Hey guys and gals!
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! 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.
Meet snow diver Michaël, aka Etheon!
Who are you and what do you do at Amplitude?
Hey everyone! My name is Michaël, aka Etheon on forums. I am 27 and I am Associate Producer here at Amplitude! Pascaline (Pikou) already explained our role briefly in her own interview, so it'll be hard for me to stand out now!
Let's say that just like Pascaline, I am under supervision from our Senior Producer Laurent, and I've been in charge of production on Dungeon of the Endless, from its inception on.
My tasks on the project have been very varied. Managing the team, preparing and animating meetings, integrating and managing the various game assets, coordination with various external teams (from our QA partners to the guys designing our sleek user interfaces)...
Dungeon of the Endless was also a multi-platform project, which was a first for Amplitude Studios. This was a great experience for me since I was in charge of the whole validation process with Microsoft for Xbox, a very difficult process to manage, but one that we drew many lessons from for the future!
To keep it short, and to highlight the good bits of that job: we do all sorts of things!
What were you doing before you joined Amplitude?
After high school, I graduated in Law, so yeah, nothing to do with games at all (although...), but this wasn't my thing. Once my diploma was over, I heard about a video game school, and I tried my luck with the entrance exam, a bit on a whim and without really believing in it (Me? Working in the gaming industry? Too good to be true).
Thanks to what must have been a bug in their grading system, I made it and the curriculum lasted two years.
When did you join the studio?
Amplitude Studios took me in as an intern. The place had heating, free soft drinks and cake, so I thought it would be a good idea to stick around, and three years later here I am!
What feature have you worked on that you're super proud of?
Hard to name one specific feature, I worked from beginning to end on Dungeon of the Endless. It's the results I am really proud of!
To be more specific, I integrated most graphical assets for the dungeon creation system, and that wasn't always easy, even if the generation tool from Sébastien, our Lead programmer, simplified the task.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently part of the reserve team on Endlesss Space 2, lending a hand. I am also working on... something else, but that's another story!
What's your favorite game of all time?
GRIM FANDANGO! Tim Schaffer if by any chance you are reading this interview, I love you!
It's a point & click of the golden age, a game I replay every year like a pilgrimage. Some people celebrate Christmas, as for me, I play Grim Fandango again and again... it's my own madeleine de Proust.
Is there anywhere on the Internet where I can see more of your stuff?
I am not a great creator, but for the last few months I have been working on my skills in HTML/CSS... Unfortunately for the moment I have nothing to show, but if I ever decided to create my own blog, I would most likely announce it on my Twitter account: @M_Breyton
What's your favorite faction or character in our games?
Sophons! Must be my technophile side. Aren't they cute with their big bulging eyes?
Is there a funny story that happened to you at Amplitude?
This story is really fun for others, less so for me.
We were on a seminar at a ski resort (for work, obviously). Something really rare among young people facing fresh snow happened, that is to say hostilities started and very quickly people were slamming one another in the fluffy snow.
Listening to my brave inner warrior and seeing a man on the ground (Nicolas, Senior producer on Endless Space 2), I thought he was a choice target and tried to dive on top of him.
By an unfortunate happenstance, one of my ribs met with his elbow. I stayed down for a solid two minutes, agonizing in the cold. Fortunately, my colleagues are very caring people, so I have numerous pictures of the precise moment when I'm yelling out in pain.
I was two weeks without being able to laugh or get up easily.
If you could relocate the studio in any country, where would you want to go?
“O Canada! Our home and native land!”
What's the next place you want to travel to?
My next trip will be with my girlfriend at the end of August, we're going to New York City! Next year it will very probably be somewhere in Asia (Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea... we haven't decided yet) and if we've still got time left, we'll go back to North America and visit Canada. In short, yeah, I like to travel...
That's it for Michael! 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!
