Heaven Games Goes Mad Doc
Dan McClure Interview
On our visit to Mad Doc, we were privileged to speak to many people on the Empire Earth II team. Among them was Dan McClure, lead level designer. We talked to him about his work at Mad Doc and how he got to be where he is today!
HG: Hi, Dan McClure why don't you start by telling us a little bit about
yourself?
DM: Well I came to be at Mad Doc during the expansion pack for Empire Earth. I had worked at SSSI as a quality assurance guy for the last eight month of development on Empire Earth and when that was over, I was looking for a new job, I still had contacts, and since Mad Doc was looking for people with experience with the game, they hired me. I did most of the Roman Campaign for the expansion pack and after that, I started working on Empire Earth II. I have been on it since the beginning, just the general lead development, technical writing, and than after a bit, I moved on to oversee the single player campaign. Anyhow, I have been here two and a half, umm no closer to three years.
HG: What has made you go down this career path?
DM: I went to school for the foolish reason to be a writer, and now I realize that no one goes to school for writing. I was good at writing and history, but I have always spent my leisure time gaming. After a while of being a "starving" writer I asked myself what I wanted to do with my life, and well since I spent a lot of my spare time gaming I took this route.
HG: What do you do in your spare time that influences what you design?
DM: I don't know, much of my spare time is spent in being involved in the gaming community, reading, and research. However, really as for how it influences design. The development process with the team dynamics is what really does it.
HG: On the topic of design, what historical research went into the game and what did you do in this area?
DM: For Empire Earth II there was mainly research for each epoch, and the flavor of how each should feel. Then of course, there was the single player campaign research, but the individual designers did most of that. As for what I did, I did most of the tech tree. I was reading this book, it actually was a really incredible find, it was the "Technological History of the World". It was like "there is my tech tree!". So yeah, we did a lot of research.
DM: Well I came to be at Mad Doc during the expansion pack for Empire Earth. I had worked at SSSI as a quality assurance guy for the last eight month of development on Empire Earth and when that was over, I was looking for a new job, I still had contacts, and since Mad Doc was looking for people with experience with the game, they hired me. I did most of the Roman Campaign for the expansion pack and after that, I started working on Empire Earth II. I have been on it since the beginning, just the general lead development, technical writing, and than after a bit, I moved on to oversee the single player campaign. Anyhow, I have been here two and a half, umm no closer to three years.
HG: What has made you go down this career path?
DM: I went to school for the foolish reason to be a writer, and now I realize that no one goes to school for writing. I was good at writing and history, but I have always spent my leisure time gaming. After a while of being a "starving" writer I asked myself what I wanted to do with my life, and well since I spent a lot of my spare time gaming I took this route.
HG: What do you do in your spare time that influences what you design?
DM: I don't know, much of my spare time is spent in being involved in the gaming community, reading, and research. However, really as for how it influences design. The development process with the team dynamics is what really does it.
HG: On the topic of design, what historical research went into the game and what did you do in this area?
DM: For Empire Earth II there was mainly research for each epoch, and the flavor of how each should feel. Then of course, there was the single player campaign research, but the individual designers did most of that. As for what I did, I did most of the tech tree. I was reading this book, it actually was a really incredible find, it was the "Technological History of the World". It was like "there is my tech tree!". So yeah, we did a lot of research.
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