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.
Meet the man behind many of our trailers, Etienne, aka becomm!!
Who are you and what do you do at Amplitude?
Hi there! I’m Etienne (becomm on the forums), the studio’s Brand Manager and my job is to “take care” of the awesome games created - with your help - by the devteam.
Aside from Marketing related stuff that you won’t necessarily find interesting, I have been producing many trailers, videos, screenshots... In a few words, all the things required to involve you in the creation of our games (via Games2Gether), communicate about them and bring them to your hard drive.
What were you doing before you joined Amplitude?
My first job was in Chicago about a decade ago doing business Intel for French Aerospace companies.
Then I worked as product/project manager in the Music industry, and a few years as a freelance consultant… Which somehow led me to Ubisoft where I joined the Might & Magic team (mostly to help with Heroes VI post-launch and Clash of Heroes mobile). It was a short but amazing experience, which ultimately allowed me to meet SpaceTroll and Skamaks, and join the studio a few months later. While “all roads lead to Rome”, mine was a bit sinuous!
When did you join the studio?
Summer 2014, and it was exhilarating! Endless Legend and Dungeon of the Endless were about to be released and there was so much to do... I think that went well… right?
What feature have you worked on that you're super proud of?
I tend to be quite critical of my work but I think I’ve gained a lot of XP in video editing. I’m particularly proud of DotE’s release trailer (Rogue Life) that I produced all by myself ^^
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend Shifters... among other things that I can’t talk about just yet
What's your favorite game of all time?
That’s a tough question. There are so many cult games that I love, such as Total Annihilation, Carmageddon, Half Life… there are too many to list…
But I guess I tend to rank ‘Outcast’ (released by Infogrames in 1999) as number #1. I have such fond memories of this game, and the soundtrack is absolutely amazing. Kudos to the team of volunteers who are trying to revive the IP (https://www.facebook.com/OutcastLOTY/).
Is there anywhere on the Internet where I can see more of your stuff?
I’ve got a blog/portfolio (becomm.org) but it has been “under construction” for a while now.
What's your favorite faction or character in our games?
I really like OpBot. The idea of a crazy robot is really appealing, also he’s the only character that links all the Endless games. Or is he?...
Is there a funny story that happened to you at Amplitude?
When Dell Bradford (TF2 inspired hero from DotE’s Australium update) is left idle for a while, he will start to play his signature tune on the guitar.
When our audio engineer worked on the update he wasn’t very happy with the sample he found for the tune so I decided to record it at home and send it to him. I learned afterward that my version would be included in game
What's the most played song in your music library?
Well… according to Spotify I’ve listened to about 25k minutes of Music in 2015 (about 17 days)! I know… that’s a lot
Music has always been something special for me. I’ve started playing Piano when I was 4, graduated from a national Music academy 15 years later… Since then I’ve played the bass in a few rock bands; I now mainly play guitar (blues, fingerpicking).
Back to topic, the album I’ve been listening to a lot recently is ‘The Race For Space by Public Service Broadcasting’. Such inspiring music… and a perfect fit when working on Endless Space 2!
What obscure movie would you recommend watching?
TurboKid!!! I gave it my personal award for best 2015 movie (take that Star Wars).
That movie is something special. Think of it as the indie love child of Mad Max and Kung Fury… and the OST (by Le Matos) is pure dope!
That's it for Etienne! 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!
