Posts by Hourences

GOW has a very specific target audience. This game has a very broad one. Should have been very possible.

Nice content, bit unfortunate that the gameplay looks so standard.

Id certainly put your resume on it as well, and more information and pictures of what you did. Right now it just lists the games you work on, but I have no clue really what exactly you did. Did you do art or scripting, or lighting, and so on. I also think you can prolly take some more screens of the stuff you did.

bump, apperantly this game too does not sell well:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_i ... tory=21509

So just like mirrors edge, innovation, a solid game, and plenty of marketing does not sell your game.... That's really bad.

or it's like "Mc Donalds logo thats suddenly purple and blue".

Be consistent in your presented identity. And redoing the colors also means redoing the other site.

Good to hear it was of good help to you Sarge

I will implement a number of those things over the next few weeks, such are much more subtle lines, thanks

I will also try with some gray.

Edit: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/index.htm

Added very subtle gray in the top graphic and as bgcolor of some small tables

Downscaled colors of the top graphic a lot

Dark red instead of dark orange background for the tables

Removed line in between

Im not sure about the gray?

Yeah I made Rankin

Thanks all.

So what colors do you want to see then.

-It has to be red/orange since those are the colors I have used since ages

-It has to be dark for the screenshots sake

So unless I mix in dark blue, which would kind of clash I think, I only have dark red/orange/yellow to work with, commonly known as brown.

The only thing I could do besides that is just go for gray, but thats prolly rather boring? Havent tried that yet though.

Looking into those. I added a small headline thingy on the first page to make it more clear what I do the moment you enter my site. Also added even more pics to it. Will replace some of the less cool ones later when I got more The Ball and Huxley stuff up.

World domination is set for late 2009. In the mean time I will focus on a small new book, The Ball, and some side projects such as a photo website, and real life.

You can also close the popup by clicking on empty space, anywhere.

The button text is just text, it is not an image, and I dont know how to AA regular htm text? For that mather the title itself, and all larger fonts are also not AA..

I know that it is a lot of stuff, but I just have a lot of stuff and there is no way to speed that up without removing stuff, and I am not doing that because my amount of work in itself is one of my strong points. By cutting that down it may become more accessible, but it also loses value so it balances out. No gain imo.

It is perfectly clear that levels from 1999 prolly look outdated by now, if they are only interested in new stuff, they can just go to the 2007 page right away? There is a menu for a reason.

If a recruiter doesnt want to spend more than 10 minutes on what I do, I am not interested in hearing from them. I am not going for entry jobs where I would be grateful for every minute a recruiter would have to spare for me...

There are 20 or so screenshots on the very first page to sum it all up. I don't see why I would need to make a small screenshot summary per level page, and per every other page. That's way more confusing imo. Even more content that way.

A welcome message would add even more text to the site and it is just wholly unneccy. If you got to this page, you probarbly know what I do. The 20 screenshots + half a page of opening text there are the welcome message. I could possibly move the screenshot to above the little sitemap though. Or split it up in multiple rows of screenshots and add some more.

I will add pics of book on the index page to make them stand out a bit more. I am having trouble making stuff stand out because there is so much stuff. The Ball is also grosely underrepresented, need to work on that too.

The missing pics are bad, can you tell me which ones? Its very difficult to keep track of all 600 or so screenshots so I didnt test all of them, maybe 10 percent of them at best...

Been quite for a while, I have been preparing a whole lot of things.

Brand New Portfolio site

http://www.hourences.com/portfolio

More in line with my other site - http://www.hourences.com/book/ - less text, and more polished. I have decided to move the whole Skills section out of my resume so it gets more focus, as I am trying to get away from the perception I only make levels. I want to grow as a professional, and take on a growing and more varied set of responsibilities. This new design should help with making that intention known and clear, I hope. We will see how this works out anyway.

I now have two fully developped websites - http://www.hourences.com/ - with a consistent design and over 90 pages of content and 78 000 words!

The Chronicles Of Spellborn

The game has finally been released. It took them 4 years to do. I have designed very very large parts of the game world, and I had a hand (or a full body) in almost all environments of the game and I did a good bit of tech and art direction. Exactly what I did for what parts can be read on my portfolio.

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/spellborn/slywood14.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/spellborn/lower14.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/spellborn/rafta4.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/spellborn/raftb5.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/spellborn/glaiveraft5.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/spellborn/citadel9.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/spellborn/arena1.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/spellborn/greendistrictday11.jpg]

Unfortunally it prolly looks a little outdated, that is what you get from spending 4 years on a game It is MMO though, which is a bit more forgiving.

Huxley

I have added one Huxley level to my portfolio. I actually made 5 or 6, but this is the only one that is in the open beta at the moment and thus free of NDA. It is not my best level, but it is pretty ok. I have made one level for Huxley that I am really happy with personally, so I hope to show that next month.

This level takes place in a city after it has been struck by an earthquake. The game takes place on a plaza, teared open by three large crevices (forming the boundaries of the playable area). The player can see how the earthquake revealed an underground garage, and a subway tunnel.

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/portfolio/work/huxley/crevine2.jpg]

Interview

Modcenter (IGN) has interviewed me about The Ball and other stuff : http://www.modcenter.com/cgi-bin/tutori ... ot_id=1343

Lectures

I have given lectures to swedish game dev schools, about Unreal and level design. I will continue doing this in the future. I am also interested in more offers regarding this. I am also considering giving private tutoring a go, one on one, if anyone happens to live nearby...

Silo

I am gathering support for Silo Unreal and low poly game art support. Silo is a really efficient, slick, fast, and professional 3D modeling app with a very pleasant price tag of only 159 USD. However, it isn't very good at low poly game stuff really. It doesn't support smoothing groups/edges for example, as it is really focused on high poly subdivision based modeling. So I am trying to persuade the makers to add support for that, and for Unreal exporting (ASE).

Please vote:

http://nevercenter.uservoice.com/pages/ ... ions/66908

http://nevercenter.uservoice.com/pages/ ... ions/66892

http://nevercenter.uservoice.com/pages/ ... ions/66893

http://nevercenter.uservoice.com/pages/ ... ions/66904

http://nevercenter.uservoice.com/pages/ ... ions/65188

This to me feels so Spellborn like. Small startup, first project, few people, Unreal Engine, video that feels fabricated with no actual gameplay, etc.

You cannot make a MMORPG as your first project, and certainly not with just 20 people or less. This is pretty insane, and I speak from experience. I dont see this going anywhere as nice as their concept is.

If that was the thing, no one would play WOW, because ffs, it has so many frigging buttons, keys, items, etc. And yes that is an extreme example, and a different audience, but it still illustrates the point. Plenty of console games like Tekken have way more complicated moves, and still sell.

An expensive month isn't it either. The other games do seem to do well..

It prolly just is too new for most and that is really bad. This really shows that COD5, about as unoriginal as it can get, works better than a brand new stylish and original game. It gets even worse when you consider that even their massive marketing campaign doesn't seem to help.

The game doesnt seem to be doing good: http://vgchartz.com/weekly.php

If those numbers are correct, then I think that is a real shame. It is obviously not a perfect game, but it is good, and it tries to do something new. Apperantly WW2 games, and casual previous gen games are the way to go? This may get EA to rethink their approach?

Yes the mods urge for publicity is horrible. Most spend more time on their websites than on the mod. Dont create a website until you got a mod...

I worked on about five or so mods now, 3 of them singleplay. All of them very succesfull. All of them released. None of them ever had any kind of design document what so ever. We just talked to each other, which works just as well really.

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The coders will prioritize on the wrong things or will code stuff that is unnecessary

As the leader I just talk to the guy, and I tell him what has the highest prio. Problem fixed?

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the level designers will create map layouts that don't work etc.

Talk to them more? Maybe they started off building layouts too soon? Core gameplay not finalized etc. That is why you need to do small builds all the time, so the previous release can be taken as example. You dont need a lot of design doc for this? Just a working build?

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And don't forget that many people are virtualy unable to come up with something if you don't give them exact directions. I met many artists like that. Not everybody is a designer or inventor. Many just want to improove on their skills and need someone who tells them what to do. In the modding community where you meet many inexperienced people this might even be more common then in professional games development.

Yes, but there are also many that do wish to have some say in what is going on. There are of course A LOT of people who do want to be guided, and I am not saying you cant guide them some more. It is a case by case thing. Talk to them more if you think they need some more help. Forcing everyone to stick to your design doc is a too general approach.

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And as i said you have to kick slackers. We always did this at Ins. Our core team at least always worked their asses off. Same can be said about the mod that i worked on before which had a size of around 25 people.

I agree that they must be kicked, but, if you hire a new guy every week, and kick a guy every week, again, I would leave the mod myself because it would give me a really wrong signal. You would get very nervous and demotivated if people are kicked all the time...

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Hourences i respect your opinion but what works for one team doesn't work for another team and your way of doing things is not the universal truth for perfect modding. I had the luck of working on two released and succesfull mods for a long time. My experiences are just different ones.

Of course nothing works for everything, but surely there must be some way that usually, on average, works better than other approaches. There are mods made by 1 guy. There are mods made by 147 people teams. Everything goes, but somewhere in between, there is this holy number. I am not saying my five is that number, but surely there is some approach that will give you most chance of success with the least possible troubles? That is what I am saying. It is not about what works (everything can), but what gives you most chance on succeeding... And considering that, it is logical that smaller teams are easier to manage than large teams. That is a fact. So my point is, if you know that you will make it twice as difficult to manage the mod by increasing the team size, then dont, or only get super experience people who do the work of five others, or, hold of until you REALLY need all of these people. Small team = gets you spend more time on development, less on team managment <- that was my point.

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Hourences, what you are saying is basically gather a few friends, discuss some ideas and let everyone do whatever they like. This method can work on super small mods when you have a team of veterans, but I'm pretty sure it won't work when you are dealing with less experienced people. We never had a design doc in Insurgency and that caused us to scrap countless maps and waste hours and hours on needless tasks.

I dont think you can look at the design doc as your holy grail. I am sure that the lack of design doc didnt help you in INS dev, but the reason why it didnt work is prolly more complicated than just "yeah we had no design doc"? A different approach on team management, work order, the peoples experience levels, and so on prolly also had a big impact on it. Did the INS team made fully working builds every month? If not, wouldnt that have helped for the maps? Youd get to test them in the game right away, without trying to guess how it would play by reading a design doc?

In general: Organization is good when it is self organizing. Forcing organization is bad. Your goal as a leader is to make it self organizing, not to force everyone to do what you want. Guide people. Do not force people. Especially not when they spend all their free time on your dream!

My mod is SP, we have no design document and we release in episodes to keep it easy. I worked on two other very large SP mods before. Neither had design documents. Works just fine. Again, if you are going for small releases, there is just not a lot to say. The first release of my mod was made by 3 people, with 3 people you can just chat with each other. Then, when you double up for the next release, you take in more people (we took in 2 more), and they can take your first release as example. Aka they can just play it, instead of reading about it. They only need to read about the new features and that isn't all that much really. Continue like that, step by step. Increase the team a little bit after each release, to ensure a gentle and stable growth (!), and bump up the team spirit. Take only those in you really need for the upcoming release, and no one else.

Long article about mod creation btw: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/09 ... -an-idiot/

Sure design documents can be ok, if they are limited. What is simply wrong is writing design docs just to write design docs because "studios do it like that too!!!111". Do you really need a lot of text? I mean, really? If you build the mod up step by step, like I am doing with The Ball, by releasing a new version every ~4 months, each twice the size of the previous version, you don't need to have a lot of design documents. You know exactly what you will focus on for this release, and since it is a small step up from the previous release, it doesnt has that many new features that it warrants long and complex design documents. A simple forum post explaining what will be done would suffice already.

Also everyone will know in what direction to think and what to base themselves on because they can take the previous release as the example. You don't need a bunch of documents that describe every godforsaken little detail. That also takes the fun out of modding and that is exactly not what you wish to do, especially not when dealing with volunteers.

Same for schedules. If the releases you are going for are small, it is not hard to keep track of what has to happen. Do you really need a schedule? All you need is "Alpha that day, beta that day, release that day" and you're set... Each member can figure it out for themself how to pull that off. Dont make things overly complicated or annoying!

Also about teamsize. It actually works the other way around. You are better off with a small but highly active team, than a small core group surrounded by 40 slackers. That doesnt motivate people to do anything - "but those 29 others do nothing too". It becomes acceptable to slack. A small team raises motivation and thus productivity, and keeps things focussed. If I am uncertain someone will not commit entirely, I simply do not let them join. They may be able to help out, but they will go into the category Additional Help. They can still prove me wrong later, and I would have them join for real if they do, but nothing is worse for the team spirit than an announcement every week "yeah we got a new guy", and then 3 weeks later he disappears again, only to be followed by yet another announcement "yeah we got another new guy because we need to give everyone a chance".. If someone would leave and join Grin every week, it wouldnt help your motivation.

Yes there exceptions, and it also just comes down to the people of course, but usually you want to get rid of all the bullshit. Im sure INS would have been just as great without the paper stuff and similar. That doesn't make the mod.

External artist can work, but you need to be careful not to have too many different styles and techniques going on.

I hope that my ball mod gets really far, so I can push it as an example on how you are suppose to run a mod team without NDAs, 300 members, 300 leads, and a cooler website than mod...

Running a mod:

-No paperwork. No NDAs, no contracts. If someone wants to screw you they will anyhow, with or without a fancy self written NDA. No one will fly to the other end of the world to sue a 16 year old kid who did something uncool to a non profit project. Give me a break really. All paperwork will negatively impact mutual trust.

-Small team. You cannot manage 30 people, you really cant. With 30 people, you will get politics kicking in. It will prove to be difficult to keep everyone involved and up to date. As a leader, and presumably the most experienced dev (as if..), you will spend pretty much all your time on just talking to these 30 people, hampering your own dev work... 30 people is also wholly unneccy. If you need this many people to create your thing, your design is flawed. See next point

-Great and super efficient design. You cant make the next GTA game as a mod. You cant make a WOW clone as a mod. You cant make a mod with 30 playercharacters, 6 different environments and 29 levels, and 4 types of gameplay. You need to go for something that is doable. Im actually writing a book/article about this step at the moment.

-You need to go step by step, and create releases often to keep the team motivated, and proof to them that progress is made. Do not attempt to create the entire mod at once, go step by step. Work on core functionality first, make a working release, and then go onto the next step.

-People spend their time onto mods, for free, because they want something out of it. Identify what, and try to give them that to keep them interested. If they want neat pics for their portfolio, have them work on nice things (and not a bunch of barrels all the time). Take on dirty work yourself if you can to keep it fun for those who help you for free.

-Have just 1 lead. Too many leads and paperwork ends up in a bureaucracy, thats bad for the team. Too many leads also results in too many different visions, arguments following, and so on.

-You need a strong lead who will create the entire mod by himself if he must. This will also motivate the team in the sense that they know it will get finished for sure.

-You cant force teammembers to do exactly what you want them to do if you dont pay them, much too boring especially for artists and designers. Strike the balance between getting what you want, without taking their creativity and input away. Push them into a direction, but then let them handle the rest themselves.

-Mods cannot be run like companies, because people are not being paid. People who are not paid will accept a whole lot less crap than people who are. Your highest priority is to cut down on the amount of crap, and keep it as down the earth and basic as possible.

The last point is one of the reasons so many mod teams fall apart. And inexperience and lack of people of course.

At the end of the day, the most important thing still is whether or not a mod gets finished (most important), and secondly how polished the experience really is. None the less I agree that there is a serious lack of creativity and skill. You dont notice that only in terms of design, but also in terms of mod management. Most mods are grosely mismanaged. People are completely and utterly unrealistic about what they attempt to create. They want to run 40 people mod teams with senior lead producer roles, lead positions, and a game about the size of GTA, and end up spending more time on making their site look nice, or their trailers look nice, than on the actual mod, because updating ModDB is just a whole lot easier to do than actually building something... It is not suprinsing that if they can't even run and manage team, they also can't come up with a neat and original idea...

The thing with modding is that it costs no money, the only thing you need are friends really. And everyone has those. It is very easy to start a mod (and very hard to finish), so plenty of people who are not up to it, and usually have way too little experience, jump in...

I have seen two colleagues play through the first two levels in two player mode yesterday, was awesome. Had a great laugh as well. Awesome style and gameplay, and seems like it will be able to attract a very wide audience, from kids to grown ups, to girls, to casual and hardcore gamers. Hats of to them