When most people request interviews of the 3DRealms bunch. . . . it inevitably comes down to "What's up with DNF" or the classic. . . "Hey can I have an exclusive scoop or story??"

That's the beauty of my interviews. They are all about the programmer/designer/developer. . . if we get any "goods" on the games or projects these guys are working on. . . it's totally up to them. Fortunately, I have a knack for picking some of the most interesting/compelling people in the industry. Scott Miller is about as "OLD SCHOOL" as you get. . . . between the 3DRealm/Apogee bunch and id Software, they single handedly invented and defined First Person Shooters.

One of the first things I do, is ask for a favor, a personal favor of each interview subject. . . asking them for a small way to personalize their interview. Whether it be screenshots, personal pictures or just a really cool story that maybe no one knows. . . I always ask. Scott Miller as many of you know, is quite the interview subject. . Not only is the guy and awesome drummer ( although he says different ;^) , he is also an accomplished martial artist. . having earned his black belt. Scott is also a big car guy. . . and the trips to the track with the id Software guys are pretty well known on the Net. Scott actually sent along a photo of himself in one of them badboy race cars. . . Have a look:

I believe the actual caption for this photo was "Awww, Dad. . . c'mon, it's my turn". .

Before and After

1.) How'd you get started in the Game Making Game and/or who was your inspiration.

Back when I began developing games, in 1975 on a Wang 2000 PC, my only inspiration was Creative Computing, the top magazine of its day for computer hobbyist.  The first arcade revolution in the late 70’s through early 80’s also provided further inspiration and training, which I applied to games I wrote on my Commodore PET, C-64, Amiga 1000 and IBM PC 8088 with 4-color CGA graphics.  I guess my early heroes were in the arcade industry, where the true cutting-edge and innovative games appeared (much more true then than nowadays), but sadly I cannot remember their names anymore, except for Jarvis, who made Defender and Robotron.

3.) People you admire in the industry. ( please limit your answer to 2 people and      

     EXCLUDE me, that’s a given. . )

John Carmack, simply because having known him from the start, and helping him and id get their start in this industry, he has remained an industry pioneer and has not fallen prey to the Peter Principle – he has kept doing what he does best:  programming.

Also Shigeru Miyamoto, who made his first impression on me back in 1981, with the release of Donkey Kong, and the first game with a likeable little character.

4.) What's the most annoying thing to deal with as a a Game Making Guru.

I’m no more a “guru” than anyone else.  ;-)  And seriously, there’s nothing I find all too annoying about working in an industry that’s all about making and playing games.  As a game player like everyone else, though, I do find it annoying that so many games are released about two to three months too soon, when they could have used that extra development time for that extra polishing that makes a good game nearly perfect.

5.) Does your WIFE/GIRLFRIEND still nag you to "Get off that damn computer before I break it" now that your a famous GameDood.

My girlfriend plays games as much as I do.  J

6.) Tips you can give Game Making-Jedi in training

Play a lot of games are really try to pay attention to why games are made the way they are—try study games from a developer’s perspective.  Also, try designing levels for an RTS game and an FPS.  It’s only by doing this that things that are not obvious to average players become readily apparent.

I consider my game developing years between ’75 and ’90, during which time a played hundreds upon hundreds of games (also wrote over 200 published articles about games in the 80’s) and wrote over 100, several dozen that were commercially sold.  Any serious wannabe developer must have this sort of passion and begin working on building up a background in game design, even if it’s just making small games on your own computer, or making mods for commercial games.

7.) Drink of Choice

Diet Coke.  I cannot stand the super sweet taste of non-diet sodas anymore.

8.) Tunes of Choice
 

I’m a hardcore drummer (been playing for 20 years) and I love pre-1985 Rush with Neil Peart behind the pig skins.  Also Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and other guitar instrumentalists.  I like the band concept in which the band actually creates and physically plays their own music, which rules out pseudo-bands like NSYNC, or bands that program their music on a computer.  Big whoop.

9.) Babe of Choice

Scully was pretty hot until her short haircut this season.  I guess Kelly Preston will have to do.  ;-)

11.) Your currently working on a small project, HOW MUCH ASS IS IT GOING TO KICK!?!?!?!

Well, as one V.P. from another publisher said in an email, after getting a very small preview of the game:  “Duke is awesome! Not only is the game going to totally reset everyone's expectation of what a great game is, it will send every developer back to the drawing board.” 

I personally believe that after this game comes out, it will take at least three years for it to be topped, unless we can release Duke 5 sooner than that.  <g>

and the bonus question

Since we have been friends for years, please tell our readers something about yourself that not many people know.

I went to high school in Australia, during the second half of the 70’s.  My first contact with a computer was there, and for the heck of it I took a computer class as an elective because some of my friends were taking that class.  This turned out to be a total goof-off class, and I ended up with a D grade, my only sub-C throughout my 12 years of public schooling.  I learned about just about nothing about computers in that class.

But, as Paul Harvey says, this is the rest of the story…

After that class, some of my friends began to hang out in the computer room trying to write little games in BASIC.  Well, I kind of joined the crowd and started doing the same, and that’s when I really become interested in this computer thing.  In fact, I quickly became the high school expert, and even the teacher came to me for help.  What know one knew, except one of my best friends who came with me, is that at night I’d sneak into the high school through a window I secretly unlocked during the day, and write game code on that computer deep into the night.  Now how’s that for a nerd story.  J

I wanted to take the time to Thank Scott for doing this interview. I am sure when the cat gets let out of the bag, we'll talk with the 3DRealms bunch again and give you a "scoop" on Duke Nukem 4ever. . . . . until then, we'll let Scott get back to work on DNF ! ! ! 

Hypothermia is going to get a couple copies of Duke Nukem 4ever to give away to you guys as soon as it hit's the shelves. . So hit the link below to the contest page and get in it to win it!!!!