Posts by Furyo

  • Gran Turismo 5

    Played it yesterday at HP's place for a bit. I really couldn't find how this game is better in any way to Forza III. Looks exactly identical to me (and probably 99.9% of players of both games), has the same gameplay modes (GT5 has karts, which I don't think Forza III has). All in all, taking 6 years to deliver that vs 4 years to deliver 2-3 Forza experiences, I think Forza is the better offering. Not to mention a commercially much more sensible one too.

  • Lukas Van Daele - Level Designer

    If you look at my website, you can see that I went for none. I just wanted my site to feel "button less" as much as possible, so I tried to integrate everything so the work shines more so than the template. I guess I always thought that the interactive icons spoke for themselves and no one had any issue reading them and clicking them if needed.

    From what Google Analytics tell me, it works just fine, I get hits on all pages (obviously more on the index than any other of course)

  • Lukas Van Daele - Level Designer

    I can tell that you already followed a lot of the advice we all generally give on these forums, and even got inspired by many members' websites in your own layout

    I really like your mod for CryEngine 2, I think the concept is awesome although I would have preferred a different art direction for the props

    Good job on the Mirror's Edge level, I didn't even know that game could be modded...

    Portfolio wise, I think you're doing just fine even though I'm not a fan of the rollover effect on the buttons (looks too busy) and you could remove the home button since your name already takes us there.

  • Going Abroad

    Quote from PogoP

    Woah, why did you move around so much?

    As a kid, because my father was getting promoted. My stay in the US was the first time I moved by myself, at 17. After that, all moves are a combination of studies, internships and job opportunities. That lifestyle is basically all I know and I find myself getting very excited to discover some new place after a while. This industry works quite well for me for now because it gives me all these opportunities and with my previous experiences I never think twice about drastic moves since I'm so used to them. I can literally embrace all these chances and not look back.

    Besides, if I was to stay in my home country and work there, I would basically have to stick to less interesting projects and half the pay I can now get at major international studios. And I'm 29. Come back 10 years from now and I will be singing a different tune (it started already, as I said prompting my move back to Europe) but I still want to discover places out there. It's exciting.

    And you can also build a family that benefits from this lifestyle. My parents did it and I wouldn't be living this way without them raising me in a similar environment. My brother and sister are doing the same thing too, it's not just me.

  • Going Abroad

    That's alright you can always claim that Naughty Dog is Santa Monica and not LA, everyone will agree with you that it's so much better At least it's not too much away from the ocean and ten times hotter like the San Fernando valley.

    Hourences I agree with your post a lot, and that prompted my return to Europe but at the same time the passion to make games must still exist, which is why my life will surely make me go away again. Like I said, I haven't really lived in one place more than any other lately if ever so that need is something I'm not entirely sure I know or have.

    Here is the list of all the moves I made...you can get the idea

    Creteil, France -> Alencon, France

    Alencon, France - Fort de France, Martinique, France

    Fort de France, Martinique, France -> Epinal, France

    Epinal, France -> West Cornwall, CT, USA

    West Cornwall, CT, USA -> Epinal, France

    Epinal, France -> Dijon, France

    Dijon, France -> Berlin, Germany

    Berlin, Germany -> Dijon, France

    Dijon, France -> London, UK

    London, UK -> Dijon, France

    Dijon, France -> Orsay, France

    Orsay, France -> Dijon, France

    Dijon, France -> Montpellier, France

    Montpellier, France -> Annecy, France

    Annecy, France -> Epinal, France

    Epinal, France -> Montreal, QC, Canada

    (short stint in Brazil)

    Montreal, QC, Canada -> Frankfurt, Germany

    That's 14 moves in the past 12 years. And 5 moves to 5 different studios (4 countries and 3 continents) to make 5 games in the past 5 years (since I joined this industry)

    That list will surely continue at one point, I already know that.

  • Going Abroad

    I've lived all my life moving from one place to another every 3 years on average. Ever since I was 6. So I don't have back-up plans, and I don't have a back-up place to store my shit. With that said I haven't been out of a job since I left my parents' home so I never really had to.

    As much as this industry is reputed for being unstable, the reality of it is it really isn't any more or less than any other industry but since it's such a global one the impact is felt across the board much faster. If you worked in more common industries you'd lose a job and still would find opportunities within the same city. In the games industry, those cities are very limited and you will have to move quite far for the next venture. If that's more what you're looking for, as far as stability, look no where else but in Montreal, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and to some degree London and Paris.

    Taking the visa situation in consideration, you're basically left with Montreal and other Canadian cities to a lesser degree. At least outside of Europe. Welcome to the club of European developers.

    Yeah, that industry really isn't keen on families...

  • Going Abroad

    Europe:

    Sweden is the closest thing you'll get in Europe to a "stable" industry next to England, which is not saying much. Sweden I think is the second biggest video games country in Europe in terms of numbers of studios or even their importance.

    The UK (read England) has by far the largest established base, but they're all pretty gloomy right now aside from the infallible Rockstar and a few other successful places like Rocksteady, Media Molecule or Ninja Theory (from the looks of it). At least they keep saying they can't get talent, are pissed at Canada for being so cheap and are disappointed they didn't get their own tax breaks.

    Germany has Crytek, possibly Yager depending on what they come up with with their recent project.

    France has Ubisoft that never hires anyone permanently before giving them contracts for as long as they possibly can, so if you're looking for stable you can go somewhere else. Not to mention piss poor salaries and the absolute need to speak French to everyone around you. Bethesda bought Arkane so it will be interesting to see if they can get their heads out of the water a bit higher.

    Spain has basically very little of any significance, so does Portugal, Switzerland or Italy.

    The Netherlands has Guerilla, and Denmark has IO Interactive. We'll see what Hourences gets with The Ball, maybe that's a new powerhouse in the making

    Finland has Rovio that is doing great for itself in a genre that's really not your current one. Remedy too but they're still very small and Finnish only so going there might be some sort of lonewolf adventure.

    Iceland has CCP (Eve Online)

    And that about sums it up.

    Canada:

    Huge development community in Montreal, followed somewhat by Vancouver and Toronto. Montreal itself has Ubisoft, Visceral, Square Enix, THQ, Warner Bros, A2M, Bioware and an army of small start ups looking to make it big. Quebec has Beenox and Ubisoft. Toronto has only recently started to grow its industry with Ubisoft, but you can also find Digital Illusions and Silicon Knights nearby. Vancouver I hear has hit a bit of a snag lately, with seemingly only Blue Castle Games really hitting it off alright after having recently been purchased by Capcom. Ubi also has a studio there, and there is always Propaganda (Disney) although they just canceled one of their two projects.

    US:

    Florida has a few low key studios, while North Carolina still has Epic and Tripwire Interactive. NYC has Kaos still there and no one else (publishers only). Boston is seeing some good stuff with Irrational and Harmonix. 38 Studios just recently left for Rhode Island. The PAX East conference is likely to drive more business around Boston too.

    Down south, Texas (Dallas, Austin) are doing ok, with the likes of Bioware, Id, Vigil Games (Darksiders) and others.

    West coast still is where it's at the most, with dozens of studios in California and Seattle, the two hot beds for video games in the world.

    Asia:

    Singapore is interesting to follow with the recent arrival of big studios (Ubi comes to mind again) and the film industry (LucasFilms) China and Shanghai have always been a weird situation, where the companies likely to hire an experienced western developer are making games for the western markets too and not for the local one where tastes are drastically different.

    Japan: Most likely have to be fluent in Japanese to even stand a chance.

  • Valve creates micro-transaction steam support

    Custom maps are not easy to sell because of their nature. A map is the resulting mix of plenty of assets + a layout design. Back in the days when Valve would purchase community maps (as opposed to contracting custom mappers to make maps for them), they had to go through all the red tape of pinpointing each asset to its maker, then give that guy the papers and check that comes with it. I heard that on DoD, it was up to 30 people. Per level.

    An asset is easy to sell. It's a lot easier to quantify, and it's generally only done by a single person.