Meet Dave Haddock

Today you’re going to meet the man behind much of Star Citizen’s fictional world and the author of the fan-favorite Time Capsule and Spectrum Dispatch posts, Dave Haddock! We’ve asked him to answer a few introductory questions:

What do you do for Cloud Imperium?

So far I’ve helped work out the history for the game universe which ultimately made its way into the Time Capsules. After Chris unveiled the demo at GDC in October, I switched over to the Spectrum Dispatches and started writing the Cal Mason, Kid Crimson, and the News Dispatch stories.

Is this your first game project? What else have you worked on?

This is my first game project as a writer. When I first moved to LA I got a job as a QA Localization Tester at Activision where I worked on Call of Duty: United Offensive, True Crime, and the Doom 3 expansion. Since it was a night-shift job, I was able to start interning for Ascendant Pictures during the day.

What are your inspirations in creating the Star Citizen world?

There are quite a few. When Chris and I first began discussing the universe of Star Citizen, there was a lot of talk about taking elements from Ancient Rome so I went back to reread old textbooks about that period as well as talks about the classics (Star Wars, Star Trek, Ringworld, Foundation, etc.) I’ve always been a fan of Joss Whedon so naturally I rewatched Firefly a bunch which hardly counts as ‘work.’

With Cassandra’s Tears, I went to the Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale and picked up old copies of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy anthology magazines to try and capture that style used in the 1950’s Flash Gordon-esque type of story. While Kid Crimson was naturally more of a Dashiell Hammett flavor.

But I’ve actually drawn the most inspiration from music. Generally when I start writing something, I’ll try to collate any songs that put my head in that world or capture a scene or emotion. So my Star Citizen playlist is a variety of songs from all sorts of genres, from John Murphy’s score for Sunshine to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ Social Network score to Massive Attack to a Sharon Van Etten song. Anything that sparks the brain to the material.

Are you a gamer? If so, what are you playing now?

I grew up as a gamer. My family always seemed to have the ‘other systems’ though. We didn’t have Atari, we had Intellivision. We didn’t have a Commodore 64, we got an Epson Equity II PC. So until PC really caught on, we never really had the popular games in the house. I kept playing games through high school but fell off a bit after college as I was broke and couldn’t afford the systems.

Over the past couple years, I started playing again but have definitely slowed down. Recently, I’ve been watching my roommate work his way through Skyrim which has been fun. Mass Effect 2 was the last game I played through. That was only a couple months ago so I jumped on that bandwagon relatively late.

What are you most looking forward to seeing in the finished game?

There’s a story-point that I won’t mention that I’m really looking forward to, mostly because I’m curious to see how the players react to it. But as far as ones I can discuss, while I would love to see sprawling space combat, I keep coming back to a personal moment. I’d love to be on the drift out alone through a nebula. I’d love to just bask in the beauty and stillness. I think if we can capture that feeling of awe, that would be something.

Heute wirst du den Mann hinter einem Großteil der fiktiven Welt von Star Citizen und den Autor der beliebten Time Capsule und Spectrum Dispatch Beiträge, Dave Haddock, treffen! Wir haben ihn gebeten, ein paar einleitende Fragen zu beantworten:

Was machst du für Cloud Imperium?

Bisher habe ich geholfen, die Geschichte für das Spieluniversum herauszufinden, das schließlich in die Zeitkapseln Einzug hielt. Nachdem Chris die Demo auf der GDC im Oktober vorgestellt hatte, wechselte ich zu den Spectrum Dispatchches und begann, die Cal Mason, Kid Crimson und die News Dispatch Stories zu schreiben.

Ist dies dein erstes Spielprojekt? Woran hast du noch gearbeitet?

Dies ist mein erstes Spielprojekt als Autor. Als ich das erste Mal nach LA zog, bekam ich einen Job als QA-Lokalisierungstester bei Activision, wo ich an Call of Duty: United Offensive, True Crime und der Doom 3 Erweiterung arbeitete. Da es sich um eine Nachtschichtarbeit handelte, konnte ich tagsüber ein Praktikum bei Ascendant Pictures beginnen.

Was sind Ihre Inspirationen bei der Schaffung der Star Citizen-Welt?

Es gibt einige wenige. Als Chris und ich zum ersten Mal anfingen, über das Universum von Star Citizen zu diskutieren, gab es viel Gerede darüber, Elemente aus dem alten Rom zu nehmen, also ging ich zurück, um alte Lehrbücher über diese Zeit nachzulesen, sowie Gespräche über die Klassiker (Star Wars, Star Trek, Ringworld, Foundation, etc.). Ich war schon immer ein Fan von Joss Whedon, also habe ich Firefly natürlich einen Haufen neu gesehen, der kaum als "Arbeit" zählt.

Mit Cassandra's Tears ging ich in den Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale und holte alte Exemplare der Sci-Fi/Fantasy Anthologiezeitschriften ab, um zu versuchen, den Stil der Flash Gordon-ähnlichen Geschichte aus den 1950er Jahren einzufangen. Während Kid Crimson natürlich mehr von einem Dashiell Hammett Geschmack war.

Aber ich habe mich eigentlich am meisten von der Musik inspirieren lassen. Im Allgemeinen, wenn ich anfange, etwas zu schreiben, werde ich versuchen, alle Songs zusammenzustellen, die meinen Kopf in diese Welt bringen oder eine Szene oder Emotion festhalten. So ist meine Star Citizen Playlist eine Vielzahl von Songs aus allen möglichen Genres, von John Murphys Partitur für Sunshine über Trent Reznor und Atticus Ross' Social Network Partitur bis hin zu Massive Attack und einem Sharon Van Etten Song. Alles, was das Gehirn zum Material beflügelt.

Bist du ein Spieler? Wenn ja, was spielst du jetzt?

Ich bin als Gamer aufgewachsen. Meine Familie schien jedoch immer die "anderen Systeme" zu haben. Wir hatten nicht Atari, sondern Intellivision. Wir hatten keinen Commodore 64, wir hatten einen Epson Equity II PC. Bis der PC sich also wirklich durchgesetzt hat, hatten wir die beliebten Spiele nie wirklich im Haus. Ich spielte weiter Spiele durch die High School, fiel aber nach dem College ein wenig ab, da ich pleite war und mir die Systeme nicht leisten konnte.

In den letzten Jahren habe ich wieder angefangen zu spielen, bin aber definitiv langsamer geworden. Vor kurzem habe ich meinen Mitbewohner dabei beobachtet, wie er sich durch Skyrim arbeitet, was Spaß gemacht hat. Mass Effect 2 war das letzte Spiel, das ich durchgespielt habe. Das war erst vor ein paar Monaten, also sprang ich relativ spät auf den Zug auf.

Worauf freuen Sie sich am meisten im fertigen Spiel?

Es gibt einen Storypunkt, den ich nicht erwähnen werde, auf den ich mich wirklich freue, vor allem, weil ich neugierig bin, wie die Spieler darauf reagieren. Aber was diejenigen betrifft, die ich besprechen kann, so komme ich, obwohl ich gerne einen ausgedehnten Weltraumkampf sehen würde, immer wieder auf einen persönlichen Moment zurück. Ich würde gerne allein durch einen Nebel auf dem Weg nach draußen sein. Ich würde mich gerne einfach in der Schönheit und Stille sonnen. Ich denke, wenn wir dieses Gefühl der Ehrfurcht einfangen können, wäre das etwas.

Today you’re going to meet the man behind much of Star Citizen’s fictional world and the author of the fan-favorite Time Capsule and Spectrum Dispatch posts, Dave Haddock! We’ve asked him to answer a few introductory questions:

What do you do for Cloud Imperium?

So far I’ve helped work out the history for the game universe which ultimately made its way into the Time Capsules. After Chris unveiled the demo at GDC in October, I switched over to the Spectrum Dispatches and started writing the Cal Mason, Kid Crimson, and the News Dispatch stories.

Is this your first game project? What else have you worked on?

This is my first game project as a writer. When I first moved to LA I got a job as a QA Localization Tester at Activision where I worked on Call of Duty: United Offensive, True Crime, and the Doom 3 expansion. Since it was a night-shift job, I was able to start interning for Ascendant Pictures during the day.

What are your inspirations in creating the Star Citizen world?

There are quite a few. When Chris and I first began discussing the universe of Star Citizen, there was a lot of talk about taking elements from Ancient Rome so I went back to reread old textbooks about that period as well as talks about the classics (Star Wars, Star Trek, Ringworld, Foundation, etc.) I’ve always been a fan of Joss Whedon so naturally I rewatched Firefly a bunch which hardly counts as ‘work.’

With Cassandra’s Tears, I went to the Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale and picked up old copies of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy anthology magazines to try and capture that style used in the 1950’s Flash Gordon-esque type of story. While Kid Crimson was naturally more of a Dashiell Hammett flavor.

But I’ve actually drawn the most inspiration from music. Generally when I start writing something, I’ll try to collate any songs that put my head in that world or capture a scene or emotion. So my Star Citizen playlist is a variety of songs from all sorts of genres, from John Murphy’s score for Sunshine to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ Social Network score to Massive Attack to a Sharon Van Etten song. Anything that sparks the brain to the material.

Are you a gamer? If so, what are you playing now?

I grew up as a gamer. My family always seemed to have the ‘other systems’ though. We didn’t have Atari, we had Intellivision. We didn’t have a Commodore 64, we got an Epson Equity II PC. So until PC really caught on, we never really had the popular games in the house. I kept playing games through high school but fell off a bit after college as I was broke and couldn’t afford the systems.

Over the past couple years, I started playing again but have definitely slowed down. Recently, I’ve been watching my roommate work his way through Skyrim which has been fun. Mass Effect 2 was the last game I played through. That was only a couple months ago so I jumped on that bandwagon relatively late.

What are you most looking forward to seeing in the finished game?

There’s a story-point that I won’t mention that I’m really looking forward to, mostly because I’m curious to see how the players react to it. But as far as ones I can discuss, while I would love to see sprawling space combat, I keep coming back to a personal moment. I’d love to be on the drift out alone through a nebula. I’d love to just bask in the beauty and stillness. I think if we can capture that feeling of awe, that would be something.