Development

On the other side of the offices from the quality assurance team, we found the Deus Ex 3 team hard at work in the development area -- with one (large) wall covered entirely in design notes and another, of similar size, covered in concept art in a range of styles. Particularly striking was a massive poster for the original Deus Ex wrapped around a pillar -- perhaps working as inspiration for the team (interestingly, no Invisible War paraphernalia was apparent.)

At the time of our visit, the "proof of concept" for Deus Ex 3, which took four months of development, had just passed its milestone to continue into pre-production. "We were quite pleased," beamed D'Astous. "The whole team worked very hard. We're taking the franchise very seriously. We know how important it is for the fans. And everyone has an opinion, everyone will want to make it heard, we're going to be criticized just for making it, but one thing we want people to know is we did our homework. We went through everything, and we planted it as a seed, and it's beginning to grow into a tree. And we want the tree to grow straight. The proof of concept broke the ground, and we're continuing to grow that."

Given the game's planned 24-month development cycle, we asked D'Astous how large the Deus Ex 3 team was. "Right now the team is about 38, and we're looking to grow to around 80 during production. Sticking to that is very important to us. I came from Ubisoft, where a lot of projects ended up with a team of 200+ people. Why? Because the schedule got compressed or changed. Over here, we want to avoid all of that. We want to keep to a human size and we've identified 80 people to work on this next-gen project."

Work and Play

With limited team numbers, D'Astous wants to ensure that each member is productive -- and happy. A designer at heart, D'Astous has ensured that even each workstation is as ergonomic as possible, with ergonomic chairs, multi-function desk drawers (which can work as pull-out stools for visitors) and a modifiable shelving system allowing each worker to set up their workstation with a personalized layout.

Similarly, the bright and spacious common area in a corner of the studio ("I wasn't selfish," D'Astous joked, "I didn't want a corner office. I wanted the staff to enjoy the view") offered a range of seating areas and is only one of the locations used for relaxation activities. "On Fridays after work, we like to relax here with drinks. On Tuesday we have outings to the movies because we've got a movie theater nearby… On Thursdays we've got movies on our big screen during lunch time. We try every day to keep changing the pace and keep people on their toes, not to think of this just as a work environment."

"People do stay here for a long time each day, and we don't want them to come to work each day depressed thinking 'another working day.' People are still coming to work with bright eyes and fresh faces, so I think most of them really like it," D'Astous claimed. "I want them to see that we recognize how much effort they're putting in." The studio even features a shower room for staff who bike to work or wish to get changed for an evening out without having to head home first.

Perhaps the location in the studio D'Astous seemed most proud of was the meeting room, enclosed with glass sliding doors ("industrial design at its best") and featuring a large projector screen and Dolby 7.1 sound. Very much part of the team spirit D'Astous felt was important to the studio, the meeting room is not reserved solely for meetings.

"This room is used very regularly for brainstorming -- as you've seen, these types of walls for writing on are all over the studio -- and this is a place where people can go crazy with their ideas on the wall. We also watch hockey games on the big screen -- play NHL and Guitar Hero on it. It's accessible by all of the staff."