Industry and Academia
An interview with Michael McCoy, Level Design Professor

Posted January 28th, 2007

by Gamer-girl

Photo courtesy of the Guildhall at SMU

Michael McCoy is an 13 year veteran of the game industry. His most successful title to date is Rainbow Six 3 (Xbox), which sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide and earned numerous accolades including “Best Game of Show” at Microsoft’s Europe X03. As an academic advisor, Michael has graduated 11 Level Design Masters students with thesis titles ranging from “Efficient Methods to Create Non-Linear Gameplay within Confined Playspaces” to “The Hero and the Prize: Mythic Structure and Narrative Incarnation in Quest Design."

G-G: Your degree was in meteorology, right? How did you get into the games industry?

Michael: Yes. I got my MS in Meteorology in '92 from Ohio State University. After working in the environmental consulting business for a couple of years, I answered an ad in the newspaper that said something like "Make computer games without knowing how to program." Well, I knew how to program and figured I was a good fit. After two interviews where they evaluated my knowledge of military history and science, project management, writing, and leadership, and I landed the job of Lead Game Designer on iF-22, a modern flight simulator.

Like any career, there have been ups and downs, but on a whole I love coming to work 75% of the time. To me this is what makes game development a great job.

G-G: Do you have any game you worked on that was your favorite? If so, why?

Michael: In a way, I’ve loved all of the games I’ve developed, but if I had to pick one favorite it would be Rainbow Six 3 as this was my dream game. When I first got into the industry, Redstorm Entertainment began the Rainbow franchise and I immediately fell in love with its unique, no mercy style of gameplay. It really upped the tension level.

G-G: Can you talk about the places you've worked (people, culture, etc), and how they compared to each other?

Michael: My first job was at a relatively new company, Interactive Magic, with ~100 people. While there, I worked on flight sims and really got to understand the industry and my trade better. After that, I joined Sinister Games and worked with 20 people on Shadow Company, Dukes of Hazzard, Batman Gotham City Racer, and a couple of canceled projects. The environment there was fantastic as we were all crammed into a small space and the jokes and humor flew around on a regular basis. Those guys were nuts. Unfortunately, when the company moved to new offices the entire culture disappeared and became more sterile.

At this point I moved to Ubisoft Montreal and worked with over 70 people on the Rainbow Six 3 titles. Our dev environment was one large room, and while it got loud from time to time, it was the perfect work space. Nothing happened without everyone on the team knowing ... no surprises. Next, I moved to Dallas and worked with a medium and small company before joining The Guildhall at SMU. Even though my favorite title was with a large company, I really like working for smaller ones where I get to do lots of different things rather than everyone being a specialist.

G-G: So how did you come to work at The Guildhall at SMU?

Michael: Shortly after moving to Dallas I was asked to give the Convocation speech to the second group of students to enter the school. It’s strange, but I knew from that moment that I wanted to teach there at some point in my career. After about two years of bugging the executive director (Dr. Peter Raad) for a position, I finally wore him down and joined program.

G-G: How does The Guildhall at SMU distinguish itself from all the other gaming schools that are popping up everywhere?

Michael: First the instructors at The Guildhall at SMU are all game industry professionals. Our approach to teaching is that we know games and game development and can teach. Most other schools use professional teachers that know about the game industry, but have little hands on knowledge. I think this gives us a real competitive edge, which shows through our students.

Second our approach is multidisciplinary. Not only do students take courses towards their major, albeit software, art, or level design, but they also take classes in Game Studies and Team Game Production. This produces highly skilled and well rounded students that have had no problems landing their dream jobs in the game industry.

Finally, we maintain a close relationship with the game industry and constantly revise our curriculum to reflect their current working practices. I guess you could say we’re trying to define the academic discipline of game development from the prospective of what’s actually going on in the industry, rather than defining it from within an academic bubble.

G-G: Is this a permanent position for you, or do you plan to return to a normal industry job at some point?

Michael: I’d sure like it to be. When I first joined the school I was worried that my skills would atrophy and greatly reduce my usefulness over time. Instead, I found that my skills are evolving more rapidly than they would in the industry and that it’s quite easy to remain current. Periodically, I run research projects like the XNA project with Microsoft and get real world experience while teaching. To me it’s the best of both worlds.

G-G: Level design an aspect of game development that isn't well-understood by the public at large. How do you feel about teaching it, especially at a master's level?

Michael: It’s an incredible challenge and honor to be one of the first level design professors in the world. I, along with the others in my department, constantly strive to document the things we learned through hard knocks and disseminate them to our students. The thesis aspect of our program is particularly challenging. We’re the first school to graduate Level Design masters students, and defining the scope and intensity of student thesis projects is a never ending task.

G-G: Can you share any of your design hints and tricks with aspiring designers?

Michael: Communication skills are the key to success. Level design is where game design, programming, art, and sound come together forcing level designers to not only be skilled craftsmen, but also interpreters and negotiators. People skills are often the thing that make or break design careers. If you can’t work on a team, don’t even dream of joining the game industry.

G-G: What would you tell gamers hoping to one day work in your industry?

Michael: The days of answering an ad in the newspaper and landing a game development job are over. To break in today, potential developers must distinguish themselves from the myriad of other applicants in some way. In my opinion there are two ways to accomplish this. One is through the online mod community. Do something great, get your name out there, and there’s a chance you’ll be recruited to join the industry. However, this is a largely hit or miss process. The better avenue is to go to a game development school and really load your gun before you go job hunting. Which school you go to is completely up to your needs, but do your research and choose wisely. You future career depends on it.

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