Early in his career, Smith worked in
quality assurance (QA) at the Austin-based
Origin Systems, where he became the QA lead for games including
Super Wing Commander and
System Shock. After leaving Origin in 1996, Harvey Smith went to work at Multitude where they released
FireTeam. After Multitude, Smith's game development career continued in Austin, Texas working with
Warren Spector at
Ion Storm as lead designer on
Deus Ex as well as its sequel,
Deus Ex: Invisible War. Smith then left Ion Storm to work at
Midway Games, originally to work on a title called
Criminal with "
immersive sim values" inspired by
Michael Mann's 1995 crime film
Heat, but shifting ultimately to work as lead designer on
BlackSite: Area 51. On November 29, 2007, Smith came out publicly to announce how unrealistic the
BlackSite: Area 51's development schedule was and through mutual agreement left Midway a day later. He claimed the schedule caused the low reviews due to the fact they were not able to test the game properly. In 2008, Smith became partner and co-creative director of Arkane Studios in Austin alongside the company's president,
Raphaël Colantonio. and 2012 SPIKE VGA for Best Action/Adventure Game. Smith also directed the sequel
Dishonored 2 and its standalone expansion
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider. Smith served as co-director on Arkane Austin's
Redfall, an
open-world first person shooter, which released on May 2, 2023. He continued to work at Arkane Austin until its closure in May 2024. That same year it was on Kirkus Review's list of "Best Indie General Fiction". ==Works==