Meet Pete Mackay - [Comm-Links](https://api.star-citizen.wiki/comm-links) - Meet Pete Mackay Meet Pete Mackay ================ Undefined Undefined Meet the team [Previous](https://api.star-citizen.wiki/comm-links/13009) [Next](https://api.star-citizen.wiki/comm-links/13011) Content ------- English You’ve heard from him in customer service and you’ve seen him deliver the weather… but now Pete Mackay is a game designer! Pete will be visiting Wingman’s Hangar this week, where he’ll be talking about his fundraising for the Make-a-Wish foundation. If you’re interested, you can donate to help throw Cloud Imperium employees over the side of a building! How did you get started in the game industry? I’ve wanted to make games since the early 90s, but there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for a career in games in Salt Lake City (especially for someone who didn’t know the business end of a for loop!), so I ended up at a cool regional ISP called XMission. I was there for about 10 years when I decided a change of pace was in order. So I gave my notice, put my stuff in a truck and moved to Austin with nothing more than a place to crash when I arrived and a vague idea of how I was going to make it in a new city. Shortly afterward I got a job with a great studio called LightBox Interactive doing QA on a title called Starhawk in downtown Austin. A couple of years later I moved into the associate producer position and took up the mantle of Community Manager, which ultimately ended up in an offer to work for Chris at Cloud Imperium. What will you be doing for Cloud Imperium? I took a job doing customer service and community management here to get my foot in the door and was one of the first people hired. This ended up being a great opportunity as we didn’t have a lead designer yet and Chris needed some documentation for the ships systems. I asked if I could take a crack at it to which he replied ‘sure, but don’t take it personally if I don’t like it’. I guess he did because fast forward 6 months and I’m now on the design team full time. Currently I’m building out the ship parts, economy recipes and mining mechanics. Are you familiar with Chris Roberts’ past games? Oh yeah. I won’t say I’m the biggest Wing Commander 2 fan there is, but I feel like I would finish favorably in that contest. I spent my entire Christmas Day in 1991 reading a DOS manual to learn how to squeeze enough of that 640k out of my parents 386sx to get it to run. I played so much WC that I started a new character in WC 1 and carried him through to the end of the WC2 expansions, sending my wingmen home at the start of the mission so I could get 100% of the kills (including a particular Kilrathi cap ship in WC1 that had a blind spot that the mission designers didn’t expect the player to kill. I was bummed when I got no recognition for the feat during the debriefing). And I’ll admit it: when I was 14 I sent a letter to Origin asking them to hire me to make games. That didn’t really go according to plan. What are you most excited to see in Star Citizen/Squadron 42? I’m really excited to see all the ship designs start springing to life at the hands of our concept artists and 3d modelers. It fills me with glee every time we get a new round of art for review! What are you playing right now? I went back to Diablo 3 after a long hiatus and I’ve been eyeballing Etrian Odyssey 4 on the 3DS. I’ll probably pick that one up this weekend. You’re about to rappel off the side of a building… Austin Over the Edge is a fundraiser to help fund the really cool Make-A-Wish foundation. I’m trying to help them raise $1500 in donations, and for doing so they’re going to strap me in a harness and drop me off the side of a 32 story office building. I’ve raised just over $1000 so I’m pretty close largely to generous donations by the amazing Star Citizen community. I want to thank those people who have contributed so far! If you want to contribute you can help the foundation out here. Sie haben von ihm im Kundenservice gehört und ihn das Wetter liefern sehen.... aber jetzt ist Pete Mackay ein Spieleautor! Pete wird diese Woche Wingman's Hangar besuchen, wo er über sein Fundraising für die Make-a-Wish Foundation sprechen wird. Wenn Sie interessiert sind, können Sie spenden, um zu helfen, Cloud Imperium-Mitarbeiter über die Seite eines Gebäudes zu werfen! Wie bist du in der Spieleindustrie gestartet? Ich wollte seit Anfang der 90er Jahre Spiele machen, aber es gab nicht viel Gelegenheit für eine Karriere in Spielen in Salt Lake City (besonders für jemanden, der das Geschäftsende einer for-Schleife nicht kannte!), also landete ich bei einem coolen regionalen ISP namens XMission. Ich war etwa 10 Jahre lang dort, als ich entschied, dass ein Tempowechsel angebracht war. Also meldete ich mich, setzte meine Sachen in einen LKW und zog nach Austin, mit nichts anderem als einem Ort zum Pennen, als ich ankam, und einer vagen Vorstellung davon, wie ich es in einer neuen Stadt schaffen würde. Kurz darauf bekam ich einen Job bei einem großartigen Studio namens LightBox Interactive, wo ich QA bei einem Titel namens Starhawk in der Innenstadt von Austin machte. Ein paar Jahre später wechselte ich in die Position des Associate Producer und übernahm den Mantel des Community Managers, was schließlich zu einem Angebot führte, für Chris bei Cloud Imperium zu arbeiten. Was werden Sie für Cloud Imperium tun? Ich nahm einen Job an, um Kundenservice und Community-Management zu betreiben, um meinen Fuß in die Tür zu bekommen, und war eine der ersten Personen, die eingestellt wurden. Das entpuppte sich als große Chance, da wir noch keinen Lead Designer hatten und Chris eine Dokumentation für die Schiffssysteme benötigte. Ich fragte, ob ich einen Versuch wagen könnte, worauf er antwortete: "Sicher, aber nimm es nicht persönlich, wenn es mir nicht gefällt". Ich schätze, das hat er getan, weil er 6 Monate im Schnelldurchlauf war und ich bin jetzt Vollzeit im Designteam. Derzeit baue ich die Schiffsteile, Wirtschaftsrezepte und Bergbaumechanik aus. Bist du mit Chris Roberts' früheren Spielen vertraut? Oh ja. Ich werde nicht sagen, dass ich der größte Wing Commander 2 Fan bin, den es gibt, aber ich habe das Gefühl, dass ich in diesem Wettbewerb positiv abschneiden würde. Ich verbrachte meinen gesamten Weihnachtstag 1991 damit, ein DOS-Handbuch zu lesen, um zu lernen, wie man genug von diesem 640k aus meinen Eltern 386sx herausquetschen kann, damit es läuft. Ich spielte so viel WC, dass ich einen neuen Charakter in WC 1 begann und ihn bis zum Ende der WC2-Erweiterungen durchführte, indem ich meine Flügelmänner zu Beginn der Mission nach Hause schickte, damit ich 100% der Kills bekommen konnte (einschließlich eines bestimmten Kilrathi-Cap-Schiffes in WC1, das einen toten Winkel hatte, den die Missionsdesigner nicht erwarteten, dass der Spieler töten würde. Ich war deprimiert, als ich während der Nachbesprechung keine Anerkennung für die Leistung erhielt). Und ich gebe es zu: Als ich 14 Jahre alt war, habe ich einen Brief an Origin geschickt, in dem ich sie bat, mich für die Herstellung von Spielen zu engagieren. Das lief nicht wirklich nach Plan. Was freut dich am meisten in Star Citizen/Squadron 42 zu sehen? Ich bin wirklich begeistert zu sehen, wie alle Schiffsentwürfe durch unsere Konzeptkünstler und 3D-Modelle zum Leben erwachen. Es erfüllt mich jedes Mal mit Freude, wenn wir eine neue Runde Kunst zur Überprüfung bekommen! Was spielst du gerade? Ich bin nach einer langen Pause zu Diablo 3 zurückgekehrt und habe Etrian Odyssey 4 auf dem 3DS gesehen. Ich werde das wahrscheinlich dieses Wochenende abholen. Du bist dabei, dich von der Seite eines Gebäudes abzuseilen..... Austin Over the Edge ist eine Spendenaktion, um die wirklich coole Make-A-Wish-Stiftung zu unterstützen. Ich versuche, ihnen zu helfen, $1500 an Spenden zu sammeln, und dafür werden sie mich in einem Gurtzeug festbinden und von der Seite eines 32-stöckigen Bürogebäudes fallen lassen. Ich habe etwas mehr als $1000 gesammelt, also bin ich ziemlich nah dran an großzügigen Spenden der erstaunlichen Star Citizen Community. Ich möchte denjenigen danken, die bisher dazu beigetragen haben! Wenn du etwas beitragen willst, kannst du der Stiftung hier draußen helfen. You’ve heard from him in customer service and you’ve seen him deliver the weather… but now Pete Mackay is a game designer! Pete will be visiting Wingman’s Hangar this week, where he’ll be talking about his fundraising for the Make-a-Wish foundation. If you’re interested, you can donate to help throw Cloud Imperium employees over the side of a building! How did you get started in the game industry? I’ve wanted to make games since the early 90s, but there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for a career in games in Salt Lake City (especially for someone who didn’t know the business end of a for loop!), so I ended up at a cool regional ISP called XMission. I was there for about 10 years when I decided a change of pace was in order. So I gave my notice, put my stuff in a truck and moved to Austin with nothing more than a place to crash when I arrived and a vague idea of how I was going to make it in a new city. Shortly afterward I got a job with a great studio called LightBox Interactive doing QA on a title called Starhawk in downtown Austin. A couple of years later I moved into the associate producer position and took up the mantle of Community Manager, which ultimately ended up in an offer to work for Chris at Cloud Imperium. What will you be doing for Cloud Imperium? I took a job doing customer service and community management here to get my foot in the door and was one of the first people hired. This ended up being a great opportunity as we didn’t have a lead designer yet and Chris needed some documentation for the ships systems. I asked if I could take a crack at it to which he replied ‘sure, but don’t take it personally if I don’t like it’. I guess he did because fast forward 6 months and I’m now on the design team full time. Currently I’m building out the ship parts, economy recipes and mining mechanics. Are you familiar with Chris Roberts’ past games? Oh yeah. I won’t say I’m the biggest Wing Commander 2 fan there is, but I feel like I would finish favorably in that contest. I spent my entire Christmas Day in 1991 reading a DOS manual to learn how to squeeze enough of that 640k out of my parents 386sx to get it to run. I played so much WC that I started a new character in WC 1 and carried him through to the end of the WC2 expansions, sending my wingmen home at the start of the mission so I could get 100% of the kills (including a particular Kilrathi cap ship in WC1 that had a blind spot that the mission designers didn’t expect the player to kill. I was bummed when I got no recognition for the feat during the debriefing). And I’ll admit it: when I was 14 I sent a letter to Origin asking them to hire me to make games. That didn’t really go according to plan. What are you most excited to see in Star Citizen/Squadron 42? I’m really excited to see all the ship designs start springing to life at the hands of our concept artists and 3d modelers. It fills me with glee every time we get a new round of art for review! What are you playing right now? I went back to Diablo 3 after a long hiatus and I’ve been eyeballing Etrian Odyssey 4 on the 3DS. I’ll probably pick that one up this weekend. You’re about to rappel off the side of a building… Austin Over the Edge is a fundraiser to help fund the really cool Make-A-Wish foundation. I’m trying to help them raise $1500 in donations, and for doing so they’re going to strap me in a harness and drop me off the side of a 32 story office building. I’ve raised just over $1000 so I’m pretty close largely to generous donations by the amazing Star Citizen community. I want to thank those people who have contributed so far! If you want to contribute you can help the foundation out here. Links ----- Text URL you can donate [ http://www.austinovertheedge.com/Pete\_Mackay/ ](http://www.austinovertheedge.com/Pete_Mackay/) here. [ http://www.austinovertheedge.com/Pete\_Mackay/ ](http://www.austinovertheedge.com/Pete_Mackay/) iframe [ http://www.youtube.com/embed/\_cgNpyFW6Ao?rel=0 ](http://www.youtube.com/embed/_cgNpyFW6Ao?rel=0) Images ------ 2 image/png [ ![](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/eea3006vhrq1qr/source/Pete_header_backup.png) ](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/eea3006vhrq1qr/source/Pete_header_backup.png) Pete_header_backup.png [Details](https://api.star-citizen.wiki/comm-links/images/530) Last Modified 12 years ago Size 1.21 MB [Source](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/eea3006vhrq1qr/source/Pete_header_backup.png) [Info](https://api.star-citizen.wiki/comm-links/images/530) image/jpeg [ ![](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/j1sp4o3utz6wgr/source/2013-01-15_headshots_pete_mackey_01.jpg) ](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/j1sp4o3utz6wgr/source/2013-01-15_headshots_pete_mackey_01.jpg) 2013-01-15_headshots_pete_mackey_01.jpg [Details](https://api.star-citizen.wiki/comm-links/images/531) Last Modified 12 years ago Size 2.51 MB [Source](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/j1sp4o3utz6wgr/source/2013-01-15_headshots_pete_mackey_01.jpg) [Info](https://api.star-citizen.wiki/comm-links/images/531) Metadata -------- CIG ID 13010 Channel Undefined Category Undefined Series Meet the team Comments 45 Published 12 years ago (2013-05-29T00:00:00+00:00) [RSI Article](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13010-Meet-Pete-Mackay) [API](https://api.star-citizen.wiki/api/comm-links/13010)