Hello & Welcome

 Hi, I’m Chad Bordwell. I've been working in the game industry since 1997 and I specifically started my design career in 2000. As a designer I've shipped over 10 AAA titles, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake4, and most recently Farcry 5.

Primarily my roles have been in game design, level design, and mission scripting. Most of my work has been for single player titles that also support cooperative game play. The majority of titles have released for Playstation, Xbox, and PC.
 
In 2020 I started my own company Dark Arts Development primarily to work with game developers as a contract game/level designer.  Currently I work remotely as a Senior Level Designer for Squanch games while living in Toronto Canada.

LinkedIn

Thanks

Chad

My Personal PvP Problems

 

PvP games can sometimes be a huge adrenaline rush.  In a tense fight against other players the blood starts pumping and the heart start pounding. For most this is a great feeling that keeps you going back for more.  For me however it's something that causes me physical pain and possibly a deadly health risk.

When Quake 1 release my friend and I were amazed by the online PvP sessions.  Our desks were covered with server IP addresses and we even made our own Quake clan.  But I found during matches my adrenaline and anxiety would go so high I could hardly catch my breath and I'd have to stop and take a break.  I didn't understand why at the time but I knew it didn't feel good.

Then in 2003 I had a heart attack.  Not while playing PvP, I was just at work but it was no joke.  It was severe and required quite a bit of defibrillation to keep me among the living.  After surgery and having two stents inserted into my arteries I wanted to know why did it happen?  I was only 34 years old and not unhealthy or overweight.  Turns out I have terrible genes.  My  cholesterol and blood pressure numbers were through the roof.  So since then I've been taking loads of pills to keep everything under as much control as is medically possible.  My heart is "damaged" from the even but not to the degree that restricts me from normal activity.  But as much as I enjoy PvP gaming I tend to stay away from it for obvious reasons.  

Most games don't affect me too badly, especially if the engagement are quick.  The fight happens and is over.  Also if it's something I've played over and over like when I was a QA tester it doesn't seem to bother me  as much.  Like you get bored or use to it.  Recently however I've been playing Sea of Thieves with my brother and it's been really hitting me hard.

The battles in Sea of Thieves are often long.  Big slow moving boats often building up to a hand to hand combat battle against the other crew.  This long lead up give my body plenty of time to pump up the anxiety and adrenaline.  By the time the hand to hand stuff happens I literally have pain in my chest and it takes me so long to come down from the conflict.  I REALLY want to learn to control this problem but I'm not sure if it's possible.

I don't want to stop playing PvP games because of this crap.  It really makes me mad that I can't enjoy them like a normal person.

I'd like to ask what other people do to control their adrenaline, how do you keep calm during PvP games?  

Squanch Games WON'T Be doing VR in the Next Game

Since I started working at Squanch I've been asked this question a lot.  Will the next game be VR.  Of course I wasn't allowed to talk about the project, but Squanch CEO Tanya Watson publicly gave the answer.  Nope.

There's no need for me to regurgitate the article so go read it for yourself.

Squanch Games Shelves VR

Farcry 6

Here is the project I was working on when I left Ubisoft.  In Farcry 6 you can expect the typical Farcry experience this time based in a Cuba-like world .  If you're a fan of the past Farcry games then here comes some more of it.  Glad to see people seem excited for it.

Ubisoft News & Recent Harassment Allegations

As I'm sure many of you are aware Ubisoft has had some issues come to light regarding employee allegations of harassment and poor management.  If not you can follow the link. HERE to learn more.

I worked at Ubisoft Toronto for 8 years and worked with some of the individuals in question.  That being said I do not find these allegations surprising. The writing was on the wall for a long time with this individual and no action was taken.  Seeing interactions between this person and others from the outside I couldn't tell if they were welcomed or not.  I suspected issues (from seeing him following various women around like a puppy) but I never witnessed more.  However I also didn't attended company social gatherings.

Ubisoft Toronto in my opinion spent WAY too much money on booze and parties.  They had an after hours party in the building once a month as well as individual team parties after most milestones.  With multiple team this was a lot of partying.  All parties included beer and many times hard liqueur. I rarely attended these because I had a long commute and could never see how I could party then drive the hour home.  I would much rather the money had been given as an employee bonus instead, so we all could enjoy the rewards.  Plus we now see that these parties gave potential office predators a prime hunting ground.

For me personally I found HR at Ubisoft to be a COMPLETE failure as a place to go when you're having personal or career issues.  For instance I entered the game industry to make games, not to become a manager.  However I found Ubisoft unable to handle a veteran developer uninterested in moving into management.   It seemed if you're content in your role you will be replaced.  I went to HR about these issues and look, I don't work there anymore.  Guess how that went?  Of course these issues I encountered are nothing compared to the sexual harassment others encountered working there.

So now that this dirt is all out there in the public eye, management is suddenly very concerned.  CEO Yves Guillemot made a statement about how shocked he is and how change needs to happen.  His statement HERE.

In closing I'm thrilled to no longer be employed at Ubisoft Toronto and am truly saddened to hear some of my co-workers had to endure this type of treatment daily. ALL events at Ubisoft Toronto were ravenously tweeted and posted on Instagram for the "Look how awesome we are." PR pieces.  I don't think an event would happen at UbiTor if it couldn't be part of a PR spin.  UbiTor worked hard to publicly created an image of being at the forefront of equality & LGBTQ issues in the gaming industry, but internally failed to uphold these beliefs.

UPDATE: And the news continues.  Serge and Yannis also stepped down as well as the head of HR Cecile Cornet.  Serge was the guy that made all the go/no go calls for most if not all Ubisoft titles.  Yannis was the president of Ubisoft Canada.  I would assume Cecile resigned for protecting them instead of taking action however that is just my speculation.

Read more HERE



NOTE: HR is there to help the company.  The company signs their pay checks, their job is to protect them.  They aren't there to help employees with their problems.  They're there to stop employee problems from hurting the company.  Be on your guard, question the things they say.  My girlfriend went to her company HR department about a harassment issue.  They express how important it was that she came to them and scheduled a meeting with her for the next day.  Magically she was "laid off" that afternoon.  Was it wrong and illegal?  Sure but it still happened and she didn't have the funds to fight it.  So really consider that before going to them with an issue.  I'm not saying don't address the issues with them, I'm saying be prepared.  HR is not your friend.

Time to Announce a Squanchy Career Change

I'm pretty excited to share that I have accepted  a contract role as a Senior Level Designer for Squanch Games to work on an unannounced title.  You may know Squanch Games as the company started by Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick & Morty.  Their most recent shipped title was Trover Saves the Universe which I personally loved.

Also in more exciting news since I've chosen to work remotely here in Toronto.  Because of this I needed to start my own corporation due to international legal mumbo jumbo. So I registered one in Ontario and called Dark Arts Development Inc.  That technically this means I've also created my own game company!  So far 2020 is looking pretty exciting.

I'd also like to thank Ubisoft Toronto for inadvertently forcing me out of the dead end job doldrums I was stuck in while working there.  Making the same title again and again and again, that's the stuff which crushes your creative soul. So thanks for not caring and good luck to those still trapped in the Ubi "game factory."

Ubisoft & Coffee Gripe

So this is kind of a dumb thing but it bugs me. I've been around the industry for awhile & worked at several companies.Usually the studio wants to encourage you to be at your job, happy, and working.  So they offer little perks.  Raven for instance had free coffee and free soda 24/7.  Gray Matter was really over the top. They had a full stocked fridge and would go get anything you wanted upon request.  Hell they even bought me a pillow and blanket so I could sleep on the floor of my office.  But the standard at all companies I've been at is free coffee.

Ubisoft however doesn't really give you free anything.  Sometimes they have fruit. But snacks, coffee, soda, are all through vending machines.  And pretty high priced vending machines.  A candy bar would cost you $1.50, chips $1.25, and a can of soda $1.  So screw that, we'd go out for coffee.  Going out gives you a chance to step away from the monitors and take a breather.  Since Ubisoft has around 800 employees several coffee shops sprung up within walking distance. So you also were supporting the local economy which is the whole point of Ontario giving them tax breaks, to help boost business overall.

Now I see Ubisoft Toronto added an "in house" coffee shop.  Not a free coffee shop, hell no.  A full fledged pay for coffee and pastries coffee shop, with a freakin' menus on the wall and everything.  What the actual fuck??

It totally reminds me of the old mining companies that would setup a town around the mine.  Then charge their workers for food, rent, supplies, medical care, which was basically taking back the money they pay them.  I believe these practices were deemed illegal?  lol

Then there are all those local coffee shops.  They will be going out of business shortly.  That's gonna be a huge hit on their livelihood. So much for supporting the local economy.

But seriously not cool.  Just have plain standard FREE coffee machines in-house, then let people go to the local businesses for the special coffees and pastries. Their employees work long and hard, literally making Ubisoft millions of dollars. Buy them a fucking cup of coffee.