We often mention our team in terms of "Amplidudes and Amplidudettes", but we decided we should give you folks an idea of who we mean. You've guessed it, it's time for another installment of our (semi-)regular feature, Meet the Team! To start this new year with a bang, we've asked one of our veterans on the team to tell us all. If you want to know more about us, or your nephew wants to learn more about the career path of a game developer, or if you're just curious, read on.
Today, we're talking to the man with a finger in every pie, Laurent, aka Lt_Miles!
Who are you and what do you do at Amplitude?
Hi, guys! My name is Laurent (aka Lt_Miles). I am Senior producer at Amplitude Studios, which means I'm basically serving as butler at Amplitude. I make sure people on the team have everything they need to work in good conditions and focus on what they're best at, while keeping the "big picture" in mind (mostly budget/quality/scope). I work on projects as a facilitator, helping stakeholders on our projects find consensus, and doing some creative problem-solving with them. Not that I solve problems myself, but I make sure that the information gets to the person who will be in charge of solving that problem. As it happens, I manage schedules, meeting agendas, but I also do hardware troubleshooting, bug database management, communication with our external partners, I push build updates to Steam, etc. Since I'm no Superman, I am helped in these tasks by a talented team of Associate producers. Aside from that, I sometimes get my hands dirty with data or feature implementation, which allows me to be more directly in touch with development teams. I also keep an eye on the operation condition or our IT infrastructure and our software licenses.
What were you doing before you joined Amplitude?
I started to work in a neuroscience research laboratory as researcher, but the call of fantasy worlds and playful universes was stronger and I entered one of the oldest French editors and distributors of pen-and-paper RPGs. There I performed a wide range of tasks, including order preparation for our network of retailers, shipping and warehouse handling, management of volunteers for our collectible card games, development of our websites, translation and proofreading of games and books, ... After over 8 years in that company, because of the industry's ailing state, and in order to face new challenges and opportunities, I became interested in the video game industry. But since loving video games does not necessarily mean knowing how to make them, I decided to go back to college to discover and learn the specifics of the video game industry in an academic way.
When did you join the studio?
There was an internship at the end of the training and a brand new company called "Amplitude" was looking for people to create a team for its first game. So I joined the company as Associate producer, with the first employees, at its beginning in April 2011, thanks to some luck and tenacity (the position was not originally provisioned for), to put in place the Scrum agile framework.
What feature have you worked on that you're super proud of?
I'm not directly working on features, I'm helping the team. However, I am super proud of the working conditions we set so that our team can make the best games possible, even if we still have much to learn. The fact that we reached the million sales for our first game makes me especially proud of our team.
What are you currently working on?
I'm supervising the team of the associate producers of Endless Legend and Dungeon of the Endless, and I am in touch with the Endless Space 2 team for everything that has to do with sharing resources. I am also currently in the middle of renewing our IT infrastructure, which is probably not the most riveting story.
What's your favorite game of all time?
World of Warcraft, because of the great memories (first server kill of Ch'tun) and the meeting of a bunch of great people, some of which I'm still in touch with years later. It was a great experience, but I'm not willing to experience it again, the high-level raids were too demanding and time-consuming. ^^
Is there anywhere on the Internet where I can see more of your stuff?
Some Google docs, Trello boards and JIRA tickets. But you should not have access to these, otherwise this would indicate a security breach in our systems! Otherwise no, I don't have a personal website or a portfolio.
What's your favorite faction or character in our games?
Why "or"? Horatio is the answer. Horatio is all. We are Horatio and Horatio is us.
Is there a funny story that happened to you at Amplitude?
I'm the owner of the only 30 cm ruler available in the office. One day, our Lead animator Bastien borrowed the ruler and I saw him swing it around. The next day I was bringing an iron sword from my reenactment collection, and a poleaxe used for LARP, to protect my belongings. Ever since, people have been thinking twice before aiming my way with a dart gun..
There is also a story involving my keys and a fake cleaning person, but I'm keeping it for a next dev diary! In fact, it was not such a funny story.
Bonus secret stage!
I have been twice the subject of Easter Eggs appearing in Dungeon of the Endless, as captain of the Success (the prison ship) and as an Endless scientist spearheading the Scope project, "One of three great artifacts of the Endless scientist known as The Monk (my last name is Lemoine), it can only be controlled at the same time as *one* of its two brethren: Budget and Quality."
That's it for Laurent! We hope you found this interesting. Comments or additional questions, feel free to ask!
If there's a question you would like us to ask the interviewees, let us know!
