Alex Ward

He started testing video games at a time when they were considered the province of geeks. Now at 35, he's creative director of EA Criterion. He joined Electronic Arts (ERTS) in 2004, when it acquired Criterion Studios.

I'm one of those people lucky enough to have his dream job. I am living a pop-culture dream, creating entertainment for some of the world's most cynical, critical, and discerning people—the technology generation. My job is to create new games for EA. The game I'm working on now is a straightforward crash-'em-up racing game that brings big Hollywood action and spectacular car crashes to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game is called Burnout Paradise.

I spend my days running the software development and keeping everyone involved with the production 100% focused on meeting deadlines and creating a great game. My role is to get the team into a room as often as possible to see what our challenges are and make sure we're all working toward the same solution. I also act as the voice of the player. It's my responsibility to deliver an entertainment experience that merits the $60 cover price. So I find myself asking the tough questions. What makes this game fun to play? Why should someone want to play it? Yes, we're working on systems with amazing technology, and the graphics make for spectacular crashes, but those all have to feed into our master goal of making an amazingly fun game.

Aside from managing the team, I spend a lot of time brainstorming killer new game ideas. I rack my brain to think about what could be an interesting twist, what will blow away the audience, and what will move the needle for the genre.

Game development is changing. Fewer games are getting made, fewer games steal the attention. We're in a hit-driven business. The top 10 games of the year will generate a majority of the revenue. Finding a place for Burnout is essential for me, my team, all the folks at EA. So while it's harder to engineer a hit today, it also is more rewarding. To make a game that stands out and pleases a global audience, that's what I get up in the morning to do.