William Tyler Buser - Level Designer

[neotic]

Hi mapcore,

Just put up the final screenshots on my portfolio. Just hoping to get some feedback and comments so I can improve it before GDC.

http://www.williamtylerbuser.com

Thanks!

[Corwin]

I think it works great. Have only tested it out with Firefox but if it works well with other browsers, then it's a keeper.

Only thing that bothered me is that sentence: "Awesome intro cinematic puts the player right in the action!" That's clearly nitpicking, but I'd get rid of "awesome" or replace it with something more open, like "stylish" or something. It just feels a bit weird, is all

[neotic]

Cool thanks man! Yeah, I think you're right! "Awesome" not only sounds a little cheesy but I shouldn't praise my own stuff like that.

[Furyo]

I'm going to point the obvious here, but the description for the Source level is copied everywhere else except for the Gears one. Either that or it's a bug.

Navigation wise, I think it's a little too much. Not too sure how to word this, but it feels like it needs a bit more fresh air in between the levels once they're all expanded, and the entire layout could use a little polish. Fonts, the blue with the rollover, it all feels "low res". Not sure you catch my drift. Basically the quality of the screenshots often put the website layout to shame, and I think you could design something that make them shine a little more.

On the technical side, I'll point again the difficulties of running lightbox on iPhones. Your choice really.

[Grinwhrl]

Hi mapcore,

Just put up the final screenshots on my portfolio. Just hoping to get some feedback and comments so I can improve it before GDC.

http://www.williamtylerbuser.com

Thanks!

Where are all your old POW maps?

[neotic]

I'm going to point the obvious here, but the description for the Source level is copied everywhere else except for the Gears one. Either that or it's a bug.

Navigation wise, I think it's a little too much. Not too sure how to word this, but it feels like it needs a bit more fresh air in between the levels once they're all expanded, and the entire layout could use a little polish. Fonts, the blue with the rollover, it all feels "low res". Not sure you catch my drift. Basically the quality of the screenshots often put the website layout to shame, and I think you could design something that make them shine a little more.

On the technical side, I'll point again the difficulties of running lightbox on iPhones. Your choice really.

Ahhh. It was not all HL2 text! I was working on my laptop earlier today and forgot to download the newest version of the html to my desktop! Thanks for catching that!

I think I understand what you're saying though. I put a drop shadow on the banner/header images which makes their rollover/highlight seem bigger or less polished. So maybe I should revert them to what I had before, without a drop shadow, so that the rollover/highlight hugs the images more closely and uniform. I can easily add some "air" between the levels, I'll see what I can do on that front as well. And we're totally thinking the same thing about iPhones. I already have it set up to go to a different page without shadowbox if you're on an iPhone. Its an easy script if anyone wants to steal it from my source.

Where are all your old POW maps?

Hey dark! Long time no see. Last time I installed Quake 3, some months ago, I could hardly find any of the original Prisoner of War installations... and only a few of my maps survived the merger with JB:PoW. So... sadly I don't have any backups of those maps.

[neotic]

A question for anyone who has visited my site... I'm wondering if the link to my contact information and about me is apparent? I hope it is but having made it I can really see the page with fresh eyes.

[Corwin]

A question for anyone who has visited my site... I'm wondering if the link to my contact information and about me is apparent? I hope it is but having made it I can really see the page with fresh eyes.

I have to admit it's a bit weird to have the About link merged with your name, as the name usually leads back to the homepage on portfolios, but since you only have one page, and since you added the hover effect on the whole image, I say it's clear enough what it does.

[neotic]

Well cool, thanks man!

PS. Mandate of Heaven looks awesome. If I ever get Crysis installed I'll have to try it.

[Nurb]

I like the fact that you have 4 projects up on display, each for a different game. Well, it's just 3 game engines, but still! They are not the highest quality maps I've ever seen, but it shows some versatility which is a +

[Grinwhrl]

Where are all your old POW maps?

Hey dark! Long time no see. Last time I installed Quake 3, some months ago, I could hardly find any of the original Prisoner of War installations... and only a few of my maps survived the merger with JB:PoW. So... sadly I don't have any backups of those maps.

[neotic]

Just did a minor update, changed some headers and overall text font.

Added my thesis on their finally.

[General Vivi]

I like the simplicity of your layout and how everything pops out of the big image without taking me to a new page

[neotic]

Thanks man, that was one of my primary goals... I hate getting lost in too many sections hehe.

[wilco]

Just my opinion but here's my thoughts,

[*] The top hover over on about / contact is very unusual and not particularly understandable from a usability point of view. The whole graphic seems to move when you hover over it which I don't believe should happen.

[*] I think you've used Javascript reveals in a unfriendly way - sure it's cool to see content scroll in/out of the page - but it really seems quite brash here. Maybe it's because I have no idea it's going to happen till I click it, or maybe it's because when the whole page get's shoved down it's quite an unnatural browsing experience!

[*] Everything is very big an bulky, even on my 24" 1920x1080 resolution screen everything's massive which I think would look lots better if it was smaller. In 1024x768 you barely see anything but a title and half a picture - and also gives a horizontal scroll bar

[*] I would change your main content font into more of a sans serif font like your headings to keep consistency, Arial would be just fine or Verdana if you don't like that.

[*] Personally I would change your lowercase only headings to have capital first letters, like the headings for the levels - to keep it consistent. They also seem to be indented in more then the content/images which I believe would look better aligned correctly.

[*] I'd also think about your line lengths - having full width lines like that isn't easy to read (for a few scientific biological reasons!)

Hope it helps - content wise I think the images definitely show off some good talent ;-) Give us a yell if you need any assistance on any of the points I've just made.