From Battlefront to Marvel Strike Force: A Veteran Designer on Building Games and Studios

Introduction and Early Career

I started in the game industry a long time ago, like 27 years ago. Straight out of film school at UCLA, I started working at Activision. I worked on several titles at Activision, first as an intern and then eventually as a designer. I worked on the Dark Reign RTS. I worked on an RTS called Star Trek: Armada. I also wrote the story for Armada.

Then I transitioned from Activision when the Pandemic folks broke off. I jumped over and went with them. I worked at Pandemic Studios for several years. At Pandemic Studios, I was the lead designer on Star Wars: Clone Wars and later became the creative director for Star Wars Battlefront 1 and Star Wars Battlefront 2. I was also the creative director on Lord of the Rings: Conquest and an unannounced game at Pandemic Studios that never happened. It was a great time working at Pandemic Studios. It really inspired me on how to build a game company and how to run a game company with a really positive company culture. However, at the time, the hours were really crazy, and the intensity during crunch was really intense.

Founding Seismic Games

After Pandemic Studios, I broke off and started Seismic Games with Chris Miller and Greg Borrud. We started Seismic in 2008. Our philosophy was that if we got a bunch of really talented people together who enjoyed working together and were working on cool projects, success would follow. We worked on a variety of different things, and I’ve been really lucky because my career has always been, even though it’s been a lot of IP-based games, very diverse in different kinds of games. I’m not the kind of designer who works on one game over and over again. I like taking on new challenges.

At Seismic, we made Marvel Strike Force in co-development with what was, at the time, Kabam, which became Aftershock, which became FoxNext, which became Disney. I was the creative director on that project on the Seismic side. We worked on the gameplay and engineering for the Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run ride at Disneyland and Disney World. We made a Magic: The Gathering CCG. We made a Jeopardy game. We made a Blade Runner VR game. We made a bunch of different kinds of games. Very eclectic, different, diverse games at Seismic. That was a blast, not only being able to work on different games but also to help run the company as a founder, creative lead, and president.

Joining Niantic and Working in AR

Seismic Games was acquired by Niantic in 2018. We joined the Niantic family and became Niantic LA. Seismic became the Niantic LA studio, and we spent five years working on a ton of different geolocation AR games. We worked on a Marvel geolocation AR game. We worked on a Transformers one, and an NBA one, and really dove into that genre for several years. I also got to help Niantic with their whole game slate. That was really fun. Great people over there as well.

But after five years, it became clear to everyone that the geolocation AR genre was mostly a genre of one, and that it was all about Pokémon Go. So Niantic shut the studio down, and I was able to grab the majority of my team and start Redux Games. Now we’re going on our third year at Redux Games. We’re working on a number of different projects and doing the Seismic independent game company thing again.

Design Approach and Managing Creative Versatility

I think when I know that a game works well for me, it’s about marrying – especially if it’s an IP – it’s about marrying the player fantasy that has never been done before with the right game genre and the right IP. That’s when I feel like I’m really in my sweet spot.

Star Wars Battlefront was an example. Battlefield 1942 had just come out. We were all playing it and thought it would be so awesome in Star Wars. We pitched that to LucasArts as this kind of dynamic gameplay in that universe, and the game wrote itself. Putting it on the console was the twist.

Marvel Strike Force was similar. There hadn’t been a really compelling JRPG in the Marvel universe. It felt like a no-brainer: collect all the Marvel heroes, give them their abilities and powers. The challenge became the execution because the idea itself was a no-brainer.

I’m impressed by indie developers who come up with ideas no one has seen before, but that’s not usually my sweet spot. Mine is more like chocolate and peanut butter. I take something that already works – gameplay that already works – and either a new player fantasy or an IP that hasn’t been done, and execute on that.

Working With IP Holders

I think it’s a combination of three things. First, the player fantasy has to be there. Saying “I want to make a Star Wars match-three game” doesn’t feel like a natural fit. But a Star Wars battlefield experience does.

Second, you have to show trust, love, and respect for the IP. Every IP holder is different. Marvel is very concerned about how their characters are represented, and the story is deeply important to them.

Third, you have to find the balance where the game is sometimes more important than the license, and vice versa. That dance is the trickiest part.

We had ups and downs with LucasArts. After Battlefront 1, our idea for Battlefront 2 was letting players play as the heroes. LucasArts was opposed at first – they said Battlefront is about nameless soldiers. We had to prove it could be compelling and fit the fantasy. Their concern was that the characters couldn’t die. We solved that by having heroes enter for limited celebratory moments and then exit rather than die. That compromise made it work.

The Shift to Remote Development and the Future of LA Studios

We have to acknowledge that the changes brought about by the pandemic are permanent. We were forced to work remotely, and most of us found we could still make games remotely.

Some companies went back to five days in the office. Others are hybrid. Right now, we’re fully remote because that’s what works for us. Thatgamecompany, with whom we work, is also fully remote. There are pros and cons. Some parts of development are better in person – fixing bugs, art direction, working out issues. But remote work has benefits: no commute, lower overhead, more focused time, and access to global talent.

I think hybrid or remote is here to stay. LA is expensive, so many people moved just outside LA and work remotely. At Redux, we still meet monthly to keep our culture alive, and we occasionally host full-team on-site events.

Thoughts on AR/VR and the 'Next Platform'

The pattern has been that whenever one platform becomes saturated, a new one shows up. Everyone thought AR and VR would be next. I think they’re too early. Consoles succeeded because the living room already existed. Social gaming succeeded because people were already on social networks. Mobile succeeded because everyone already had a phone.

VR requires people to change habits entirely, and that’s a barrier. AR had Pokémon Go, but that was unique. It’s hard to generalize that success into a genre. Switching between multiple geolocation AR games is too time-intensive.

I think AR glasses might be the next platform once they become part of daily life. But overall, there is a bit of panic in the industry looking for the next platform, and I don’t think it’s coming soon.

Industry Cycles, Costs, AI, and the Future

I think this is a cycle. If you’ve lived through previous cycles, you panic less. The pandemic hiring wave needed to correct itself. That has mostly happened. But automation through AI means tools are getting good enough to make high-quality games with fewer people. That’s the scary part.

Outsourcing is used to reduce internal art team costs. Now code, features, and content can be outsourced or automated. It will be easier to make good games with fewer people. That also means more games and more saturation. Quality will matter more.

I think the industry will shrink, similar to film, where big blockbusters still exist but indie films thrive too. In games, a five-person indie team can make something that earns hundreds of millions of dollars.

Distribution and Scaling

The process of selling your game to the public has moved later. Big early marketing pushes don’t make sense anymore. Many hits were out for years before exploding.

Small teams often leave money on the table because they can’t scale when they suddenly succeed. Running a big live game requires a large team for content, stability, and growth. Niantic scaled Pokémon Go quickly and maintained it for eight years because they could scale.

What hasn’t changed is the need to scale once momentum hits. What has changed is that teams must stay tight, small, and budget-conscious until the game is refined and the audience is clear.

Investor Expectations

Investors now need to think not just about development until launch but also about the first year of live operations. You have to assume you won’t be a huge hit immediately. The decision point of whether a game "failed” happens later. It’s hard for investors to accept, but it’s the reality.

Closing a game after two weeks makes no sense. You need time to refine, measure, adjust, and grow.

Redux Games Today

Redux Games is a little bit of a social experiment in game development. This is the Redux because we’re doing it again and doing it better, hopefully. We’re a group of like-minded people who love making games. The Seismic philosophy continues: if you like the people you work with and you’re working on cool projects, hopefully success follows – but even if not, at least you enjoy the process.

We work with thatgamecompany. We help them with their product, Sky: Children of the Light, and on other things I can’t talk about. We are about to work on another project, and we have an internal project as well.

Our philosophy focuses on the “no-brainer” player experience – the game you think already exists until you realize it doesn’t. That keeps me excited. I prefer introducing a new experience that feels familiar rather than refining something that already exists.

We are growing slowly. The goal is to eventually get back to the size of Seismic: about four teams working on four different games. We want a diversity of games. The industry is scary right now, and we feel fortunate to be here working at a time when many talented people are struggling.

Giz Gewirtz, CEO at Redux Games

Interview conducted by Kirill Tokarev