Dean Brown: How a modest passion for gaming lead to a core role in our studios development.
What inspired your career?
My parents bought a PlayStation 1 for the entire family to play when I was a child, I was amazed by games like Metal Gear Solid and Dino Crisis to name a few and I loved how each game could provide you with different experiences and stories that couldn’t be told this way by watching a movie or reading a book. I was hooked to say the least! And it didn’t take long for me to feel inspired to create my own games and provide other people with unique experiences and stories that may inspire them the same way it did to me!
What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on besides Instinction?
When I was at University I worked on a game project within the Unity engine and it was my first time to ever develop a project using Virtual Reality technology. I created this horror-centric exploration game with the intention to utilize all of the unique functionalities VR gaming experiences can provide! It was a unique challenge and experience developing a game on VR hardware, especially since VR gaming had only just become more mainstream, so it was amazing to try out the latest technology and be able to create a small project using it!
What’s your passion outside of work?
Aside from the usual video games and movies interests, I very much enjoy urban exploration and hiking. It is a lot of fun for me to explore abandoned man-made structures on one hand while also peacefully exploring the open landscapes on the other!
What’s your favourite music genre?
Hard to pick just one! I first developed an interest towards techno, electronic rock, dance-rock and electropunk from having grown up listening to The Prodigy alongside my family, who are also major Prodigy fans!
What accomplishment are you most proud of, personally or professionally?
It doesn’t sound exciting but honestly my favorite accomplishments aside from working with Hashbane on Instinction was getting through College and University with good marks! Considering how much I sucked at School it was a welcome surprise! It’s the little things in life I cherish it seems!
What’s something you hope to achieve in the future?
Besides making Instinction the best Dinosaur game possible, I also want to use my gained knowledge and experience to also make my own independent game in my free time, I spent a lot of time growing up discussing and planning hypothetical game ideas with my friends and it would be interesting to finally start making those ideas a reality!
What’s something surprising people may not know about you?
I’ve always been terrified of water since I was a kid, and as a result I spent most of my life avoiding water, which in turn has led to me realizing that I still don’t know how to swim!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” — I spent a good chunk of my life thinking that advice was silly and wouldn’t work in reality, however in hindsight I realized that I managed to make great strides in my life by becoming friends with people who would help me out no matter what regardless if it was for personal or professional issues!
What’s something you wish you had more time for?
Spending time with my family. It sounds cliche but my family have provided and supported me throughout my life and as my life responsibilities grow my time with my family lessens, and after spending a good chunk of my life with them behind me every step of the way, I really do miss them when they aren’t here!
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career so far?
You can never really be the expert in everything, there are always going to be new challenges you face that will catch you off guard and may even set you back a bit. The key is to always keep an open mind and learn as you go and learn from your previous attempts and mistakes so that you can finally overcome the obstacle. And if you can do it once, you can certainly do it again!
What are some notable projects/companies you’ve worked with?
The aforementioned VR project I did in University! While I did do multiple projects in University that I really enjoyed, the experience of making something for VR really excited me! I had a ton of ideas for that project but time constraints prevented me from doing all of them! It’s definitely a project I would be interested in going back and remaking!
Where did you grow up and where do you live now?
I was born and raised within Tyne and Wear, a county in the North-East of England. I still currently live there, but I hope to move to the beautiful countryside and bring my family with me in the future!
What’s your favorite travel destination and why?
Scotland! Throughout my life my family have taken trips and holidays over there and every time we go there we always find more things to love about it! In general we just love the more expansive open areas Scotland has to offer with amazing views!
Do you have any pets, and can you tell us about them?
Not anymore, for 13 years I had an adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Molly, who was basically my little sister growing up, she had such an amazing personality it honestly scared us at times just how human-like she was! She never failed to make us laugh either with her crazy antics and behaviour as well!
What’s an interesting fact or hobby about you?
I suppose an interesting fact about me is that I absolutely love horror movies and games, but I am easily spooked by them and even today I play horror games with my friends to get some great laughs out of them. Another partial reason why I wanted to work on games is so one day I can create a fun little horror game for my friends and myself to have a blast in!
What’s your favourite film or TV show, and why?
Probably John Carpenter’s The Thing, it’s an amazing movie that makes the most of its setting and does not rely on over-explaining everything to the viewer, it encourages the viewer to question the many different elements the movie has to offer even after the movie ends! There are increasingly less movies that go for that experience, and since this was one of the first movies I watched that did this growing up, it has a special place in my heart! Following that I really loved James Cameron’s Aliens and I regularly shift my opinion on whether Aliens or The Thing is my number one movie!
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I wanted to follow my father’s footsteps and become a soldier, but both of my parents wanted me to pursue other career choices instead, so eventually once I started getting into video games it didn’t take long for me to wish to be a game developer myself, and here I am!
What’s a career highlight of yours?
Being a part of the Hashbane team! Working with everyone has been a unique experience all around! It is very rare to join the team where every single member of the team are just as passionate towards the game as you are and that everyone involved has the opportunity to contribute towards the game in different ways and it allows us all to make great strides towards the development for the game and help us overcome any challenges or problems along the way!
What was a big hurdle you had to overcome in your career?
Hard to say! Considering my role in the game industry it’s common for me to find new hurdles that I need to work around and overcome on a regular basis! Some of these hurdles are larger and more persistent than others but I am ultimately able to overcome them after I take a step back, assess the situation carefully and then plan my next steps accordingly! It’s a never ending cycle and it’s hard to choose a single example to answer with!
What are your favorite video games?
Far too many to count since so many made up a good chunk of my childhood but I could endlessly play games like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Gran Turismo, Monster Hunter, Turok, Dino Crisis and Grand Theft Auto to name a few!
If you could be any dinosaur, which would you be and why?
Giganotosaurus, on top of being just a cool looking Dinosaur in general, it was essentially the apex predator of its time and had very few natural enemies. Sounds like it will be a blast being a gigantic reptile in a big world without having any major worries like constantly being hunted by other, larger Dinosaurs!
