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Hello guys. New update. For the last month I was working on map terrain, bunch of smaller generic structures and underground areas. Terrain is almost done. Only one terrain patch that is still work in progress because Jakuza had some cool ideas for it Should be done next week. Right now I'm working on mine shafts that leads to bigger and more open underground chambers. Also some generic buildings to scatter across the map. Cheers!

I've been working too hard for a few years now, went through some deep burnouts and such, but taking control back a bit. Putting boundaries on work, and investing in a healthier lifestyle -- I realize I don't like living in a city because I don't know what to do when I take a break from work (that is, things that don't involve spending money) and have been picking biking and exercising a bit. The appartement above mine was also not used for the last 3 years but now peeps are moving in and I have to get used to the reality of living in an appartement building (especially since I work late at night to be in sync with the US.) Working too much did help me save money so I've been looking at houses for a few weeks but running into walls: houses that were sold in less than 24 hours or while I was on my way to visit them, and since I'm renovating my mom's house I don't quite feel like another year's worth of renovations for the next purchase. When I was starting to think I should wait this housing market rush out (the rate of people looking for homes vs those selling is crazy right now in this part of France), I ran into a cool house close to the coast that ticks all my requirements. It's like a 8 min walk to the beach and close to hiking trails. Was dubious at first because there's no cell-phone coverage at all and shittiest internet, but after poking around the town officials guaranteed optic fiber internet and 4G coverage by end of year. My offer was just accepted I got pretty lucky on it as the estimation was done before confinement so prices didn't rise, and I might be selling my flat super quickly and at a good price because there's a high demand in the area. Peeps built it themselves because the whole family worked in construction, so it's a 2nd-hand. Its layout is weird and its interior is a bit odd for the area (the owners liked the style of mountain homes, with lots of visible wood inside), and I'll tweak the decoration, but I generally really like it. Now if only I could see my american girlfriend, we've been kept apart since February...

This is my entry for the 2020 Source Engine Discord Wingman Contest. This started out as an Arms Race map, about half done with the art about 1.5 months before the contest was over, and for the past two weeks I have overhauled the entire map as a wingman experience. I have done a few playtests on the Source Discord, and they've been mostly positive. I'm at a polishing stage right now, so any and all feedback would be appreciated. I'm doing a playtest on the MapCore Discord on Thursday, September 17th at 3PM CDT, if anyone wants to take a gander. There's definitely more things to polish, and maybe a few visuals bugs/exploits that still have to be fixed (like filling gaps between props with `toolsblack` brushes, etc). Otherwise, this map is primarily complete. My goals for this was to make something as pretty as I could, while keeping performance good enough and to improve my art skills. I worked hard to create budget UVs, textures, and models for the map to keep overhead to a minimum. Unfortunately, since a lot of the map is not brush based, the use of occluders were necessary. I would say I could have done a better job with planning, but overall I think the main goals for this project have been accomplished fully. Even if it does not do well as a wingman map, I can always turn it back into an Arms Race map. Workshop link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2230085582 This project has around 20 custom models (not a whole lot, admittedly), a custom made skybox, custom soundscapes, and a few custom materials. Special thanks to 9yz, Slimek, Darnias, Yanzl, and Morozov/Untor for help and assets. Workshop description: The locals of the island grow upset over the glutenous part-time resident, the CEO of Proxy Research, the company responsible for the disaster at the South Heber Research Base. Seal Team 6 is sent in to protect him- as he's an asset to the U.S. Government. For more information on the South Heber Research Base disaster, please see Operation Coverup: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2014706191 <---- this is the link to my last wingman map, which I've posted here before... these maps are interconnected through story I have uploaded the most updated images in a reply to this post, hopefully it should give you a better idea of what the final version. ^^ Updated Image ^^ (Old image below... spoilered) In this picture, my custom skybox and tiki torch models are featured. I've used this shot for the workshop thumbnail and as the first photo in the workshop album. ^^ Updated Image ^^ (Old image below... spoilered) In this second picture, you can tell I've struggled with the water edge at the skybox, which unfortunately I've had trouble masking further. Luckily, during the playtest nobody mentioned it, so hopefully it's alright for now until I find a better solution. The trims on the side of the villa, as well as the tarp over the crates (on the left side of the image), the overhang on the front deck, and the thatch roofing (not pictured well here) are all custom assets made for this project. This photo is not a great showcase of those, but hopefully you'll be able to appreciate them further in-game. ^^ Updated Image ^^ (Old image below... spoilered) Here, the tarp is featured again, but more prominently. I ran cloth sims on a pre-unwrapped subdivided cube. The poly count is a bit high, but I've been told by veteran modelers in the Source Engine Discord that this is fine. I know in the future I will try to streamline my cloth sim assets for Source Engine. Further down below, I made a bed and pillows, which both heavily rely on subdivisions near the edges of the mesh, so that more detail can be put into the folded areas. More on that later. Additionally, here's a closer look at the tiki torches-- maybe not as impressive as some veteran mapper's work, but it was something I could easily accomplish to bring more depth into this envrionment. ^^ Updated Image ^^ (Old image below... spoilered) This is the inside of the villa, adjacent to the bombsite. The bed, pillows, plushies, hanging ceiling lights, warped copper wall art, and wood wall trims were all modeled by me (the floor texture and the thatch roof in the window are also custom). I tried to make great use of hipoly bakes and masked phong/cubemaps for many of these props. For all these props I used a PBR workflow, converting them into specgloss materials using Yanzl's tools with many manual tweaks. The bed features a phong mask to enhance a sheen on the blue trim there. The bed and pillows are fully tintable, both with alpha masks on the diffuse channel. As stated above, I subdivided the edges of the cloth on the bed and pillows to allow for more definition in the cloth sim. On the warped copper wall art, I took advantage of a hipoly bake, using that to deform the surface with normal maps, which the lowpoly is fully flat. Using the baked mesh maps I was able to texture the asset procedurally, giving it a more natural look using PBR materials and masks. The chicken and potato plushie are assets from my last map, Coverup. (Note: This is a deprecated screenshot, as I have not taken a replacement. Not much has changed in this area, so it is mostly representative of the work there now.) This photo is just a showcase of some of the instances I used to detail much of the map. I created premade instances to use for the jungle section, which I could mix and match. I made some with lower detail to use in less visible areas- as this could help improve performance. I also made heavy use of Morozov's Swamp grass, which I adore! I also am using tinted flowers from the Inferno remake. ^^ Updated Image ^^ (Old image below... spoilered) I tried to make use of some of the Shoots assets, which although lower res, are able to add depth to an area that would otherwise be flat. It was a good excuse to keep some Arms Race history in here. The exterior and interior brush textures on the building though are from Danger Zone and Morozov's Swamp. ^^ Updated Image ^^ (Old image below... spoilered) Although not the best angle, this is the bombsite for the map. I recompiled the safe from Danger Zone to remove the pre-existing explosive models on it. Featured again here, are the wood trims, but also a custom door model- which makes great use of a hipoly bake. ^^ Updated Image ^^ (Old image below... spoilered) Here's the TAR image generated from my map. I'm still working on it, so please suggest any changes that should be made, including color choice. Hopefully you've enjoyed this post! I might update it more as time goes on, but cheers for now! - Will "celery" Granda (formerly "TheOnionChef") Paradise logo made by my dear friend, Jonmcbane. Thanks, buddy. One more shoutout to Proxy, the DJ- who let me use his music in my trailer for my last map, Coverup. EDIT 9/16/20: Updated images from the newest compile with better angles. Made some layout changes to help the flow of the article when viewing the updated images.

made a thing to give hotspot texturing a go more on Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q9O9an

Can't believe I forgot to post here, but we finally finished our brand new Halloween map for Team Fortress 2! More information can be found below: IMAGES: DOWNLOAD LINKS BELOW: Steam Workshop Link TF2Maps Link Creators.TF Link

One month remains in the competition and there is much work still left to do, for now all I have to show his the latest overview and some screenshots. Im hoping to get 1 more playtest in before this is all over.

I'm now the Level Design Manager at Fatshark.

"Get to the choppa!" A man is being held hostage in his mansion located in the Swedish skerries. Secure him and bring him to one of the TWO rescue zones to call in the chopper. Keep the landing zone clear and extract the hostage! Made for the 2020 Source Engine Discord Wingman Contest TEAM Fnugz | Gameplay MadsenFK | Art Andi | Models SHOUTOUTS Yanzl | Mapping hotline ZooL | Grand vscript wizard Terri | The People of Mapcore. Additional Credits Yanzl | Making and sharing the majority of the assets used Skybex | A few assets WORKSHOP LINK MOOD BOARD

Been working on a new environment thing for a few days

Almost done :DDDD

progress...

Italian coastal road (Amalfi)

More concept design, more images on my artstation. I learned a lot, I know I can still do better! https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZG0mR0

Had my last day at DICE today. Starting as a (procedural) artist on Embark next week! Congrats @grapen!!

working on a jump map for Diabotical, editor took some time to get used to but it's rather intuitive, can't wait until it's all fully finished! here's my spawn / first jump

Useful LD tips: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1d7lr9guuCn1ys9Ui_CzUKKtkiPmv3AwX

I have my own company, but it's almost always been on more of a hobby/side-project basis except for shorter periods of full time focus and/or consultancies. I've been with my last employer for 3 years. I actually got a new job offer yesterday! It's weird to just get job offers without applications or proper interview processes, but it's always been like that for me. Jobs I actually apply for, I typically never hear back from. Still skateboarding, but I am missing a few ligaments here and there and I am turning 32 tomorrow, so my body isn't what it used to be even though I am physically fit. I do a mix of skateboarding, boulder, bike and yoga. Anything that keeps me out of a traditional gym.

The map lacks structure. Competitive CS is all about control and information. Both teams are trying to either defend or attack one or both bomb sites at all stages of the game. Knowing where the enemy is, what options they have to reach their objective and how you can stop them is key to the cs experience. It allows all players to make meaningful decisions about where to push or where to hold. It removes unpredictable kills and allows each players decision making and aiming skill to decide the match. On the level design side, maps should be built to enable and emphasize this. The official map pool has a number of different takes on how a cs layout can look, but they all share some common design ideas, because they are simply necessary to allow for players to take control over their match. such as: choke points Pretty much all maps have roughly 4 choke points that seperate the T and CT side of the map. Controlling these choke points means controlling which team has access to what area of the map, so they are key in giving matches structure and players control. setup and rotation areas Bomb sites are a given on any defuse layout, but these always need to be connected to a network of setup and rotation areas, that allow teams to prepare their attacks and move to other objectives and choke points on the map. Level designers need to make sure that the amount of options in these areas are fine tuned. Teams only have 5 players each, so for example, if each bomb site would give terrorists 3 options to attack from, the CT team will simply not have enough players to watch all of them even before any CTs have died. At that point, it becomes more about the luck to choose the right entry to defend rather than the skill to set up a proper defense. number and type of angles Say you need to defend any given area. The number and type of spots you can position yourself in and the number and type of positions you can be attacked from need to be fine tuned. There is only so much that can fit on your field of view, so too many positions already remove control from the player, as there is simply no way to tell angle to hold. Verticality can add to this problem. Having to move your crosshair large, vertical distances is difficult. Having to do so gives the attacker pretty good advantage. plant zones Plant zones need to be set up so that Ts get a good chance of planting when attacking the site and CTs get a good chance of defusing. Otherwise the game can end up very stale, where almost no bombs are planted or almost all bombs explode as they cannot be secured and diffused in time. In regards to your map: The ability to walk on almost all walls and roofs removes all that. Choke points become meaningless and rotations become unpredictable as players can move very freely across the map. At the same time, players moving on the walls are exposed to unmanageable amounts of angles from all directions. This is very high risk, high reward without much influence over the outcome. Neither team can really control when or where they will be attacked from. Skill, prediction and planning and overshadowed by trying to rush your enemy from behind with a p90 or jumping on their head with a shotgun. This also means angles all across the map are just unpredictable. You cannot properly defend any area, as you can never be sure where you can even be attacked from. Smokes and molotoves lose meaning, as there are no clear choke points you can block off. At the same time, flashes become overbearing as just throwing them towards the center of the map will flash 3/4 of the server. The plant zones dont encourage skill either. Having plant zones on multiple heights on both bomb sites makes it very easy for Ts to sneak in a bomb plant, as CTs simply cannot watch all possible points of attack at once. It also makes defusing hard and frustrating, as you first have to figure out where the bomb is even planted. Wasting 10-15 seconds just on finding the plant spot will doom most retakes, as there just isnt enough time to clear the site and diffuse the bomb anymore.

From the upcoming Episode 2 of Doom 3: Phobos Releasing this month

Map for Doom 2 (GZDoom):

Hello everyone! I'm working on Danger Zone map since november 2019, with few months break. I'm hobbyst level designer and I'm looking for help with 3D models. Here you can see how map looks and how much more needs to be done - https://imgur.com/a/E9PzVIG I have tons of stuff that are made of brushes and need to be changed into 3D models with some aditional details (window trim, railings and general simple things). Also I need more complex models like air ballon, campers, tent, street signs and more. Finally I need help with retexturing Valve models and making accurate collisions on some of them. If you are interested, write to me and we will talk about details. https://steamcommunity.com/id/zombi321/ discord zombi#0759

We have a beta sign up going atm. If you sign up and get in, you'll have an early start on the Level Editor tools. https://store.steampowered.com/app/964800/Prodeus/

A lot of people heres have had some real tough stuff to deal with. So sorry for people who have lost loved ones or, say, have been in the hospital (Klein glad you are recovering from multiple things) as an example. By comparison we have had it easy since my wife and I are both employed, but home schooling two elementary school age kids is brutally tough, even with the "improved" distance learning that started this month compared to end of last academic year in Q2. Honestly I just come here to read about what's going on with familiar people that I've known (mostly virtually) for up to 15+ years. HOLY HELL mapcore is that old? Where are my reading glasses? Get those teenagers off my lawn! By garrr...it's been a while....

V I C T O R I A N V 1.0 Workshop link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2236306765 Set among the crossroads of 1830s Industrial Revolution! Civility & Industry clash in this glorious theme park of Architecture & Landmarks! This map was built from the ground up for a Balanced Competitive 5v5 Experience, a challenge for myself, and a challenge to the community to re-think what a Defuse map has the potential to be. Huge thank you to everyone in MapCore who has helped me bring this map to it's current playable state, I couldn't have done it without your help. This has been the most responsive and supportive community I have yet to be a part of. I only hope this patience carries over into your playtests, you will need 10 fold to suffer through the learning curve on this one! Victorian very much aims to push the limits of what is traditionally accepted as being competitively viable, for better or worse. Your opinions are welcome, but If you want to help me improve the map, I'm looking for objective flaws... Objective Examples: "This angle/position has no counter" "this set up is too hard to break" "X needs more polish" Subjective Examples: "This isn't what CS players/ I like" "I'm not used to doing X therefore it's bad" No matter what, I just hope at the very least Victorian could inspire others to take their designs further and push the limits. I'm currently working on "The making of: de_Victorian" Design Documentary, so look forward to that! For the full canonical history of de_Victorians development which goes as far back as the 2019 mapping contest, follow these links:

No, my objections do not come from a lack of comfortability. They come from years of level design experience in cs, playtesting experience, running playtests for another community for about a year and hundreds of hours of match making. I'm wondering where your confidence is coming from. Anyways, it playtested the exact same way as one would imagine. There was little to no structure each round. Chokepoints and meeting points of the teams are not really defined, so setting up a real attack or defense is pretty much impossible. In most areas, you are open to about half the map, so instead of methodically clearing areas, you are just kind of running through, running and gunning. The map feels much more like a general shooting arena, rather than a comp layout. Theres really not much more to it.

I've made some more progress with rock gardens and a staircase. These will eventually replace some larger areas alongside the building walls and sloped surfaces to add a whole lot more natural setting to the map. They won't be at the main keeps or central square to keep it more authentic to the original reference, but since everything around it is completely artificial, I'd figured it would be nice to implement the typical Japanese gardenesque style around the castle. Below are some images (still WIP)!

Csgo is a very competetive game where prediction is key. Players should have a clear understanding of when they could possibly meet a enemy and where to aim at, how to use grenades and stuff like that. This means, till an certain level, the map should be a static and predictable environment for the player, where in they could experiment, out smart the enemy and outskill them. When making maps for csgo you need to know this and know the game and probably have thrown away x ammount of greyboxes to get to something that works well and played x ammount of hours. In your design it seems players can be anywhere, so you can be shot from anywhere (no prediction). This is no fun and will anger the player. There are many areas where a player can be on two different levels, so where to aim? Up or down? A game of chance, again frustration when you die. The map seems very small, which probably makes it very hard to clear out areas because players can always flank at any point during the game. Again, no prediction. There is almost no negative space, which makes it very easy to hear enemies, something which is a key element of csgo, listen and get info. Do u want players to get so much info always and anywhere in the map? Honestly this looks more fitting for a halo deathmatch kind of map than for a competetive game like csgo and the bomb defusal gamemode. Innovation is nice, but do not lose seight on the core meta of the game. Try to understand the meta first and then try to experiment a litle, not the way arround

Update on the upcoming mod, Fallout: Miami

Sorry for necro, but hey!

Our latest trailer that showcases how we're doing stuff with the timeloop Hopefully it helps to understand the concept of the game !

Here's a final image I'd like to share, however do bear in mind that all of it is still WIP and incomplete. Before anybody shoots me down, the rose flowers are all prop_details and is just a test to see what the effect would be by adding flowers to the ground level. I already decided I won't do this because it would hinder gameplay and visibility considerably (not even talking about how distracting they would be during play). However, I will be adding flowers closer to and on top of the stones, with some additional grass detail etc... you know the drill. I've also realised that the newest prop_details aren't worth implementing in a competitive defusal map as it's too expensive, overkill and 'complicated' to use (I could generate the flow and scatter maps easy, but it's just easier to use large prop_static's). Instead, I'll be using a plugin that can scatter flower and grass props in a procedural way (a million thanks to Shawn Olson!). This will be the final image I'll share before completion because I've reached a breakpoint in development where things will speed up as I finally can start to simply update all older assets and replace them with the good stuff. Once everything will be in order, I will do some more compiles to make sure all colors are matching and that the atmosphere is enjoyable. All final details such as small props, displacement alpha blending of almost all remaining unimportant wall displacements and visual fodder will be done after some more testing, but eventually I'm hoping to close development of the map somewhere at the end of October 2020.

As Roald said, you should make a topic of your own in the 3D section. The amount of updates you post here kinda feels like spam in this thread

My setup is a wife watching TV . Now i installed my ps4 on my desk and use the display my company provided me, a huuuuuuge one . Also it's just that I'm more a PC player.

@Soldat Du Christ are you going to post a screenshot of every single brush you have add to your map? But jokes aside, just get that greybox done and have a playtest also its better to create your own topic in '3D' to show progress and maybe get feedback. Edit: oh and for the radar u should use TAR (Terri Auto Radar)

Hey, my name's ThunderKeil, or just thunder for short. That's keil as in Donnerkeil, the german for thunderbolt. If you're wondering, yes, a german friend has since told me that's not the commonly used translation, but alas. So, yea, waaaaaaaay back when I first got into PC gaming I needed a name, and I picked thunderbolt, because that's what people of 12 or so years old do. Well, that name was already in use, as you can imagine, so I went with the german version of it. In the next game I played the german one was already taken, too, so I did the obvious and mixed them up. It's . . . good enough, at least kinda unique as far as such things go. I've been on GameBanana since about 2013 or so, pretty much as long as I've played tf2 - so if any of you recognize me it's probably from there. Kinda stopped visiting about a year ago, most of the main page is sonic or some flavour of the week thing these days anyway. God knows why sonic modding suddenly flared up in the current decade (or just the end of the previous one, I suppose) but hey I'm getting off topic again. So, maps huh. Well, made a lot of those, published about . . . four and a half? I'll be frank, finishing projects has not been my forté. Guess I'm kinda shit at estimating workload, keeping myself focused on one thing, setting priorities, uhh, etc. You might'a guessed it by my long ass story already but yea I got some adhd going on here, so if you ever check out one of my projects prepare for either a chinese wall worth of text or absolutely nothing. I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue to make maps, I think - mostly - I'm just hoping to eventually make one nice enough thing so as I can say yea look at that I'm done, I've finished hammer, this is ok now and I can leave. Well, that's the dream, anyway.

3d artists learning blender in 2020

Put in lots of work today, getting close!

Quick substance designer piss about, thinking of a scottish beach, needs a hell of alot more rock & stones added to be considered as a scottish beach^^ but for now just sand.

Lol, this will drive people nuts. 99% of the population can't handle reading/watching the news... imagine being hooked up to endless stream of information XD

You should honestly reconsider what you want this map to be. Your're hardly pushing boundaries and inspiring others here. Verticality, free movement and jumping puzzles are nothing new to cs so much so that the community has made entire game modes around those things and they have been popular through multiple instances of the game. Many old cs layouts feature large verticality, uncommon layout structures and other novel ideas. None of this is news to us. The idea of a fun, casual map is nothing new either. People have been making them to play with their friends and on LANs since forever. We have playtested maps like this here before. And they can be good fun. However, none of these maps claim or try to be competitive because they simply are not. What you are doing with this map in regards to competitive is pushing boundaries in the same way that playing chess with only kings would be pushing boundaries. It was obvious that this would be the case with your level from the start to a lot of us but when we told you, you acted like you know better than all of us despite barely ever having played the game let alone made maps for it. We still playtested it and everyone at the playtest gave you the same feedback: It was kinda fun, because it was very chaotic and wild. But it also didn't even rate as a competitive layout. The concepts youre trying to add to the game simply don't work on a competitive level on the scale you are trying them. If you want this to be a competitive map, you need to actually understand how competitive is played and build your level towards that. Dismissing this feedback from the entire professional community as "you guys just didnt learn the map well enough and you just dont care enough to figure it out" is silly and arrogant. So, figure out what your goal is here. Wanna make a crazy, fun map that has all the features a competitive layout is generally missing? Go for it. Just dont keep telling us about how it is actually the best competitive map ever and all other maps are stale and generic. Because by your own admission, you know nothing about that. Or try to make a unique, well working competitive layout. There is always room for innovation and new ideas. But if you want to subvert the rules, you must first properly understand them. People here are generally very helpful and give you tons of great advice and feedback. Just stop dismissing everyone and take some of it.

I didnt plan to do another map for this year, but then I had this idea and just wanted to do it. To my knowledge, no one has yet done a map with changing payload track so far, so i did that. Still many things to do for the next few days, so WIP but its out there. Take a look and please vote at the Steam Workshop. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2237031915

This is a mostly complete 1:1 recreation of the London Natural History Museum interior, sans the more recently built extensions and not including any of the real exhibitions. It's not the world's mostly graphically impressive map, but it's a labour of love and lots of time. All mesh created inside the hammer editor, and using near-exclusively custom textures ( roughly 125! ) all edited by hand. Currently only compiled for cs:go, but I intend to port it to at least gmod as well, maybe it could work as scavange/survival in l4d2? Would love to see it in HL:A too, but I don't yet own VR so if anyone's interested to port it for me - or in contributing in any other way, please do contact me. If you've got a good idea for props to fill the exhibition spaces with, that'd be cool too - I was gonna do a half life theme but pretty quickly ran short of actual suitable models, at least that I could find. Files; First public release (only includes two spawnpoints): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ojDYBtpS4X-zJDpcqMHTeegJjI7Up8_1/view Second release (many small additions, much improved east hallway, 24 spawnpoints): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PKLII33cFCqnOnBOmLTD8dFUealSDCbY/view Third release (all around improvements/additions, fixed cubemaps): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YkZuPrQqfLiIxi3H_QLo2N1lZ7pFuFRc/view First *full* release: Coming Soon™ ( look through posts below for more detail on the changes ) Original description: Known issues/"FAQ" (fictitiously asked questions):

It feels exactly like the old game when you play it (with some improvements no doubt). They must've at least looked at the old game play code because I could instantly pick it up and start making combos RE2 is a different type of a remake because they had to completely change the gameplay for it to pass in 2020~ It's also cool to see my materials in another childhood game remaster Fuck alarm bells tho.

The new Blade runner should not have been made, totally unnecessary. That said, its very well made, looks and sounds great and I really like it.

Your timing is impeccable.

I feel like i can now share a bit about my experience on this topic. I had a weird profile, making maps was a hobby since I was a teenager, but I wasn't aware that video game schools exist and I went on another direction for my studies and beginning of career. I never lost that hobby though, and realized at some point that my skills at making maps could allow me to work on that field. From that point, I started to take it more seriously and learned stuff online as much as I could (thank you GDC) but didn't go to a videogame school and i had no pro exp on making a videogame. Another issue was that I was aiming at a company that makes SP games and at that point I almost only made MP maps (CSGO), and I don't even know anything else than Source (No UE4/Unity knowledge, no visual scripting, no model-only / modular world building ...). So ... the bet was risky but, as Grapen said, the only way to figure it out was to give it a try, at least I wouldn't be disappointed that I didn't try. What I did first was trying to build a portfolio that could convey things in my work that could be interesting for what I was aiming. Even if you're making MP maps, there are plenty of stuff you're doing that are similar to SP : building a layout, solving bottlenecks/dead ends problems, tricks to guide the player, make your map readable, easy to learn, create a theme and make it a believable space, script systems... Being able to show finished projects also helps to demonstrate that you can focus on something, iterate on it and bring it to its final state. Most of my previous profesionnal experience was useless for a LD position, but I've been on projects, I managed an industrial project and I worked with people for a few years ; this is valuable for a company if you know how a real-world project is handled and can bring knowledges and methods from another industry. I also worked on a SP map while my portfolio was being processed by HR, to be able to show one good piece of SP work. It worked, my folio catched the company attention and i'm asked to do a test (the usual process). I dedicated time for it, used some day off, and tried to stick to pillars and rules that I assumed the LD were following for the test. Being able to manage your time here is crucial, you don't want to make something too simple but you also want to finish it. It was tight, I decided to build it on Source (HL2:EP2) so I had the brushwork and entities systems known pretty well, but I had to create systems for AI (to allow stealth, which is inexistent on Half-Life 2) and mechanics (very few and simple). I was proud of my work but had no idea if it would be good enough. I just gave as much as I could into it. It worked, I got an interview. I was able to explain my intention, why i'm here and why is my profile weird. It went well. Interview is important to show your personality and communication skills. And after some time (a very long time actually ^^') I joined the company. The same way it has been told before on that topic, for a profile like mine it was kind of a bet for them : no profesionnal experience in that field and no school → You start with a Junior position or something close to that (at Arkane there's no official junior/senior levels but still, this is considered for the salary obviously). But in the end, i managed to adapt successfuly and got reevaluated after a year. Learning a modern engine wasn't that hard, it was pretty quick. Having tech LDs and being able to ask your colleagues for help accelerates things, but the same way I always did when I was doing this as a hobby, looking for things by yourself and trying to ask to the right persons helps tons too. I invested myself quite a lot into the project, so I am hoping it will be good so that I'll be proud of my first game! It's been quite a journey but I'm not thinking about my previous work at all and still find ways to use that knowledge/exp (for instance : at work with env artists, because i was a mechanical engineer so I know quite a lot about this, or on personnal projects where I can still do some stuff as a hobby this time, thanks to 3D printing ). So for now it's going fine ! Best of luck to other who want to "break in" the games industry !