Posts by 2d-chris

  • The problem of crunch time in game development

    Pretty much the last person I will poke in a work day is a programmer, they can't just whip a change or fix in (usually) and they often have an extremely efficient bug/feature tracking. Content creators however do need to be very flexible and work extremely closely as a team - yes you could ask on messenger, but if it requires more than a simple yes or no answer your wasting everyone's time

    I tend to slap programming questions in after work when we're grabbing a few beers

  • The problem of crunch time in game development

    it's not managers and arranged meetings that cause most of the problems, it's desk to desk distractions that slow you down the most, that being said it's essential to do it when developing a game. No talk Thursday is a dreadful idea unless it just nerfs arranged meetings perhaps ok for some industries but game dev is all about communicating.

  • [L4D] The End

    can really see you improving on art, looking good!

    Might be worth trying to add some more elevation changes into new maps you make, flat feeling is ok but elevation changes will open tons of creative ideas (vis blockers, map boarders and landmarks etc)

    it can help to think of 3 tiers of elevation , 1 being underground, 2 being the surface and 3 being the roof. You'll find it easier to connect them all up to each other

  • The problem of crunch time in game development

    it's a good thing crytek compensate for crunch time (well additional work days anyway)

    What I really hate as somebody said in that article,I work my ass off with a few other ppl (HP) on a cool new idea I want to be special and no way do any of us blame the company, what I dislike are days that I'm asked to come in and work like everyone else, who many have not put in any extra effort. Yes the world is not fare but when you go the extra mile throughout most of development you shouldn't be expected to crunch at milestones.

    IMO you shouldn't need to tell your team to crunch with the only exception being the final shipping deadline, hire experienced developers who understand what is possible in a time frame you have. The bigger problem is usually producers and managers bullshitting publishers into a delivery date that the majority of developers on the team do not agree is possible. It's almost encouraged to not challenge a planned development cycle because in general it makes life easier for yourself - I couldn't disagree more, you as the developer need to be involved.

    Also, some people work best after work, no joke I will do more in my time from 8pm to 10 pm than a full working day, it's a chance to actually get in the zone and have no distractions. The feeling that got me addicted to level design in the first place.

  • The golden age of mapping

    Golden age, as In the amount of quality, unique maps being made for a single game (cs) - it was also a time when level design was still a bit of a secret and there weren't 2 million tutorials and youtube videos to learn from - that's taking nothing away from the new kids on the block but it's certainly easier to get to the final result these days. (rightfully so )

    TF2 spawned _almost_ another golden age of mapping for sure, but most maps are simply remakes of the official ones with the same theme I must of played over 250 amazingly fun and unique CS custom maps - not quick FY maps but full blown artistic masterpieces!

  • The golden age of mapping

    Is it weird that seeing my work on that site gives me more excitement than my professional work on the webs biggest gaming sites? Guess it's because custom mapping is a one man band

    Don't think I'll ever top the awesomeness of those days, now you need 20 artists to make something so visually impact-full it changes you forever

    Top 5 maps on that list are ...

    1) de_volare - incredibly unique, amazing art and full of fun little touches

    2) de_clan1_mill - perfect layout and visuals for clan games

    3) cs_industrywest - a fine work of art, unique assets and looked like no other industrial map for cs

    4) de_karachi01 - amazing texture set, awesome music, fun layout, made podbot waypoints for it

    5) de_morningstar - godly architecture and textures, made podbot waypoints for it

  • Portfolio Question

    As others have said, it boils down to what type of job you're looking to get out of your portfolio, I'd say about half of the job of a level designer (working on AAA action rpg/shooters) is technical knowledge that you won't really prove by working with the editors in your list, however, if you're looking to get a job as a RTS/RPG quest designer then you're going in the right direction.

    As for if I'd consider hiring you for an FPS game, or Action RPG the answer would probably be no unless you can show at least some knowledge of Unreal, Radiant, CryEngine and Source (plus tons of others)

    My advise is to do a bit of both, it'll give you a much broader knowledge base - also what insta said "fuuuuuuuuuuun" should be your goal - but making something pretty never hurt anyone

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    Nice, I think its one of those scenes that would really benefit from more contrast between shadow and sunlight ... even if in real life everything is very flat. RL sucks

    Also that time of day is very nasty, as you tend to get reallllllly long shadows and they end up washing everything out, it works if all you have is flatish hills, but if you add structures it might get hairy.

    Anyway looks yummy nonetheless