Jake Simpson being no exception, I tuned into one of my favorite places to visit, JeffK, and he had an interview with Jake up. Anyone who read the interview may have noticed more than one reference to a No Holds Barred Wrestling Match ( coming soon ) between JeffK and I. You may have also noticed JeffK wanted Jake Simpson as his corner man ( I believe he said " I want a Klingon in my corner" ). 

And so a relationship is born, Jake and I exchanged a few e-mail about the "Battle Royal" to ensue, and his thoughts on which way the match would go. . . which obviously led to an interview request, and there you have it!!! So without further ado. . . here comes the madness

1.)Jake, you’ve been around the biz since the early days. . . you’ve run the gamut from Arcade style games for Midway, you’ve made awesome FPS’s for Raven, now you have the console ports and such as well as new projects. . . . where do you see the biz heading? Console?? FPS??

Good question. Answer :- not sure;). I do seem some things, but they tend to be small more specialized areas. For instance, up till now, the console style of gaming and the PC style of gaming have been very different, with only a little overlap. You don’t tend to see the PC style of micromanagement games (Diablo, Baldurs Gate, RTS in general and so on) on the consoles – mainly due to memory and control mechanism restrictions – and conversely you don’t see much in the way of pure dip games on the PC. When was the last true fighting game released on a PC? Anyway, I do tend to see a slight shift in focus in the style of games with the new crop of consoles. There are many reasons for this I think, Sony has been very adamant in trying to turn PC developers on to develop for the PSX2, which if successful will mean a more PC slant to the type of games they will churn out. Similarly, the Xbox will bring more PC developers into the fold, being so close to PC architecture as it is. Both systems have more memory and support USB control devices. Plus there is the fact that both systems run a DVD, so it’s a more attractive buy for older gamers – it’s not just a games machine anymore. Also, the target audience for a console is not just limited to kids anymore. The current crop of 20somethings are the people that made the arcade wave in the 80’s and early 90’s. They aren’t afraid to play games, but they do expect more from them, since they are all used to playing on their PCs they bought to play Doom in the university dorm rooms;)
Personally I see Shemnue as a portend of things to come. Although as a developer I can’t say I’m wild about the idea of 100 people teams developing a game.

2.) Your somewhat of an outgoing guy...( don’t try to deny it Toga Boy ).. what's the most outrageous thing you ever did ON the job.

Well, there was the time that the sheep wandered into the office… ;) Seriously, lets see… hmm, now I come to think of it I’m coming up dry… There are a couple of stories, but my wife would cut bits off me if I ever repeated them on a web interview. She’s got a sharp knife you know, she sharpens it daily at the breakfast table. I have no idea why.

Really and truly you should be asking my good friend Chris Rhinehart of Human Head Studios. He has some truly stunning stories. 

(** editors note: hmmm, I did interview Chris.... and he didn't divulge any of these secrets, maybe we need to call him back )

3.)You’ve been around, who are the people you admire in the industry.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for several people out there. Tim Sweeny is high on the list. Not only is he a VERY smart person, but he’s also an available one. And unlike most uber geeks, the man has a sense of humorJ. Obviously John Carmack is way up there too. One of the most efficient people I’ve ever met. His ability to build efficient and effective code is astonishing. Eugene Jarvis is also an amazing individual. He wrote Defender, Robotron, Smash TV and Crusin’ USA for Midway. When it comes to eccentric millionaires, he’s the real deal. When it comes to real genius, he’s the real deal too. Another guy is Jeff Minter, the guy behind LlamaSoft. He wrote all those incredibly fun C64 games way back, and most recently was behind Tempest 2000 on the Jaguar. He works for the Nuon people now, I understand a version of Tempest 3000 is coming. There are others, like Mark Turmell, the man with the luckiest touch I’ve ever seen, Ed Boon (Quicken for Billionaires! Sorry, private joke there..), one of the nicest people you could meet, behind one of the goriest games, Mortal Kombat.
Of course all the guys here at Raven go without saying. These guys know games, they know how to work, and they know how to have fun.

4.) What's the most annoying thing to deal with as a Game Making Guru. Besides my interview requests?

Wow. What a question. You know something? I was chatting with my good friend John Mullins a little while back. John was telling some stories of some of the actions he’s been a part of. When you hear what really happens out there it really brings home to you how easy we all have it. He talks about friends being killed around him, and how can anything that happens to me at work even come close to that? “Oh wow, I had this really hard bug to track down last week?” Doesn’t really compare does it? While it is work, it’s really not something I can complain about in any way. Although I wish I hadn’t been moved to an office with no windows….J

( Jake should've brought this while negotiating for a better office )

5.) You’ve shipped some of the best games on the planet in the last few years. . . it seems they get better with each release. Does the pressure to “put out” ever get too much?? How does Jake Simpson deal with it?

Drink a lot. I have some help there though.J

Actually we do it because we have high expectations of both ourselves and the industry in general. That sounds incredibly trite and pompous, but it’s true. The pressure is definitely there, Activision puts a lot of stock in us, and spends the marketing and development dollars to prove it. We have make games that not only recoup that, but also make a profit. No mean feat these days. On the other hand, we have a low turn over here at Raven, which means that we have a ton of people with some serious experience here. That experience does tend to show in the finished product.
Of course the fact that Raven is 10% British helps too. Without a doubt that makes a huge difference. (I can see the internal emails over this already – I’m just kidding Guys!).

6.) CliffyB has a “Guide to Breaking into the Biz” …Tips you can give Game Making-Jedi in training??

I don’t have a guide as such like Cliff does. (You know we’ve never met? Never been in the same place at the same time. I was trying to persuade some of the Epic guys to show up at QuakeCon, but some for some reason they didn’t think it was their thing??), but I do have some articles on my website, JakeWorld that might help. There is a three part article set that are a part of lecture series I’ve been doing at the University here in Madison. They are Anatomy of a Video Game, Networking 101, and Game Design Philosophy. There are other articles there that might help, like an idiots C tutorial. I’m thinking of writing a series on the Quake III codebase, intended for modders.

The url for JakeWorld is www2.ravensoft.com/users/jakeworld

7.) Drink of Choice

Boddingtons here in the States, Stella Artois when back home (you can’t get that here in the states due to some gentleman’s agreement between the Heinken breweries and the Miller breweries, apparently. Took me three years of asking questions to find that out. )

8.) Tunes of Choice
 

Lots of Electronic stuff. I really enjoy Jean Michel Jarre (*gasp*!! A Frenchman??? What am I thinking??). Even if he is French, he’s still a damn good musician, and he creates music to code by. I’m also into the Pet Shop Boys (Sigh), Phil and the boys at Genesis, Robert Miles, The Jam, The Police and Sting Solo, Orbital blah blah blah, does anyone really read this??

9.) Babe of Choice

My wife, of course.

(**editors note. . . Jakes wife is a babe too, good thing you can see pics of her HERE**)

10.) The real answer to no. #9 for the married guys who had to say their wives.

Oh, well, if we are being honest here then, probably Pheobe Cates would be high on the list. Actually, if you really want to know, go check out JakeWorld since it has the Women of JakeWorld on it. Man, do I ever get some stick from the wife over that!

11.) Raven is now ( as far as I know ;^) the only company to ever ship a Star Trek based game that is worth crap. . . and the game kicks SERIOUS ass, how does it feel to “Boldly go where no game developer has gone before”?? ( heh, sorry…couldn’t resist )

It is nice to be on the receiving end of it. We’ve had some truly nice emails from people out there over this. However, credit where credit is due. Although I’m a huge Star Trek freak I was barely on the periphery of this project, doing small odd jobs here and there. The real credit goes to people like Brian Pellieter, project lead, Chris Foster, design lead, James Monroe, programming lead, Steve Raffel, creative director, Les Dorschied, art director and so on. People like Mike Gummelt, who wrote the script for the game, and Kim Lathrop, both of whom made sure the game stuck to the Voyager universe, but still felt fun. And also people like Pat Lipo that spearheaded the multiplayer side of the game. These are the people that should be receiving the kudos. We are definitely all a team here at Raven, of all the places I’ve worked I’ve never had that “we are all in this together” feeling that is fostered here. Perhaps that’s why we do have such a limited turnover.
As for kicking serious ass, well, as the saying goes, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

12.) With everyone hitting the “Massively Multiplayer” market. . . any plans for a big ass online game for Jake Simpson in the near future?

To be honest, I doubt it. We here at Raven try and limit our risks with each new game we produce. What I mean by that is that each time we try and go with at least one thing we know for each product, be it a licence we know, or a codebase (usually that) and so on. A Massively Multiplayer product would be too far out of what we know right now to be something attractive to us. In the short term at least.

On the other hand, I know there are many here that are very into the genre, and I’m sure they would love a crack at building one.  And of course, the decisions aren’t up to me…

As for what we are doing, well, that will become apparent pretty soon. I understand announcements aren’t that far off for our next slate of products. We certainly haven’t been sitting around since we released SOF and Elite Force.

13.) You have somewhat of a “relationship” with JEFF K, and recently it has come to my attention that you are somehow JEFF K’s alter ego. What do you say to that?? Purely coincidental??

I cannot comment on this. My lawyers have told me not too. There was nothing proved at the time, and the only witnesses emigrated to YugoSlavia. Apparently. Did I tell you that Lowtax is my mothers Maiden Name?
Seriously, I must note that I have a large amount of respect for Mr. Kyanka for creating a repeatedly funny website in SomethingAwful.com. Even if he does have pubic hair on his head.

  ( editors note: regardless what Jake Simpson says, we have pretty good circumstantial evidence that suggests the similarities go past Jake and Jeff both starting with the letter “J”. . . see photos. )

14.) Every successful game d00D drives a super car. . . what does Jake Simpson drive??

I’m not really a huge car person. I have a decent enough car, a Lebaron Convertible, which does me just fine. I have a real problem with the thought of spending more than $30k on a vehicle. It just seems too much. When I was a kid we never had a car, so I understand the value of one, but on the other hand, it’s important to keep it in context. To me it’s something to get you from A to B in relative comfort. The Lebaron I have now is certainly more than I ever thought I would drive when I was back in England, a wide eyed game developer wannabe.

and the bonus question

Since we have been friends for years, please tell our readers something about yourself that not many people know. ( make it good dammit. . . . I’m trying to impress people with this one )

I’m Patrick Stewarts love child? Will that do? Everyone thinks I’m going to look like him, so I might as well make something out of it right?

Or how about this – I think I should have been one of the actors that played Doctor Who? I mean, I was born to run around the universe in a blue police box battling bad guys that can’t climb stairs and are armed with sink plungers and egg whisks (Daleks, for the uninformed amongst you). Why wasn’t Doctor Who on TV long enough for me to have a go??

As always, a huge THANKS goes out to Jake for the interview. . . I have been extremely impressed with how accessible Jake is. Matter o' fact, Jake has a "webcam" page on his site that is fairly entertaining!! Entertaining because he's NEVER working when you look at the webcam!! Really. . . look

When I asked Jake about this. . . . he very politely told me what to kiss. . 

Now comes the contest stuff. . . . staying with my current "Autographed Games" theme, I am giving away a few autographed copies of Soldier of Fortune, as well as Star Trek: Elite Forces. . how's that for cool?? Enter HERE ! ! !