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SlyWolfe

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Posts posted by SlyWolfe

    From Modder to Professional Level Designer - Interview and AMA

    in Site Updates

    Posted

    In response to post #68793801. #68797826 is also a reply to the same post.


    MrMedicinal wrote: What's the highlight of your career? (so far)

    Is there any job, or specific segment of a project you're really proud of?

    Assuming you have the free time, what games have you been playing recently?

    Any upcoming video games you're looking forward to?

    What's your all time favorite video game?

    Thanks for even accepting community questions! Sorry for... Uh... Taking advantage. Wish you all the best!
    dt1000 wrote: No worries - I am always happy to answer questions.

    Career Highlight - my submarine-exploding Medal of Honor level getting a shout out on Venture Brothers.


    And also being the top hit for "Level Design" on youtube! That was pretty surreal.

    Something I am really proud of - the Neural Subnet sequence in Deus Ex Mankind Divided - System Rift... watching streamers play it, and seeing the look on their faces when they work out the final twist at the end is totally priceless! Also setting up the subversive direction for the crypts in Shadow of The Tomb Raider - I was lucky enough to have a team who really knocked it out of the park there.

    What have I been playing - Subnautica. It's amazing!!! The perfect mix of relaxing wonder and nail-biting terror!

    What am I looking forward to - Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2. And System Shock 3!

    What is my all-time favourite game - Rez. Followed closely by Bomb Jack, and then Super Cars II.

    :D


    Lol that Venture bros tidbit is rather remarkable ;D As is the rest of the post:thumbsup:

    From Modder to Professional Level Designer - Interview and AMA

    in Site Updates

    Posted

    In response to post #68786116. #68791881, #68829271 are all replies on the same post.


    BowmoreLover wrote: Great interview! Dan's words had many insights for me. Thanks Dan and BigBizkit!
    One question. Are you particularly concerned with the design of games offered worldwide (ie in multiple languages)? For example, including language-specific narratives, gestures, cultures, etc. can make it difficult for players in other languages to understand. On the other hand, there are situations where you want to use such design elements. For example, Square Enix is a Japanese company, did you have any such design requirements from them? (For example, considering the Asian market)
    #Sorry for poor English, Google translated :P
    dt1000 wrote: Hi there.
    That is a great question. All the games I worked on have always been fully localised (even at Thunderbox our games are available in 11 different languages). The specific cultural stuff is an interesting question though. I know that the Assassin's Creed team in Montreal take a lot of care to use the correct cultural elements in their games when building a specific locale. At Sqaure Enix I was working on Hitman, so it wasn't really something that came up! :)
    BowmoreLover wrote: Thank you for answering. It may be natural to think of your words "create something that will evoke an emotion in the player through levels." And we're enjoying games abroad, thanks to the efforts that designers, including you, have made. Awesome :)
    I wish you success in your new projects. I think that board games that everyone can enjoy playing on tablets are definitely appealing to casual people.
    Cheers!


    Thought-provoking question :thumbsup:

    From Modder to Professional Level Designer - Interview and AMA

    in Site Updates

    Posted · Edited by SlyWolfe

    In response to post #68847301.


    ff7legend wrote: Iomaungandr Rising SE port now available folks: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/24513

    Be sure to thank Dan Taylor aka dt1000 for allowing me to port his dungeon mod for Skyrim LE over to Skyrim SE for everyone to enjoy. A very nice guy & a pleasure to speak with both here & via Nexus PM with regard to granting me permission to port his work over to Skyrim SE.

    ff7legend


    Huzzah! :dance:
    Thank you both:D

    From Modder to Professional Level Designer - Interview and AMA

    in Site Updates

    Posted · Edited by SlyWolfe

    In response to post #68786826. #68791821, #68839296 are all replies on the same post.


    ff7legend wrote: Any plans to port your Iomaungandr Rising mod over to Skyrim SE? If not, I could provide my services & port it/publish it on Skyrim SE Nexus with your permission Dan Taylor.
    dt1000 wrote: That would be rad... What needs to be done to port a mod to Skyrim SE? Are mods for the normal verison not compatible?
    ff7legend wrote: Yours truly knows how to port mods from Oldrim to SSE format the correct way. Check my profile. You will find that I have extensive know-how when it comes to SSE ports. PM incoming...


    Oldrim mods are (usually) not compatible due to SE using a different Creation Kit, and the forms differing (form 43 vs 44).
    It's generally quite simple to convert the majority of mods to SE though - most times all it takes is to just resave it in the new CK, or I think even SSE Edit has a convert feature IIRC. Textures, meshes and animations are even easier to convert since you don't need to use the CK to do so and there are simple tools for them
    (That being said, it's my understanding that making SE mods Oldrim compatible is much more difficult.)

    From Modder to Professional Level Designer - Interview and AMA

    in Site Updates

    Posted

    In response to post #68771296. #68792341 is also a reply to the same post.


    SlyWolfe wrote: Great read, thanks. If I may -

    What other pastimes/hobbies do you have?

    What did you study in school?

    What did you do for a living before you got into modding and level design?

    What was it that actively got you into modding in the first place?

    Is there any advice/guidance that you were given or a particular experience you had that you deem especially valuable?
    dt1000 wrote: Thank you very much! I will try and answer your questions as best I can...

    Hobbies - I like cooking. Anything that involves building something. And board games. Lots of board games.

    School - I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I found it a bit dull, so I never persued a career in it (although I really enjoyed the design and building elements of Engineering).

    Previous Job - I worked in marketing for 5 years before becoming a full-time Game Designer. It was videogame marketing though... when I left university it was the only job in the industry I could get, and it was kinda fun, so I stuck at it for a while.

    What got me in - that is a tough one... I think I have always loved three things: making stuff, videogames, and entertaining. When the tools to mod games came along it was something I just naturally started doing. Doom was the first game I modded properly - it was amazing for me to pull back the curtain of such a visceral experience and see the smoke and mirrors that made it happen... I was hooked!

    Advice/experince - make something different and release it. As I touch on in the interview, it's important to stand out, so make something interesting... and it's important to close, so be sure to release it! Plus you will find out pretty quickly from user feedback if you are doing good work or if there are areas you need to improve on. My experience releaseing Act I of Scourge of The Lich Father was basically what kick-started my gaming career. I saw that people were enjoying my work and it had a drug-like, addictive quality: I had to make more, so people could enjoy more!


    Thanks for the detailed response!

    Hobbies were refreshing - wish I had some cooking skills myself :teehee:
    Was rather surprised to learn that you have such a well-regarded degree that you decided not to utilize, but that's quite understandable - I think it's always best to pursue your true passions.
    The bits about your previous work experience in marketing, and what got you into modding were really quite enlightening.
    I very much appreciate you taking the time to reply in such detail, and I'm grateful for the advice. Much obliged :)

    From Modder to Professional Level Designer - Interview and AMA

    in Site Updates

    Posted

    In response to post #68782476. #68791981 is also a reply to the same post.


    Thaiauxn wrote: I love it when someone makes it from modding to indie development. With initiatives like Modularity and Mod.io offering to help fund and publish indie games which feature modding, it's a good time to make the jump that way.

    Studios and AAA, however, seem to be the opposite of that -- they're shrinking teams and everyone is starving for work, so they can basically pick veterans for even entry level positions -- meaning they just don't need you if you're a modder. They can grab legends for lower prices.

    There are a lot of us making mods that I'm just like... if we had money on hand to just not have to work a day job, we'd do this full time and produce games. Modding to me is just what I do when I can't work on a feature length game with a staff!
    dt1000 wrote: Thanks, man!
    I hear what you are saying, but teams will always need junior members. It's prohibitiively expensive to staff a team with very experienced talent (the best people won't work for peanuts) and, on top of that, there is quite a lot of work required that is not particularly tricky (for example, placing cover rigs or mapping out sound triggers) that could easily be done by a junior designer; you really don't want expensive talent frittering their time away on technical grind work. When I was modding for a hobby I had a marketing job, and I took a 50% pay cut to work as a Level Designer. so yeah, making decent money right off the bat is tough... but it's possible to build a career once your foot is in the door. The biggest bit of advicce I can give anyone who is trying to break in to the industry is to be different - make sure your work has an interesting angle that employers won't have seen in the other applicants' remo reels.


    Thanks for the insightful advice :)

    From Modder to Professional Level Designer - Interview and AMA

    in Site Updates

    Posted

    In response to post #68773116. #68792141 is also a reply to the same post.


    WillTDP wrote: Now you're a professional game dev, will you ever come back to modding for games like Fallout 4/New Vegas. Or is that time of your game dev years over?
    dt1000 wrote: I''d like to... being an indie developer is a bit like being a pro modder - I get to do all my modding on my own game during work hours! In terms of modding an existing game, I am a real stickler for quality, so even a small mod would take a large chunk of my time. Maybe a big studio would like Thunderbox to create some DLC for them? #coughBethesda


    Omg this would be legendary :O :D

    From Modder to Professional Level Designer - Interview and AMA

    in Site Updates

    Posted · Edited by SlyWolfe

    Great read, thanks. If I may -

     

    What other pastimes/hobbies do you have?

     

    What did you study in school?

     

    What did you do for a living before you got into modding and level design?

     

    What was it that actively got you into modding in the first place?

     

    Is there any advice/guidance that you were given or a particular experience you had that you deem especially valuable?

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