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MIGS2010: A talk with Chris James

Chris James, Lead Level Designer at Beenox, stepped on the stage at the Hilton Bonaventure in front of a few hundred people to speak about what he learned as a Level Designer over the course of his career. It was his first time as a Speaker at the MIGS and even though he was nervous he still managed to grab the attention of the audience throughout all of his presentation.

The next day, I’ve had the opportunity to interview Chris in a quiet place with some breakfast sweets and coffee. I wanted to keep the interview laid back and more of a talk in between me and Chris than a standard questions and answer type of interview and so we talked and reminisced about our time at EA. We both worked together on the game Army of Two.

I led the interview towards his experience as a first-time speaker and as James explained he had taught a course at the Arts Institute and at the time loved the fact that he could be helping out students and this is what motivated him to draw up his conference as a series of tips and methods of prototyping for students and aspiring designers. This year the MIGS had around 400 students attending and I can say that most of them attended Chris’ conference.

This brought me to ask him what got him to think: “hey I’ll do a conference for the MIGS!” ? Funny enough he replied: “maple syrup“. He explained that at the time he was still at Lucas Arts, missing the good old Canadian Maple Syrup and thought giving a talk at the MIGS would justify a good reason to buy some syrup. In a more serious tone he added that back when he was but a student he wished some experienced designer could have given a talk to aspiring designers about what it really is to work in the industry and this is what he decided to do. Chris James came to the MIGS to inspire students and shed some light on the industry letting them know it is a really cool place to work and build a career.

Chris also talked about the fact that he really enjoyed the teams he’s been working with since the beginning of his career and it is primarily what motivates him over the titles. When asked if he would prefer to work on a Barbie game with an awesome team or work on the next big Franchise but with an O.K. team James responded quickly he would rather work on the Barbie game since to him, teams are what really brings his career forth considering the amount of experience you gain when surrounded with great people. A very valid point indeed.

I was curious to know what Chris is the proudest of as a game developer and as a gamer. His answer was Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 because it’s a game that reaches out to everyone. According to Chris, pretty much everyone has heard of Star Wars whether it’s from the old movies, the new movies, the clone wars animated series, the toys or the video games everyone knows and like Star Wars and The Force Unleashed 2 reaches out to all the fan.

After all that, I was still wondering if Chris managed to get Maple Syrup… He only offered some sort of evil laugh and left in a puff of smoke. It seems like we can add that to the list of the World’s Greatest Mysteries my friends…