Harvey Smith (born 1966) is an American

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the Video game development#Pre-production, pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the Video game development ...

and writer, working at

Arkane Studios Arkane Studios SASU is a French video game developer based in Lyon. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game, ''Arx Fatalis'', in 2002. The studio has created the popular Dishonored (series), ''Dishonored'' series as well as developi ...

. Smith has lectured in various places around the world on topics such as

level design In video games, a level (also referred to as a map, mission, stage, course, or round in some older games) is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progressively incre ...

, emergent gameplay, leadership, game unit differentiation, future trends and interactive narrative. At the

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...

in 2006, Smith won the Game Designer's Challenge: ''Nobel Peace Prize'', for his design featuring a mobile video game that facilitates political social action.

Early life

Smith was born and raised on the

Texas Gulf Coast Texas Gulf Coast is an intertidal zone which borders the Coast, coastal region of South Texas, Southeast Texas, and the Texas Coastal Bend. The Texas coastal geography boundaries the Gulf of Mexico encompassing a geographical distance relative be ...

. He grew up playing games like ''

Pong ''Pong'' is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but B ...

'' as well as ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

''. He read books by

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

and

Roger Zelazny Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995) was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for '' The Chronicles of Amber''. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominatio ...

, among others. He served six years in the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

, including tours in Germany and Saudi Arabia. Smith moved to

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

at the behest of a friend to try his hand at video game design.

Career

Early in his career, Smith worked in

quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to assure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

(QA) at the Austin-based

Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games ...

, where he became the QA lead for games including ''

Super Wing Commander ''Wing Commander'' is the first game in Chris Roberts (film producer), Chris Roberts' Space flight simulation game, space flight simulation Wing Commander (franchise), ''Wing Commander'' franchise by Origin Systems. The game was first released ...

'' and ''

System Shock ''System Shock'' is a 1994 first-person action-adventure game, action-adventure video game developed by LookingGlass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. It was directed by Doug Church with Warren Spector serving as producer. The game ...

''. In 1995, Smith became an associate producer for ''

Ultima VIII ''Ultima VIII: Pagan'' is a role-playing video game, released as the eighth part of the ''Ultima'' series. Released in 1994, it is a DOS-only title and is also the first game in the series to be rated M in North America. It was not as well-recei ...

'', working with co-founder of Origin, Richard Garriott. Smith then pitched his own game, ''Technosaur'', a

real time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pl ...

game inspired by ''

Dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

'' that would have featured "cybernetically augmented

velociraptors ''Velociraptor'' (; ) is a genus of small dromaeosaurid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 75 million to 71 million years ago. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the ...

". The project was canceled by publisher

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

after 18 months of work. After leaving Origin in 1996, Harvey Smith went to work at Multitude where they released ''

FireTeam A fireteam or fire team is a small modern warfare, modern military sub-subunit, subordinated element of infantry designed to optimize "Non-commissioned officer, NCO initiative", "combined arms", "bounding overwatch" and "fire and movement" mi ...

''. After Multitude, Smith's game development career continued in Austin, Texas working with

Warren Spector Warren Evan Spector (born October 2, 1955) is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in how ...

Ion Storm Ion Storm, L.P. was an American video game developer founded in Dallas, Texas in November 1996 by John Romero and Tom Hall, both formerly of id Software ; a branch in Austin, Texas was opened in 1997. In April 1999, Eidos Interactive acquired 5 ...

as lead designer on ''

Deus Ex ''Deus Ex'' is a series of cyberpunk role-playing video games, set during the mid 21st century. Focusing on the conflict between secretive factions who wish to control the world by proxy, and the effects of transhumanistic attitudes and technol ...

'' as well as its sequel, '' Deus Ex: Invisible War''. After this he unsuccessfully pitched a further game in the ''

Thief Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal short ...

'' series, to be called ''Thief: Modern'', in which central character Garrett lived in modern-day New York. Smith then left Ion Storm to work at

Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...

, originally to work on a title called ''Criminal'' with "

immersive sim An immersive sim (simulation) is a video game genre that emphasizes player choice. Its core, defining trait is the use of simulated systems that respond to a variety of player actions which, combined with a comparatively broad array of player a ...

values" inspired by

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American film director, screenwriter, author and producer, best known for his stylized crime dramas. He has received a BAFTA Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as nominations for four ...

's 1995 crime film ''

Heat In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

'', but shifting ultimately to work as lead designer on '' BlackSite: Area 51''. On November 29, 2007, Smith came out publicly to announce how unrealistic the ''BlackSite: Area 51'''s development schedule was and through mutual agreement left Midway a day later. He claimed the schedule caused the low reviews due to the fact they were not able to test the game properly. In 2008, Smith became partner and co-creative director of Arkane Studios in Austin alongside the company's president,

Raphaël Colantonio Raphaël Colantonio (born 1971) is a French video game designer, and was the founder and for 18 years president of Arkane Studios. He has served as creative director on several of Arkane's titles, including co-creator with Harvey Smith (game desig ...

. They went on to release the stealth-action game ''

Dishonored ''Dishonored'' is a 2012 action-adventure game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall, ''Dishonored'' follows the story of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to th ...

'' in 2012, which won many Game of the Year and Best Action/Adventure accolades including the 2013 BAFTA award for Best Game and 2012 SPIKE VGA for Best Action/Adventure Game. Smith also co-directed the sequel ''

Dishonored 2 ''Dishonored 2'' is a 2016 First-person (video games), first person action-adventure game developed by Arkane Lyon and published by Bethesda Softworks for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It is the sequel to 2012's ''Dishonored''. After E ...

'' and its standalone expansion '' Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.'' Smith is co-director on Arkane Austin's ''

Redfall ''Redfall'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Arkane Austin and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released for Windows and Xbox Series X/S on May 2, 2023. The game received mixed reviews, with criticism for its gameplay de ...

'', an

open-world In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda'' (1986), ''Grand ...

first person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through the eyes of the main character. This genre sha ...

, which released on May 2, 2023. Smith's semi-autobiographical novel, ''Big Jack is Dead'', was released on April 2, 2013, by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. That same year it was on Kirkus Review's list of "Best Indie General Fiction".

Works

Video games

Book

References

External links

witchboy.net
Smith's personal website
Harvey Smith
at Twitter *
Harvey Smith interview
at DPerry.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Harvey 1966 births American video game designers American video game directors Artists from Austin, Texas Creative directors Living people Origin Systems people Place of birth missing (living people) United States Air Force airmen American video game writers ZeniMax Media