A conversation with Nate Wells by I.Eat.Games.

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°Interview°Nate Wells

At E3 2013, I [I.Eat.Games.] sat down to interview Nate Wells about his career, art directing and ego-less video game development.

It's an interview with Nate Wells--an Artist who work on (Thief 1, System Shock 2, SWAT 4, Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Edith Finch, System Shock 3)--and a very broad range of topics are covered. The video has a detailed index in the description so it's easy to hop around.

- Went to high school with Chris Barrett (Game Director, Destiny 2)
- Talks about Irrational Games' unpublished first console game, The Lost.
- Creating a spiritual successor to System Shock: Bioshock.
- SWAT 4 - Making a game inspired by David Fincher.
- Leaving Irrational Games 6 months before Infinite shipped. Why?
- Joining Naughty Dog to work on The Last of Us with 1 year left to develop it.
- Ego-less development.
- and much much more.

I originally conducted this interview a the day before TLoU launched and wrote it up on my old blog. This is the first time the audio is being published. I love this interview, but would love to hear your thoughts. Let me know what you think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8UeNgNyOi4

00:28 - Desinty looks gorgeous, Nate knew Chris Barrett growing up in Vermont
01:23 - Starting out as an Artist on Thief 1
02:38 - Ken Levine started Irrational Games
03:00 - System Shock 2
04:23 - The Lost (Agni)
05:38 - The Lost: Console development
06:00 - The Lost: Canceled, sold and renamed to Agni.
06:48 - The Lost: It got published? Yes! Did you play it? NOOOO!!
07:04 - Bioshock: A Spiritual successor to System Shock 2
07:40 - Bioshock: In no uncertain terms, a space station, underwater.
07:50 - Bioshock: Use the environment to change gameplay.
08:26 - Bioshock: The Big Daddys existed very early
09:15 - Bioshock: Baby steps to Art Deco
10:35 - Bioshock Infinite: The Look
10:55 - Bioshock Infinite: Not being credited as Art Director
11:15 - Bioshock Infinite: Can't credit a single person for designing Columbia
12:10 - Bioshock Infinite: That person is a fucking genius!
12:38 - Bioshock Infinite: The Michael Jordan of games is made up of 300 people
13:17 - Bioshock Infinite: Which one makes you proudest, Bioshock 1 or Infinite?
13:50 - SWAT 4: One of my prouder games
14:40 - SWAT 4: Creating a world not seen before in a tactical shooter
14:55 - SWAT 4: Sometimes the people aren't worth saving
15:18 - SWAT 4: It's like Seven
15:26 - SWAT 4: It's this ugly, ugly, UGLY place to be!
16:20 - SWAT 4: DuPlessis
16:44 - SWAT 4: There's this theme of raping Africa!
17:28 - Can we transition this conversation? I don't want this to be 75% Bioshock
18:18 - Transitioning from Irrational Games to Naughty Dog.
19:00 - Leaving Irrational Games before Bioshock Infinite shipped
19:30 - Short list: Valve, Naughty Dog, Bungie, Bethesda?
20:30 - 2011 Spike VGA reveals
21:13 - Troy Baker runs up "you gotta watch this!" (The Last of Us)
22:15 - Inspirations from Urban Spelunking to The Last of Us
23:03 - Zones of Exclusion, Pripyat and Chernobyl
23:40 - The Last of Us: Inspiring the art direction
24:05 - The Last of Us: The environment has become a mirror to humanity
25:12 - The Last of Us: What is the shape of light
26:25 - The Last of Us: The last year is when you have to make decisions
27:50 - The Last of Us: Game consoles hate to render leaves!
28:50 - The Last of Us: Concepting the title screen on my first day
29:00 - The Last of Us: Pitching the Windows and the curtains
29:44 - The Last of Us: Hitting the ground running
30:30 - The Last of Us: I wish I could've been here earlier
31:28 - The Last of Us: Differences and simularaties between Irrational and Naughty Dog
31:53 - The Last of Us: Technology has changed, the development struggles have not
32:40 - The Last of Us: The Naughty Dog ethos--try something and put it in the game
35:42 - The Last of Us: The last week Bruce Straley was working on the tutorial wording
36:20 - The Last of Us: I have never seen that! That's an Intern task!
36:30 - The Last of Us: You got time to lean you got time to clean
36:45 - The Last of Us: Ego-less development
37:25 - The Last of Us: Looking forward to the Playstation 4
40:00 - The Last of Us: What has impressed you most with the art team at Naughty Dog
42:00 - Irrational has a lot of generalists & Naughty Dog has specialist
43:05 - Looking out at the industry, what games interest you
45:00 - The Last of Us: Our quiet little game
45:25 - Outra