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 instalment of our (semi-)regular feature, Meet the Team! 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.
This man has a reaction gif for everything. Meet Sébastien, aka GFX47!
Who are you and what do you do at Amplitude?
My name is Sébastien, GFX47 on the Internets.
I have been Lead programmer at Amplitude for 3 years now. I've been in charge of the DotE project and I'm now on ES2.
What were you doing before you joined Amplitude?
I've started out with 4 years of IT (not my jam!) before finding a position as a game programmer with Ubisoft (Paris), where I stayed 6 years.
I worked there as Lead programmer on the Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms project (a web-based MMO, now defunct) and on other sadly unreleased projects.
I then wanted a change of air and to see the indie side of the Force, and that's why I joined Amplitude.
When did you join the studio?
April 1st, 2013.
No kidding!
What feature have you worked on that you're super proud of?
DotE is the game I'm the most proud of so far.
It was full of challenges, new things and I was part of an amazing team.
It was really refreshing, and exactly what I was looking for when I joined an indie dev.
What are you currently working on?
I've now moved on to ES2 to work on ground battles. I hope you'll like them!
What's your favorite game of all time?
I am an "almost unconditional" fan of the Metal Gear series.
Choosing a favorite was a torture, but I would say that the very first one I played, Metal Gear Solid (PS1), marked a turning point in my way of looking at video games.
I understood they could be more than just a fun way to unwind, they could tell a story, share a message or teach you real life stuff.
Okay, that may sound cheesy, just like any other MGS fan. So what?
Is there anywhere on the Internet where I can see more of your stuff?
I have a blog that I am really struggling to keep updated.
But nowadays I post more often on Twitter, about game dev and my own things.
What's your favorite faction or character in our games?
I have to (shamefully) confess that I haven't played much the studio's 4X games.
However in EL I really like
In DotE my favorite team was for a very long time Skroig (Red plume FTW! No, not the kamikaze monster, noooo!!!) / Nanor (cooking is done better with gaz) / Elise (so badass) / Rakya (my very own Ellen Ripley).
Since the expansion came out, I have a soft spot for Sasha Chokyo (getting buddy-buddy with mobs is a riot), Pat Bates (burn baby buuurn!) and Kreyang (brace yourself).
Is there a funny story that happened to you at Amplitude?
There's this time I made a minor fix in DotE and while pushing it to Steam we realized the game just wasn't working at all anymore.
Haha, what a hoot, we had such a laugh!
No?
What's your favorite quote?
“Chucho!” ("Je suis chaud !", "I'm up for it!" if you pronounced it "'mupforit!") every time someone challenges me.
For instance:
- It'd be cool to script an ingame scene for the first DotE trailer but we don't have room left in the planning...
- Not doing anything during my lunch break, 'MUPFORIT!
When you have 30 minutes of free-time, how do you pass the time?
When I get home from a hard day of intense game development, I like to relax by I like to relax by... developing more games.
That's it for Seb! We hope you found this interesting. Comments or additional questions, feel free to comment!
If there's a question you would like us to ask the interviewees, let us know!
