Deus Ex: Human Revolution

So Deus Ex: Human Revolution was my leap into video games. Brand-new studio called Eidos-Montréal, and one of the most anticipated titles of its era. Mind you, I wasn't the only UI dev at ship. We hired a second UI programmer along the way and split ownership. I ran the HUD and the menu systems, but most of the early prototypes started alone at my desk. From there the job was to take the designers' intent, get it into the engine with Scaleform driving ActionScript over C++, and then iterate, harden, polish, optimize, plus run localization, TRCs, and the whole pre-submission gauntlet on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Just to be clear, the black-and-gold visual language came from our art director, not me. What I helped shape was the feel of the thing: how the menu transitions flowed, the augmentation wheel interaction, and that press-start screen. Scaleform is where I learned how to pull real performance out of a Flash-based pipeline. Custom animation hooks, a trimmed-down ActionScript VM, careful paging on PS3's tighter RAM. Honestly, what stuck with me the most was working alongside Art, Programming, Localization, Game Design, Level Design, Level Art, and QA. Pretty much every department. So much of the craft happens at the seams between disciplines.

I was also the beer guy on Friday nights, and yeah, that matters to the story. A good AAA ship isn't just architecture diagrams and memory budgets, it's the culture that makes people want to show up again on Monday. DX:HR was my first full ship from A to Z. The thing I'm proudest of is that the UI held up as its own character in the world.