GFXartist: What are your experiences so far? Is the Unreal 2 project unlike anything else you've done? You've probably had your ups and downs, c'mon we want to know!

Rorshach: Well Unreal 2 is what I've been working toward since I bought my first PC in '95. Its the first FPS I've worked on fulltime and so its different from everything else I'd done previously as a day job because its pretty much exactly what I want to do. In the past I've worked on Driving games and 3rd POV action/adventures in styles I was less interested in so it's a big difference. Its the first job I've had that has left me fulfilled enough that I don't need so often to work on my own stuff at night, I tend to just use my spare time to work on U2 also.

Ups and Downs? Everyone has them. I've spent a total of 2 years of my life working on vapourware in soul destroying atmospheres and survived bankruptcy due to gross mismanagement that left me stranded in a different country.

There are always going to be problems like this in the games industry because its a very young and immature industry still. Generally the first half of most projects are spent trying to put together a good team so that the 2nd half of the project is a mad scramble to redo part of the old work and then crunch time comes and everyone goes crazy with stress and it tends to pull teams apart a bit.

So by the time a project is finished, a bunch of people are upset with the problems faced and feel there will be less problems at another place. So some leave, and then the company needs more people and you get the same viscious cycle.

Bottom line is that you can't work 60+ hours a week for 6 months or so without getting stressed out and run down.... stress causes social & professional friction.

Long winded answer, but I always dislike that most industry interviews deal in vague broad strokes answers that only other industry professionals will be able to read between the lines of. That's no help to people in the community trying to get a sense of the industry they aspire to be a part of.