Level Author

Well I only have three levels under my belt that are worth anything. My favorite has to be 'Ventilation Central' purely on the amount of time we've played it on the LAN at home.  

I was happy with the architecture in 'Incarceration' but the gameplay had some flaws that remind me that it was my first attempt at a SP level. There are a couple of bugs in there too...live and learn. 

I've always been into Sci-Fi and that's a big influence on the work I've done so far. Quake2 was an obvious choice because of the move away from medieval to hi-tech themes. A friend of mine had a book of the concept sketches for 'Alien' which I used for the general style of 'Incarceration'. It started as an experiment to make one of the bulkhead doors and sort of grew from there. All the levels are planned on paper first. I use a sort of two and a half D drawing which I can work from but looks a mess to anyone else :) Next I make a boxy untextured sketch of the level in QuakeEd to try and get a feel for the flow through the level. When I'm happy with that I work on the architecture and scripting. Next I put in the items and work on the lighting. Finally I go through the level and make a bug list then do any revisions before going through the whole process again. 

I think 'Infernal Base' by Daniel Leinich is still my favorite, although the new id levels are growing on me. I like the way 'Infernal Base' plays. It reminds me a lot of my favorite Quake levels, particularly DaPak. Lots of space, lovely views and the texturing and lighting is just right. On the SP side I'm glad I don't have to try and keep up with YooShin and Ed anymore :) 

After the initial spooge I have to admit that for DM (which is always going to be the thing that keep you coming back to a game) I started to feel that Quake was still the better game. With hindsight, and the addition of the new id DM levels, I have to conclude that they are just different. I'm definitely warming to it though. As an editor, however, Quake2 is unbeatable. I'm particularly impressed with the new lighting model. It's nice to see techniques (like radiosity) which are still not widespread in CGI being exploited in a game engine. The higher poly count is a bonus, but you could always use more polys. I'm looking forward to future game engines which place more of a focus on polys, rather than textures, for adding detail to the game world. Hopefully Trinity will offer such features.

Ptcha, free time! What's that? To be honest when I get away from a screen I just go to the pub with friends or occasionally read whatever I'm into at the time. Stuff I like 'Quake (classic?), sci-fi, general science, Chinese food, tacky movies, coffee and cigarettes'. 

Typical morning goes from Blues to PlanetQuake (still getting used to the new look) then it's off to Daves Classics to see what's new in the world of emulation. Please, someone, anyone, start working on an 'I,Robot' emulator! If I have an editing problem I go to Rust and read through their tutorials. 

I'm afraid you'll have to wait and see. One problem (the only one?) with being hired is that I'm now under a NDA. That said, I don't really know that much about the project I'm going to be working on yet. Exciting stuff from what I know though :) 

I'd like to thank all the level review sites once again for supporting all the authors and keeping the homemade level scene alive. It makes such a difference to read another opinion on your work,  good or bad. It all helps. I have always been impressed by the Quake 'community' and it's been great to play a small part in it. It's going to be fun to watch as the other authors take the levels on to higher and higher standards. 

~Greg 'Manx' Barr