Meet the Devs: Mark Skelton (2015.07.28)

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

1. 00:00:00

   Dude, love this shirt so much until I got here and then I was like walking down the prominade and I locked eyes with this dude that had the exact same shirt and then we just kind of stared at each other really awkwardly and then it was like, "God, I feel really weird wearing this shirt and I think I need a shower." It was weird. We had a moment. We had like this weird creepy moment. We both kind of [Music] swear we go. Hey everybody, welcome back to the devs.

2. 00:00:47

   I'm James P and with me today is Persistent Universe art director Mark Skelton. Mark, how you doing man? Hey. Yeah, good call. Oh god, did I hurt you? I'm sorry. Yeah, you do have supple hands. I like that. Right. They're really soft. Feel them again. God, they are beautiful. It's like a little baby's behind there, buddy. Not a hard day's work you've you've been through. I'm never, dude. Not one. I did work construction and he never wanted me to. You ever roof a house? No, but I've built a swimming pool. These hands. No. I've dug a swimming pool and like pulled the pulled the gun out it and everything just to get it going. My dad's my dad did for 30 years. Did you have one of the Did you get to play with one of the like hoe machines or No, I got to use the What's that leveling machine? Basically, it's like a jackhammer. I got to play with that. That thing is

3. 00:01:33

   intense. But that's the thing was we started working at like 700 a.m. and I was asleep by like three. Yeah. And my dad had to finish the thing by himself. Yeah. Put you to bed like this. Oh, so sweet. So, uh, how did you get started with Star Citizen? Geez, let's see. That was about two about two years ago. I think I' I've been here about 2 years. Um so uh of course everybody's heard of uh Mr. Roberts and uh I was kind of keeping an eye on the Kickstarter campaign cuz I was interested in ships at the time and doing things like that. I was actually working on actually there was a few of us uh working for this company called um Lightbox Interactive. That's actually where our studio uh was where the very first like uh live stream Kickstarter

4. 00:02:25

   overnight with Mr. Lamp was. Lamp Junior. This Lamp Jr. Yeah. I guess this wasn't the real one, but um so that was the same studio that that was in, which was weird. Uh so I got to talk to Mr. Roberts and I'm like, "Hey man, you know, this is a great project and it would be awesome to to work on it." So Chris Olivia got a hold of me and uh we talked and uh I came on actually originally came on as the lead character artist actually and then rose to power rose to the top. Yeah. So before you were c you uh worked over at Lightbox, correct? I did. I actually talked to Chris Smith about this. I actually was a QA tester on Starhawk. Really? Yeah. I am so sorry. Yeah. Thank you. So, it's

5. 00:03:13

   really nice of you to say that because let me tell you, I was on the network end. Oh, so you you remember how that went? Yeah. Sorry, bro. I have nothing to do with the network end of that. You got the network end is what you did. Yep. That was a cool project. I enjoyed working on that a lot. And actually, a lot of the stuff that I learned on that I translated over to uh to some Star Citizen stuff, which is cool. lot. We worked with a lot of modular systems uh on that project and so that was kind of a natural kind of transition into the way we wanted to do the persistent universe and the planet side stuff which was you know modular systems and stuff like that. So how great how did you get started with games in general then? Oh my god. How long have you been in the

6. 00:04:01

   industry? Let's go way back. So in the dinosaur ages, right? when a dinosaur loved another dinosaur. 1980s, right? That's as far as time goes back. They had baby dinosaurs and that was me. Um, well, you know, it's funny cuz I started out as an illustrator like way back in the day and I was like just not eating. It was terrible. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. So I decided I would go back to school and um they had this interesting program called computer animation which was the second it was only the second running um semester. Uh they had just started it. So I was like hm that sounds interesting. Uh you know and I'd seen Tron of course we all did

7. 00:04:49

   and it was like how the heck is that made? So got really interested in it and of course I was a huge game, you know, fan. Was playing Legend of Zelda, all that fun stuff at the time. So good game. Yeah, it was just kind of like a natural like, oh well, this is really interesting and I was kind of on the bottom floor and uh so I kind of, you know, got into it and then realized I freaking loved it. So uh started rolling with that and uh it was awesome. I loved it. And then um soon after that I got out of school and um got a job at this place called Seventh Level, which uh they made uh Monty Python a complete waste of time. I don't know if you've ever heard. No, I've not. It was cool. I got to meet

8. 00:05:36

   Eric Idol. That was cool. It was badass. What' you do on that project? It was crazy. Uh actually, I don't remember. It was that long. Yeah, it was wasting a lot of time is what I did on that project. Um, so while they were working on that, actually I was working on this other project called Genome, which was a pile of D. Uh, but it was my first project. It was the first project I ever worked on in 3D, which is very interesting. Um, Return to Kondor. Worked on that one. You ever heard of that? No. No. Cuz you're fetus old. That's fine. Um, way back, Raymond Feist. Uh, I'm sure the fans will know who that is. some of them are. Uh so you know uh then I eventually after that I ended up at Blizzard and I was at

9. 00:06:25

   Blizzard for six yearsish. What did you do over there? I was the well actually when I first got there worked on cinematics and I was the kind of we were all kind of generalists back then. This was like a long time ago. I think I was number seven or eight higher on the cinematics team. I think they're up to like 300 now or something. Um, but so you started the trend. It was all thanks to you. It was a long time ago. Well, it wasn't just me. It was a lot of talented guys, but um it was, let's see, I started out kind of as a generalist and then, uh, started gravitating towards characters. So, uh, I was doing orcs specifically and did some humans and worked on, uh, Diablo II, which was lots of fun. Uh, had a good time working on

10. 00:07:12

    that. Um, so just kind of naturally progressed into a charact like a lead character role there. What exactly was it about Star Citizen that interested you so much? You know, I've always liked space. Um, I mean, my alltime Yeah. My all-time favorite movie uh is Aliens. Spoilers. We're about to ask you that question in like three minutes. Sorry. Beat you the punch, bro. Uh, I do love me some Empire Strikes Back, though. It's like right there, you know? I can't really. It's like one and two. Never seen aliens, by the way. [Laughter] Look at Disco chomping at the bits to get your spot. All right, I'll ask you questions. I'll ask you questions and then you whisper in his ear what to say.

11. 00:08:00

    I'm sorry. I can't talk to you anymore. That was ridiculous. What are we going to do with this kid? My god. Look, I have been trying for a long time to get him to watch movies that everyone else has seen and he's just like, "When was that made in the '8s?" It's stupid. Everything in the 80s is stupid. Probably. That's what he says. He He's such a millennial that I think I'm going to cry. Am I a millennial? You are a millennial. Millennial. Really? You're absolutely if you if you came to adulthood, which is 18. Yeah. Within four years of 2000. Actually, it's within two years. So, no. 98 9 20 2006 is when I turned 18. Then you're definitely a millennial. What in the world is wrong with you? No. No. So what? Okay. So what what has I thought my niece was a millennial. No, you're a millennial. Millennial is the next big one after Generation X. All that other

12. 00:08:48

    stuff got, you know, thrown away. So what has like just coined your uh like generation as far as movie goes? What is like the ultimate movie for you? Something that you've seen that just blew you away and put you favorite movie. My favorite movie is The Wrestler. No, but like they're the Harry Potter generation. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Harry Potter is their star. Do you like Did you like Harry Potter? I love Harry Potter. Really? All of them? The books or the movies? The movies? No. The third movie I really don't like. No. Yeah. Or the second one. We're talking movies, sir. Third movie is the best movie of the series. Fourth movie is the best movie of the series. I just turned the cameras off. God, turn the camera. Who the hell invited me this damn interview? Rapid fire. You have blown it for sure. Are you serious? The third one. The third one cuts. You know what?

13. 00:09:36

    Did you read the books? That's why the third one cuts the most out of the books. As oddly as it is, it's like a master class in editing. That's fine. No, it's not because they don't even get into the relationship between Lupin and Harry to like the very like Okay, so Harry meets Lupin and he's like his dad's old friend from when they were in school. One scene, she gets to the rapid fire question. One scene they introduce each other. The next scene they're best friends. I like the prequels better than the original. All right. Oh my god. That's when the punching begins. We're going to go and go to your rapid fire. That's when the punching. All right, let's do the rapid fire question. Yes, sir. Oh my god. What is this? Am I prepared? You You You look prepared. Really? Favorite movie that's not Aliens or Empire Strikes Back? Blade Runner. Never seen it. Favorite Okay. My hands. Oh my god, they're so

14. 00:10:25

    soft. Favorite game? Um of all time? Yes. It's got to be Zelda, dude. I mean, which one? This is important. Like the uh I mean, they're all really good. They are. Except Majora's Mask. Link to the Past. Yeah, Link to the Past is very good. Yeah, Link to the Past is good. I'm going to go I didn't ask myself this question, but I'm going to go the the one everyone knows, one everyone's going to say, and I'm going to say Ocarina legitimately is the best version of Zelda. I really like that one. I really did. That one was very good. Um, but I don't know, man. I'm old school. I had the gold cartridge and everything. So, so just your OG. Hey, man. No, that's really good. I actually played that with my sister years and years after. I mean, that's what got me into it. I, you know, I don't know. It's hard to It's hard to say. That's my I guess that's my

15. 00:11:13

    favorite console game. If you want to know my favorite PC game, that's probably Halflife 2. Oh, good choice. Good choice. So, I mean, it just depends on where you where you No, those are two good choices. Favorite ship in Star Citizen. Let's see. You know, I like I like the Hornet because it's like it's a tank, right? I like that kind of I like that kind of mentality where I can just bowl through something. It's like a Hummer in space. I like that. It's pretty cool. It's good stuff. All right, man. Thank you so much again for joining us. Is that it? Yeah. Have to wipe my hands again to touch your Oh my god. Once again, this is Mark. I'm James Pew and you just met him later.

16. 00:12:01

    Those rapid fire questions were like slow pace. I know. Nothing rapid about that. So, that's the second interview. Yeah. All right.