Meet: Ryan Pergent - Senior Game Designer at IO Interactive

Meet

Ryan Pergent

Senior Game Designer
Barcelona

Quick Questions

PC or console

PC!

Go-to karaoke song

Paille – révé (You never heard of it)

Favorite Hitman map and why

The very first level of the very first Hitman. Going up a rooftop to assemble the sniper rifle from its suitcase is a memory forever engraved in my mind.

Meal that reminds you of childhood

My mom’s rice salad. A lot of colors and taste, and never felt like I had enough of it.

Your secret superpower?

I am immune to the desire for coffee and alcohol (because it tastes like crap).

Most and least favorite items on your desk

Most favorite: My Vegeta cell-shaded statuette!
Least favorite: My 4 Agent 47 Mini figures that are all missing a gun.

Something you wish you knew more about

Drawing, VFX, modeling, animating!

Deeper Questions

What do you do at IOI?

I am a Game designer. I make sure combat feels awesome, by tinkering with both the player character’s abilities and the AI.

Can you tell us more about yourself?

I am from Guadeloupe, in the French Caribbean (Wa konèt). I’ve been in the Game industry for a bit over 11 years, mostly in the AAA development, with a short time as an Indie developer.

I love playing DnD (and other tabletop RPGs), making games and, unexpectedly, dancing

What's your daily source of inspiration?

I would say Anime and Comics. I want to come up with some spiritual stuff about the meaning of life and finding oneself in your work, but truth is I simply really, really want to bring awesome shit to life.

I grew up with Dragon ball and games I was excited to come back home to, and I want to offer the same joy to someone else.

Why are you passionate about what you do?

I love playing games, and I get to work on adding more games into the world. What’s not to be passionate about? My job is to create more of the things I love.

There is also something special about creating an experience, seeing someone enjoy it, and sometime even have an impact on their lives.

What projects do you work on outside of work?

I developed a platform for people to play tabletop RPGs online (rolegate.com).

I am also working on a text-based game called Incarnata: Dormant stories (Wishlist now!), where everything is procedurally generated and managed by an AI. I am super excited about that and can’t wait to get it out there.

What's your most memorable IOI moment?

The time we went on an amazing sailing boat trip by the coast of Barcelona. Perfect weather, great people, magnificent views. 10/10.

What's the best bit of advice you've ever been given?

Talking about a software: “Focus on the core, and only develop the rest when the need arises”. That massively changed my approach to development. After all, it’s only when the core is good that the rest is worth putting energy into.