00:00Peggy 16
00:04Respawn Entertainment has smashed
00:05all award records for their upcoming debut
00:07game Titanfall. We talked to the team
00:09about the studio's origins and their pedigree
00:12in making some of the biggest FPS games
00:13of all time.
00:20We left everything
00:21behind.
00:23Hell, getting here was just the beginning.
00:26Starting Respawn
00:28was super turmoil.
00:30A lot of us came into it, a brand new
00:32company, with a lawsuit. Conditions
00:34previously were not so great
00:35at the point that we'd left, so
00:38this felt like a very good opportunity
00:40to just say, yeah, we're free, we can
00:41do whatever we want.
00:44You said it would be tough
00:46to start over, but I didn't
00:48listen.
00:50Well, when we started up, I mean, it was literally
00:52Jason and I, and
00:53nothing else. We had people come and join
00:56us, but at the time it wasn't, you know,
00:57we signed a deal with EA, we didn't have a game idea,
01:00we didn't have technology, we didn't have computers, we didn't have anything.
01:02We didn't even have a lease on our office space.
01:04We were literally squatting. The landlord
01:06was nice enough to give us a key in the morning so we could come in.
01:08It forced us to be more creative, but
01:09it was even more of a challenge to be creative
01:12from a logistical standpoint. How do we
01:14work on a game when we don't have
01:16any tech? The floors here were all nasty
01:18and had broken glass and cockroaches.
01:20like, this place had been abandoned for a couple
01:22years and, you know, that was
01:24the start of our company. I mean, it was literally guys
01:26in folding chairs in a circle just talking about
01:28games that they liked, games they didn't like.
01:30How long did that last for? Maybe a couple months
01:32and we started getting... A couple months?
01:34Yeah, it was a long time. Of sitting on
01:36folding chairs? Yeah.
01:40After you saw the response
01:41when you guys showed it off at E3,
01:44was it kind of like a sigh of relief?
01:45It was not just a sigh, it was a trembling
01:49wave of relief. To us
01:50as developers and gamers, it was cool
01:52because it had all these gameplay mechanics
01:54that we really enjoyed playing. We had no idea
01:56if the public at large was going
01:58to attach to it at all. I was trembling
02:00when we unveiled it, thinking, oh gosh, this
02:02is it. They found us out. No one's going to like it.
02:04It was like, hey, we're real. Yeah.
02:06Because before that, you can't talk about it and you can't
02:08share it and you have community people that
02:10want to know and there's nothing that you can tell them.
02:12And so, yeah, that moment, I think, right at the
02:14end of the Microsoft press conference where the trailer
02:17ran and it was
02:18that moment of like, oh my God, this is a real
02:20thing that's happening and now
02:22we have this crazy run from here to March.
02:24Going into E3 and seeing
02:27people's reaction to it finally
02:28and not our own was just shocking. So we
02:30thought, okay, alright, our little
02:32team is going to survive. We can keep going.
02:34And some of Titanfall's
02:36fiction can be seen in
02:39Respawn's fiery upbringing
02:40and, you know, what we went through to get here.
02:43It's us against the world at this point.
02:45The fleet's counting on you.
02:49Is there a method to the madness?
02:52Like, what do you think it is that you guys have
02:54that allows you to constantly create such awesome content?
02:58We had Medal of Honor. We had Call of Duty.
03:00I think it's just an amazing team.
03:01And, you know, we've grown it from here.
03:03We have some, you know, people that have,
03:04some of us have worked together for, you know,
03:06a dozen years or more maybe.
03:07and we have some new guys that we've brought on
03:10from other teams and other successful projects.
03:13We have 76 developers.
03:15The company as a whole with our QA staff is under 100.
03:19And that's not a lot in today's, you know, development world.
03:23I think it's really down to trusting everyone we hire
03:27and listening to everybody.
03:29We do company-wide play tests all the time
03:31and we want everyone to be extremely proud of the game
03:35that's on the shelf at the end of it.
03:36We are making a game that we truly believe in and want to play.
03:39Having this game already wins so many accolades.
03:43Does that add to the pressure?
03:44It's better than we ever expected, the response, you know,
03:47from the public.
03:47And, you know, it's something that while you always want that,
03:51you know, you never know.
03:51We've been building this for a long time.
03:53We've put our hearts into it, but, you know,
03:55putting it out there is, it's scary.
03:57We are so busy and so focused on making sure
04:00we ship the best possible game,
04:02that we're not really thinking too much
04:04about what everyone else thinks.
04:05Having that pressure on you is insane.
04:07That's why I say when we went to E3,
04:09we were paranoid, terrified, you know,
04:12did we make the right choices?
04:14Are people going to like this?
04:15Is it approachable?
04:16People's expectations are just through the roof.
04:19And, I mean, I hope we meet and exceed them,
04:21but, you know, I just, after looking at it for four years straight,
04:24I have no objectivity anymore.
04:25Do you feel like you've made it?
04:27Absolutely not.
04:28We've got to release something.
04:29We've got to have something that people like and want more of.
04:31We still have to prove ourselves.
04:33It's the proof is once people get it at home,
04:35they're sitting on the couch or at their desk,
04:36and they're playing the game for real.
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