Inside the Developers Studio: Rusty Buchert

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E3 gets underway in earnest tomorrow, as press and industry finally get to put their hands on the games we’re working on. Rusty Buchert will be there, showcasing Flower with thatgamecompany. Rusty has over 30 years of experience in the industry and has worked on groundbreaking games like Descent.

As such, his answers are quite illuminating on the following topics (the Blog readers who asked these questions are in parentheses):

  • What are you showing at E3 2008?
  • If you get the chance, what game(s) do you most want to go hands-on with at E3 2008? (Genki-Rocket)
  • Who in the industry would you most like to collaborate on a game with? (indigovenom)
  • If you could re-make any previous-generation game for the PS3, which title would it be, and what would it be like? (KazeEternal)
  • What kind of advice would you give those currently in college and would like to pursue a career in video game development? (Voozi)
  • How often do you make technical changes to your games halfway through or late into the game development cycle based on something you’ve just seen or played from other developers? (P_tear_griffin)
  • How has the PSN changed the way you make games? (tirminyl)
  • If you could say one thing to the fans of your game/series out there, what would it be? (Xanog)

If there’s more you’d like to find out from Rusty on Flower or Linger in Shadows, ask your question in the comments area.

Next interview: Matt Morton (PixelJunk Eden)

Comments are closed.

102 Comments

  • I keep seeing posts getting deleted. . . It is funny. LOL.

    Anyway, since I didn’t say it in my last post, thanks Rusty for being interviewed, its too bad people have to ruin your Blog post just because they are upset with FFXIII.

    If you want to complain about FF, a Blog entry that is not related to it is not the place to mouth off, find a forum with an off-topic or FF thread, then you can scream all you want and not get yelled at.

    Wasn’t there supposed to be a big update today?

  • Hmm, time to cancel the e3 meet up tomorrow?

    People won’t be happy

  • Hey, this guy could teach Square Enix a few things or two. It’s about the games, smiles and passion. Not the big M$ paycheck SE!!!

  • ^opps
    cheer yall up

  • Yeah, this is very unfortunate. I’d hate to be in this man’s shoes right now. With all the negative backlash that is going on, I wouldn’t be surprised if thatgamecompany and flOwer packed their bags and went 360 exclusive too.

    The game sounds cool, though. Obviously, it’s a bad day for (some) PS3 fans.

  • Hey Jeff, sorry to be off topic, I would love to be a Mod on here and delete the posts that are off subject (including this one I guess). Just a thought.

  • @60…

    So helpful.

  • , people have to chill out. I am as sad as everyone else for the bad news, but this post is not about FF, people should be rating this post based on its content and not based on what had happen today.
    @Rusty, sorry for the bad time you’re having on the blog, but I guess the timing wasn’t right.

  • PixelJunk eden ftw….

    Please pardon me… while I go cry now….

    :(

  • Most importantly, Rusty Buchert sounds like a really cool guy. It sounds like he is really into doing games because he loves it. From high school, I wanted to be a game designer. I ended up getting conned into going to a school that taught computer aided drafting instead. (their bait was in telling me that the guys who did Donkey Kong Country were grads from their school.) Ten years later, I’m at a job that I HATE.
    I waste time here all day on gaming blogs and websites, thinking about what could have been.

    Rusty, I think you just inspired me again. This is not where I want to be. I’m getting too old to not at least go for it once.

    • Rusty *IS* an awesome guy! I consider myself very lucky to be involved with such a great bunch of people at Santa Monica External.

  • @Thunderstruck
    I won’t be surprised if you are hired within a few days to delete all of the FF posts. LOL

    And deleting posts about an entry that are not relevant to said entry is common blog practice. Go to the Forums if you want to voice your outrage to Sony.
    http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board?board.id=finalfantasy

    &Thanks for the song LLAMACODE, it did cheer me up. My PSN ID is swrebel181, please add me to friends list.

  • Really cool, I think flOwer looks to be a great addition to the PSNs library of Zen games. I really like these developer interviews.

    P.S. Ignore the poor souls that have nothing but off-topic rants about a game they still get to play. Age aside these people need to look at whats more important.

  • yeah… cool indeed. day one buy for me.

  • WOWOWOWOWOOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW

    I just saw you used one of my questions… Thanks Jeff!

  • mxpx, just buy a 360 and be done with it. Tired of your b*tching man. This is about PixelJunk eden. If you wanna rant, do it somewhere else. Geez, some people.

  • i like flow, not sure why or exactly what the point of the game was. but it is sure amusing and quite relaxing. i hope flower will be more of the same feeling with an actual point.

  • Pixel Junk eden vs. FFX13…

  • I didnt hear much about Flower yet so i dont have any questions about it, but on the other hand Linger in shadows is intriguing me, it looks very nice, what kind of “game” will it be, because its not really a game i think, i want to know more about it and maybe a release date :)

    Thanks

    oh and yes i’m pissed at Square enix too!

  • @68: I’ll Take PixelJunk Eden over FF13 any time.

  • i have repect for this developer so i stay on topic for this post flower is a am i want and so is pixel junk eden. i want more new type of games.

  • “A blog by SCEA for PlayStation fans”

    Upper right hand corner. Quit. Trolling. Thanks. Bye. For. Good.

    And to be on topic: Pixeljunk eden will rule, and can’t wait for trophies, too.

  • wow…. there’s an epic amount of post deleting going on.

  • is it so hard to release psn cards, its been 2 years already. if sony has no clue why dont they ask Microsoft, their already taking all their games.

  • Hey rusty if you’re at E3 give Kitase a nudge from the both of us on that remake if he’s there ;-)

    Thanks for visiting the blog always interesting to hear form developers. Just wish they had put this up yesterday, feeling pretty down after a particular announcement that was made.

  • Loving these video blog posts.

    Keep them coming !

  • thanks keep the interviews coming jeff

  • love the segments!

  • Cool stuff! Thanks again! :D

  • Just when I stop playing Warhawk, I have a reason to go back to it. I love these new updates, and the fact that they are free. I love what update 1.4 is going to bring, and I can’t wait for update 1.5 and trophies! :D Great job Dylan and the rest of the Warhawk team! I’m super glad that I bought this game when it released. It has been the game that I’ve played a lot, and keep going back to. Other game developers need to take notes on what the Warhawk makers are doing with this game. *claps*

  • Sorry wrong section. :(

  • Rusty Buchert, glad to see theres still people in the industry that go for the passion and smiles.

    keep it up!

  • Will there ever be another DESCENT game? I loved that title!

  • I’d be the first in line for another DESCENT game!!!!!

  • looks nice :D

  • Even my commment god deleted? Just because I said it was not a good day for interviews…

  • Avatar photo

    Hi All,
    I’m sorry I haven’t been able to get back too all your questions yet. I’ve crazy busy getting ready for E3.

    A quick correction I’ve been doing this professionally for 20 years, but I’ve dane gamedev over 30. Had to pretty much make your own in the mid 70’s.

    As to Linger in Shadows,it isn’t a game, it really is an Interactive Digital art piece. This is the first foray of anyone from the demoscene and a platform holder/publisher making a bringing in the demoscene to create one of their pieces for a console.

    As to trophies a lot of it has to how you approach it. Both of these titles are not the typical bodycount/point/speed demon driven experience. If you put some serious thought into it trophies can be made to work in the context of the experience you are trying to take the player through.

    I’ve got to run, but I’ll login later tonight and answer more questions.

    Rusty

  • @Rusty

    I have watched Linger in Shadows at breakpoint 2008 on the Big Screen it was amazing! I wanted to vote for Plastic but we could not vote for the demo :P although it belongs in the real wild compo they played it just after the compo.

    Great work Plastic!! Hope to see more of you next year or the year after! 195/95 was also great to see at 2005!

    And keep up the smiles Rusty! You are a great guy!

  • I love little big planet and Killzone, I doubt though the will move a lot of consoles. I still hope so.

  • thatsmartguywiththefro

    @Rusty
    Thanks for popping in. :) Can’t wait to see more of these “games” since there is still a lot I don’t know about them. Also glad to hear that you make games with the intention of making people smile. :)

    Sorry Square Enix’s announcement rained on your day, and don’t take the current rating too bad, most people are just venting their frustration in the wrong direction.

  • @Rusty

    I just want to add something, you are right about doing it for the smiley’s and the passion in the first place!

    honour++;

    I really look forward to see what you’ll have to say at the E3! And I really look forward to fl0wer!

    I just want to say good luck at E3!! I will be watching! And good luck to anyone else as well!!

    Creativity comes from passion. And the smiley’s keep you going.

  • Rusty, at least you have honour and loyalty. Sorry, but I just had to put this out: After all the support Sony gave Square throughout all their games and pulling it out of the financial dump and even supporting the flop known as Final Fantasy the Spirits withing. Square has just backstabbed Sony and all of their loyal fans.

    Anyway, good luck at E3! I have to work unfortunately, but I’ll check back at the blog soon after!

  • This video is crashing Firefox for some reason…

  • i liked the interview a lot, that guy is cool

  • nice interview, i’m really enjoying these interviews. gives us all feel of the minds behind the games..

    I love flOw, and have really been looking forward to flower, ever since i heard Thatgamecompany were at it again.. and linger in shadows was simply amazing to watch.. i can’t wait till the end of the month!

    .. will these two games support trophies though..? could someone put out a list of psn games that are gonna implement trophies..?

    I agree with Rusty on the fun thing.. games these days just arent ‘fun’.. i d/led crash bandicoot from the psn to my psp, and sat all night playing it.. it was FUN, not killing anything that moves, but having FUN.
    Much like when i downloaded flOw on the ps3 too..

    @ Rusty..
    Do you reckon theres a drought of ‘fun’ games too? And if so, what are the games you’re working on atm gonna do to fix this..?
    i mean theres tonnes of realistic this and next gen gfx that.. but they’re all the same game?!
    there needs to be more thats nice to look at and enjoyable at the same time (pixeljunk, echo, lbp, flow, and all the old-school stuff!)

  • Descent was great. can you imagine playing it with today’s graphics

  • @ Rusty
    About Linger in Shadows: too much credits at the beginning of demo. It’s kinda boring to watch them.

  • Still can’t watch the videos posted here. I have Flash, Shockwave, Silverlight, and more installed on my PC. I am using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.

    The videos come up as white boxes on the page. Please correct this issue so others can enjoy the videos too!

  • I can’t wait for Flower. I hope it makes it out by September!

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