my favorite memory was walking the streets of Seoul and getting in a little street market. There was this kid who was the son of the shop owner, playing on a cheap Android device. Super into the last [Angry Birds] update we shipped. You could tell he was gonna sit there on the floor in the corner and this would be his day. I was suddenly so self conscious about how we made levels and updates. Until then it was just the next update at the office, we had to make it good and polished and respectful of the player. But now it was this kid’s world, much like Super Mario Bros had been to me. It was important. It was a really humbling moment.

It would be wonderful if such stories were more prevalent and lauded in the overall industry: it’s about how we end up affecting concrete lives. Human-computer interaction as a research field is all about this; seeing the others’ perspective.

More context (HN link)

leshokunin
Disclaimer: I was a PM on Angry Birds. […]
vvoyer
Nice, what’s the craziest story about your time here
leshokunin
[…] my favorite memory was walking the streets of Seoul and getting in a little street market. There was this kid who was the son of the shop owner, playing on a cheap Android device. Super into the last update we shipped. You could tell he was gonna sit there on the floor in the corner and this would be his day. I was suddenly so self conscious about how we made levels and updates. Until then it was just the next update at the office, we had to make it good and polished and respectful of the player. But now it was this kid’s world, much like Super Mario Bros had been to me. It was important. It was a really humbling moment.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment may take some time to appear.