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[Fishie flop oog]

Thursday afternoon I have an interview n Breda Holland with three people responsible for Daxter on PSP.
Sadly I know very little about those people and about Daxter itself.

So urm, please help me.

Good questions are greatly appreciated.

Meanwhile, I will go sit in a corner and cry a bit.

PS the invitation has following bios attached for the people to be interviewed:

Didier Malenfant - President
Didier ‘Dids’ Malenfant is the President and co-founder of Ready At Dawn Studios®. He has worked professionally in the game industry for over a decade but his passion for cutting-edge programming dates way back from his early involvement with the European Amiga demo scene.
Before co-founding Ready At Dawn Studios®, Didier was also the fifth member of the Project Y team at Naughty Dog®, which eventually came to be known as Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy®. He went on to write most of the tools used to produce this game and its sequel JakII®. He is also credited for his work on games like Crash Team Racing®, Wild9® and Heart of Darkness®. Ready At Dawn Studios®’s first title is the Sony PSP™ exclusive “Daxter®”.
Didier has a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Staffordshire University in the U.K and a “Brevet de Technicien Superieur” in Electronics from the Gustave Eiffel School in Cachan, France. He has written for Game Developer magazine and given talks at the Game Developers’ Conference.
A native of France, Didier has lived and worked in southern California since 1996.

Andrea Pessino - Technical Director
A twenty year veteran of the computer entertainment industry Andrea Pessino was previously a Senior Software Engineer with leading game developer Blizzard Entertainment®. He has authored core technologies for several published Blizzard blockbusters such as WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos®, its expansion WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne®, and has contributed technology for Blizzard’s MMORPG World of WarCraft®.
Before Blizzard, Andrea was a Senior Software Scientist with MetaCreations Corp.®, where he co-authored a number of best-selling graphics applications, including: Kai’s Power Tools®, KPT Convolver®, Kai’s Photo Soap®, Kai’s Photo Show®, Bryce® and Kai’s Power Goo®, for which he received numerous industry accolades, including the 1996 PC Magazine “Graphics Software of the Year” award.
A classically trained musician, Andrea has degrees in composition, harmony and music theory, and he is an accomplished pianist. He continues to this day to compose for the concert hall. His works have been performed by various ensembles and orchestras around the world. His orchestration work on the cinematics for Blizzard’s Diablo II® earned him the 2001 IGDA Game Developers Choice Award for “Excellence in Audio.”
A native of Italy, Andrea has lived and worked in California since 1990.

Ru Weerasuriya - Art Director
With 9 years of experience in the entertainment industry, Ru Weerasuriya is the Art Director and Co-Founder of Ready at Dawn Studios. Formerly a Senior Artist with industry-renowned developer Blizzard Entertainment™, he initially worked on Starcraft: Brood War™ and then contributed to the blockbuster Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos™ and its equally acclaimed expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne™, his distinctive visual style influencing the direction of both game and cinematic art.

Assuming the role of Concept, Storyboard and Matte Artist, he helped the Blizzard™ Film Department win, among numerous other accolades, the 2003 International 3D Award and the 2003 Glow Award for Best Cinematics, and a place in the coveted Electronic Theater at Siggraph 2003. Ru then led the Cinematic Art Direction for Starcraft: Ghost™ and World of Warcraft™. His work has been published in several books and magazines, including The Art of Warcraft™, Dungeons&Dragons™ Warcraft™ Game and its supplemental Monster Manual™.

Prior to working for Blizzard, Ru studied at the Art Center College of Design in both Switzerland and Pasadena. Graduating in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Transportation Design, he further developed his skills working as a freelance illustrator.

A native of Sri Lanka, having grown up in Switzerland, Ru has lived and worked in Southern California since 1996.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Ask them if Sony's talked to them about making a Clank PSP game.

 

[Fuzzy]

Ask them how long before it's ported to the PS2.

 

[FortNinety]

Thursday afternoon I have an interview n Breda Holland with three people responsible for Daxter on PSP.
Sadly I know very little about those people and about Daxter itself.

Have you played any of the Jax games?

 

[Fishie flop oog]

Have you played any of the Jax games?

Yah

 

[kaching]

Here's one for you - Daxter PSP has connectivity to Jak X Racing (some unlockable elements in both games are dependent on connecting to the other, I believe). But Jak X was released basically 5-6 months before Daxter will arrive and I don't think Jak X did particular well at retail. So the question would be, does Ready at Dawn think that working this kind of connectivity into the game was worth the effort, given the staggered release and the lukewarm reception to one of the games required for the connectivity?

 

[Guns N' Poops]

Ask them if Sony's talked to them about making a Clank PSP game.

Playfrance reported there is a game called Special Agent Clank in development. And before that various european online retailers had it listed.

 

[ghibli99]

I worked with Dids back in the Interplay days and also when he was over at Shiny. He designed the final boss battle and IIRC, he had a major part in the "racing" levels of Wild 9. I've lost touch with that guy, but it's great to see that he's running his own development studio, and on such a high-profile game. He drove a nice Bimmer back then... I can't imagine what he's driving now. :lol Good luck!

 

[GitarooMan]

Here's a few off the top of my head.

-Ask them about how the story connects the end of Jak I to the beginning of Jak II (how long after Jak I does it start?)
-Ask about differing types of gameplay (i.e minigames, different types of tasks)
-Length? Load times? (Jak is pretty well known for limited load times)
-Open, exploration gameplay or more focused levels?

 

[Fishie flop oog]

Some excellent questions here people.
Thanks.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

Ask about the graphics and the game length.

 

[Juice]

You know, Fishie, they probably won't be too impressed with you in your interview now that they've probably read your thread asking for questions about people you know nothing about.

 

[fronn]

I think an obvious question is talk about their future - if they already have a new project on the plate (original title?), who they might be working with publisher wise (SCE again?), and what systems (if not SCE)? They probably can't give much info, but maybe you'll get something out of them.

 

[Ghost]

Ask how they approach a game on PSP differently to a game on PS2.

 

[jj984jj]

Hmm... okay I have a few suggestions.

The game takes place between Jak and Jak II, which installment in the Jak series does the gameplay share traits with? And how does the gameplay differ it-self from the Jak games?

It was recently announced that the release date for the game was recently bumped up a week from the previous release date, why was that? Was the game finished early?

Here's one for the end directed the founder.

Do you plan to only make games for Sony or do you see this new studio as an opportunity to branch out and make new brands not just with Sony, but other companies as well?

Edit: It seems all my questions were pretty much posted before I was able to post. :lol

 

[FortNinety]

Yah

Cool. Just making sure if you've played them. If not, I would have suggested giving them a spin, if only for the purpose of research.

It can get pretty uncomfortable when you're trying to do a story on a game that's a sequel, or are strongly related to another series, and you haven't had the chance to play them.

 

[Mook1e]

Ask them about what they think of the development hurdles involved with developing this seamingly ambitious game for PSP.

Hardware limitations they had problems with. (Specifically with regards to load times and RAM limitations and generaly with regards to the design of the system)

Did they re-use a lot of assets from previous games?

What more do they feel can be squeezed out of the PSP with the present and (hopefully) future clockspeeds/hardware configurations?

 

[Fishie flop oog]

You know, Fishie, they probably won't be too impressed with you in your interview now that they've probably read your thread asking for questions about people you know nothing about.

Why do you think im crouched in a corner crying?

 

[Azure Dream]

I don't want to confuse things, but at least two or three people have mentioned it being set between Jak 1 and 2, when it's actually set between Jak 2's intro and Jak 2's main game. (It splits off at the point where Jak is captured after they travel, while Daxter escapes.)

But maybe asking the question anyway would be good, or asking if this single Daxter game will bridge the entire time period (I think Jak was captured for something like two years?)

 

[ghibli99]

You know, Fishie, they probably won't be too impressed with you in your interview now that they've probably read your thread asking for questions about people you know nothing about.

Although it is a bit last-minute, I disagree. I think companies are pretty impressed when potential candidates (a) go out and get information on the company and people they'll be interviewing with, and (b) putting together a good list of questions to ask. Nothing's worse than a completely unprepared interviewee who doesn't ask hard questions.

 

[GitarooMan]

I don't want to confuse things, but at least two or three people have mentioned it being set between Jak 1 and 2, when it's actually set between Jak 2's intro and Jak 2's main game. (It splits off at the point where Jak is captured after they travel, while Daxter escapes.)

That's really splitting hairs though, because the intro to Jak II happens pretty much immediately after the end of Jak I IIRC, so the Jak II intro is essentially a continuation of the end of Jak I. I see your point though.

 

[Fishie flop oog]

Although it is a bit last-minute, I disagree. I think companies are pretty impressed when potential candidates (a) go out and get information on the company and people they'll be interviewing with, and (b) putting together a good list of questions to ask. Nothing's worse than a completely unprepared interviewee who doesn't ask hard questions.

It was a pretty last minute thing for me as well.
My local Sony PR contact called me around noon and asked me if I wanted to do this tommorow I said I didnt know and stuff and he even offered to drive m there personally(being in Belgium and all) so I said yeah cool, more people to Fishiefy and add to the collection.

 

[ghibli99]

It was a pretty last minute thing for me as well.
My local Sony PR contact called me around noon and asked me if I wanted to do this tommorow I said I didnt know and stuff and he even offered to drive m there personally(being in Belgium and all) so I said yeah cool, more people to Fishiefy and add to the collection.

That's cool, man -- and I would say that you're in much better shape now than you were about 3-1/2 hours ago.

 

[M3wThr33]

That's really splitting hairs though, because the intro to Jak II happens pretty much immediately after the end of Jak I IIRC, so the Jak II intro is essentially a continuation of the end of Jak I. I see your point though.

You know that "Six Months Later" screen? That's Daxter.

 

[Flynn]

There's also a Bug Combat mini game that's pretty interesting. You could ask them to go into that. I visited their studio and played the mini-game head to head against the programmers, which was pretty fun.

Also, I found it interesting that 2 of the main personalities were ex-Blizzard. Ru has many nice things to say about Blizzard. I spoke to him at length about the Blizzard philosophy and how that has carried over to Ready at Dawn. I believe the founder of the studio also worked there.

You can also ask them about the Irvine game developer scene. How is it different from Northern California?

RE: The question about Jax X, SCEA is still airing commercials for the game, so I think they still intend to try to get a few more of the game out there.

 

[Fishie flop oog]

That's cool, man -- and I would say that you're in much better shape now than you were about 3-1/2 hours ago.

Definitly.
Thanks for your help people.
Its apreciated.