Elizabeth Tobey: Can you start by telling us your name, your title, and how long you’ve been with Trion?

Jason Stone: My name is Jason Stone, I’m a systems designer, and I’ve been working for Trion for almost four years now. When I came on board, the design team was actually only four people.

Elizabeth:What’s it like to be part of a team that’s grown so much?

Jason: It’s been really cool. We’ve had a lot of good people from the very beginning, but we’ve continued to acquire staff with amazing amounts of talent. It’s been incredible going through that whole growth and hiring process, and it’s been interesting to see how the game has changed as a result. We’ve clarified our vision and seen what’s synched with the show and what hasn’t. The game has changed a lot, and it’s always been for the better. In some ways we’re making a very different game from when I first came to the project, but I’m really happy about what we’re doing now.

Elizabeth: What are some of those major changes?

Jason: One of the big changes was adding action elements to the game. Earlier in the project we thought we had some limitations on what we were going to be able to do with shooting mechanics. A good example would be the shooting in Mass Effect 1 – there’s some dice rolling going on behind the scenes. Getting to where we had pixel-perfect shooting was a huge step because it meant that, hey, we are actually 100% true shooter. There’s no accuracy-role-versus-dodge-roll-versus-you-missed or whatever. It’s all based on user skill, and it combines really well with the action game features we built in.

Elizabeth: So what’s one of the most exciting things that you’ve gotten to do or that you’re most proud of?

Jason: I think I’m most proud of how much fun people have driving vehicles around because I’ve done the vehicle tuning. It’s still rewarding every time I see people driving around on the quads and catching air and really enjoying it.

Elizabeth: You haven’t brought this up specifically, but sometimes people say, “I got to make something fun,” especially with something like a vehicle. What goes into trying to design something fun?

Jason: I’m very practical or pragmatic in the sense that I’m very hands-on and focused on the experience that I’m trying to give the user. I always start by asking “What about this would be fun?” “What would they want to do?” For example, what do players want to do with quads? They want to take corners as fast as possible, do huge burnouts, skid to a stop, and hit sweet jumps. Okay, so what do I do to make that possible? What can I do to make that feel great? The same applies to weapons, where you start with a general idea and then ask, “What are the player’s expectations going to be?” It’s important to look at real weapons, but also at how people perceive them. There’s a lot of information you can gather if you look at the way a weapon responds or fires, but it’s not necessarily what feels good when you put the same kind of weapon in the hands of your videogame character.

Elizabeth: What are you currently playing outside of Defiance?

Jason: I just picked up a new indie game called Endless Space. It’s a 4X game. I’ve been playing Dragon’s Dogma on the console and some Battlefield 3. That’s mostly what I’ve been playing lately. I still play a lot of Forza 4.

Elizabeth: Outside of gaming, what are some of your hobbies?

Jason: Anything with an engine. I just recently sold my motorcycle and managed to convince my wife that it made sense – not that it made sense, that it was acceptable – to have three cars with only two drivers in the house. So I bought a Mazda Miata just this past weekend. That’s going to be my new weekend toy/track car.

Elizabeth: Thanks for taking some time out of your schedule to tell the Community a bit about yourself.

And that’s it for this installment of the Defiance “Meet the Dev” series. Be sure to drop by the forums to discuss Defiance with your friends, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get all the latest news and updates.