Sitting in the front seat of today\u2019s hottest cars, from Ferraris to Lamborghinis, fans of the Forza video game series start their virtual engines before speeding around the globe for the ultimate racing experience. It\u2019s what\u2019s made the franchise one of the highest-grossing series of all time, but Forza\u2019s winning strategy relies on a delicate balance between what users want and how the game can deliver. That\u2019s where Ed Byrne \u201997 comes in.<\/p>\n
Byrne, a design director at Turn 10 Studios, part of the Microsoft family, works with the game\u2019s programmers, producers, artists, engineers, and designers to ensure the creative vision holds together. His job? To take a series of the game\u2019s features, such as the ability to customize cars using colors and decals, and put them through the wringer \u2014 sketching, prototyping, and testing \u2014 so that when the final product is released, gamers are revved up for the new details.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bringing order to chaos,\u201d Byrne says. \u201cYou\u2019re finding the fun and understanding your audience. When those two items merge, you have a good product.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Forza\u2019s $1 billion franchise, available exclusively on Microsoft\u2019s Xbox video game console, didn\u2019t happen by chance. It has leaned into understanding its audience through game data analysts, user experience designers, and telemetry to help drive decisions that keep the game a perennial bestseller.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the rise of creative personnel and technology that give us data, insights, and consumer profiles that show us how best to meet our players\u2019 needs,\u201d says Byrne.<\/p>\n
Byrne, a fine arts major at TCNJ, had his first foray into video game design while working as a computer lab tech in Holman Hall. A man from a local computer store asked Byrne and his friends to create graphics for a sci-fi game he had in mind. The final product never materialized, \u201cbut it was the first general game project that I was involved in,\u201d says Byrne.<\/p>\n
After graduating, Byrne made his mark at Sony, Disney, and UbiSoft, creating games for popular brands like Harry Potter, Marvel Avengers, and the Splinter Cell series. He also got the chance to cross an item off his bucket list when he created his own game, Moon Breakers, in collaboration with Google.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to make a game is a rare opportunity. Not many people will get the chance to build something as personal with that level of creative control,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Byrne admits that his career feels a bit like the games he designs \u2014 a fantasy. But it\u2019s his fanatical thinking that led him to where he is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an 11-year-old, sitting in front of a rubber keyboard computer, I had no idea someone like me could do this,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: Bill Cardoni<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ed Byrne \u201997 greenlights key features for Xbox\u2019s most popular racing game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":11705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11700"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12398,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11700\/revisions\/12398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}