Excerpt
On May 13, 1999, the Entertainment Software Association kicked off its annual E3 event by rolling out the red carpet for the who's-who of the gaming industry. Console news dominated the event. Nintendo announced the GameCube, then code-named Dolphin. Sega branded its forthcoming (and apparently sentient) Dreamcast console with a release date of 9/9/1999 and a price point of $199.99. Not to be outdone, Sony, which had announced the PlayStation 2 a few months earlier, vowed that the system would deliver in-game graphics on par with pre-rendered cinematics, and offered a real-time rendering of Final Fantasy VIII's breathtaking ballroom scene as a teaser of things to come.
All around the show floor, developers peddled their latest and greatest. Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard North let attendees go hands-on with Diablo II. Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios promised players the sun, moon, and stars in Black & White. Rare turned heads by demoing Perfect Dark, proof positive that the N64 still had gas left in the tank in the wake of the GameCube announcement. Publisher Activision brought along id Software's Quake III: Arena to remind everyone that the PC was still the go-to platform for fast and chaotic shooters. Valve Corporation's Team Fortress 2 touted a gritty visual style, only to drop off the radar until 2007, when it resurfaced sporting a cartoonish, stylized look.
The videogame industry circa 1999 was a land of giants. On the grand stage of E3, the biggest of the big boys came to play, and for bright-eyed newcomers aspiring to become professional fun makers, experience and demo programs were the coins of the realm. Upon setting foot in the LA Convention Center, Henry Smith was, if not a king, at least a prince.
"I went to E3 on my own money, with another friend who was doing the same thing. I took a bunch of résumés and gave them out to as many people as possible. I think I had a demo CD of a new game I was working on at that time, but that game never came out. It was much too ambitious, but I figured it would be something to show at least."
Smith, in the thick of his sophomore year at University of Waterloo in Canada, didn't see how he could miss an opportunity to attend E3. A tidal wave of flashing screens and a cacophony of noise — mostly screams and explosions — rolled over him as he went from booth to booth, shaking hands and handing out his résumé, game demo, and (fingers crossed) a good impression.
That fall, he got a call. Irrational Games, a relatively new start-up studio, wanted to bring him in for an interview. He ran the gauntlet and was offered a position as a programmer. Looking back on his auspicious beginnings, Smith couldn't believe his luck. His venture to E3 that spring had put him in the right place at the right time.
Smith's humility obfuscates the true reason he got his foot in the door. Luck plays a part in landing any dream job, but he'd been hard at work building virtual worlds for years. He was hungry, intelligent, creative, and perhaps most importantly, driven.
