Huddy on himself and working in the industry
You've been in the industry really since its consumer inception, from writing engines to working at hardware companies. What's it been like working in the industry and have there been any obvious ups and downs?
[Richard]: I've been in the graphics business for about a dozen years now. I started in software rendering and I've worked for ATI for about two years now. Before that I was at 3Dlabs for two years, and then NVIDIA for four years. I have to say that I really enjoyed my first two years at NVIDIA, but towards the end the experience lost its shine and I started to resent the marketing-driven nature of the company. The last two years at ATI have been very similar to the first two years at NVIDIA. ATI now is technology driven, ambitious and principled - a really great company. I think we deliver terrific value, and I love the fact that I'm encouraged to think about the interests of games developers and players, and not just the interests of my employer. I can think of several companies who could benefit from learning from those simple ideas which lie at the heart of ATI!
Besides those hardware companies, you've worked at Criterion and Rendermorphics in the past, writing code and creating APIs, and you've also done a bit of D3D driver work if I'm not mistaken. Do you feel your experience writing code helps you be a better devrel person, since you've done exactly the job you're helping to assist?
[Richard]: Yes, I think my wide experience, and not just in software development, helps me to see many situations from other people's perspectives. It's a really important principle of the work that we do that it should be to the genuine advantage of the developers and publishers, and not just for ourselves. And that requires that you can put yourself in other people's places and understand their pain and priorities.
I've previously worked as much as 112 hours in a single week - and at the end of that week I was totally destroyed. So now, when I see the schedule pressure that some developers cope with, I realise how tough life is for them.
I don't think you have to go through quite as much stress as that to understand other people's perspectives - but having done it has given me a real appreciation of how rough it can be to be a programmer. And I've had (very minor) games released where I was the coder. I understand how proud that made me feel - and I want modern games developers to be able to feel that same pride - ideally amplified a good many times since some of the guys I work with are producing games that sell millions of copies!
Are you still going to be the Euro devrel manager for ATI in a couple of years? Is it what you love doing, or do you ever get the urge to hack on code full time again?
[Richard]: One of my favourite Bjork songs has the line "I don't know my future after this weekend, and I don't want to".
I quite like the idea of living my life like that - but real the truth is I need lots of predictability. My relationships with developers and with ATI are very important to me, so yes, most likely I'll still be here.
If I stop enjoying it then I'll choose to move on, but right now I often think I have just the coolest job. I get to work with smart and motivated people, I work with exciting technology, and my days are interesting and varied.
How many guys do you know who can say that about their work?
