The redemption of Derek Smart
Derek Smart is running out of chances.
“Right now, in all of my 14 games I’m nowhere near 10,” Smart tells me, referring to the videogame review scale, in which a “perfect” game is considered a 10. “I’m somewhere near a 6 … but I’m not going to keep trying and keep doing this when I’m 90.
“It just doesn’t work that way.”
I’m sitting in a hotel room in San Francisco with Smart and his PR handler, just a quarter mile from where the most famous game developers in the world have gathered for the 2012 Game Developers Conference.
Smart is dressed, well, smartly. Nice shoes. Casual, but expensive-looking shirt. Gold jewelry. A self-confessed millionaire, he carries himself with the air of a man who has come into money, but still understands the value of hard work.
On the desk in front of him is a laptop computer running the product of that work: Line of Defense, his latest game.