Harvey Smith, the guy who just wrapped up work on Dishonored, is an interesting fellow. Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an exceptional interview up with him right now—one that covers everything from the development of Dishonored to the death of Smith’s mother via drug overdose (and other tragic events as well).

One thing that sticks out, though, is Smith’s optimism on the general state of the games industry. When asked about Dishonored being an exception to new normal of endless sequels and safe bets, Smith offered this response:

“That’s such a trivial negative. If I got discouraged by that, what would my father’s suicide have done to me? That’s hardly a blip. I’m getting to do what I am excited about. Raph and I are thrilled about this game. It’s just that it’s hard to do good things, by definition. There’s always going to be a small subset that we consider ‘good’ or ‘interesting,’ and the bulk is going to be average.”

He continued:

“But no, I don’t find any of that discouraging. I wish we were all freer to do the things that we want. I wish money fell out of the sky and funded everybody’s dream game. But no, it’s not discouraging to me. Everywhere I look I see games I want to play. Monaco, Day Z, Red Dead Redemption, BioShock Infinite, Spelunky. In every direction there’s a good game. I don’t even have time to play all the good games around me right now.”

It’s an interesting point of view in an industry many consider flailing. What do you think? Are there still awesome games out there for people who want to find them, and is the industry still putting out solid work?

[RPS]

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