Professional Interview & Notes - Pete Bottomley

Professional Interview & Notes

Pete Bottomley Q&A (In-Studio Talk)

Worked on titles: Ether One, The Occupation

Professional Game/Level Designer (5+ years) – Lead Developer / Co-Founder @ White Paper Games

-          Initial methods of planning are targeted towards tactile placement.

-          Primarily designing entities that related towards the specific universe.

-          Dishonoured is primarily formulated around gameplay first.

-          Puzzles created were tend to be built around the world, rather than creating the puzzle then the world around it.

-          Tends to design towards the high points (long term goal) in the game, to which creates the traversal game space for players to explore.

-          Killer Opening. To really sell the idea, but always made last to show off everything justly.

-          Opted to design initially for high stealth, then a walk sim then into the narrative. To really set the player in the experience.

-          Described that it is rather hard to creative linear narrative.

-          It is possible to learn from old workflows. But preferred to not initially recycle, as the creation is bespoke from piece to piece.

-          Tech & Visuals are what sells the game. But it is the gameplay that had to hold up in order for it to be successful.

-          By developing your own tools, it creates a much more versatile team, and it is easier to find support due to the creation of new and bespoke tech.

-          You will never find parallels in design, but you will in production.

-          Always wise to produce production pipelines (tech).

-          Top Down vs Bottom Up.

-          Heavily internal Q&A, which goes through various stages of speeds in order to maintain minimums.

-          Primarily focused on creating a player experience.

Low Level Design – MOMENT TO MOMENT

Mid-Level Design – PLAYER EXPERIENCE (CORE LOOP)