STACK #145 Nov 2016

visit stack.net.au

GAMES FEATURE

space man Brian Horton has enjoyed a long career in video game development. He recently spoke to us about his work as studio art director on the latest Call of Duty, InfiniteWarfare . Words Paul Jones

space and it sounded perfect, so I jumped aboard.” Now in its 15th year, Infinity Ward has been through seismic

W e last spoke with the affable Brian Horton when he was in the employ of Crystal Dynamics, having just finished work on the Tomb Raider reboot. Surrounded by concept sketches he had been working on for what would become the follow-up title, Rise of the Tomb Raider , we were struck by his fervent enthusiasm for his craft. Some three and a half years later and now working as

changes in that time but have remained at the forefront of Call of Duty development, a series it conceived for PC way back in 2002. Horton is thriving in the environment and says working at the studio is the “same kind of depth” as Crystal Dynamics “but on a much larger scale”. “Now I have a much bigger art team of around 60 plus. I just work through

Brian Horton

the studio art director on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare , that same level of vigour remains. It’s infectious. “You know, I’ve always

the leads and whenever I have an opportunity to, I talk to all the artists that I can. The leadership is very important to me because the team are my eyes and ears and they can communicate the high level goals. It’s an amazing

It's an amazing effort to see everyone so driven and passionate

wanted to work with Activision, and Infinity Ward is the best,”

Horton tells us when we ask how he began working with the Call of Duty franchise progenitor.

effort to see everyone so driven and passionate to create this high quality experience.” So did Horton have a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve with Infinite Warfare ? “I really wanted to just take some of the sensibilities that we had for character and storytelling to make sure that our worlds and our characters were as believable as possible. “The vision that they had for Infinite Warfare was to tell a much more rich, character driven story, so that feathered really well with what I love to do, which is bringing these characters to life in worlds that you can explore and learn about. “Some of my favourite stuff about Infinite Warfare is we now have a story that you can start from the beginning to end and there’s no loading screens. You can just play the whole

“I grew up in the ‘80s so the [Atari] 2600 was my first console and I loved Pitfall . To come to Activision, the studio that made my favourite game, was truly amazing. “When Dave Stohl

(studio head at Infinity Ward) contacted me, I had just wrapped up Tomb Raider and it was a great opportunity to make a switch. They pitched me this idea of Call of Duty going to

NOVEMBER 2016

12

jbhifi.com.au