Posts by KungFuSquirrel

  • games that seem to make time fly by!

    Quote from Izuno

    5) Mercenaries (on Xbox) Yes that's right. I said Mercenaries. Hands down it is my console game of the year for 2005.

    wtfbias!

    Err, wait, that was under lucasarts, wasn't it? I can never remember what Pandemic's relationship is between LA and THQ... bleh. I know DAH was THQ.

    I need to get me that game, the Mercenaries. Yet I'm behind enough as-is

  • games that seem to make time fly by!

    King's Quest V and VI. Lost entire summers to those games!

    Also, my friends and I had a lan party shortly after TFC was released. We tried it on a whim one night at about 11 or midnight. It was daylight before we stopped. That was just on the hunted map, too.

    BG&E was right up there... WoW, sections of Psychonauts (Goggalor and the Milkman, mainly). And Half-Life 2 as well; I hammered through that in just a couple sittings the day it shipped. Couldn't stay away!

  • The Island & Product placement

    Quote from Kosmo

    Well, I robot was the ultimate in product placement, every other word was some company name. It made me sick, and then healthy and then sick again. Besides, the movie sucked ass, so that makes it even worse.

    "Vintage 2004."

    Sweet lord I wanted to kill myself then and there. At least I managed to still semi-enjoy that one.

  • Second release - 5 skies.

    Hmm. All look great, but I don't think the small bit o' earth in interstellar works that well... everything else is so grandiose, but that just feels kinda tacked on.

    Great work, though, I might have to use that orange one for the sky in my little eclipse partial remake project.

  • Low poly starfighter-type thing

    haha, awesome - the two things I thought of when making some of the shapes were wipeout and homeworld.

    ginsengavenger: Yeah, it's a little weird with all the different shortcuts and stuff. But hell, it wasn't originally made for windows. They actually all do make sense (U for undo, Shift+U to redo, b for bevel, etc.) but just take some getting used to. I do like it, but I'll eventually shift my focus to maya... but for right now, it's what I know.

    Reno: The underside bit was designed to somewhat resemble the intake of an F-16. I was actually exremely happy with how that bit turned out.

  • What areas should I focus on as a game dev?

    Well, your mileage will vary, but here's my input on the subject, along with some differing opinions on what has come along so far. Probably will be very design-centered, just given my own perspective and experience, but hopefully it's of some use.

    First off, I don't think you necessarily need to spend your time spreading yourself over every major engine on the market. You are probably better off mastering one than dabbling in all. The knowledge you gain there will translate across (as far as raw construction, asset usage, gameplay flow, etc) anywhere you go. I don't know of a single person who has been hired or not hired by a lack of knowledge in an editor. That's all fluff, just an interface. what you do with it is what counts. If you can make a good level on any sort of comparable technology, they'll be able to work with you.

    Besides, you'll learn far quicker in a professional environment with the guidance of the people around you (and the exra motivation) than you will on your own. I came from a pretty much exclusively Worldcraft/Hammer background (as was Ken Banks when he arrived, as well as our lead designer when he was hired back on SOF). I was doing production work in just under a week in a brand new editor and engine.

    Familiarity with programming is good, too, but not necessary. Programming-style scripting languages seem to be a bit more prevalent (Unreal, Doom3), so it can be immensely helpful there, but what you'd be doing in a design sense is (usually, hehe ) far below what you'd do in code. Even in a visual scripting system, an understanding of how things work under the hood can be useful to help know how and why things might be occurring. I do agree with Zazi in that you should lean towards either programming or art, though, as beyond scripting languages there's little crossover.

    Texturing and skinning can come into play depending on what sort of role you take on. If you're a 'traditional' level designer, than more than likely your tiles will be painted for you. But if you are in a team where a paired combo of designer + environment artist make a map, and you're the latter, you'd better be pretty good.

    Especially if you're looking at the level design route, I'd recommend a familiarity with a modeling package. Even with more specialized roles, there's still a lot of value for someone who can do work across the board. The more specialized people you get, the more time you spend sitting on your ass or bouncing around waiting for the stuff you need. And even if you aren't directly making content for the game, being able to build roughs for your own props can be a great starting point for collaborating with an artist to fully flesh out the world.

    Project leadership, even on a mod level, is very valuable. I know my role on Nightwatch played a huge role in me being hired - and that hadn't even been released. Even if it doesn't directly translate to a real leadership position (which, in some cases, it can and has), it shows an ability to work with people, dedication of a hell of a lot of time to something that you enjoy doing, and familiarization with some of the trials of game development. In addition, it gets you much more intimately familiar with areas of development you'd have never understood otherwise as you work with people on your team in those disciplines. And you also get a head start on the 'capital D' - if you're leading a mod, you're coming up with all those core ideas and concepts that a full game designer would be doing on a larger scale in a professional environment.

    The difference between a good mod developer and a professional game developer is the salary and office/cubicle. What you know and learn from your work on your own will directly apply. It's also far more useful than what you'd learn from a controlled environment at a game school. Development can be chaotic and unpredictable, and the best way to learn that is to experience it first-hand. That's what makes independent work and mod experience so valuable for an entry-level position.

  • Doom III engine

    Models are still key for the really fine detail or just when you need more than what normal level textures will give you. But yeah, you can build and quickly/effectively texture crazy amounts of stuff in radiant that just aren't possible in other games without modeling software. It's snazzeh

  • Sony Online Entertainment and EB games - Big Jerks

    What about sealed copies with receipts? or 'defective' discs?

    I know a number of places will take back sealed copies with receipts as returns; a savvy gamer could easily convincingly re-seal the package and return it the next day after getting the key and the account. Hell, I had a defective WoW disc and had already put the CD key from that version into my uber-document of all my cd keys before I installed - that key was still there after I exchanged my copy for a working disc! Who knows what fate it saw after that.

    It's certainly not 100% certain (ha, certain), but definitely possible.

  • HL2 High-detail skin pack

    Quote from Kosmo

    That would be most disappointing, even UE3 can do better than that. But then again, if HL3 will be another resource wise game like HL2 then it just might be true.

    Actually, unless I'm sorely mistaken, this is probably the same resolution most UE3 skins will be at, at least early in its lifespan. 2048 is ridiculously big. Painted well, I don't think a face will ever need* more than that - on a 21" monitor the flat is practically lifesize, with the potential of enough detail to match!

    *key word being "need," people will be more than willing to push this further whether its needed or not

  • de_corse

    Gorgeous. Eager to see where you take this.

    Would love to see that third shot either in a really intense/directional afternoon sun or in a nice colorful sunrise/sunset with some modern accent lights added here and there. But maybe that's just me.