David Ray Interview
The E3 trade show is in a couple of weeks. Assuming you are going, what do you plan to check out and why?
E3 to me is like Toys R Us to an 11 year old. It's hard to say what will get my attention each year. Last year it was the Lego Mindstorms (Battling Lego robot's are cool) and all the Star Wars stuff. For the upcoming show, I'm not sure what it will be. I'm not sure I could guess until I actually get there. I get easily distracted by bright and shiny things, and there will be plenty of distractions there.
What is the biggest improvement in Icewind Dale's multiplayer compared to Baldur's Gate?
Baldur's Gate was designed around having a single main character. When you played multiplayer, it was still sort of just based around the one lead character still. Icewind Dale has been designed from day one to have a full party of adventurers, whether they are controlled by one person, or six people. I think that this alone will make if feel more like a group adventure rather than five of your friends tagging along for the ride.
When not working on Icewind Dale, what games are you playing?
Right now I'm playing EverQuest, Force Commander, and Tomb Raider 4. I still every now and then fire up one of the classics, like Civilization II or Master Of Orion II. And I also play multiplayer StarCraft whenever a bunch of my friends get online all at once.
How many hours a day, on average, are you putting in working on Icewind Dale and would you give a brief description of what people are doing on the Icewind Dale team on a typical day?
For the most part, Icewind Dale has been really easy from a programming perspective--after all, we started with a working engine. So I've been averaging probably about 9 hours a day, plus at least one weekend day. It's steadily increasing as we get closer to the end of the project and more and more bugs are uncovered. Other members of the team have not been quite so lucky, since Icewind Dale has a ton of new artwork in it, the artists have been working very hard, and I have no idea how many hours they've put in. The same goes for the designers since it's a totally new game.
If you were Minsc from Baldur's Gate for a day in real life, what evil would you rid the world of (and would you let me hold Boo)?
"Magic is nice, but now Minsc in charge, Swords for everyone!" And no, you can't touch Boo!
From a programming stand point, what has been the biggest challenge with Icewind Dale so far?
Probably the fact that the engine is always in a state of flux, yet we have to maintain compatibility with all of the resources that have already been created. If we want to make a change to the creature file format, we had better really need to do that, and make sure we have it right before we go back and redo all the monsters (again). It's also rather difficult to integrate new changes we get from Bioware for the updated engine, because we have to go through line by line putting all of the changes we have done into the updated files with the changes they have done. It's can be extremely time-consuming process.
If you suddenly found yourself as CEO of a new gaming company, what would be the first game you would like make?
An RPG that is a cross between Ultima 6, Fallout, and Daggerfall. I love RPGs, they're definitely my first passion. I would certainly try and design one that had all the best elements of my three favorite RPGs of all time.
Is DirectX difficult or easy to program for/with?
Sort of a loaded question there. DirectX has many components. DirectDraw, DirectSound, and DirectInput are all terrific, easy to use, and efficient. Most programmers I know are rather happy with those. Direct3D and DirectPlay are rather difficult to use, but they're still nice because they work, and they work well. So the actual answer is, depends what you're doing. If you want the most compatibility possible though, there is no other choice.
What would be the biggest piece of advice you would give someone wanting to get into the programming side of the gaming industry?
You have to remember that most programmers would like to be in this industry. So we get just a ton of resumes every single day. You have to someway make yourself stand out. One of the easiest ways to do this is to write and publish a shareware or freeware game on the Internet. The Internet makes things like this not only possible, but rather easy. However, you'll find that making a game is not as easy as it initially sounds. Even if you're already an experienced programmer, writing video games is some of the most challenging work you can find. And if you're trying to make yourself stand out, it has to be good too. If you can write a game that ends up getting the person who needs to interview you addicted, well that's a pretty good sign. Just getting a CS degree simply isn't enough, because there is still way too much competition.
You vs. J.E. Sawyer (Designer) in a Pay-Per-View, Last-Man-Standing Cage Match. Who would win and why?
J.E. would definitely win, he's in much better shape than me. I'm a couch potato.
I would like to thank David Ray for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk.
It, without a doubt, shows the dedication to the fans that Black Isle Studios has.
Although David did not let me hold Boo, I won't hold it against him. As for Dragons
not being in Icewind Dale, well, I won't hold that against him either. Raw fish for dinner? Only if it has mayo and pickles. Again, thanks David.
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