18 Mar 2013
Posted by Ki 
As an actor in your native Ireland, you were beheaded in a zombie movie. They made a cast of your head to chop off. You were beheaded in more than one movie, right?
I’ve been beheaded in three movies, and thrown out an airlock in a fourth. That was a big step up for me. I’d been using the head as a crutch, and it was time for me to take my death acting to a new level.
The first beheading was for a movie called Dead Meat. Making the mold of my head was an interesting experience: after 45 minutes of almost total sensory deprivation from the neck up, there was a sharp tap on the top of my head to break the plaster, then the rubber was peeled off. It was like being born. After the shoot I asked if I could have the head, and they said yes! I made sure to take it with me to NYC when I made the move.
What made you decide to move to America?
In May 2001 I took a short vacation to New York and instantly fell in love with the place. I immediately felt like this was where I wanted to be. I went back to Ireland and applied for the Diversity Visa Lottery. About seven million people apply each year and only about sixty thousand of them get awarded green cards. And I actually got picked!
It was rough going at first. I didn’t know anybody here and I couldn’t find a way into the film industry. I eventually stopped trying and decided to run out the last of my credit cards writing a screenplay. Every day I took my laptop to the New York Public Library and hammered away. I gave up on the New York dream and had just booked my trip home when I got a phone call about doing some work for Rockstar Games.
How did you get the job at Rockstar Games?
When I first arrived in New York I shared a sublet in Greenpoint. By sheer coincidence one of my roommates was also a sound editor. Three months later the sublet was up and I moved out. Six months after that I booked my flight home, lying on my bed contemplating my failure, and the phone rang. It was my former roommate. She was working as a sound editor on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. They needed someone else and she asked if I was interested. Yes. Yes I was.
I started freelancing for Rockstar as a dialogue editor, trying to tame the huge volume of voiceover recorded for San Andreas. It wasn’t supposed to be a long-term job, but it was enough for me to cancel my flight.
You took raw voiceover audio and edited tens of thousands of lines for Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. What did you learn from all that?
I learned how to cut dialogue really fast! It was also an interesting window into the game design process, specifically the world building part. I learned a lot about bridging the gap between coders and writers. The coders would ask for one thing and the writers would often interpret it in a way that was slightly wrong, or possibly even better. I picked up a lot about what worked and what didn’t, so when I later moved on to writing and directing voiceover for GTA4, I had a very good handle on the process.
What was your favorite part of Rockstar Games?
Well, there are a couple of things. First, Rockstar saved me from moving back to Dublin! Not that Dublin’s so bad, but I really wanted to stay in New York. I’ve been here for almost ten years now and I became a US citizen in 2010. Thanks, Rockstar!
Second, I appreciated the openness. I came in as a dialogue editor, a very specific technical skill, but I was able to branch into writing and directing. I ended up managing some animation processes, and I even helped define the AI dialogue for a couple of games. A lot of places are very regimented: you do the job you’re hired to do and that’s it. At Rockstar I was allowed to grow. If you could do something you could do it. There was no “but you’re just a dialogue editor!” I went in there as a freelance sound editor, and six years later I left as some kind of game maker.
How did the idea for W.E.L.D.E.R. start?
We were working on something else, but it wasn’t really shaping up. Britt, my partner in Highline Games (along with Eli Weissman), came in one day with a suggestion: what about a cross between Bejeweled and Scrabble? We talked out how exactly that would work, made a prototype just to see, and instantly knew we had something good. We focused all our efforts on it from that point on.
The best way to describe W.E.L.D.E.R. is a cross between Scramble and Bejeweled
Do you do the coding, or do you hire someone for that?
I do a little coding, and Britt does a little more, but we use professionals to do the hard stuff!
How did you hook up with Ayopa Games to distribute W.E.L.D.E.R?
Somebody knew somebody who knew somebody else who knew Johnny Coghlan (co-founder of Ayopa Games). W.E.L.D.E.R. was at an advanced stage and we started showing it around to people to get feedback and advice. Johnny was in the process of starting up Ayopa, and he really liked what he saw. He contacted us about having Ayopa publish it as one of their launch titles. That led to a lot of soul searching. We had originally planned to publish it ourselves, but we decided to go for it, and it worked out very well for us. And them!
W.E.L.D.E.R. was Apple’s Game of the Week and Editors Pick. In marketing an app, do you have to pull a few strings to get that prestige? Or was it a total surprise?
You would have to ask Ayopa! They took care of all of that for us. We knew it was a strong possibility, but you never knew for sure until the App Store updates on Thursday. It was a huge thrill.
You sold 300,000 copies. Are you breaking even yet?
Not talking about finances. Can’t!
What’s next for you and Highline Games?
It’s a very exciting time for Highline. I can’t get too specific about it as things are still in the early stages. We’re working on an educational app, which is great. We didn’t intend it, but W.E.L.D.E.R. is actually a pretty good vocabulary-building tool in addition to being a fun game, so this is a natural direction for us. We’re also doing some contract work and various other things. It’s a busy time! Outside of Highline, I’m working with Navid Khonsari of InkStories on his game 1979, a very exciting project to be involved with.
Check out the W.E.L.D.E.R. game at weldergame.com
Click here to download the W.E.L.D.E.R. game app on ITunes
John Zurhellen writes video games for Rockstar Games, Activision, and other great developers.
