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 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 pulling the strings in the shadows, William, aka wilbefast!
Who are you and what do you do at Amplitude?
I’m William aka wilbefast (contraction of Wilberforce and Belfast), Amplitude’s token loud Australian. I’m a game designer on Endless Legend and the unofficial mascot of the AI team; where my job is to ask Adrien questions whenever he tries to focus. At this point I’m a sort of foster parent for Endless Legend’s AI. I’ve learned to understand and love it, and to be proud of its achievements, even though it occasionally makes questionable lifestyle choices. I really love game AI. I’ve been obsessed with bots ever since losing to them in Wacky Wheels: I won’t say it’s the future of games but I do believe that, like AR and VR, it’s a future of games!
What were you doing before you joined Amplitude?
Amplitude is actually the third game company I’ve worked for. Before joining the team I’d been making boxed karaoke games for Wii, PS3 and the Web; and “casual” games for iPhone and Android. Before that I was working on games for stroke rehabilitation, which involved a lot of discussions with medical professionals and fiddling with Kinect depth cameras. I also did preproduction for a few other Serious Games which never saw the light of day. And before that I did a MSc. in theoretical Computer Science, specializing in agent-oriented AI. In other words I’m a Master of Puppets :)
When did you join the studio?
It was in June 2015, just in time to work on the AI for Shadows. It was 11 months ago to the day. How time flies when you’re having fun!
What feature have you worked on that you're super proud of?
Well the Shifters expansion was the first one I was able to do high-level design for as well as AI, and apparently it turned out pretty well. I’m overjoyed that people have liked it so much!
What are you currently working on?
Wouldn’t you like to know. :) Yeah, I’m working on a bunch of things I can’t really talk about. I am continuing work EL’s AI at the same time though, and I don’t think I’ll ever run out of things to fiddle with. Right now I’m working on an issue in our bug database entitled “The player cannot form a meaningful relationship with the AI”, which sounds like a plot summary of “Her”. Wish me luck. O.o
What's your favorite game of all time?
Tricky question. There are some games you play once and love but never need to come back to, and there are some games you keep coming back to time and time again. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of Doom, and recently I loved the heck out of the new XCOM games. To (not really) answer the question though: I fell in love with video games on PC in the 90s during the golden age of the RTS, when Westwood, Ensemble and Blizzard were duking it out, while Bullfrog, Lionhead, Sid Meier and Will Wright let us play everything from ants to gods by way of pirates. Even Shiny and Bungie joined in! Ah, them’s was the days; before bloom, god rays, iron sights, regenerating health and grey-brown textures were invented… so imagine my delight that I get to be part of Amplitude and participate in the recent strategy game renaissance. :D
Is there anywhere on the Internet where I can see more of your stuff?
I’ve made an obscene number of little games over the course of the last decade. You can check out a number of them on itch.io :)
What's your favorite faction or character in our games?
I always go for the sneaky factions so I love the Forgotten and Roving Clans in Endless Legend, but I’ve always liked the Automatons in Space: they’re simultaneously ecologists and robots, and if there’s one thing I like more than AI it’s hugging trees (metaphorically speaking).
Is there a funny story that happened to you at Amplitude?
I’m tall and have back troubles so I like to work sitting on a Pilates ball. It seems I’ve started a trend by accident though – it’s like playing Memetic Plague Inc. and winning. 3:)
If you could relocate the studio in any country, where would you want to go?
Canberra… for no particular reason. ;) I’d be keen on anywhere else with sun and a population density below 500 per square kilometre though. In case you’re wondering: Paris has a density of 21,498/km2.
What obscure movie would you recommend watching?
Primer! But that’s probably not obscure enough for you clever folks so how about some Australian films? I’d recommend Bad Eggs myself, and The Castle :)
That's it for William! 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!
