|-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-| Author: dual22deuce Date: 2007 - 04 - 07 Link: http://web.archive.org/web/20070630072817/http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Interviews.Detail&id=73 Link: http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/Viewd0ef.html?view=Interviews.Detail&id=73 |-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-| BWG: The Second Encounter Part 2 An exclusive interview with some of the newest additions to the Black Widow Games team. When confronted with the opportunity to interview the new junior staff members at Black Widow Games, the team behind the They Hunger series, we leapt at it! With countless people visiting the site everyday that are aspiring game developers and BWG's unique position as a mod-team-turned-commercial-developer, we thought we would take the time to ask these guys how they got to their current position and what knowledge they could impart to everyone out there who wants to be like them. We hope that you enjoy the interview, and possibly even learn a little about what it takes to break into the commercial field as these developers have done. Planet Half-Life: First off, just let me say thank you for taking the time to sit down and conduct an interview with Planet Half-Life. I think I can safely say we are all very excited about what you guys are doing at Black Widow Games. Ulisses: Thank you! Buddy: Thank you, I'm glad to hear that. Nathan: And thank you and Planet Half-Life for taking the time to interview us! Planet Half-Life: Could you please list you names and a little snippet of what you do at Black Widow Games? Ulisses: My name is Ulisses Bebianno de Mello and I work for BWG mainly as programmer. Einar and I are constantly working together on the endless list of coding requirements for special effects, AI behaviors, animations and weapons we have been incorporating into They Hunger: Lost Souls. Recently I have spent more time adjusting specific map areas to include custom special effects and other QA activities. Buddy: My name is Buddy, I used to hide behind the nick "Buddy the Designer" at work and in most public forums. I'm a jack of all trades, working on a wide range of art assets, from props and characters (uvmapping, texturing and props animation) to world textures and decals . My role does not end only on creating stuff. I used to help coordinating some of the less experienced modelers we involved into this project. Nathan: My name's Nathan Fearon, and I'm the rigger/animator/anything else that needs to be done. Planet Half-Life: A lot of our readers are aspiring game developers; how did you get your start towards becoming a professional game developer? Nathan: I started off making maps for Half-Life (all of which were horrible, except maybe Fishing for Sven Co-op), but later started learning to animate and model. Then after spending a few years making cartoons for New Zealand television, I saw an “animator wanted for the new They Hunger" ad on PHL, and applied for the job :) Ulisses: Since I started learning computer programming on my ZX81, around the early 80's, games quickly became a major influence and a source of motivation and challenge for me. Even after graduating and spending over 10 years on the corporate business, I have always kept in touch with the gaming world, developing a few graphic libraries and small games such as an open source version of Drol in Java. This kind of background resulted in an invitation to join BWG development team last year. > 75196732.jpg Buddy: Well, I would recommend to try everything, from sound to maps, and see what's giving you most fun. If it's modelling, study and practice to expand your skills in that direction. When you think you're good enough, look for a decent mod team and join it, work work work, finish your work on this mod, then join another until you get enough experience. Afterwards build up your portfolio and seek for a job in the games industry... If you ever need a place to improve your skills, knock on BWG's doors and I'll surely help you out. Actually, I started myself at a VERY young age and my tool of choice was Worldcraft, the level editor that shipped with HL1 GOTY Edition. I never really released any map, my first one was only two rooms painted with Origin texture (the pink one with a lambda symbol inside :). So my beggining was rather hard, mostly because I was such a young person and everything was in English, which made the learning curve a bit harder. That was back in 1999 as far as I remember, and I also learned Photoshop back then for reskinning some stuff. Somewhere between 2000/2001 I started modelling, initially using Milkshape3D and editing HL1 models. At the time I released some of my models on HIT forums before the database was cleaned. Then I quickly got ahold of all Milkshape3D tools and felt like I needed more firepower, so I switched to 3DSMax. After a few more years modeling during my free time, I finally joined the Nightfall mod team in 2005, and then moved to BWG in 2006. Planet Half-Life: What previous mods have you worked on, if any, and what was your position on those teams? Nathan: I worked on heaps when I was first learning 3D, and although none of them got anywhere, it was still quite a good learning experience. Also in-between the TV stuff and Lost Souls, I did some more work on Sven Co-op (mostly animating Tor). Buddy: Nightfall mod (2005) where I was mostly working on prop models and textures. I moved to BWG a few weeks before Nightfall was canceled for the first time. Ulisses: Except for developing my own games, They Hunger is my first major game project and job as a professional game developer. Planet Half-Life: Did you receive a formal education from a computer science or arts school or did you just use your previous experience and good portfolio to get you to your current position? Ulisses: Actually both. I graduated in Computer Science and, although my professional programming experience was outside game development, I've also implemented a few games myself as a way to have fun and also keep acquaintance with some of the most commonly used gaming technologies such as C++ and Java programming languages, Open GL, 3D modeling and some reasonable art skills. Buddy: I've put together images of all stuff I've done for Nightfall and some of my previous models, and send it all to Neil. A few days later Einar contacted me for the first time. Nathan: I haven't had a formal education, although I may yet take animationmentor.com (which anyone serious about becoming an animator might want to check out). As to the subject of schooling in general, I think the most important thing to remember is that it's the ability you gain while learning – and not the diploma – that gets you the job (in the case of the game industry at least). The portfolio that got me my current position was a 9 second demo reel of my very best work – always better to send 1 second of something great than 5 minutes of mediocre work. Planet Half-Life: What path would you suggest to anyone reading this interview wishing to be like you? Buddy: Well, honestly ... eh ... nobody wants to be like me ... really! :) Ulisses: First of all, try to make sure you not just enjoy playing games but also have an unstoppable desire to know how they work and to figure out ways to improve them. Play games but don't spend all your free time just on playing. Read about technologies involved on game development and how they are related to each other. Even if you are planning to be a 3D modeler or a texture artist, knowing more about other areas will help you doing a better job. If you are having difficulties on joining a game company or any real game project, start one by yourself as a hobbyist or join a mod development team. When I decided to learn the Java language, for example, my first personal project was to port an old Apple][ game to PC. Nathan: Spend most of your time working in a fast-food shop, while devoting the remainder of your time to game development (sleep is optional, but not recommended). The same goes for working on mods, but you don't get paid at the end of it. Planet Half-Life: Do you see Black Widow Games and/or They Hunger: Lost Souls as an intermediate step to bigger and better things? Nathan: Not really—I did get one job offer from a company called “Pixar", but I've never heard of them before so I turned it down. Ulisses: The answer is “no" for BWG and “yes" for Lost Souls. In other words, I'm pretty sure BWG will come up with something “bigger and better" to work on after the release of this game, but I'm very happy to be part of BWG and I fully intend to continue here. Buddy: It's also a first step into the professional game industry for BWG. After all the time we spent working on Lost Souls and the additional experience we earned during this development, we surely will be even more effective as a team when working on the next project. It really was a huge learning experience. Planet Half-Life: What are your future career plans? Nathan: Currently I'm drawn between game developer, cartoonist, cult leader and musician… hopefully I'll find a way to combine the four. Ulisses: I just made a major move on my career switching from a pretty stable and secure position as a senior web developer to a game developer position, and it was so much all of a sudden that I still didn't have enough time to rebuild my long term plans for the future. But I really don't regret that decision. It's actually the opposite; I'm really having a great time at BWG. Buddy: I will probably stick with BWG for some time, and afterwards my next goal is VALVe. > 82002758.jpg Planet Half-Life: I'm sure someone is reading this interview wondering if they have what it takes to become a professional developer. What advice do you have to help them along on their own personal quest? Nathan: Give up. But for those like myself who are too stubborn to listen to reason, either find some good schooling or start looking for tutorials on the internet (better yet, both! Also cgtalk.com is a great community for any 2D or 3D artists). Try to spend some time looking at other people's work and learning from it, find friends who're learning the same kinds of things as you, and keep your eyes open for any opportunities. Ulisses: Game developers must have a lot of creativity in order to successfully balance better framerates and higher levels of detail, constantly dodging the performance issues. They must worry about work productivity to prevent falling too much behind the schedule and thus releasing an obsolete game. And they also need to be somewhat nuts to take the risks associated with the entertainment business and resign they current stable positions elsewhere. Of course a formal graduation in Computer Science or similar school also helps a lot. Buddy: If they have enough experience, they could send an email to Neil and see if they can get a position here as I did. Planet Half-Life: Once again, thank you for taking the time to talk to us! Ulisses: You are welcome! Nathan: Thanks for taking the time to interview me. And to all those reading, just remember to follow your dreams, and they'll always come true! Unless your dreams are in any way positive… then you've got about a 10% chance. :) Buddy: Thanks, Best regards to PHL staff, everyone at BWG, Bartollo and Tomas/Richard/Peter :) Game Media > 75196732.jpg > 82002758.jpg > 57492664.jpg