Meet the Devs: Pete Mackay

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

1. 00:00:11

   [Music] all right guys thanks for joining us um pleasure to have Pete Mackey here all the way from Austin uh Pete uh so why don't you tell why don't you tell the fans why we call you DJ Pete um most recently because I djed at the South by Southwest of event that we had in Austin a couple weeks ago that a couple weeks ago yeah about a month ago now right yeah yeah time flies yep yep but before that uh the reason I got pinged to do that was that I was a nightclub DJ and Rave DJ uh many years ago so how how did you get started with that uh so um that actually started because a buddy of mine got into the production side of doing uh parties and he said hey you know how to use

2. 00:01:01

   computers so we need somebody to do like video projection like visuals projection and so I started doing as a VJ and then I learned turntables and bought my own and then got a huge vinyl addiction so just went from there how do I get that job dude that being the guy who produces parties that sounds like the best job ever it's pretty fun so how did you get started the project uh Ben talks about you ad nauseum cuz he says he loves you yeah you go into a little backstory yeah we go way back well probably back as far as anybody on this project does anyway um right around the time that the funding completed the original uh campaign uh that uh my former Studio let us all go

3. 00:01:51

   so we all got laid off from that studio and so I was looking for work and I got a call from Eric Peterson uh asking me if I'd be interested in helping out uh with uh email actually so for uh the first little while I just did email so if anybody ever emailed the company in the first five months three three to five months of the project I I answered it I answered every piece of email that came into this company for for a while uh so in the early days um at the very beginning I was just working from home because there was no office yet the the office space had been uh the leases had been signed but hadn't been we hadn't moved into it yet and so I was working from home for a little while and then me and Ben and Eric moved

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   into the the basement and it was just us three for probably two weeks until some of the other guys started coming on board but for a good portion of the time um the development you know on the ground was just me and den what was that like I mean did you did you know what you obviously didn't know what it was going to going to become but did you have a feel for what it actually was uh well so it was interesting because I'm a huge Wing Commander fan huge and so um I was just super stoked to be able to be on the project you know um so you know from that aspect like I was completely gung-ho about doing anything I could to help out anywhere you know and so uh it it basically just stemmed from that you

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   know and I think that's part of why I ended up on the design team was just the the fact that I was so gung-ho about you know wanting to make something really cool yeah that was my next that was my next question uh you came from a video game background though correct and then was that in design as well or did nope I actually started in QA is where I started and went from QA to uh associate producer and as that associate producer role or part of the responsibilities in that role was also Community manager mhm and it was I think that piece of it that was interesting to Eric right at the beginning was somebody who had experience working with the community um so from there I just you know I just worked really hard uh in that role and uh a question came up that uh Chris needed something and at that

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   point we didn't actually have any designers on staff but Chris and Chris was swamped running a business so he asked me and Ben for hey I need a design for something and so I took a swing at it and he liked it and I think you know based on my passion for the project and that thing that I submitted to him he liked it and eventually I got you know moved over to the to the design team can you can you say what that thing was uh at this point it was gosh I worked on so much stuff now it was either tble brag yeah uh it was no that one was the original proposal for how what types of Parts would go on a ship like avionics and radar power plants and it wasn't just a list of that but it was a

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   description of how how they worked how they worked together so it was it was an entire system but it was still pretty high level proposal um so so the fans can thank you for everything they have in their ship well for for a tiny little nugget that started it maybe like a piece of the seed so you've been around here for since the Inception it seems like or about thereof what do you feel like how do you look at the project now in terms of where it is now what you do now to like what you were doing back then it's so different it's not it's it's the company has grown so much that then it was like I knew everybody at the company like even even when the company got considerably larger than just me and Ben I still knew everybody

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   at the company but at this point there's so many people that I don't know um because we're you know and a big reason for that is because that we're spread out now over three major Studios and several outsourcers and a couple continents yeah so um you know it's just not possible yeah anymore so the the feeling has totally changed um at the beginning it was a lot of excitement for you know being successfully being able to get this project off the ground um and now it's you know a lot of work to get the to get it to where we want it to be you know so that's awesome and before let you go we got a couple rapid fire questions you ready sure what's your favorite movie uh

9. 00:06:45

   favorite movie of all time probably Blade Runner Blade Runner we should start a counter like as soon as any someone gives a movie there should be like two two things and then one of them should be a movie I've seen one of them should be a movie I haven't because I have not seen that one is it good I love it yeah yeah you should watch that in uh ghost in the show together to make it a movie night I I've always want to watch Ghost and show but we're getting off toop favorite video game uh Fantasy Star 2 I've played that all right we're good on that one why two just curious um I like the themes of it um it was really kind of really moody it kind of depressing um which was pretty different from most of the RP GS that came out around the same time and it it was the

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    first game to actually have a major character death in it way before Final Fantasy 7 um so yeah wait who does in Final Fantasy 7 I'm not telling you not spoilers man yeah right you should have t hashtagged this entire interview right now and then a favorite ship in Star Citizen uh man I have several um you get one I get one one I don't know I'm going to have to go with the Gladiator Gladiator I like the Gladiator why yeah curious I just like the shape of it I think it looks cool uh yeah I just did you do did you do the thrusters on it not yet I have modeled

11. 00:08:21

    them in the calculator though all right Pete thanks again for coming on both shows it's been a pleasure having you and have a safe trip back to Austin thanks man all right and you redacted that's just cut right there