Richard Ham Interview
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Out of all the games you've worked on, which one is your favourite, and why?
That's a tough one, a really tough one. They all had ups and downs. Fable 2 was the most challenging definitely, and I really enjoyed working with the people at Lionhead. Working on The Sims was great, too, getting to go to meetings with Will Wright and do something completely unlike anything I'd ever done before. Pitfall was fantastic as well, and I was really proud of it because it was the first game I'd shipped that my wife loved (she's not much of a shooter fan).
But at the end of the day, I'd probably have to list the original Syphon Filter as my fave. It was my first game as a lead designer, and to this day, it's the one that was the least compromised in terms of what I wanted it to be. I really had a lot of freedom to make what I thought was going to kick ass, and turns out, it did kick ass.
Why did you join Splash Damage?
Actually, the answer to that ties into the last answer. Splash offers the promise of getting back to my roots in a bunch of ways. I haven't made a shooter for a long time, though they're still my favourite genre. I've had plenty of offers over the years to do another one, but I've always avoided it because it felt like I would be repeating myself.
But what Splash is doing is so cool, I just couldn't turn down the offer. In fact, there's a lot in it that's similar to what I wanted to do in Syphon Filter 3, back when it was going to be a PS2 launch title, but that I never got the chance to do. So I couldn't turn down the chance to be involved.
Plus, I mean, c'mon, the Enemy Territory games were freaking fantastic. So there was that, too. :)
