Posts by blackdog

Quote from Buddy

4 hours ago, Buddy said: So did this leak thing go anywhere?

It has been sold for “millions” apparently

Thought that Gwent was a failure, not sure why anyone would want to pay more than a thousand dineros for it.

Anyone knows if you can retrace the presence of proprietary code in shipped products?

Quote from dux

23 hours ago, dux said: Been following some Blender tutorials

Brainchild on YT?

The complaints about Frostbite engine seem a bit of a pretext… other EA studios have made driving games (with essentially a third person camera as well as first person) with it. What is this story about no saves when this is MP? I mean, BF does save player’s stats/unlocks… ~ Recent news were saying there’s a Skelton crew of 30 working, aiming for a major rework, but that the EA board is deciding whether to kill the game in the near future.

If you like gangster stories, you can't miss on ZeroZeroZero. It’s basically Sicario (the first) extended for 8 hours -in terms of pacing, tension, action.

I just couldn't help myself and watched the last 4 episodes, half of the mini series, in one sitting.

I'm at the same time impressed and in disbelief this comes from a core of Italian writers/producers. Makes me so angry that we don't spend money in producing cinema that clearly has an international audience.

It's co-produced by Amazon, so I guess it's on Prime in the US.

Quote from will2k

8 hours ago, will2k said: Watched a hidden gem that was unfortunately overshadowed by the Matrix when it was out. It released back in April 1999, and 2 months later, The Matrix released and took away all the attention since they tackle a similar theme of computer simulation/virtual world/characters.

I admit that I haven't heard about it until recently when someone recommended it, and I'm glad that I watched it. It doesn't have over the top CGI like the matrix but the story is captivating, the alternation between LA in 1999 and 1937 was a nice touch, and having a simulation within a simulation (like Inception) was a cool plot twist for a 1999 movie.

If you like the theme in the matrix, watch this one. Recommended

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I only remember not liking it… I didn’t even remember they had the “era” section of the film ? I should probably rewatch, probably seen it in Italian and too young to get it.

wow, what a build

lulz, the section about the plot ?

Anyone interested in this discount?

Xbox Game Pass for PC (3 Month Membership) for only £14.39 (instead of £23.99)

got it for an Amazon purchase, happy to give you the code if you message me, I wouldn't use it atm.

Quote from ┌HP┘

18 hours ago, ┌HP┘ said: The MX518 and similar designs, are designed for the palm grip where you rest your entire hand on the mouse, most FPS players for one reason or another use a claw grip, except me, I like to rest my palm and the bulgy of the MX518/G400s design helps filling it up, it also helps avoid Carpal tunnel syndrome, which I fortunately never suffered from.

My dad bought one of the earliest Logitech MX, I remember playing Half Life with it, and I remember being comfortable.

I’m not even sure what grip I have ? I guess the tip… I have big hands and never invested in big ergo mice so I control the device with my finger tips. Sometimes even move it under my hand pushing with the pinky or thumb.

I never had pains, despite playing up to 8hrs in the old days. I still have done some 6hrs sessions of CSGO before baby was born in 2019, I think only then I started to have some mild ache.

But yeah, I’m curious to try something more ergonomic… it’s just the cost they normally seem to much, and I feel like “why pay so much when I’m not gonna use all those buttons”

Quote from dux

4 hours ago, dux said: [Blocked Image: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41NNgzF+V5L._AC_.jpg]

The memories of school, computer engineering lab class and logging in Windows NT #feels

Quote from DMU222

15 hours ago, DMU222 said: Been using the Logitech G502 Proteus for years.

I’ve seen it (or subsequent model) in a thumb of best gaming mice to get… haven’t had the time to watch the roundup yet today, but I think was mentioned in another. Cost is on point of what I’d like to spend.

Funny I don’t care of secondary buttons, I never got used to them.

Quote from Minos

13 minutes ago, Minos said: *In before Jason Schreir drops a bombshell that will rock the games industry to the core!!*

I wouldn't know, he blocked me on Twitter (despite I've never @ him)

Last night I dropped my (glass) water bottle on the mouse, the impact broke the wheel.

Just wondering what’s your favourite for gaming/productivity. Do you have two different setups maybe?

Mine was a Steelseries Kana V2, I like ambidextrous designs, but tempted to try an ergonomic design, despite not really ever having strain problems. Most designers seem to prefer the Logitech MX Master, but I’m intrigued by the vertical design.

It's so childish you wonder if is real.

I would like to see any journo dare publishing confidential documents like this btw, should be a career ending stunt, as well as prosecutable(?).

It's funny this blockmesh argument: some designers are recommending to completely finish the maps, while others -it's my understanding- swear greyboxes are enough. I've recently listened to many level design podcasts and there was the argument that stuff made in Dreams (for example) should most definitely be considered as valuable material.

I think what it comes down to, is the culture in the company you apply at. You are on the right track, you are making stuff and getting it out, what you might want to do to improve your chances is to network, which is not just having a connection on LinkedIn, but get in touch with people from the LD department before you apply and ask some tips, so you can course correct before applying.

For example, knowing my material was most likely not enough to land a job, I contacted someone at the company and got feedback on my portfolio without even applying (and I've noticed in most cases you don't get feedback on your skills/material unless you get past the first stage of the process).

You might be able to find professionals eager to give you 1-to-1 feedback (tutoring you and others might count as management skills that can help their career -- I just landed a job in web design and a question I was asked was: "can you illustrate how you helped a colleague", to which I answered explaining how I tutored someone that had no coding experience).

You can get some experience working in a team by joining some game jam, it looks like there's one every few months! You can try your luck and get some professional experience by freelancing... a friend of mine recently told me he's done some freelance level design (for mobile) and he has never released a game or map for a mod, he was working on a couple of personal projects and that's all, you have more and better material -- but I guess you need to show you can complete a level with art and all (just use free assets).

~

It's great that you used video commentary to enrich your case studies, but you need to keep it short and sweet. I skimmed through the LOTR level -which is impressive in scale- but you shoot yourself in the foot by saying "I haven't placed enemies here because I didn't have time". How did you not have time to place a couple placeholders when you've done a 25 min video?

Don't spoil your hard work with comments like that. Show what works (you miss a jump and waste time explaining why - like others said, nail the metrics and cut the noise). Refine a smaller chunk of a big level (have scripts, AI, pickups - I can see what you explain but recruiters don't have all that time).

~

I've posted a couple videos on portfolios in the pinned topic earlier, have a look. I suggest you find some talks about design (and portfolios), podcasts might offer some interesting complements (I've been listening to: Level Design Lobby, Level Design Podcast, The Quakecast, Game Dev London).

Level Design Lobby every month does an episode on useful resources (he also does tutoring if you join the Patreon). The aforementioned Michael Barklay was guest in one of these shows. I stumbled on this presentation made in Dreams some time ago, the designer also worked in Naughty Dog, his twitter had some interesting stuff if I remember well, and he was also guest in a podcast.

~

You have applied to many companies, don't be discouraged in applying again... but do it when you have done progress, I would target companies you got past the first stage and address your progress straight away in the cover letter.

Wish you best of luck!

Good job @zombi, I think you nailed how to present your maps! Lots of beauty screens as well as screens that go over your thought process, definitely a thumbs up. Apologies for the length but don't be intimidated, it's mostly little things.

The website is easy to navigate and understand, which you have done well. It works well on mobile too from my quick test.

You can find good advice a bit everywhere, I've recently stumbled on some that I just linked the videos in the pinned topic in this section. There are two things I can highlight from everything I've read/seen on (level design) portfolios:

• illustrate your thought process - including sketches and greybox shots;
• spellcheck all your text: just by skimming I noticed many spelling mistakes;
  
  • check the website, CV, emails and applications you will send;
  • Grammarly is a great (free) tool, you can use their editor (which is great because gives you synonyms of a word by double-clicking) and they have an extension that works in the browser and desktop apps. If you are using Word or Google's you need to ensure it's set to American or British English.

You could add some polish without changing big things, my nit-picks on the website are:

• The blue used for name and titles in the articles doesn't contrast well with the background;
  
  • You could use just white or another colour closer to the yellow you used, and use a bolder font setting;
• The map titles are not links, also change the "click pictures to see details" text to some sort of button or clear link like "read the case study" or similar -- it's just good practice to provide good navigation, instead of telling people what to do (people might wonder if you do that in your maps?);
  
  • make the URL of your website on the CV a clickable link;
• Some more white space would make everything more readable;
• Zoomed images might need some compression, seemed to open a bit slowly - I suggest to use this TinyPNG even on top of Photoshop compression;
  
  • Then test on mobile and maybe drop the connection to 3G to see if it's acceptable - say you go to a networking event and try to show your website and there's poor connection.

~

I'm a FC fan too, great job with your outpost. Maybe not important but personally I think you make it look too easy, hence a bit boring, @Radu might leverage in. I personally would like to see:

• verticality in the gameplay (drop from a roof, use of zipline -- in FC3 and FC4 I loved to glide on some roof to begin my killing spree at any chance I got);
• use of different weapons;
• use of different AI/NPC (include snipers for example);
• a memorable location like a downed airplane seems to require focus on the plane:
  
  • add some environmental storytelling like: "the enemy is moving some cargo";
  • place a heavy guard(?).

Hope this helps and that you get a job in the industry soon!

I would add it's very weird to use the crate texture for walls as well.

In my greyboxes I used orange for stair steps, and would maybe use orange walls in the odd place to denote a feature wall that would have a different texture in the final map.

I was made redundant last Aug. 6 months and 127 applications later I finally got a job offer on Tuesday.

Just found out the company has been bought by a couple of billionaire brothers that have offloaded half the acquisition price as debt on the company... *brace*brace*

Highlight of this experience was landing an interview with a AAA studio as my first application, despite my limited and ageing portfolio. Hopefully I can focus on game dev stuff now and look for jobs in the industry going forward, or make something of my own.

Wow, they are already getting extra content out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBsigFPMwsw

(display as link as says it's only viewable on YT because of age restrictions)

Quote from Radu

12 hours ago, Radu said:

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been on my list for a while, haven't tackled it yet because of its length. You watched? Thoughts?