Michael Booth interview - 3/20/07

While searching around we dug up this old interview with Michael Booth by firingsquad.com. Nothing new of course (it's from April 13, 2006), but something to read nonetheless! In it, Booth talks about the reasons he formed Turtle Rock Studios and his vision for how online gaming and communities should be handled.

"FiringSquad: How do you see the first person shooter evolving in the next few years?

Michael Booth: Although there are several areas where I see such evolution in the first person shooter genre, such as richer interactions with the environment and deeper plots/scenarios, the area I have long been preparing for is robust and interesting AI.

Even as far back as Ultima Underworld and the first System Shock, I was frustrated by the disparity between the reasonably believable environment and the simplistic actors within them. This has continued to be an issue, and today's ultra-realistic visuals just make the problem more apparent. There are exceptions, such as Alyx in Half-Life 2, that have made solid progress in creating believable personalities. However, most games have very realistic mannequins that run headlong into solid walls, move robotically, and emit a single canned line of dialog when you interact with them. Clearly, more can be done here."

And more is definitely what Turtle Rock is doing with the Left 4 Dead infected AI! It'll make you happy that someone with his perspective is the driving force behind Left 4 Dead. Tell us what you think.