Mark Terrano

Game Designer (Age of Empires II, Defense Grid, CSGO, Brass Tactics, many others.) Now Design Director & Founder at Mountaintop Studios

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@romero @AndrewHulshult @ThatTomHall @ID_AA_Carmack @ACarmackArtist Went to Quakecon in Dallas last century in what 1997 or 1998 - you are all still looking really good - hope there were enough good times and gibs for everyone :-)

[Brodrian @itsBrodrian]

I haven't cried this hard in a very long time. This post will get inevitably get long, contain typos, and leave names out by accident, so apologies in advance.

In 2022, Mountaintop took a flier on a guy who'd never worked on a game before. I had a year and a half of professional experience at a games-adjacent brand and many more years running communities as a volunteer under my belt, but this was something entirely new.

I first played what would become Spectre Divide shortly after the team had made the decision to go all-in on the Duality mechanic. I got to see a team of wildly talented and creative designers, artists, engineers, producers, QA, and more build something special from the ground up.

My first real project was managing some of our earliest external playtests with the community and potential investors. I saw our Discord server slowly grow from <100 friends and family members to 1,000 then 10,000 then 100,000.

I can't explain how infectious the energy was during those early years of playtesting before we'd officially unveiled the game.

Watching Truo, SteazE, BixLe, Aira, K2, Moepork, Ski, Indysaurus, Blackfire, and dozens of others fight tooth and nail to reach the top of these seemingly pointless little leaderboards for a game fully under NDA was incredible. I will forever treasure my memories of sitting in call for hours and listening to new players argue about how ridiculously overpowered some gun or ability were after weekend playtests.

Those who played the game a lot understand that there really was something magical about the first time you feel the two body mechanic "click" for you.

The first time you start defusing the bomb and swap bodies to cover yourself.

The first time you tag someone from one body, duck behind cover, swap bodies, and finish them off from a different angle while they're distracted.

The first time you lose a body at the very start of a round and manage to pull off a huge clutch with your surviving body.

The first time you fat-finger the wrong button and accidently throw your Puck into the middle of the whole enemy team when you meant to throw a grenade and your whole team starts losing it in a Discord call.

That shit was special. It just was.

Duality challenged our whole team to think about tactical shooters in genuinely new and fascinating ways. We spent whole nights in after-hours calls theorycrafting crazy plays and strats to pull out in our own internal playtests and tournaments. We'd brainstorm wild abilities, maps, and weapons that would never see the light of day.

We loved Spectre.

It hurt deeply when it became clear that our initial PC launch simply wasn't good enough to make that magic real to a large audience. We knew it was had a long way to go and I wish we could have done more to communicate transparently at the time.

It hurt a lot more to see what was special about the game get totally overshadowed by other narratives.

It kills me that so many people will never know of Spectre as anything more than "Shroud's Game."

Spectre Divide was not "Shroud's Game."

It was Mark's Game where he wrote pages upon pages of worldbuilding documents that we'll never have the chance to bring to life.

It was Jake, Devin, and Michael's Game, where they came up with an endless supply of wildly creative Sponsor ideas and ways to show off Duality.

It was Brent's Game, where he crafted weapons that felt satisfying and interesting to fight with, while putting up with an endless stream of feedback about how everything was both overpowered or underpowered.

It was Sydney, Christian, and Barane's Game, where they added a hundred extra details to the UI to sell the fantasy of being a competitor in this wild, futuristic sport and made it all function how it needed to.

It was Clint and Jud's Game, where they confidently tackled all the wild challenges that came with designing maps for players with two bodies.

It was Jostin, Gabe, Kyle, and Jared's Game, where they meticulously made sure that no bug went undocumented and spent hours upon hours fighting to make the player experience as great as it could be.

It was Marcus, Sam, and Aidan's Game, where they stayed up impossibly late to make sure patches were deployed properly and didn't mind being woken up in the middle of the night to deal with emerging issues.

It was Matt, Kathleen, and Rod's Game, where they dug into every possible option to keep players safe and keep cheater vendors mad as hell at us.

It was Dan, Kevin, and Melvin's Game, where they jammed for endless hours to actually make this crazy game work in-engine without exploding.

It was Orlando, Brandon, Jon, and Andrea's Game, where they dreamed up some of the most gorgeous concept art I've seen and inspired our team's work.

It was Seth, Matt, and Dasha's Game, where they brought to life the people, fashion, and customization of Santai competition.

It was Hans and Andrew's Game, where they brought the environments of Breakwater to life across Spectre's maps.

It was Christian and Dominik's Game, where they made sure that art was actually all working for players and was more than just fun to look at.

It was David, Nhathy, Justin, Andrew, Bob, Jeff, and Alex's Game, where they poured in incredible effort to make sure that a million deeply complicated, critical systems were organized and running smoothly for players.

It was Zully, Andy, Kevin, and Rey's Game, where every single day they helped our different teams stay on track, prioritize, and succeed.

It was Kristi and Sam's Game, where they brought the music, sounds, and audio environments of Spectre to life.

It was Brian's Game, where he designed thoughtful and unique systems for players to engage with and find community through.

It was Justin, Charles, Conner, and Anne's Game, where they meticulously handled thousands of player support tickets and wrote countless help docs to help players deal with all our ups and downs.

It was Tim, Ian, Cris, Dermot, and Josh's Game, where they designed graphics, art, and videos that fueled our marketing and social content.

It was Steven, Joe, Atty, Chris, and Jeff's Game, where they busted their asses to make sure as many people had the opportunity to hear about Spectre.

It was a game that belonged to dozens and dozens of others who I wish I could include with a hundred times more detail than this one post.

It was my game.

It was my game where I spent hundreds of hours playtesting with every name on that list.

It was my game where I wrote up rambling, multi-page docs about how we could make our game even more engaging for players and bring the world to life.

It was my game where I pulled an all-nighter to process playtest applications because our Discord bot broke and I didn't want a single person to miss the chance to play in that playtest.

It was my game that gave me the chance to sing overly intoxicated Taylor Swift duets at karaoke with Orlando.

It was my game where I made friends that I care about so deeply and hope remain in my life for years and years to come.

It was a game that changed my life.

I feel bad for each and every person only ever got to know it as "Shroud's Game." They were never given the chance to see what I got to see.

The most painful part of this whole process is knowing that our game will soon be gone.

When a movie studio or music label close down, preserving that art isn't that complicated. I can watch or listen to all kinds of art from companies that failed to reach financial profitability. I can still emulate my favorite GameCube games or play the campaign for Battlefield 3.

The brutal reality of modern-day live service games is that if I have kids, I will never be able to teach them how to line up a Bloom smoke like I did. I'll never be able to see their eyes light up after hitting a lucky headshot to clutch a win. They'll never discover my easter egg on Metro.

I'll be able to pause a Staycation video and get excited about my favorite parts of the game, but they won't ever experience it.

Don't take anything you love for granted.

I really thought we had a shot at making it and a part of me is still in shock at how quickly it has to come to an end. I have a laundry list of things I wish I had been able to do for our community and our creators, but it is what it is.

I don't know what I'll be doing next or if I'll be able to find work in the current market of the games industry. I'll likely make a separate post about the job search in a couple days when things don't feel as raw. My DMs are open with any leads or opportunities.

From the bottom of my heart, it's been an honor to be able to share this project with all of you. I never could have imagined three years ago that I'd be part of something like this. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

See you in Breakwater

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@itsBrodrian You made the whole studio tear up Ben. You were the best community rep ever, and your insights and communications as a liaison and voice for the players made development so much easier for design. You are the absolute GOAT.

[Spectre Divide @SpectreDivide]

Don't forget, Spectre Divide is now on console!!

[Spectre Divide @SpectreDivide]

💥 Flashpoint drops February 25, 2025.

New Map.
New Battle Pass.
New Sponsor Kit.
New Buy Menu.

A new era of Spectre is about to begin–are you ready to forge your legacy?

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@SpectreDivide Fantastic to see this come to life - great work by the whole team!

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@SuspendedRobot Love the mentions of Lake Travis and Barton Springs - it really connects across the globe.

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@RealEmirHan The fact that so *many* different scenes in that movie were legendary. It left me exhausted at the end.

[Spectre Divide @SpectreDivide]

Last week we dropped a ton of info on our first season, Flashpoint, in our Dev Update Video. Check out some of the highlights and let us know what you're most excited about👀

[Spectre Divide @SpectreDivide]

And now, an announcement from @shroud

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@SpectreDivide @shroud I want to put the ho-hohoho in the game somewhere.

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

Wow, amazing piece on Spectre Divide from IGN: https://t.co/gsauRLHluW

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@RichRichg99 @hzdydx9 If you can segment an object you can do any of those things - detecting the edges of something in motion is incredibly difficult and being able to do so lets you add to (augment), remove, or substitute it at will.

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@itsmountaintop I'm excited for the full reveal Aug 1st!

[Mountaintop Studios @itsmountaintop]

Outplay. Outsmart. Outlast.

Full reveal on August 1.

✅ Game Deep Dive
✅ Gameplay from Creators + Pros
✅ Hands-on Impressions
✅ Next Major Playtest

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

Get in here my FPS gamer friends - this is what I've been working on for the last 4 years - very proud of what we've accomplished.

[Mountaintop Studios @itsmountaintop]

Designed for tac shooter enthusiasts like @shroud. Join our playtest to put your skills to the test.

❗ Next playtests run daily from July 19–31
NA - 5pm - 9pm PT
EU - 7pm - 11pm CET
➡️ Sign up now at https://t.co/PFqSB8Ddm5

[Mountaintop Studios @itsmountaintop]

Shape the future of your next obsession. Sign up now to join our upcoming playtests.

📅Daily from July 19–31
NA - 5pm - 9pm PT
EU - 7pm - 11pm CET
📢Tac shooter fans welcome!
👉https://t.co/PFqSB8Ddm5

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@adamtotscomix Incredible animation, compelling characters, great sci-fi - it is a show that deserves more episodes.

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@sylessae Fortune 5 company sent out RFP for game design requiring a substantial amount of work (weeks)- they wanted to keep all rights to submitted designs in perpetuity with no compensation for the entrants that didn't win the bid. No: Pay for the rights you reserve.

[Mark Terrano @MarkoPolo]

@pushmatrix Stair Combo 2X Bonus!