BlackSite director leaves Midway

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 3rd December 2007
Comments (5) Stumble
Harvey Smith would have loved to stay, but unfortunately had a flight to catch.

Harvey Smith would have loved to stay, but unfortunately had a flight to catch.

Midway has confirmed to Gi.biz that Harvey Smith has left the Midway Austin development house after a 'mutual decision' was made between Midway higher-ups and the man himself.

Harvey Smith, who worked on gaming greats like Deus Ex and Thief: Deadly Shadows and who had worked closely with figureheads like Warren Spector in the past, most recently worked as the lead designer on BlackSite: Area 51, a game he was himself critical of.

Speaking at the Montreal International Games Summit in Quebec, Smith described the game as "f**ked up".

"It took eight months to get one thing working," he said. "With a year to go, the game was disastrously off rails...it went straight from alpha to final" This naturally left virtually no time to spend play-testing the game. The game has suffered very mixed reviews as a result.

Smith said that the reason he was confessing so much was because that he believed in personal accountability. No comment has been made regarding whether Smith left before or after admitting his disappointment.

There's no news yet on where Smith is heading to now. Will he be hooking back up with Warren Spector at Junction Point Studios or will he head to Eidos to work on Deus Ex 3? Either way, pass on your well-wishes and comments via the forums.
MSI 9600GT Graphics Card
Quote Flibblebot 3rd December 2007, 10:42
Now if he were to team with Spector again, I might actually pay some attention to Deus Ex 3.
Kudos to the man for standing up and admitting his faults. John Romero could learn a thing or two.
Quote Zurechial 3rd December 2007, 11:44
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flibblebot
Now if he were to team with Spector again, I might actually pay some attention to Deus Ex 3.

As far as I'm aware, neither Spector nor Smith are involved in Deus Ex 3.
It's the first project of fledgling dev-studio Eidos Montreal, I think.
Quote CardJoe 3rd December 2007, 13:03
Thats right - Spector and Smith are both detatched from Deus Ex 3 for now. Spector at least has openly confirmed that he wouldn't work on it even if they aske dhim.
Quote DXR_13KE 3rd December 2007, 13:04
i wish him best of luck.... and i hope he teams up with Spector and makes a real good game.
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 3rd December 2007, 14:09
Strange, I Played the game without any errors/flaws. It was highly enjoyable in some parts and in some parts it was boring. The suroundings looked amazingly well done, debris everywhere, stuff laying around, obstackles, destructable things etc. Especialy the descent into the exploded bunker complex looked awesome with things collapsed, wires and concrete slabs sticking out everywhere, water pooring down open pipes etc. It really looked like there was huge explosion that ripped open the complex. The story was also nice but somehow made it 'guessing' what really happend and why. And some interessting stuff like descending from cables with your partners. A lot of co-op AI playing where the AI actualy worked well.

And if this was alpha state, boy! would this game looked even better?

I dont get it...
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