Nurb

Yay pomp! <3

I really enjoyed the present that you left for me to remember you by! You know, the 20 or so missing textures that I had to go through your PSDs and re-save in order to get your texture container to compile

Good luck Philip! Now go make some kickass nexgen shit! Ok, maybe not now now, but now.. then. Anyway, you the man! <3

I like it! I think the menu problems can be atleast partially solved if you load an expanded menu page when the user clicks one of the main categories. Since the cursor changes when I hover over Training for example I expect something to happen when I click it - but nothing happens. If you just make a page for each category with expanded descriptions of each subcategory I think it would be very useful. Other than that it looks alot more fresh than the old one, which granted had it's oldschool charm - but was surely due for an introduction into the new millenium

Then it's time to find a new job

Sometimes the obvious answer is the best

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Welcome to mapcore Dorothy Wow, you have such a great quantity of fantastic work! Really impressive portfolio. Feel free to post in the portfolio or work release forum as well, as this thread is more for spamming wip levels and models really. I mean, it would be a shame to see finished work such as yours get drowned in wip stuff; it deserves it's own display

I think it looks great capone. The one thing I miss the most is the extra props - small stuff to give a better sense of scale, but you are allready on top of that as you listed. If there is one specific area that I think could use an extra bit of love it is the roof of the big white building. It comes across as very massive and plain for it's level of detail. Consider modelling out some of the details there.

I agree about L4D, but how is TF2 not complex? I've watched some competitive TF2 and it just boggles the mind.

Ok, I may have chosen the wrong words slightly. I didn't mean to say that TF2 is an uncomplex game, nor is L4D for that matter. But I think that the complexity in these games comes from how you play them rather than having mind boggling gameplay features. While TF2 obviously takes time to master it is still pretty easy to get into it thanks to relatively "few" choices and none of these being inherently bad ones for a new player. In Dota a large part of the complexity derives from the crazy number of choices that the player has to make, most of which are actually quite bad - especially for a new player. The core gameplay features of Dota certainly poses a higher threshold for a new player to climb past, and I would say that it is a tough(er) challenge to make these features accessible.

I beg to differ, but there's no point in discussing a competitive game's mechanics, is there?

Is there not?

Only Valve would do something like this and actually be able to pull it off. They think outside of the box; that's why they have Steam and a ton of now very valuable IPs. Whether you like it or not, it's the key to all of their success. I think Dota2 is another brilliant move. It's an unexploited but highly valuable IP. I don't know why neither HoN or LoL could (or would?) call their game Dota2 but appaerently Valve can. Kind of evil in a way I guess, but at the same time; both HoN and LoL where made way earlier, and if they didn't see the value in aquiring actual Dota IP name, I feel like it's their own shortcoming. The original name is always the strongest. It's like Coca Cola and Pepsi.

Anyway, HoN is complex but lacks accessability. LoL is accessible, but lacks complexity. With L4D and TF2 on their belt, I think Valve can make a truly accessible multiplayer game, but can they retain the complexity and depth of Dota? Neither TF2 of L4D are complex games, and I think this will be the main obstacle for Valve.

I would scale the map until the straight angles (walls and such) are all 45 degrees. Then I would rotate the map 45 degrees to get a map to use as base. Made a quick illustration of this. The good thing is that you would be able to bring this into a 3dpackage and extrude shapes directly from the map layout.

I bought it for the singleplayer

Looks pretty un-authentic to me :/ Everyone knows that a scifi-corridor has grating on the floor with steaming pipes running underneeth. NASA should do their homework before trying to maek gaems!1

My line of thought:

1) "Sweet looking UDK level"

2) ... wait wha..?

3) No... no.. must be some mistake...

4) Holy duck. No.. that's not possible to do in Source.

5-55) Brain flipping out, lying spastic on the floor.

56) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! (Luke Skywalker style)

57-107) Hallucinating, fighting off ringwraiths in the ceiling.

108) Slowly finding a way back to reality...

109) Crazy awesome stuff man

Very useful tutorial Philip, thanks for sharing

Add a Christopher Lambert corny nerd laugh and they've got a deal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9wOHJa-GgI

According to that steamcalculator site I have spent ~10.5€ each month since I got my steam account back in 2007. Well, I guess it beats the "value" of any mmo-subscription

I can completely relate to this Beeing bored and having Steam open is a bad combination for me and my wallet. I buy many smaller games which I wouldn't even know about if it wasn't for Steam (which is a very good thing in a way). The costs aren't that steep, but sadly they do stack >_< So yeah, it's a bit too easy to buy games from $team sometimes

Looks great! Can't play it due to lack of Ep2 :/ Judging from just the screens it looks like a solid level. Good ol' Source

The lighting wow, beautiful

You seem to have the layout under control. I like the gameicons on the side of each link showing off what game the map is for. As your portfolio is clearly focused on the level design aspect, you do not need to have all content/screenshots available from the front page, which I would normally recommend to an environment artist.

One thing I did not like was that in your resume you have your individual projects listed as experience. While it technically is experience, it is not the type of experience you would expect to find listed in a resume I think. Your individual projects stand for themselves in the portfolio, so they don't really need to be listed here. I believe you run a risk of some people thinking that you are trying to "fool" them into thinking that you have more experience than you have, and that could potentially cost you job opportunities if the recruiter is petty. I don't know, maybe if you changed the heading to "Non professional experience" it might look better? Openness = ftw in these cases imo.

Also, since it's such a short text, I would consider moving the "about" section onto the resume page on the website. As both these links are basically clicked in order to find out about you, so it would be one click less.

Roger Ebert presents a typical example of argumentation for the sake of wanting to be correct, as opposed to wanting to find out the truth. If you are somewhat of a rhetorician, you can make yourself seem correct on any given topic of discussion, providing that you twist or disregard the most compelling opposing arguments. Disregarding arguments like this is a big no-no if you are a professor writing a scientific report. Roger Ebert bring up many referenses in his article, and write in a way that somewhat resemble an academic report. However, Roger Ebert is a screen-writer, movie critic and blogger and certainly not a professor in the field of art. He has no real need to find out the truth, because his work will not be disputed. So Ebert is basically just expressing his opinion, which has just as little value as everyone elses. So the bottom line is:

I don't know what all the fuzz is about

That's looking sweet as hell Pomp I think the scene could use another "layer" of modelled background to add some more depth, that's my main "crit". Really love your art style as usual

Imo your site suffers from trying to be too much at once.

Yep a good point, but i think portfolio sites have changed their use over the years and especially after having a job in the industry. I think a portfolio site is no longer just a website to get a job, but a place to express how you design and make things. I always get good feedback at interviews about the post mortem stuff I post on my professional work. I think it is important for someone who designs stuff to show how they got to the final design. The process is usually more important than the final result to employers. Which is why my site is a hybrid of professional and personal projects because I still make stuff in my spare time and have friends who visit. I use my Linkedin as the professional portfolio thing for recruiters, not my website anymore.

I aimed my comment at the "Materials" and "Articles" sections of your website and not so much as your personal work. I haven't worked very long in the industry, but I imagine that personal projects can still be great to have in the portfolio even after having proffessional products under your belt, as they can show off different sides of you. Post-mortems are also great to have imo for any level designer. But yes, I gave my advice based on a logic that mainly applies to people who are are looking for a first job in the industry. You are probably absolutely right that after having a job in the industry for a certain amount of time, the purpose of the portfolio will change. So I withdraw my previous comment

Do not use Flash. You lost 50% of my interest when I had to wait for the first "loading circle" upon entering the site, and you lost the other 50% when I had to wait for the menutext to fully appear. You only have few seconds to catch the average viewer's interest. During this time the viewer will determine if your work is worth giving a closer look or not. It takes 5-6 seconds just to see what type of content is available on your site and then it takes a consious choise between 3 categories, all of which contains levels, and 2 clicks to see any of the content in full size.

My suggestion is that you take a look here: viewtopic.php?f=65&t=15050 the powerpoint from GDC would be a good read.

And as for more specific feedback;

- Ditch the flash

- Ditch the categories. Have all the content available from the front page instead of forcing the viewer to choose between 3 categries, all of which contain from the viewers perspective exactly the same type of content.