Meet the Devs: Todd Papy

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

1. 00:00:00

   your shoes yeah put them up so everyone can see like you're totally outclassing me in shoes like that's not hard to do the socks too dude like that's not hard to outclass me in Footwear but you have like done it to a degree no one has before oh well I've got green and blue and gray versions of this as well he's just showing up welcome back to me with me today is our design director Todd papy how you doing man good to meet you oh good to meet you again thanks for coming on yeah so you joined the project what a couple of months ago uh February 1 February and before that you were over at krych

2. 00:00:47

   correct yes sir how was it like over there uh it was good I I mean I went over for Rise 2 actually um R too so so uh you know I saw what they had from aex standpoint what they had from an art standpoint and I felt like I could help make a difference from a design standpoint and then from there um rise 2 went away and we worked on some different games and then um before I left I was working on Hunt so um which is basically kind of like a 1870s Monster Hunter game and you know I that obviously fit closer to my previous work history and all of that so it was um it was a good time and I still have friends there so I'm I'm I'm rooting for them and and looking forward to seeing

3. 00:01:34

   the game when it comes out yeah me too man I hope they're hope they're doing well over there so before that you were actually over you're out here in Santa Monica over at Sony Santa Monica where you actually worked on God of War ascension yeah what was that like I mean I started at Sony Santa Monica 2003 um worked on the first God of War left after a while um and then came back 15 months later worked on God of War II and then worked on God of War 3i in Ascension so um it was it was really kind of a a home away from home you know and um had a a bunch of friends there that I'd grown up with and and worked with at at my previous company so so Stig and um Steve kerson and Mark Simon and Justin Henry these are guys that I had worked with at Atari when I first got into the industry um and then we

4. 00:02:23

   went down to Sony Santa Monica and worked there so I don't know if you knew this I mentioned you this once before I actually worked on God of War Ascension at Sony San Diego in the QA Department yep and then I did the uh online testing after it was released for the servers okay so it's just weird how they said that you know I got an email I was like oh Todd papy's com Des director I was like I worked on his old game yeah and I mean it it just kind of shows you how small the industry is like uh Rob bringer who's a designer in Austin with us um I think he and I started if not the exact same day within a week of of each other at Atari so it's it's very very Clos nit industory what was it like what was the culture shot come from somewhere like U I've never worked at krych but I imagine it was it's a normal place and coming to

5. 00:03:11

   here which is fun but definitely not normal well I mean I think every company has their idiosyncrasies and then it's it's just it's kind of like dating where you find out you know can I live with this or can I not live with this and um with uh with Cloud um I think the the biggest thing for me is with Chris and kind of how agile we are you know there there's certain bit of chaos and I like chaos too you know and I I like I like the the um you know being able to go in there and say okay what's wrong let's fix this all right let's do this let's do this let's do this Chris which what out of these three options do you like you know and then making sure that we're moving forward and and constantly progressing that is

6. 00:04:00

   definitely my favorite thing about the project as well when it seems like there's a lot it seems like everything is going wrong but then you find an idea and you find the way to make it better yeah and it just works because you have so many people this not just at this studio our studios around the world that are all doing the best they can to accomplish one thing and that is make Star Citizen well I think a lot of people think of you know game making oh it's oh it's you're just sitting there designing or you're sitting there building art in reality what we're doing is we're sitting there problem problem solving and figuring out okay well today's problem is this tomorrow's problem is going to be something completely different and it's going to be interesting and fun and that's kind of what gets me excited and gets gets me awake in the morning what's it like being a design director for Chris Roberts he is like a director that I've never worked with before so I mean I

7. 00:04:49

   worked with David jaffy Cory barlog Stig um asmus and then I've worked with previous ones you know in Atari as well each one of those by the way sorry that's three of my favorite game designers of all time by the way so each one of them have their own strengths and weaknesses Dave you know came from basically design background Corey from an animation background STI from the art director background at log he was a programmer um but he didn't really talk design or art or anything like that Chris's nature is a programmer and so um you know he'll be talking about servers and how he wants those servers set up and and diving into the Eva code rewriting that um and then he'll come to me and he'll say well I'm thinking about this from a design perspective or uh

8. 00:05:37

   commenting on shotgun about you know art and oh hey I want it this way or I want it that way and um he's very instinctual designer meaning uh it comes from his gut and so when you present him three different options it it works best or works best if you give him a couple of options and he's like okay I really like that one or I don't like any of them and here here's why I don't like those and then at that point you can start narrowing down your focus and and really finding out what is he trying to get across what's it like dealing with design on so many what would seem to be different elements like you know you're looking at ship design you're looking at FPS design you know is is that were you prepared for that are you excited about that I don't think anybody could be prepared for that um when when I first started I was supposed to be the FPS

9. 00:06:25

   game director and so I'm still focused on that I'm still you know we're still pushing towards that um but at the same time then you've got other things that will pull in your focus of okay well with s42 there's systems that they're looking at and that we're trying to think of and then talking to Dan and the designers here okay well cargo or how is this ship going to work you know what's the thought process behind the ship what's the design process behind the ship or talking with Tony and saying okay character customization what are we doing I don't know yet well let's figure that out kind of thing so um again it's it's just challenges and I love that fun place to work isn't it all right we're going to let you go before we have to do some rapid fire questions ready okay

10. 00:07:13

    favorite movie Fight Club seen it great movie love it okay good favorite oh you Brad Pit Brad Pit yeah is that just is that just a brad anything I mean I mean you got 12 Monkeys you've got Fight Club seen you've got thelman and Louise never seen it okay no I'm joking I'll leave it there faor video game uh halflife one great game yeah why one over two just curious uh to me it was the level design and and just the the thought process behind it um and the way that uh you could go about and deal with their their challenges I mean obviously you know with gravity gun that opens up new doors and new things but to me uh the the amount of time that I spent playing halflife one and the multiplayer with other people is was fantastic yeah I

11. 00:08:03

    also think I I for record I love half life one and two I also think the how open halflife 2 was kind of hurt at times it kind like the pacing got a little wonky at times but and and that's that to me is the hardest part is you know if if you're going for a well-paced game then a lot of times you can't go as wide you want to go more linear and and more focused so all right and a favorite ship in Star Citizen I would have to say the tally so um just the line I like the SR71 and and that one just kind of it it hints at it but you know just just the look of it is it's pure sexy right thanks again for coming on man thanks once again this is Ty papier design director I'm James Pew you just met a Dev you got to point the

12. 00:08:51

    screen there you go you got it