Dishonored, Deus Ex, and Redfall dev Harvey Smith "often" waits 5-10 years to play his games after they release

Jun. 24, 2024

“Usually I play our games nonstop as we are finishing them. But then I am done for a long while”

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Harvey Smith, a veteran game designer best known for Dishonored and Deus Ex, says he typically doesn’t play his own games until 5-10 years post release.

That’s after playing them “nonstop” during development, he said in a recent tweet. “Usually I play our games nonstop as we are finishing them. But then I am done for a long while; often I don’t go back to play for 5-10 years,” Smith said. “One of the great pleasures in doing this is seeing little areas the team made that I love. Some special corner; someone cared so deeply.”

Smith’s latest release, Redfall, which he co-directed,recently got a big farewell updatefollowing thenews of studio Arkane Austin’s closure under Microsoft. The troubled vampire shooter’s final update added the long-promised offline mode, revamped Neighborhood and Nest systems, single player pausing,a sweet Easter egg referencing Arkane’s legacy in the immersive sim space, and more. According to Smith, it’ll probably be another few years before he plays it himself.

While Smith probably isn’t playing much of Redfall right now, it seems plenty of other folks are enjoying the final update.Smith recently shared his enthusiasm over the apparently positive response to “the cleaned-up, final version” of the doomed FPS, saying it gave him “a burst of energy.“It also sounds like he’s gearing up to reveal his next move afterArkane Austin’s closure, but for now he’s remaining tight-lipped on that front.

In the meantime, here are thebest Xbox Series X gamesyou can play right now.

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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.

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