Posts by blackdog

  • What have you watched recently?

    Couple weeks ago finally finished Ozark.

    It’s not the most epic finale, but it’s adequate. I don’t get the hyperbolically bad comments on the ending.

    Overall it’s been one of the most solid shows I watched. It really stands out in terms of filmography and consistency.

  • Where's They Hunger: Lost Souls gone?

    You gotta start somewhere. Once you are able to share some interesting content it’s easier to attract other talent as most people are followers and want to jump on a well manned ship.

    That being said the interest for Source mods is not what it was so it’s hard.

    Despite I was editor/webmaster for HLItalia, writing reviews, mirroring all mods possible… I never played They Hunger. I remember I started it, but dunno why I didn’t complete it. Dunno if I got stuck wary or just didn’t like the vibe. I remember I was in awe and looking forward for the Source version they were working on

  • Diploma Game Art & 3D Animation

    Depends how all it’s balanced (how many hours will be spent on each section) but seems the program will give you some solid although generic information.

    Know a bit of everything, good for roles like marketing artists that have to take renders or game models and rework them into a cover/poster/banner. The type of job you find in a publishing environment, big (big) studios, or third parties (like Apple’s App Store).

    Do they make any promises or give indication what’s the main aim for students that get their degrees?

  • What are you playing now?

    Quote from 0kelvin

    13 hours ago, 0kelvin said: Rage isn't a bad game, but it's not exceptional either. Right before the journey to the other wasteland, where the sky is dark, I dropped it. The env art in this game is really excellent. I saw how much effort they put in to make a believable wasteland. The thing is, megatexture made it all static. There is nothing to interact with. All you do in this game is to accept a quest, go to a place, then comes a door and a loading screen. Once in you kill everyone there, do your job, return to the outdoor wasteland, drive back to the city and go to the next mission. There is no plot to explain the lives of each character, each place you visit. It comes down to "bandits are trying to explode the blablabla, go there and stop them". It's not like bioshock where the whole world has a background story from its creation to the current time where the game takes place. It's doesn't offer much beyond killing enemies. I don't know if the hardware at the time imposed serious bottlenecks or if the script writers didn't develop the world any further than just give an excuse to explain that the world was destroyed by an asteroid. Take out the enemies from each level and there is nothing left to populate it. It has good mechanics, various weapons, different tactics, but the world itself seems a wasted potential. Compared to bioshock it is way easier to earn credits and obtain ingredients.

    I mean, Carmack is also famous for the quote “story in videogames is important as story in pornos”… they are not really known for their storytelling.

    The tech was ported even to mobile, there was a mobile on rail shooter for iPhone.

    I haven’t played it yet, always admired the fantastic art, everything is chiselled by hand… but all the rest takes a back seat. I remember the critiques and prob a reason why I never prioritised playing it. At the time I was expecting what Mad Max by Avalanche came to be. That one is fantastic visually and also fun, despite the repetitiveness. (Although every outpost or hideout is actually different)

  • Looking for direction; Thoughts on using a Hammer SDK environment as a portfolio piece

    What is that you are interested in doing: Level Design or Environmental Art? Because as much as they are adjecient, they are two different disciplines. I'm sure a skilled designer/artist can migrate from one to the other, but unless they are working in a small team, I doubt they get to work on both.

    In such a specialised industry, having skills in another department could be even seen as "detrimental", in the sense that every hour you spend on env art you don't spend improving your design skills -and vice versa- so I'm not sure how much of a leg up having those extra skills will give you. Either Level Design or Env Art, the companies will be expecting you to be at the top of your game in the department you are applying for. Basically you don't want to be mediocre in the department that you are really interested to work in, hoping to compensate with extra skills that don't directly help in your assigment.

    Say you want to be a Level Designer, being a decent Env Artist only counts if you are at least on the same level of other candidates... unless (maybe!) you are applying in a small studio where being jack-of-all-trades might be more valuable (to maintain costs down).

    Sounds to me you are more interestedin Level Design, so if that's the case, graphical fidelity doesn't really count. LDs are not hired to make maps pretty, but to make them fun, original; you need to display ability in analysing the game mechanics, metrics, facilitate (or challenge!) the gameplay that has been decided. This is at least what I have read or heard many many times in podcasts, interviews, posts here and social networks, seminars.

    And the consequence of that is that arguably it doesn't really matter what tech you are using to build your maps, it should be the one you are most comfortable with. If you are interested in the boomer shooter scene you probably want to make maps for Quake, Doom, Duke Nukem, Hexen etc - many of the people working on Graven for example, are from the Quake scene, and they use the HammUEr plugin to convert maps made in Hammer to UE4. We had this discussion many times in the forum, and I think most people agree that it's best to build a map for actual games rather than greyboxes in engines where you can't display gameplay because you are not mapping for a game but essentially building a new game from scratch. Sure you can use many plugins from the marketplaces to implement an FPS or TPS for example, but there's probably no match to be able to display actual gameplay (be it PvP or AI) than an imaginative recreation "oh this map is intended to be for an Uncharted-like game, but the character can't make this jump because the plugin doesn't support it".

    So TLDR, I would say the things to focus for Level Design are:

    • Show you can finish a project (well this goes for every job really)
    • Clearly explain what were your objectives when you set off
    • Clearly explain the outcome: did you succeed, how do you measure success, what can you do better, etc
    • Clearly show your thought process: sketching, documenting your steps up to final result
      • Document the time you spend overall and for tasks, helps you and shows you are responsible
    • Make something interesting: pick a scenario, show how you support player choice or accommodate competitive tactics
    • Build maps for released games (chosing the tech you are most productive with, that support your vision best, etc)
      • If you have used old tech, once you have a couple finished projects, look at current tech because you want to be able to hit the ground running as much as possible - find released games with an editor or find plugins that allow you to create semi-functional maps

    Once you have completed a map for CSGO for example, then you can worry about embellishing with custom assets if you are so inclined, but don't make the looks the focus of the project, show why the map is good, then add on top that you made it even better with your artist skills.

    It is important or can be very beneficial to network, I'm pretty sure statistics across all industries show that being referred yelds higher success rate for candidates. You skip the queue, you can get your portfolio in front of recruiters/seniors and get feedback even without applying - giving you the opportunity to improve before getting a slap in the face and spending lots of time just trying to figure out what the companies find interesting. Networking can also bring you free mentoring, or there are many designers that are now offering this as a paid service. Reach out to people, be nice, and you'll find lots of support.

    It can also be beneficial to write some pieces to show your critique skills, that you can analyse other people's work, how you give feedback, how knowledgable you are in terms of tech if you make assumptions, etc.

    Here are some resources where you can find info from designers that have made it and what companies look for in portfolios:

  • de_echo [WIP]

    Good work getting to this point.

    My critique at this point is that the ceilings look low and seems it would be a problem to lob nades around. Some rooms are also very big, accentuating this feeling + not looking very realistic because there’s too much ceiling without supporting structure (beams, columns, etc – these can double as cover as well)

    This results in a bit monotonous look, I wonder if you could find a way to break up the building and have some outside/open air areas - links between wings of the building so to speak. It would be great

  • Prime [Wingman]

    Fantastic, best looking map I’ve seen in a while!

    I really like the blorange contrast here and there, really makes me want to install CS just to walk around and understand the layout.

    Also: cue the de_prodigy nostalgia

  • What are you playing now?

    I have them all I think but only played the first, back when the game was still current.

    I remember it was the only game that sent me real chills down my spine (in the final scenes, some other cool stuff had been spoiled in the trailers and I remember working very well on there too).

  • What are you playing now?

    Considering the latest posts I’d like to know who’s more right… but I haven’t neither played or watched lol

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  • The Half-Life 3 thread of closure and memorium AKA what Tyler McVicker just said on YouTube

    Quote from fewseb

    On 5/9/2022 at 10:02 PM, fewseb said: Its so disconnected from half life it could of just been its own IP. […] The biggest issue with the gameplay presented is there are next to no breaks. You go from one zombie encounter to another in quick succession and often times have to solve puzzles while they are attacking you. The combat looked like it could be fun if they ever got passed just having zombies run at you.

    +1 ?

    I’m sure if it progressed they would have polished it, but I just don’t see how it would have been good as a full on expansion the size of Aftermath/Ep2.

    Valve themselves only stretched the concept for one chapter.

    Having stuff like those fast running zombies seems quite off-brand, and I don’t think they intended to replace them with the HL2 fast zombies… or they would have just used those?

    I dunno, Ravenholm was a horror set piece, this was becoming L4D.