Interviews// Rare Senior Programmer, Nick Burton

SPOnG: Does it get frustrating, not being able to tell people what you're working on?

Nick Burton: It used to, when I was sort of junior and more inexperienced I wanted to tell the world about it. It's like, "I'm doing this really cool stuff, I want to scream it from the rooftops!" But as you get on a bit you think "No".

Because if you do that sometimes it hurts, because everyone gets preconceptions then about "What it's going to be like this when it's finished", especially with the Internet and forums and how people discuss things endlessly. They get quite convinced "Oh, it's definitely going to be like this.' Then they're only going to be disappointed, because they've invented probably their ideal thing.

So, it's better to say, "Look, here's something that's nearly finished. There's going to be a few checks and balances and tweaks, but this is pretty much what we wanted to do." I've seen that a few times.


SPOnG: With Banjo at the moment, for a long time it was just a game that people knew existed but didn't know anything about. Then when details started coming out, people were a bit surprised.

Nick Burton: Banjo's a good example, because even internally people were going "Banjo are doing something interesting, aren't they? What are the Banjo guys up to? It's a different direction, what's this?"

Because you don't get over to the teams every day, even though you've got friends on all the teams. Unless you've got reason to, you tend to stay away. So, it's "Hit me with your best shot when you've got something good". Then it was a few weeks before the first press day, we knew what it was by that time, and someone said "Come over and give it a go" with the vehicle designer.

First few minutes with it you're like "What's this?" Then half an hour later I've got a flying gunship made out of God knows how many jet engines and guns bristling all over the place, and it still feels like Banjo! And you're looking at Greg going "That's amazing Greg (Mayles, creative director of the Banjo series), how have you managed to do that?"

So, it's going to be surprising what happens. Taking it in that new direction, the community ... they'll have had that thing of "Oooh, it's not Banjo", because they see some screen shots and obviously they infer a lot from that. They've only got what you guys write to go on as their guide, and you can't describe it completely, it's impossible. You can only impart your impressions. So, they then make some snap decisions, and they've got to come to terms with the fact that it's not what they had in their head it's going to be.

Then it's a double-edged sword. What would have happened had it been 'Banjo 3' as everyone was going to imagine. If it was like Tooie was but it was HD. Everyone would have gone, "It's just Banjo 3, they could have done something new with it". So, it's kind of, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's not the fault of anybody who feels like that, it's just that they've got their ideal that they're hoping for.


SPOnG: People are wary, too, because you do get disappointments, especially with platformers, which some games producers have struggled to translate into the next-gen. You get things like the next-gen Sonic, which wasn't well-received.

Nick Burton: Yeah, I played that. I used to have Sonic on the Mega Drive and you're wanting that moment back, almost, from when you first played Sonic. You're wanting to feel those kinds of emotions you were feeling again. You've got the memory of that there, which makes it more difficult sometimes. They tried to do something new, and if it's slightly off-kilter because they've not hit what the fan base wanted... it's difficult. That's the (problem with) Banjo, I guess.

But you've got to take that sort of risk, sometimes, and see if you've gone in the right direction.