design work in that movie.

I hear tell that you might be something of a collector or fan of classic comics and figures? Any truth to that? If so, what is it that you love about them?

Um, maybe? Yes, with comics books it’s the nostalgia, the four-color printing, the crazy characters, the classic artwork and the ridiculous stories. I even love the smell of vintage, yellowed, slightly musty pulp! And yes, I have a few old dusty, vintage plastic figures. I love poorly-realized characters the best. If it’s from the 70’s, goofy looking and of questionable quality, I probably need it.

What’s your favorite Irrational story?

Some friends of mine from work and I used to hold band practice after hours at our work space. Our old office in Southie [Editor's Note: nickname for South Boston] was a cool three-story building that used to be a school house. We were on the second floor playing late one evening and we had left the fire escape doors open. Suddenly a bottle came flying through the open doors and landed at our feet. We all stopped playing and looked at each other, dumbfounded. We heard a nasty, bellowing voice coming from the dark below. “Shut the f–k up!” We took the hint and closed the doors. We were pretty sure who the voice in the night belonged to as we were familiar with a Whitey Bulger wanna-be that lived across the way.

See, on several occasions, from our birds-eye vantage point, we had witnessed this guy getting ugly and threatening people that were trying to park in front of his house. People in Southie are notorious for defending their self-proclaimed street parking spots. This guy used to put out an orange pylon to keep prospective parkers away. One day, me and another friend I worked with had seen enough of this guy’s chest beating. I dared him to run down and steal the guy’s pylon. My friend actually went down and snatched it! He brought it up laughing and we threw it in a closet. Whitey ended up replacing the pylon with a sad lawn chair.

Getting back to my story… the next morning after the flying bottle incident, Whitey came over to the office and threatened a random secretary in the building, proclaiming if he heard any more music coming out of the office he would torch the place. A day or so later my friend, the guy that stole the pylon, found his tires had been slashed. The parking lot was directly behind our building and in direct sight of our ornery neighbor. He must have been singled out because he often brought his guitar to and from work. Old Whitey must have figured this was one of the punks making such a racket a few nights before.

Anyway, on behalf of Dracula 2000, we are sorry about your tire’s misfortune. Or maybe, just maybe, it was just a little bit of Southie-style karma for the kidnapping of an innocent pylon.

Here’s why we think Robb is swell…

Robb Waters is a fixture at Irrational. He has worked on numerous titles and has over 15 years of experience in the industry. If you have played the Freedom Force games, you’ve frolicked in Robb’s sketchbook.

Robb’s love of retro comics and vintage toys gives him a unique style that breathes life into every game he works on. He gave Andrew Ryan a face, lent Sander Cohen his unmistakable panache, and (despite Tenenbaum’s protestations to the contrary) was the real creator of the Little Sisters. When he’s not raising the ire of the neighborhood restaurants’ wait staff, Robb continues to bring his brilliant and bizarre vision to our (for now) unannounced title.