Work at Human Head

[Evil Avatar]

Think you can be a better game designer than CliffyB (it wouldn't be hard)... From Human Head comes word of some job openings.

Human Head Studios, makers of the hit games Rune and Prey are hiring for the following positions for our next game projects:

Audio Director
Technical Programmer
General Programmer
Character Animator

These are full time positions here at our headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. If people are interested in these positions, they can read more about them Here (http://www.humanhead.com/headhunt_jobs.html).

[Phades]

Not a Gears of War fan?

[rulyblue]

SOMEONE had to push Cliff B. off his high horse. Why not the Legend himself.

[The Iron Weasel]

Last night we were playing Gears and Evil didn't seem to be a fan of Cliffy or Epic.

[bapenguin]

He's right to a sense. There's same gaping holes in the Gears of War story. What the heck happened between Act IV and ActV? On top of that there was almost 0 introduction to the backstory in the game.

The game definitely has some issues, especially with the multi player interface.

[Evil Avatar]

Not a Gears of War fan?

I'm a huge fan of the art department at Epic. They did an amazing job, but the game has almost zero storyline and major flaws in the narrative. Designing a game is more than just throwing some generic Sci Fi heroes (who seem to be loosly based on GDW's Warhammer 40,000) at some generic Sci Fi villians.

It doesn't keep it from being a good game, but there are some serious design flaws.

[digitalErich]

I knew Raven was here (down the road from my apartment), but I had no idea Human Head was in Madison, too.

[Deadend]

because Epic forgot it's friends from back in the day in exchange for being on MTV.

But I do think GoW had some great level design, say what you will about the design of All-mighty-A and Curb Stomping. Which seem to be the two core gameplay ideas I have heard.

Cover, Roadie-run, and curb-stomp.

[ilian]

I'm a huge fan of the art department at Epic. They did an amazing job, but the game has almost zero storyline and major flaws in the narrative. Designing a game is more than just throwing some generic Sci Fi heroes (who seem to be loosly based on GDW's Warhammer 40,000) at some generic Sci Fi villians.

It doesn't keep it from being a good game, but there are some serious design flaws.


I absolutely completely agree with you 100% about the state of Gears' Story/setting/characters. Fucking Awful. But the game mechanics in the game are awesome, and a ton of fun.

For that kind of stuff I usually blame the art director/writer/etc, those seem to be the people who set up those things, not poor Cliffy who did a fabulous job with the game mechanics!


Of course, I could be wrong =p

[digitalErich]

GoW is just about exactlly what I have come to expect from an Epic game: solid gameplay and great level design in a generic sci-fi setting with minimal thought to the overall story.

To be fair I think as far as genres go, bad stories are more paletable in FPS games for whatever reason.

[Hellstorm]

CliffyB... game designer... LOL.

[Deadend]

what is weird, is that there seems to be a good deal of backstory, but you never ever, ever, ever get to taste it at all.

It could have all been cut for pacing purposes, or because there is no good reason for a bunch of hardass CoGs to sit down and do a history lesson while behind cover.

[rulyblue]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Bleszinski

I played Jazz Jackrabbit~ Shareware ftw!

Check out his "games created:" http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,1298/

[Mortis]

I thought the in game story was fine, I don't want a lot of story to bog down a game like this. Could they have included more backstory in the game itself and fleshed out what was there? Sure, but for me it didn't matter.

I think too many games today suffer from trying to force in an elaborate story when really they should be focusing on the gameplay. To me Gears is gameplay gold, if you want more of the story hit up the website.

[Mr.Green]

CliffyB... game designer... LOL.
Man you know this post doesn't exactly make you look like the sharpest knife in the drawer now do you?

Like the guy or not, like the game or not, GoW is GOTY material so you gotta give the guy some credit. Weak storyline? Yeah, pretty much like every god damn game ever created. The day 99% of gamers don't button mash their way out of cut-scenes maybe devs will give it more time. Until then, go watch a movie or grab a good book. Gears has awesome gameplay in both single and multi player, and that's what's gaming all about.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Man you know this post doesn't exactly make you look like the sharpest knife in the drawer now do you?

Like the guy or not, like the game or not, GoW is GOTY material so you gotta give the guy some credit. Weak storyline? Yeah, pretty much like every god damn game ever created. The day 99% of gamers don't button mash their way out of cut-scenes maybe devs will give it more time. Until then, go watch a movie or grab a good book. Gears has awesome gameplay in both single and multi player, and that's what's gaming all about.

That's why the criticism is only on Mr. CliffyB, not all of Epic. He had a huge hand in the story - everything I've seen of it (no, I have not played the game, I want to) looked like generic sci-fi stuff. He APPEARS to write like a 8th grade in the back of one of those journals with the TV snow cover.

More or less, I'm willing to guess that the game's goodness came from other places.

[Montolio]

He's right to a sense. There's same gaping holes in the Gears of War story. What the heck happened between Act IV and ActV? On top of that there was almost 0 introduction to the backstory in the game.

The game definitely has some issues, especially with the multi player interface.A friend and I just completed Act IV last night. What are you talking about bapenguin? We stopped at the end of the cutscene between Acts IV and V, are you referring to something that happens after that? I'll understand if you can't post a response with a spoiler. We'll be playing through the last Act tonight anyway.

What is the problem with the MP interface?

[Food Nipple]

It's pretty obvious that this thread isn't going to elicit any responses pertaining to job openings at Human Head.

Anyway, I have to disagree with almost all of your criticisms about Gears. While being the lead game designer certainly means that you share some part of the responsibility for the quality of the story, I wouldn't say that's a designer's primary responsibility. The actual gameplay and the pacing are the elements that are most important, and Gears of War excels at these.

There's a lot of instances in the game where parts of the larger story are just mentioned in passing. I personally found this a lot more interesting than watching a cutscene showing Marcus's trial or a cutscene where we are explicitly shown what happened to Dom's sister/girlfriend. Also, simply stating that there are major narritive flaws matter-of-factly does not make it so. I feel like people make this exactl comment on a weekly basis in the thread on Lost without ever explaining what their specific gripe is.

[ilian]

The day 99% of gamers don't button mash their way out of cut-scenes maybe devs will give it more time.

Cut Scenes != good story. The best stories in games are told without a single cut scene.

[Montolio]

Very good post Food Nipple.

I'm looking forward to the responses. I hope they are up to the same standard.

[Reanimated]

Protip: Cliffy B. is wearing a suit made of thousand dollar bills right now, so he's obviously doing something right.

When are you getting YOUR game published, Mr. Armchair Game Designer?

[Mdot23]

I'm totally with Nipple on this one.

And personally, I'm not really happy with the headline of the post implying Cliffy being a bad game designer. I'm no fanboy of Epic or anything, but considering we've been mostly praising and loving Gears for the past week, a headline like that implies that us as a community a) don't like the game and b) think of him as a bad developer. I'll only speak for myself in saying that i don't feel that way, but I think many others on EA don't as well.

[bapenguin]

A friend and I just completed Act IV last night. What are you talking about bapenguin? We stopped at the end of the cutscene between Acts IV and V, are you referring to something that happens after that? I'll understand if you can't post a response with a spoiler. We'll be playing through the last Act tonight anyway.

What is the problem with the MP interface?

Play through Act V first. They never tell you why you are going to a ______ and what you have to do while on the ______ or even what the whole thing is. It just like magically you are at a _____ station for no apparent reason.

You can fill in the blanks later. :)

And the MP interface is horrible. For instance...if you play a ranked match and you complete the match...it takes you all the way out to the root multiplayer menu instead of placing you at the ranked match menu. It's little things like that.

Can't connect to a session? Sit and reload the server list for 2 minutes. Very annoying, very un-intuitive.

[sanitystream]

From a story-telling standpoint, it's basically unforgiveable that the legendary "Emergence Day" is barely mentioned. If you are coming cold to this game, with only minimal awareness of all the hype leading up to it, you'd have no fracking idea what "Emergence Day" even means. I'm enjoying it on the level of a shoot 'em up, but this is sucky-ass amateurish hack storytelling. There is no attempt to give the player a context for why they're doing what they're doing.

So make no mistake. While the tech-heads at Epic should be commended, the writer(s) over there should be strung up and shot and never allowed near a keyboard again. Hack hack hack. All they did was watch the movie ALIENS and said "Uh, let's do that."

[phantomhitman]

What the heck happened between Act IV and ActV?
I dont know since no one will help me play through them, jackass

;) :D

[Mr.Green]

Cut Scenes != good story. The best stories in games are told without a single cut scene.
Yeah right. I'll be here waiting for examples. And don't you serve me Half-life. Scripted events are cut-scenes where you can move your head and possibly miss the entire point.

[Busted_Astromech]

I'm not really adding anything, but I'm going to reiterate that the faults in Gears of War cannot be laid directly at the feet of Cliffy B., while the game's successes (awesomely fun multiplayer, for one) are something that he was directly responsible for.

Sure, you could argue that as he was in a pseudo-director role he should have maintained the coherency of the storyline, or kept the multiplayer interface better, but these are not the jobs of his title, Lead Designer. As Lead Designer he was supposed to make sure the game was fun and balanced. I think we can agree that Gears of War is just that.

On a side note, after being confused at how little exposition I got at the beginning of the game I started to get happy at how the story was being doled out through the conversations between the Cogs. Taking a page out of Half-Life, I though--and it should have worked. Little did I know that at the rate they give story dialogue the game would have to be three times as long to fit a background into it. It was like there was a miscommunication between the script writer and the level design team...or something, but it turned what should have been a good way to give story into an unacceptable one.

Who cares though, Gears of War multiplayer is simply amazing, and I think Cliffy B. should get credit for it. But not too much that his head won't fit through doors (I hear it can only take a little more).

[sanitystream]

All they needed was a cut-scene in the beginning of the game to let the player know what the heck is going on and why the world is the way it is. Simple. This is not HALF-LIFE 2 with its intentionally vague, obtuse style. This is straight-ahead rock 'em sock 'em action. Just give us our bearings and get on with it. But no, apparently that was beyond the skills of the writer-hacks that Epic hired, who seem only interesting in dialogue, not actual story. Well guess what? Dialogue does not equal story.

[Goronmon]

Play through Act V first. They never tell you why you are going to a ______ and what you have to do while on the ______ or even what the whole thing is. It just like magically you are at a _____ station for no apparent reason.You know, I thought maybe I had just missed the part where they mentioned why you were on the _____. I guess not, haha.

[Montolio]

Play through Act V first. They never tell you why you are going to a ______ and what you have to do while on the ______ or even what the whole thing is. It just like magically you are at a _____ station for no apparent reason.

You can fill in the blanks later. :)

And the MP interface is horrible. For instance...if you play a ranked match and you complete the match...it takes you all the way out to the root multiplayer menu instead of placing you at the ranked match menu. It's little things like that.

Can't connect to a session? Sit and reload the server list for 2 minutes. Very annoying, very un-intuitive.Gotcha. That makes more sense to me now. I was thinking of the private matches I've played in and not the TrueSkill Matchmaking stuff. Thanks man.

Also, I wish Epic Games had created their own "bungie.net stats" site.

You'll get a kick out of this too --> I had just enough time to jump in a Warzone game with the EvAv faithful before co-op'ing it last night, managed to sneak up on a member of the COG team, started sawing him and at the same moment his teammate did the same to me, which ended with the two of us falling into a big pile of gibs at the same time. It was as if the game expected the behavior and synchronized the animations appropriately. The game is bananas =)

[Zeal]

I love the fact that GoW didn't have a story. I didn't want one.

[Wyrm]

It just leaves you wishing they really had put some effort into making the narrative not seem like a fucking train track with huge chunks missing ever step of the way. Where was the intro movie? Where was a flashback explaining some things? Clearly, no one over there has any idea how to tell a story, and that's disappointing, because I think there could have been a great story to tell. What ever happened to that "master writer" guy that was supposedly creating the story for GoW? Did he get in the way so they had to kill him, rape his work, and the shit it out into the game?

[Norse]

Cliffy B didn't write the story, did he?

He's the brains behind the whole concept. Without Cliffy B - no Gears. The game is the best I've played the last couple of years and that makes Cliffy B a genious IMHO. You don't like it? That's your problem

[serioustommy]

I guess it's just not "hip" to like something that's popular.... What's the last game that Evil liked?

I thought everyone praised Shadow of the Colossus, but man what the hell is up with the story? None whatsoever. But then it's an underground type of game so I guess it's cool in that regard.

[f1sh3r]

jazz jackrabbit is the bomb yo.

[ilian]

I guess it's just not "hip" to like something that's popular.... What's the last game that Evil liked?

I dont really think Evil swings that way. I mean when Halo1 came out he was up here saying it was the best game ever, and that game had just as much hype.

[Psunami]

I didn't know that Human Head made Gears of War.

But now I know that they decided to make it without a complete story. It's amazing the things you learn here at Evil Avatar.

All kidding aside, I know someone that used to work for Human Head and I got a great looking Human Head hockey jersey from him.

[Evil Avatar]

Protip: Cliffy B. is wearing a suit made of thousand dollar bills right now, so he's obviously doing something right.

When are you getting YOUR game published, Mr. Armchair Game Designer?

I don't need to play Basketball to tell if I have watched a good player or not, do I? Or did that logic just escape the fountain of your wisdom?

[Evil Avatar]

I guess it's just not "hip" to like something that's popular.... What's the last game that Evil liked?

Dead Rising.

And I do not like Gears of War, I love it. It is an amazing and fantastic game. Epic (and CliffyB) deserve the suits made of thousand dollar bills.

I can't love it and still be critical of the storyline???

[Evil Avatar]

I love the fact that GoW didn't have a story. I didn't want one.

I love the fact that Half-Life 2 didn't have a story, I didn't want one. In Gears of War I think I was expecting one. It just seemed like they were going for something here more than just run and gun.

[motor]

It's impossible to tell what roll a lead designers has just from the title. Some lead designers are almost pure management and do almost nothing in the actual game except keep the design team well-oiled. But I think in this case Cliffy B. had a large part in designing the actual mechanic (the cover centered gun-fighting) just because of his comments about wanting to play a game like real-life paint ball. And I think he did a great job of building that mechanic.

Now...As for the tech in game, just terrible. The slow-downs with a half-dozen guys on the screen, the incredibly low-textured environments (the guys had a lot of good textures, but the environments were something that could have been done on an original xbox with good art design). It's going to be really embarassing for them when some unreal engine licensee's that have gutted and rebuilt their POS engine show them how it's done in the upcoming year or two.

[Razlo]

So Evil likes the gameplay, but just because the story isn't what he wanted Cliffy B isn't a good game designer? Ooooooookay.

[bayushi]

to be fair, how many FPS's have a good story? second question, how many need one?
"Let me ponder the ramifications of my actions... so in other words, I AM Darth XXXXX..."

The reality is more like:
*duck*
*shoot from cover*
*yell for suppressing fire*
*throw a grenade*
*swat turn*
*shoot again*

:)

[F3nyx]

Now...As for the tech in game, just terrible. The slow-downs with a half-dozen guys on the screen, the incredibly low-textured environments (the guys had a lot of good textures, but the environments were something that could have been done on an original xbox with good art design). It's going to be really embarassing for them when some unreal engine licensee's that have gutted and rebuilt their POS engine show them how it's done in the upcoming year or two.You've got to be kidding.

[Jenga]

Yeah right. I'll be here waiting for examples. And don't you serve me Half-life. Scripted events are cut-scenes where you can move your head and possibly miss the entire point.http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/da/250px-SHODAN_hires.jpg

[Xerxes]

Wouldn't there need to be a lead designer job to put you in competition with cliffyb?

[Evil Avatar]

Wouldn't there need to be a lead designer job to put you in competition with cliffyb?

<Foghorn Leghorn voice>

It is a joke, Son. A Joke, I say.

I keep a-pitchin' 'em and you keep a-missin' 'em.

</Foghorn Leghorn voice>

[Evil Avatar]

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/da/250px-SHODAN_hires.jpg

You, Sir, are a Prince.

[karak]

It's pretty obvious that this thread isn't going to elicit any responses pertaining to job openings at Human Head.

Anyway, I have to disagree with almost all of your criticisms about Gears. While being the lead game designer certainly means that you share some part of the responsibility for the quality of the story, I wouldn't say that's a designer's primary responsibility. The actual gameplay and the pacing are the elements that are most important, and Gears of War excels at these.

There's a lot of instances in the game where parts of the larger story are just mentioned in passing. I personally found this a lot more interesting than watching a cutscene showing Marcus's trial or a cutscene where we are explicitly shown what happened to Dom's sister/girlfriend. Also, simply stating that there are major narritive flaws matter-of-factly does not make it so. I feel like people make this exactl comment on a weekly basis in the thread on Lost without ever explaining what their specific gripe is.

I agree. I enjoyed the hint play instead of the drawn out indepth retellings of stories. Lets be honest most people would be bitching about cutscenes and want to skip them anyway. What you see is war, with a bit of story. Awesome.

[Mr.Green]

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/da/250px-SHODAN_hires.jpg
A whole one example! Man you've completely destroyed my point.

Let's be honest here. That was a great game, but even that story is B movie material at best.

[Dag Nasty Evil]

I'm a huge fan of the art department at Epic. They did an amazing job, but the game has almost zero storyline and major flaws in the narrative. Designing a game is more than just throwing some generic Sci Fi heroes (who seem to be loosly based on GDW's Warhammer 40,000) at some generic Sci Fi villians.

It doesn't keep it from being a good game, but there are some serious design flaws.

Why were you expecting a story? And story has little/ to nothing to do with "game design" definitely has its flaws but calling it out on the story is a bit weak. (Sorry! :D )

[Watership]

He's right to a sense. There's same gaping holes in the Gears of War story. What the heck happened between Act IV and ActV? On top of that there was almost 0 introduction to the backstory in the game.

The game definitely has some issues, especially with the multi player interface.

Captured.

You have just fallen victim to exactly what MS and EPIC want. You WANT a story. You want to know more. You'll probably buy the book and the books sequel. Gear's story is littered all through the game. If you let the menu sit for a few minutes you get the backstory on Emergance Day. I don't know what I perfer, a story that beats me over the head constantly with "THIS IS NARATIVE AND DRAMA", to one that is so subtle, many people just don't know what its about.

[Busted_Astromech]

Now...As for the tech in game, just terrible. The slow-downs with a half-dozen guys on the screen, the incredibly low-textured environments (the guys had a lot of good textures, but the environments were something that could have been done on an original xbox with good art design). It's going to be really embarassing for them when some unreal engine licensee's that have gutted and rebuilt their POS engine show them how it's done in the upcoming year or two.
What, do you have a pile of sticks shaped like a 360 that you then criticize how it runs games?

Gears of Wars has the best graphics of any videogame yet released. By a wide margin. That's so obvious it can be stated as fact rather than opinion.

Complaining about texture resolution? How about artful management of limited texture RAM. Every surface was as detailed as it needed to be--the low resolution textures were saved for instances where it was not as important, such as the stone texture on the ruined pillar you see from twenty feet away. The things you are likely to look at have amazing texture resolution; you can make out print on the books littering the floors, for god's sake!

And when it features the triumphant return of detail textures (http://www.delphi3d.net/articles/viewarticle.php?article=terraintex.htm) after a 4- or 5-year hiatus from games I am a happy man.

[mightbe]

I'd apply if I could stand living in Wisconsin.

[Sandman]

I'd apply if I could stand living in Wisconsin.

I couldn't stand living there because the Packers suck.....so do the Brewers.

[mightbe]

I couldn't stand living there because the Packers suck.....so do the Brewers.
A-fucking-men dude. Of course I live in Cincinnati... :rolleyes:

I visited the family of one of my friends and they're from Wisconsin and the whole time they talked about the packs like they were saints and Favre was a god. Creepy!

[Xerxes]

So wait is it System Shock 2 or 1 that's the gem.

[Busted_Astromech]

So wait is it System Shock 2 or 1 that's the gem.
Both...but neither of those were made by Human Head.

[Xerxes]

No, but I'm needing to find game design ambrosia and I thought one of those were considered it.