Geek.kon has once again come full circle and arrived at my door step. This year in the form of a company presentation. I got to be apart of the Raven Software Panel at Geek.kon. We talked about getting into the industry and what we do on a daily basis. It was definitely a lot of fun and i hope they ask us back in the next few years.

After the talk Me and my buddy Dave decided to get into some smash bros tournament… I went out first round but hey! they wouldn’t let me use Toon Link OR Gannon! and those are the two characters I basically main with… After that I walked around and waited for the ever so important Street Fighter 4 tournament. I made my way to the vendors section and they had a ton of action figures and plushies everywhere! I have sort of a thing for Anime plushies…I don’t know why … they just look neet for some reason… OK! so the best part about going through this area was I found a brand new off the line VIVI HD(ish) Action Figure! IT was sooo cool! It was definitely an instant buy for me…

Can anyone say EPIC WIN!? This is such a cool surprise for me considering how much I love his character. I did go back the next day to get something else in the store and they were completely out of these… so looks like I got him just in time!

So The Street Fighter 4 Tournament went down! I wont stretch this out too long but the basic idea is that 10 people entered and I won the tournament :D!
Here is a picture of me with the runner up! oh and btw it was with Sakura!

I definitely had a lot of fun at Geek.kon this year and I won 20$ from the sf4 tournament! So all in all great experience and I hope to see a bigger tournament scene at next years Geek.kon

- Vivi

The cool people over at Gamestar gave a nice lil preview of the L4D campaign I’ve been working on with Darth Brush. In the preview they show the intro I worked on and the Ac unit event that I created :D! both of which are still in WIP stages.

Enjoy the preview

http://www.gamestar.de/index.cfm?pid=1589&pk=12899

Quick lil update on the progression of the map so far. Ive finally gotten around to reworking the interior bits. I wanted to make it a bit more open but also provide more cover for the players. It seemed as if no one was using the bottom floor so I’m reworking things a bit in that section.

I’m also changing the roof up a bit, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I wanted to add some nice architecture bits on the roof to make something cool but also make sure it functions as apart of gameplay.

The Buildings shape is starting to come together… nothing special atm, I hope to make something cool out of the shape of the building. We wanted to make sure that all location that the players play on were unique and could be easily recognizable in the skybox.

and here is another room getting changed up with some vents and fences WOOT! Go fences and vents in small locations!

That’s all the updates for now! I’ll keep you posted on what the team is up to at the end of next week sometime.

- Vivi

So it’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog. I decided now would be a good quick time to do so. I have been revamping my portfolio site a bit to get things into order. Along with that comes the Mirrors edge map and some other things like chells legend. I have lots of ideas that I just want to get out into the editor but it just takes too much time! Me and my buds PhilE and Sathor will be trying to get the first art pass on the Mirrors edge map here in another week or so. I’ve also been helping darth brush out with his Left 4 Dead campaign “Dead Before Dawn”. I did some scripting in the intro and I’m working on some co-op ideas also. Chells Legend has been kinda on the back burner since its such a huge project and takes a lot of time *sad face*. Sadly I’ve been sucked into playing Street fighter 4 and have started creating match videos of me playing people online! I am so addicted to this game it’s …. it’s just wrong. Expect some more visual updates from me in the future on all of the above.

-Vivi

Ok so we kinda stooped away for a couple of days to work on some intro movie stuff and get our logo squared away. Sathor and PhilE have been working really hard on getting the team some textures and models. We held our own lil team playtest the other day and had a small 2v2 going on. We tested the map with slowmo and it was actually pretty fun ^^. We’ve decided to go with the route of having a requirement to trigger slow motion - 1 CT and 1 T have to be jumping in the middle of the map in order for slowmo to occur. This idea seems pretty sound and it will still be set to random, so there is still a good chance it will only happen once every 5 rounds… or something … depending on how many times you see people jumping across the middle XD. Ok! Onto some updates! Below are some work in progress screens of some models Sathor is working on and some textures that PhilE is making to help us nail down the look better. I will show off some quick wips of a portion of the map I’ve been working on to help satisfy the mappers out there :P.

And now onto some Wip shots of the map!

AND! In closing for this update I just wanted to mention that the team is working really hard to pump this content out fast and efficient! We have all make our own checklists of assets and things we want to create for this map and are checking them off as we go. Things are moving very quick and we plan on holding a [b]big play test soon[/b], Info will come shortly as to how you can get in on the playtest and what day / time it’s happening!

Thanks, Vivi!

So I went in and started adding place holder points in the environment for a lower area and some of the interior sections on day 5. On day 6 I put in a placeholder vista to help get some sizes down and match it up correctly to the environment. Today I got a really interesting idea to help Tie any other maps we make all together. I wanted to create an actual city, prob on an island in the center of a bigger city, we will use this as a bench mark of where all of our maps will go. So if your playing one map you could see the spot where the other map we created would stand. We already have several ideas for small quick really cool maps. I’ll talk more about that when I have something to show but for now! Screenshots!

Placeholder vista - I seemed to have matched it up perfectly with the ground on my second try… this made me very happy

Some things I would like to note as I’m making this map. I wouldn’t normally have map holes everywhere like I do right now. That was the product of me trying to put a bunch of placeholder routes and geometry in all at once. It should be cleaned up soon and ready for it’s first maiden voyage by the end of next week

Also we will be showing off Art from Sathor and PhilE in a couple of days so get ready for that!

-Vivi

I finally got around to duping the 1 side to the other side! I noticed some gameplay flaws in the map and have since then tried to rework some of the areas.

And here is a video of me running through shooting stuff. I used temp Dummies so you could get a feel for the size and stuff.

Hope you enjoyed it ^^!

Some more updates! Trying to get the Mirrors Edge feeling down more. The real test comes when I duplicate the brushwork to the other side and start some testing and junk. I’m very excited to see how this plays. I wish css had a sprint key lol.

Quick placement of a lower walkway to get some sizing down and the feel for the layout better. This also helped me to connect some other parts of the map together.

I placed a slow mo / low grav volume in the middle so people could clear the gap between buildings and slow time down every once in awhile. Seems like a fun idea…. I wonder how it will play out on a live match with random times and stuff. WE SHALL SEE!!!

And then a screenshot from the super tiny outpost where you can grab something special (prob a buy zone or maybe some grenades or something)

Ok! so this week I got to sit down and talk with Spaz12, the creator of hl2 mod “Calamity“. Spaz shares all his secrets in this 1 on 1 interview! After reading the interview be sure to Dl and play his mod!

Whats your Name?
Bobby “Spas12″ Cardona

How old are you?
17 Years old

Where do you live?
New Jersey, United States

What made you decide to start mapping?
The 2004 SDK version for the Source engine introduced me to mainstream mapping. I was really interesting in making my own single player and multiplayer levels, and i practiced and experimented a lot and got better day by day.

When did you start mapping?
about 5 years ago

What engine did you start with?
Source engine

What do you like/dislike about mapping?
I love creating my own playable finished levels for a diverse list of Source games. I love finishing them and observe where and how much they get played. I would say the massive amount of time needed to complete high quality maps is a common dislike for me and many other mappers.

What maps / environments have you made so far?
I have made many levels for games such as HL2:DM, CSS, DODS, TF2, SiN: Episodes, and a SP mod for HL2.

What are you most well known for?
My singleplayer mod “Half-Life 2: Calamity”

Which was your favorite to work on?
Probably my SP mod because it allowed me to create many diverse combat scenarios that can only be implemented in singleplayer campaigns, as well as the opportunity to expand the Half-Life story.

Where do you get inspiration from to map?
Movies, art, thoughts/ideas, and most of all: existing games and maps

How many times a week would you say you open an editor?
Everyday

Do you provide your own custom content?
I have made some custom materials and models and have implemented some of them in my existing maps.

What do you use to make your textures?
Photoshop CS2

Do you find custom content very helpful when mapping? Especially if you make it yourself?
Yes, it can improve the originality of your map as well as having the ability to serve gameplay or story purposes.

When working on a project do you communicate with others to get feedback / inspiration?
Yes, I need to communicate with lots of people I’ve never even met before to get valuable feedback on a level layout, players performance, and reaction. Its just another part of the very long and tiring design process, but it eventually all pays off once you see how much of an achievement you made with your level. In terms of inspiration, many other great mappers illustrate their specific techniques and art styles within their own works to the gaming community, which greatly improve the skills of many other designers just like me.

Do you want to be in the game industry?
Definitely, that’s why I map.

Being 17 do you feel pressure to stand out amongst the other mappers your age?
My young age is both a barrier and also an example of how successful I have become in terms of mapping. However, I don’t feel pressured to stand out or even be the very best of my level design peers, but I do very well aim to get a job in the Game Industry, no matter what it takes. Level design is my ultimate passion and talent, and I hope to eventually get hired by a company to implement my skills in an actual video game. At 17, I have other responsibilities such as school that sometimes interfere with my design schedule, but I do manage to balance time and work ethic with just about everything.

If you could choose a game company to work for which would it be?
Infinity Ward all the way.

Whats your favorite game?
Half-Life 1

Where do you see yourself in 5 or so odd years?
Working at Infinity Ward and having the time of my life.

Download link to his mod : Here

END

Thanks for taking the time to fill out these questions Spaz! Now go out there and make us something we can all play and get inspired by! Hope you one day get to work at your dream job!

-Generalvivi