Former Infinity Ward man pushing for creative freedom
By Mike Jackson


Former Infinity Ward man Robert Bowling - who has formed his own studio Roboteki - says creativity is his priority over 'corporate culture'.



"I think as an industry as a whole, we have a lot to learn about how we treat creative talent," Bowling told GameFront.

Bowling says working with Call of Duty taught him the dos and don'ts of the creative business.

"At the end of the day, what you learn is we're in a creative field, just like film and television. Anything that you create, it's not black and white. It requires emotion, it requires passion, and it requires people to be happy - because if you're not happy with what you're doing, it's going to show in the quality of your work.

"That's why with Robotoki, our entire design philosophy is focusing on [the creative team] first, and everything else second ... If we nail the happy team, you're going to get a good project," he added.

Bowling went on to agree that 'corporate culture' should not dominate creativity. "There needs to be a difference in that. You can't let business objectives guide your creative decisions, no matter what.

"I'm self-funding out of my own pocket the start of this company, so that our foundation isn't being shaped by those business objectives. We're not taking someone else's money to risk setting up this company. We're doing it on our own, so that we can set the foundation, the way we want to build a company. Now that we've done that, we want to find partners who want to come in and be a part of that," he said.

Bowling announced his first game, Human Element, earlier this month.