This episode of Irrational Interviews features two guests. That’s particularly noteworthy, because either one of them alone has a list of accomplishments a mile long.

Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk co-founded BioWare, the RPG-oriented group that now consists of five locations within Electronic Arts. They started out as doctors (actual practicing medical doctors, mind you), and BioWare was once a developer of games as well as medical software.

As a fellow entrepreneur, Irrational creative director Ken Levine chats with the doctors about the challenges and perks of running a video game company–all three have seen their studios grow from small PC-exclusive teams to modern, triple-A, multiplatform dev studios. They also share the experience of starting out in fields not particularly related to games, Ken in screenwriting and Ray and Greg in medicine.

“We were having lunch one day after having made some medical education software,” recalls Ray, “then we realized what we’re really passionate about is video games. Why don’t we just make some video games? Take everything we own, and everything we make as doctors on weekends, to fund the company. …That was the extent of the conversation.”

Produced by James Bonney & Chris Remo
Editing by Ant Bear Audio
Music courtesy of The Happy Hollows

Irrational Interviews - Episode 08: BioWare

Guillermo del Toro is known for films like Blade 2, Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy series, bringing a specific brand of horror to his works, but it’s his passion for the nerd culture and a love for games that has guided him to where he is today.

For this Halloween installment of Irrational Interviews, Creative Director Ken Levine had a chance to sit down with this master of horror to talk about how to tell a frightening story, and how to create a character that is a monster to better suit the narrative at hand. Levine and del Toro also chat about the concept of passion, passion for what they do, and how that kind of enthusiasm helps on each project they work on.

“Films are fantastic – they are one of the peaks of human narrative. But I’m sorry to break the news to the movie industry: So is a video game.” – Guillermo del Toro

Produced by James Bonney & Chris Remo
Editing by Ant Bear Audio
Music courtesy of The Happy Hollows

Irrational Interviews - Episode 09: Guillermo del Toro, Part 1

Guillermo del Toro is known for films like Blade 2, Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy series, bringing a specific brand of horror to his works, but it’s his passion for the nerd culture and a love for games that has guided him to where he is today.

In this second part of our Guillermo del Toro interview, Creative Director Ken Levine chats with Guillermo about what’s necessary to tell a story in a brand new medium, and how he’s adapting to the gaming industry to ensure his upcoming projects live up to his standards. These two narrators also discuss how to tell stories in various mediums, and how flexibility and dedication are necessities to the creative process.

To close out the interview, Ken and Guillermo return to the concept of passion, and how hard work and persistence will lead to bigger and better things.“At the end of the day, it’s about love. You can love wherever you are and you can love whatever you’re doing,” says del Toro. “I don’t want to sound like Mr. Chirpy, but put your shoulder to it, and put your heart into it.”

Produced by James Bonney & Julian Murdoch
Editing by Ant Bear Audio
Music courtesy of The Happy Hollows

Irrational Interviews - Episode 09: Guillermo del Toro, Part 2

During the Irrational Games Voice Actor panel at PAX Prime 2011, there were a lot of great questions from those in attendance, questions we sadly couldn’t answer due to a lack of time. Fortunately, we heard many of them from the Irrational Games community, so we decided to pay tribute to our fans in this latest installment of Irrational Interviews by going straight to the source for the answers.

In this episode, Creative Director Ken Levine is joined by BioShock Infinite voice actors Troy Baker (Booker DeWitt) and Courtnee Draper (Elizabeth), as they tackle questions taken directly from our audience. Things kick off with Ken, Troy and Courtnee discussing the process of voice acting, how they approach their characters in BioShock Infinite, the emotions involved in a memorable performance, and even the collaborative process between the actors and director.

The podcast closes out as our trio explores how their characters evolve over the project, and how they identify with them as they become more familiar with the roles. Each person has a different perspective on how they learn about the characters, but the actors are able to shape the Booker and Elizabeth relationship as they build the connection between each other.

Produced by James Bonney, Eduardo Vasconcellos, and Julian Murdoch
Editing by Ant Bear Audio
Music courtesy of The Happy Hollows

Irrational Interviews - Episode 10: Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper

In this episode of Irrational Interviews, we sit down with Amy Hennig, Naughty Dog’s Creative Director and writer. Amy is best known for her work on the groundbreaking Uncharted series, for which she’s won two Writers Guild of America awards.

The topic is, of course, storytelling. How does a writer create a complex narrative for a big budget video game? How does one drive the creative process of a large, intricate game development team? In this episode of Irrational Interviews, listen in while Ken Levine — Irrational Games’ own Creative Director and writer – has a reflective conversation with Amy about the unique challenges they both face in their individual, yet strikingly similar roles.

The focus of the conversation is the writer’s process. “It’s not the way films are made,” says Amy.  “I’ve described this to friends of mine who are screenwriters, and they just think we’re insane.”

The two also dig into their personal process — the act of faith involved in embarking on the journey of writing for a game. As Ken says, “Part of that act of faith is the faith that you have to put in yourself.”

The broad-ranging conversation also turns to the challenge of managing complicated production realities while maintaining the flexibility to take creative risks. As Amy explains, “We just sort of loosely plan what we’re doing, because that’s the best you can do with something that’s as iterative and experimental as what we do. We adapt, and we trust each other’s experience – to know that we’re going to make the wisest, most pragmatic decisions we can, while still trying to keep the quality of the product and stay inspired.”

Produced by James Bonney, Elena Siegman, and Julian Murdoch
Editing by Ant Bear Audio
Music courtesy of The Happy Hollows

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