EArl:  We’re pretty excited that you’ve taken some time from your very busy schedule to have a chat with us about your career.  To kick it off, tell us a little about what got you into video games as a career in the first place.

Diarmid Clarke in the spotlight at EA India's 2010 Holiday Party

DC:  That’s a good story!  My dad brought home an Atari 2600 back in the day and I played Combat until my fingers, literally, bled.  There was no turning back at that point as I had fallen hopelessly in love with games.  While still in school I convinced my parents to pick up a 48K Spectrum with the promise that it had enormous educational advantages – fortunately my dad was destined to be a huge gamer himself, so no further convincing was required.  At the time we lived in a very small, very old, town in the UK where strangely enough, the head of Microprose lived. Microprose had just set up in town and I literally spent 6 months hanging around their doorstep trying to get a job.  As I was an expert in Ultima 4 – that Microprose had just picked up in a distribution deal with Origin (acquired by EA some years later) – they asked me to do a sales presentation on the game to the executive team.  Here I was, 16, bad hair and acne, presenting to a group of gaming executives.  It wasn’t long before they gave me a job in QA, which of course included serving coffee and fixing the license plate on an exec’s car among many other such tasks.  But for me it was certain that I wasn’t going anywhere else, that it was a life in games for me from that moment onward.  I decided that I was going to be a game producer/designer.

EArl:  You are now the Studio Head of our Hyderabad, India studio – congratulations!  What prompted you to you make such a big geographical (from Canada to India) and career (from console to mobile) move?

DC:  Thanks!  Making such a big drastic decision does require one to have a certain mind-set, be incredibly adaptable and not need to be surrounded by the familiar.  I’ve made pretty big decisions throughout my career – starting off from going from a tiny village in the UK where if your family haven’t lived there for 100 years you are still considered to be an outsider – to working up to the big metropolis of London at a fairly early age.  I worked in external development for a chunk of my career, so I love the opportunity that the games industry provides for one to see and experience many different things. I’ve always been somewhat of a risk taker when it comes to my life and career, and I feel it has certainly paid off with some amazing and challenging experiences.

As for moving to India, it literally felt like I went from the coldest place on earth (EA BioWare in Edmonton, Canada) to the hottest (Hyderabad, India), but I was looking to try something entirely different and challenge myself in a way I had not done before.  I wanted to not pass up on the opportunity for such a challenge.  I get easily bored with the mundane, so this opportunity presented a great contrast from a safe and predictable existence and I hope that my time here will prove to leave a positive legacy within the studio.

As for moving from console development to mobile – the mobile industry is incredibly fascinating, it is changing extremely rapidly and the audiences are wide and diverse.  In my opinion, mobile gaming is really the most different and exciting thing to happen to the games industry in a long time.  Moving from PS2 to PS3 is primarily nothing more than a hardware upgrade and I could familiarize myself with the new platform in a week.  However the learning involved within the mobile, social gaming space is never ending – and this fascinates and challenges me.  The fast turnaround of projects is also appealing, where a game like Mass Effect takes several years to make (and it is indeed an incredible game), there is something exciting about making a game in less than a year and having several projects on the go at once  The mobile industry is much like going back 10 – 15 years where a lot of the fun old ideas, and ability to take more creative chances, are coming back and we can perfect the game mechanics to fit with the new platform technology.

EArl: Give us a taste of what it is like living and working in India as a foreigner, as well as a glimpse into your team in India.

DC:  It’s bloody hot right now, up to 100F at the moment and getting hotter, so certainly a contrast to the -40 I experienced in Edmonton.  India is a place of huge contrasts, events and views.   Things can be, on the one hand, unbelievably frustrating with things like power cuts on a regular basis and having to do without certain amenities, like being unable to drink the tap water.  Yet on the plus side the people here on our EA India team have a willingness to learn and an enthusiasm that is very rare.  They have no arrogance and are passionate about wanting to show that world class games can come out of India.  The Indian people make living here a tremendously rewarding experience.  For example, my water ran out in my home and within 10 minutes I had 3 handymen arrive to fix the problem – at no charge.  It is refreshing on many levels living and working among such people.

EArl:  What EA India studio successes under your leadership are you particularly proud of?

Diarmid and India team kicking back at 2010 Holiday Party

DC:  Along with my amazing team here in India we were able to produce Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which ended up getting the highest Harry Potter game rating from Pocket Gamer, along with an award nomination. (Thanks should also be giving to our Romanian studio on this with helping with the core technology)  It proved to that the team here India does indeed have the talent and motivation to develop world-class titles, and this is an exciting time for the studio.

EArl: How do you feel EA currently supports your ability to be successful, and how it has supported your career overall over the years?

DC: What has been excellent in the mobile team is that they let me just get on with it.  We have general goals and shared product knowledge and we have weekly calls with the UK as well as LA for key milestone points – but beyond that I am basically allowed to make decisions here on the ground and do what I see fit.  So the hands off approach EA provides allows us to continue to be successful here with the team.  Even though we are geographically removed from the US and UK hubs, the contact is regular and consistent.  The mobile team execs, Chris Gibbs, Travis Boatman and Barry Cottle make a point of coming out here on a regular basis to have face time, which shows the human approach to leadership at EA.  The only thing that is missing here in India is a strong game development community for social interaction with which we can exchange ideas and who possess the level of quality and experience of EA. The gaming industry is still very young here comparatively but I firmly believe we have the best studio in India!

As for how EA has supported my career, that is an interesting question!  This is the third time I have come back to EA, so to speak, in my career, each time in an entirely different role.  Back in the UK the decision to move to EA was based on the feeling that EA was bringing order to the wild west of games, it was clear at the time we had to learn how to make great games with greater predictability (the industry is littered with the corpses of both Developers and Publishers who have failed to achieve this).  What I have consistently gotten out of working at EA is the insight into how games are made, that 80% of making games is doing things correctly, smarter and faster.  It is not rocket science.  Then 20% of course is the magic component.  Just being at EA facilitates learning as there is a depth and breadth of experience here second to none.  I have a huge amount of respect for the guys in Mobile –  as I said earlier they let me get on with it at my end – and this cuts down on what I call the “stupid loop” but provide valuable insight that allows our team to keep pushing the quality bar up higher.  I have worked for guys in the past where they had no passion or interest in games, yet they are up there making redundant, irrational decisions.  That is far from the case with the mobile team here at EA.   It continues to be a fascinating and challenging run!

EArl:  Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, Diarmid – certainly fascinating — wishing you continued success with your projects at EA Mobile in India!

DC: Cheers!