Interviews// Haze's Screen Writer, Rob Yescombe

SPOnG: And get people to come and play Haze 2?

Rob Yescombe: Yeah. If we're lucky enough to do that, then yeah.


SPOnG: You're not working on the script for Haze 2 yet, then?

Rob Yescombe: Haze 2 is... no one's talking about it yet, we're gonna wait and see. We're not committed to anything.


SPOnG: Busy with TimeSplitters?

Rob Yescombe: That's the thing, we've got this LucasArts project and TimeSplitters 4... we're a big team, but that's still a big ask.


SPOnG: How have you found Sony through the development process?

Rob Yescombe: They've never interfered, if that's what you mean. There are these weird, kind of bogey man stories that publishers are evil, that Sony's evil, that Microsoft are evil. They're not! They recognise that people have a creative ability, that that's what we do for a living, and they let us get on with it.

Then, when we come to the end, of course, they've helped us with some of the testing in terms of getting staff in. They've just made it very easy for us to do.


SPOnG: In terms of technical stuff – getting to grips with coding for the PS3 – how have they been with that?

Rob Yescombe: The fact is that our pedigree was on the PS2. Those coders know that hardware extremely well. I think for us it's perhaps been less of a challenge – although naturally challenging because it's new hardware – but I think for us it's been less of a challenge than for some developers who haven't had that time developing on that kind of hardware.


SPOnG: And you've got rumble in there, right?

Rob Yescombe: Yep. And Sixaxis. If you're on fire, shake it shake it shake it! Also, when you're overdosed on Nectar, if you try and throw a grenade, you'll end up holding on to it, so you'll end up having to try and throw it out of your own hand. (Frantically shakes imaginary Sixaxis.)


SPOnG: Can you talk about TimeSplitters yet?

Rob Yescombe: The irony is, I can talk about it very little because we've got so much going on. The thing is, in our company, everybody volunteers ideas, and it's a very sweet open-door policy to design. However, when it comes to TS4, everybody's got a million ideas, and all of them are as valid as the next guy. So, what we have is an enormous list of great ideas that no one wants to trim anything out of. So, right now, there's no way we could have it out before the year 3000. We've got to figure out, 'how do we reason trimming out great stuff in order to make a game in time?'


SPOnG: Can you give us a hint as to what we might see parodied?

Rob Yescombe: I'll tell you something that didn't make it in, how about that?


SPOnG: OK.

Rob Yescombe: This was my idea, it was deemed not bizarre enough. A vehicle – lava tanks. The most deadly weapon in the world, made out of lava that's driven by a pirate that fires ninjas.


SPOnG: Was it the coders that kicked that back out?

Rob Yescombe: No, no. It was a mutual creative decision.