Posts by CompoSITe

  • The Emotional cost of bad reviews

    I would like to see some stats on review scores to sales and the correlation of the two.

    I am not convinced that reviews really affect game sales. Maybe it does with the interwebs being so popular with the kids these days but I saw a lot of our sales come from just word of mouth.

    You make a good game. People play it. They like it, tell a friend and he goes out and gets it. (or rents it, lol)

    I think that most game that have been coming out lately are only about 80% there. It seems like Devs have been putting so much time into bringing there graphics up to "next Gen" standards that they let gameplay, AI, controls, and the bigger picture of making the game fun slide. Maybe they think they will have time at the end of the project to polish the fun and they run out of time. Maybe they just can't stand back from the game and see the blatantly bad things. I am not sure but until they do they will continue to push mediocre games out the door and end up with mediocre scores.

    And yeah the folks that worked there ass off for 2-3 years will feel lousy.

  • MP level design for conosles: whats different from PC

    The size of the level is really the only difference to me when building. I can balance a map with a set amount of players in mind but PC guys will run there servers with 64+ players. The maps just aren't built for that many.

    I do try to have a verity of playstyle and size per map but it isn't really base on platform.

    Thinking more about, I do try to stay away from T junctions (doors, hallways...etc) when I can. It is a bit slower for the controller to spin and check each way.

  • [cod4] AirBase

    Spawn errors are probably because you need a TDM Start spawn for each team. The coders put this in a while back for some odd reason.

    So just to run around in a brand new level you need:

    Global intermission

    1 TDM spawn

    1 mp_tdm_spawn_allies_start

    1 mp_tdm_spawn_axis_start

    I add a DM in for good measure as well.

    I will answer a few more after lunch...

  • [cod4] AirBase

    I use decals on both patches and brushes. It depends on if I want to alpha out one edge of the decal. If the decal fades on its own then I use a brush.

    I don't float the decal at all. Never have, so I don't think it is an issue.

    Were you trying to scale a model? If so you can do that with modelscale .....2 or whatever, on the model.

    We joke about how many crazy key stroke shortcuts we have. It seems like every week someone mentions one the use and we all smack our foreheads in disbelief. lol

    We should make a wiki with all of them on it.

    As for the middle mouse click...a neat one is if you select a texture face and the ALT middle click on the face next to it, it will wrap the texture. It useful to align textures or you can clip the corner of the brush on the .5 grid, wrap the texture across it and you end up with a pretty good beveled corner.

    Anyway, hope that stuff helps.

    Ask away if you have more questions.

  • Killzone 2

    We just played it here at work and sad to say the controls are horrible. I am baffled by so many companies messing up or just not paying enough attention to controls. Its the one physical connection players have with there game and they drop the ball. Killzone's feel very sluggish and unresponsive.

    Anyways, sorry for the rant. Game looks great. They have always had great art direction. Bad AI and VO work seems to be there downfall.

    I hope it does well, I liked the PSP game they did.

    Anyone else try it yet?

  • Call of Duty 4 (reviews)

    Alex and I will be playing tonight for this Live Fire weekend thing. It would be cool the chit chat over loud gun fire if you guys get a chance.

    Here are all of our gamertags for this thing:

    * COD4MultiDes: Geoffrey - Multiplayer Designer

    * COD4MPLevDes: Alex - MP Level Designer

    * fourzerotwo: Robert - Community Relations Manager

    * COD4LeadArt: Joel - Lead Character Artist

    * COD4CharArt: Oscar - Character Artist

    * COD4SPlayDes: Chad - Single Player Designer

    * COD4Video: Drew - IT / Video Guy

    * COD4Prog: Jon - Programmer

    * COD4Art1: Ryan - Artist

    * COD4SPLevDes: Jon - SP Level Designer

    * COD4SPDes: Roger - SP Designer

    * COD4QA1: Ed - Lead Quality Assurance

    * COD4QA2: Justin - Lead Quality Assurance

    * COD4Art2: Brad - Artist

  • Call of Duty 4 (reviews)

    Here you go Buddy.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... &plindex=3

    Vid shows part of the Chernobyl level. I couldn't find screens for you.

    Thanks for the kind words. I would agree that some parts of the game are a lot harder then others. We have certain Designers that love to make things hard. I would say the TV station fight and the end of the sniper level are the top two hardest.

    I mostly worked on MP so I take no blame for that, lol.

  • Call of Duty 4 (reviews)

    Quote

    I loved PC Gamer's review, taking the piss out of the fact the Iraq-like sections are reffered to as 'THE MIDDLE EAST' and not actually named

    Yeah, that was a tough topic. We knew from the start we didn't want it set in Iraq but people just think it is anyway. We wanted to keep it pretty nondescript.

  • Making of COD4 maps

    Picture in the background?

    That sketch was the main street. I had DOD in mind when I drew it. I wanted a map the pushed each side right at each other. I ended up adding in the other routes because of how our core spawning works.