Posts by Puddy

  • Game industry questionmarks

    Thanks for all the great replies, all of you!

    Hessi (in reply to quote): That was badly put by me. What I really mean is that I am seriously considering a game design career.

    Also you mentioned that "getting into the game industry" isn't hard at all" which is more then I knew. It's mostly that I'm unaware of the ratio of available positions:available artists (which is pretty important). Thanks for your reply.

    Skjalg pretty clearly shows the different paths. It's a question of gaining a broader knowledge that is clearly printed on paper or to specialize and have your knowledge shine through your work.

    Anyway, in consideration to all your replies I've come up with a... strategy, if you will. I'll finish "gymnasiet" (high school) this spring and after that I will either spend six months or a full year honing my level design skills. My portfolio will grow and I will attempt to apply for a job. If I'm unsuccessful I will go on to higher studies in the spring or fall next year. If I get a job I will miss out on my education obviously but as luck would have it I live in Sweden which means I can pick it up anytime in the future. Yay or nay?

  • Game industry questionmarks

    Hi there Mapcore!

    About me

    To introduce myself; my name's Patrick, I'm 18 years old and I live in Stockholm, Sweden. I haven't really posted all that much here but I've always browsed the forums from time to time to check out all the nice stuff you guys churn out. Anyway, my mapping interest started at age 13-14, with Counter-strike (pretty classic beginning, ey?). I managed to make a few descent smaller maps and one slightly bigger (the latter I found floating around in the internet but cannot be run without "bright.wad"?). But then other things caught my attention and I didn't make any maps at all for quite some time.

    Now it's been 4-5 years and I felt that it was time to end the mapping hiatus. Partly because it's just pure fun but I also have seen game development as a future career. And it was basically out of fear of becoming yet an untalented gamedev-aspiring slacker who regard themselves as the "guy who can come up with ideas". So I decided to start working again and chose to work with Team Fortress 2 since I really love that game and thus made

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    for it which ultimately didn't turn out so great. It looked good, played nice but I had no prior experience of optimizing maps and the results were accordingly. A hint brush was something vague and mystical, something from a magical land far away. I just wrapped it up and I feel that I learned a great deal while making it, even though I'm saddened by the fact that it isn't really playable/releasable. It can however be found here in it's latest shape. For my next project I've decided to make a L4D-campaign ( ) since I yearn for more "realistic" mapping. In TF2, I could never create a small room with a door suitable for only one person, neither could I have "moody" lighting since visibility had higher priority and so on. Also, I want to introduce more custom content; both graphical and mechanical. I'll probably get back to you on this one!Besides mapping in general, I like developing ideas, evaluating said ideas and toy around with theoretical game concepts. Creating worlds out of thin air is just... amazing and it's probably why I love games so much. I'm currently working on two game design docs, not for actual use anytime soon, but rather to practice at trying to come up with good core gameplay, interesting narrative and everything else related to a game. And who knows, in ten years the ideas might come in handy?

    Questions

    Now that you know a bit about me and what I've worked with so far, here comes the point of the thread. I have decided that I really want to aim at getting into the game industry. But to be honest, I don't know much about it or how it works. I've got the impression that it requires a great deal of talent to get into, gives relatively low pay and that the job market is risky and unsafe. Is this true or just bogus (and does it depend on where you're working)?

    Then comes the choice of specialisation. What part to play in the game development process? Would I, as a level designer, be one of too many? My plan was to become a level designer who can handle the actual "construction" of a level but also make prop models and handle any scripting required for the level in question. This idea is founded on the assumption that game studios prefer a level designer who can work independently with everything related to the map he's making (another bonus I suppose is that you're versatile). Or perhaps the entire concept of a "level designer" is outdated? Maybe as games are getting bigger and more ambitious the work is getting split up more and more to specialists? I don't know, you guys better help me out!

    Lastly. You can call me spoiled, naive or demanding but I really do not want to work with uninspired games for cellular phones, "license"-games and the likes (forever). Sure, I'm willing to wade through **** to be able to one day work with a passionate team that genuinely want to create grand experiences, tell of great tales and push the gaming industry forward (not game of the century, but good games). As long as that day comes at all! If I choose to pursue a career in the game industry, what is the validity of wanting to work uncompromisingly with great games and not end up "just" making stuff to meet a deadline? By uncompromisingly I don't mean that I'm the boss or anything, just that I'm part of a team who sets out to achieve greatness (I hope you understand what I mean).

    I know that all of this is directly tied to my will, my talent and my passion. Just so you don't think I've missed that. :wink:

    But I'm looking for answers about the difficulties in general.

    Best Regards,

    Patrick

  • Quake 4 Map Pack work

    Argh, just got started with Radiant, second day using it and I question myself why my maps don't look like that?

    Stop making me want to give up... :>

    Your maps are so damn good that you feel there is no point making maps when yours just pwn whatever you make!