MMArchive| Clinton Keith Interview | |
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 The Interview mm3guy: How were you related to the development of Midtown Madness 1 & 2? Clinton: I was the project director and programmer on MM1 and the Director of product development for Angel for MM2. mm3guy: What was being the director of the MM games like? Clinton: As the director I focused on the decisions made at the team level and coordinated the relationship with Microsoft (in addition to some programmer duties). mm3guy: How did you and the staff come to the decision to make the games have support for add-on content? Clinton: We played games online and saw the benefit. Microsoft's Driving Games Product Manager (Dean Lester) encouraged this as well. mm3guy: There is evidence that MM2 was going to have instant replay as a feature, do you know why that feature wasn't included? Clinton: It was basically eliminated due to the schedule. We can't record the entire game, but just the control inputs and replay the simulation using those recorded inputs. Instant replay requires every functional element of the game to recreate the simulation the same every time regardless of the differences that occur on the PC between playing the game and playing the replay. Small changes that occur in the replay have a "butterfly effect" on the replay going forward so that by the end of replay, the differences are huge. mm3guy: What do you think of all the add-on content that has been made for the games? Clinton: I was simply amazed. I knew how hard it was to create the first 10 cars we released on MM1. I think there were at least twice as many that were released by the community for free in the following years that were better. I had only wished we were allowed to release the city building tools to the community as well. mm3guy: For any of the games, do you have a favorite add-on? Clinton: I recall being highly entertained by the Oscar Meyer Weiner vehicle. mm3guy: What was your reaction when Angel Studios was bought out by Rockstar Games? Clinton: I had just left. It made a lot of sense and was a good match. mm3guy: When Midtown Madness 3 was only released for the xBox, what did you think of that? Clinton: I was very impressed by the good job DICE did. I did think that MM is a better match for the PC than the console. Midnight Club was a better variation of the theme for the console. mm3guy: Have you ever played one of the other games in the Madness series, such as Motocross Madness (1 or 2), or Monster Truck Madness (1 or 2)? Clinton: Absolutely. I loved the Motocross Madness series. I'm a huge fan of Robb Rinnard personally and professionally. mm3guy: Have you been keeping tabs on the MM community? Clinton: Only for a few years after the title was released. I'm very happy to hear that there are still some fans. mm3guy: Is there anything else you might want to say before the interview is closed? Clinton: I think that someday the idea of the franchise will be revisited some day. MM1 still remains my favorite project of my career. It was the first game that most of us worked on and it was a great team experience. We stayed late at night playing it. I made sure that my wife and 3 year old son could play it. After the game was released I received letters from parents of children with developmental problems saying that the open nature of the game created a game experience that their children could enjoy like none other. mm3guy: Thank You taking the time for me to interview you. Clinton: thank you for allowing me to reminisce Ian. I hope we all get to play a next generation game like it someday. Links - MobyGames Profile - High Moon Studios, the company Clinton Keith works for now. - Agile Game Development, Clinton Keith's personal website. Contains a blog aswell |
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