KungFuSquirrel

say hi to chris for me.

Hopefully I'll get clearance to show things. Might be interesting with the number of companies involved, outside property, etc. etc. but I'll see what I can manage. You'll definitely see my post-release goodies, though got some maps and snazzy mods to make!

I was more referring to the q3 map with the plasma ball shooting phallus aimed at the spread legs of rock, but that also ranks up there. Yipe.

Levelord has you all beat.

Second! Show us some goods!

Doesn't mean the base dimensions shouldn't fit on a nice grid or have a reasonably placed origin. Especially given HL2's poor editor implementation of models, you need all the alignment help you can get

For what it's worth, I despise rockstar. some of my favorites (in no particular order): Insomniac Pandemic Relic Naughty Dog Blizzard

why thank you All the textures in the scene are stock doom 3 textures. Also, everything so far is 100% brush/patchwork, save for the dude in the corner of this shot for scale. Only custom or modeled content I plan on using is a terrain mesh and some trees/foliage somewhat in the rough style of that palm tree model I did, but I'll need to find someone to texture the latter if that idea carries through.

Told mikey I'd show this, though it's nowhere near finished yet... but he disappeared from IRC, so here it is for everyone. New section I started this afternoon for that outdoorsy thing. It's about 4x the size of the other buildings (you can see a piece of one of them borrowed here, heh) and may turn into the anchor/docking station for the space elevator idea. Forgive the relative darkness, I was too lazy to re-size the light volumes lighting the rest of the scene, so it's not getting as intense a light on it as the other buildings did in their shots. I'll fix it when I finish this structure.

Master of Orion/Moo2. Alpha Centauri sucked me in, too.

wtfbias! Err, wait, that was under lucasarts, wasn't it? I can never remember what Pandemic's relationship is between LA and THQ... bleh. I know DAH was THQ. I need to get me that game, the Mercenaries. Yet I'm behind enough as-is

King's Quest V and VI. Lost entire summers to those games! Also, my friends and I had a lan party shortly after TFC was released. We tried it on a whim one night at about 11 or midnight. It was daylight before we stopped. That was just on the hunted map, too. BG&E was right up there... WoW, sections of Psychonauts (Goggalor and the Milkman, mainly). And Half-Life 2 as well; I hammered through that in just a couple sittings the day it shipped. Couldn't stay away!

Shady Brook and Lifestorm need your critique.

This one includes all of my releases that were not officially included in mods - meaning straight-up DM and Op4CTF. http://www.button-masher.net/content.php?i=682 There's some pretty old stuff in there, too... hell, the newest map in there is getting close to 3 years old... but someone may be able to have some fun with them.

see previous image.

"Vintage 2004." Sweet lord I wanted to kill myself then and there. At least I managed to still semi-enjoy that one.

Hmm. All look great, but I don't think the small bit o' earth in interstellar works that well... everything else is so grandiose, but that just feels kinda tacked on. Great work, though, I might have to use that orange one for the sky in my little eclipse partial remake project.

haha, awesome - the two things I thought of when making some of the shapes were wipeout and homeworld. ginsengavenger: Yeah, it's a little weird with all the different shortcuts and stuff. But hell, it wasn't originally made for windows. They actually all do make sense (U for undo, Shift+U to redo, b for bevel, etc.) but just take some getting used to. I do like it, but I'll eventually shift my focus to maya... but for right now, it's what I know. Reno: The underside bit was designed to somewhat resemble the intake of an F-16. I was actually exremely happy with how that bit turned out.

Some more lightwave practice... Design was all on the fly... More was an exercise in getting polys making the shapes I want in a non-CSG environment Really happy with the front bit, but still unsure of the back/engine bit. Thoughts?

Well, your mileage will vary, but here's my input on the subject, along with some differing opinions on what has come along so far. Probably will be very design-centered, just given my own perspective and experience, but hopefully it's of some use. First off, I don't think you necessarily need to spend your time spreading yourself over every major engine on the market. You are probably better off mastering one than dabbling in all. The knowledge you gain there will translate across (as far as raw construction, asset usage, gameplay flow, etc) anywhere you go. I don't know of a single person who has been hired or not hired by a lack of knowledge in an editor. That's all fluff, just an interface. what you do with it is what counts. If you can make a good level on any sort of comparable technology, they'll be able to work with you. Besides, you'll learn far quicker in a professional environment with the guidance of the people around you (and the exra motivation) than you will on your own. I came from a pretty much exclusively Worldcraft/Hammer background (as was Ken Banks when he arrived, as well as our lead designer when he was hired back on SOF). I was doing production work in just under a week in a brand new editor and engine. Familiarity with programming is good, too, but not necessary. Programming-style scripting languages seem to be a bit more prevalent (Unreal, Doom3), so it can be immensely helpful there, but what you'd be doing in a design sense is (usually, hehe ) far below what you'd do in code. Even in a visual scripting system, an understanding of how things work under the hood can be useful to help know how and why things might be occurring. I do agree with Zazi in that you should lean towards either programming or art, though, as beyond scripting languages there's little crossover. Texturing and skinning can come into play depending on what sort of role you take on. If you're a 'traditional' level designer, than more than likely your tiles will be painted for you. But if you are in a team where a paired combo of designer + environment artist make a map, and you're the latter, you'd better be pretty good. Especially if you're looking at the level design route, I'd recommend a familiarity with a modeling package. Even with more specialized roles, there's still a lot of value for someone who can do work across the board. The more specialized people you get, the more time you spend sitting on your ass or bouncing around waiting for the stuff you need. And even if you aren't directly making content for the game, being able to build roughs for your own props can be a great starting point for collaborating with an artist to fully flesh out the world. Project leadership, even on a mod level, is very valuable. I know my role on Nightwatch played a huge role in me being hired - and that hadn't even been released. Even if it doesn't directly translate to a real leadership position (which, in some cases, it can and has), it shows an ability to work with people, dedication of a hell of a lot of time to something that you enjoy doing, and familiarization with some of the trials of game development. In addition, it gets you much more intimately familiar with areas of development you'd have never understood otherwise as you work with people on your team in those disciplines. And you also get a head start on the 'capital D' - if you're leading a mod, you're coming up with all those core ideas and concepts that a full game designer would be doing on a larger scale in a professional environment. The difference between a good mod developer and a professional game developer is the salary and office/cubicle. What you know and learn from your work on your own will directly apply. It's also far more useful than what you'd learn from a controlled environment at a game school. Development can be chaotic and unpredictable, and the best way to learn that is to experience it first-hand. That's what makes independent work and mod experience so valuable for an entry-level position.

I'm sure you'd also have noticed me marrying her in the first place in that situation. anyway, we're about 6 months along... due date is ~Dec. 7th.

damn northerners! er... hi!

GTK == teh devil!