Big Thanks to Snarkpit.

Hola

Long time since I posted here. These past couple of months have been challenging, to say the least. I'm sure you don't want to hear my sob stories, so I'll skip the details.

To sum it up, I've been busting my ass to get an entry level job in the game industry, while dealing with financial and personal crisis - making this a very blue Christmas season.

I have been interviewing with, and pestering, a company here in Houston (Cinematic Games) for the past month and a half; for an environment designer position. Well, they say persistance pays....and I have to say I agree. I called the company today, and they put me on the speaker phone with owner, who interviewed me for about 10 mins. The bulk of what we talked about, was my experience with Halflife level design, and how that knowledge can transfer to their level editor/game engine. Obviously, I answered the questions correctly, because I was (finally!) offered a position. Hoorah!

If it wasn't for the time I spent here, and the support of this community, keeping this craft alive, I might not have had the experience that led to this opportunity. Therefore.... I want to thank the Snarkpit, and it's members....and ask you to please wish me luck with this endeavor.

This is a rough industry to succeed in, and I'm definately starting at the very bottom rung of this ladder....but at least it's a start.

:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

yay :smile: .

I'll be looking for my portion of your check in the mail. PM me for mailing instructions, if necessary.

Lol ... GL over there !

Nice one Finger, best of luck. :smile:

Very well done indeed - and I'm glad this place has assisted you along the way :smile:

Hurray. Good luck "in the biz", Finger. :razz:

congratulations! :biggrin:

now send them to my website so they can see my 1337 maps and hire me, too! :cool:

how is environmental design "the bottom" ?

sure, it's not coding or modelling or artwork, but it's an important part of the game and adds a lot to the gaming experience.

well anyway, good luck, and have a good time !

It's not what you do, it's what you've had published.

Congratulations, hopefully I'll be following suit this year after I graduate from school. I plan on focusing on graphics programming.

I hope it works out for you, and hope you can map to a schedule :biggrin: .

Many congratulations :smile: Confidence and perseverence got you what you wanted, and those are both qualities I wish I had. I lost faith with the games industry a few years back after a bad experience. I hope yours is a better one and brings you much success :biggrin:

And keep us up to date with how things develop!

That's what we like to hear, great stuff and well done :biggrin:

Congrats!

Thanks for the support!

I just want to clarify, however, when I stated I was starting from the "bottom rung", I was only referring to things such as: pay, benefits, stability of the company...etc. Being a paid level designer is a dream come true.

that is awsome! GL man.

Congrats n GL!

:smile: :smile: :smile:

finger, i'd give up a testicle to get an entry level job in that field.....gj dude, yer atalented mapper, and i think youll do yerself proud.....keep us abreast of yer progress if you can eh?....suuuhhhweeeeet!!!

Doc Brass... :dodgy:

Congrats Finger m8! You deserve the job. Good luck :smile:

finger, i'd give up a testicle to get an entry level job in that field.....

Your own, I presume. (And hope.) :biggrin:

Yes, Brasso, you should realise that organ-laundering isn't the best way into the industry, unless a CEO somewhere needs a new ass cheek or spleen.

You very much deserve it m8. I wish you the best of luck. I knew you had it in you, go show them how its done tbh.

Well done mate, its great to see folks getting into the industry, and its really nice to have them say "thank you" to their roots once they get there :smile: Best of luck to you mate, you deserve it!

Well done m8!

Don't forget to point your boss to the snarkpit when the mapper supply runs low in the company :biggrin:

Hallo everyone.

Just wanted to give an update on my new job. I can sum it up in one word.

AAAARGGG!!!

My god, I didn't realize how efficient Hammer was, until I was forced into another editor. The first week, I just read design docs, engine specs, and familiarized myself with the editor (Dedit). The game is being built on the Jupiter engine (tron 2.0, NOLF2).

Talk about a far step from Halflife, although, there are alot of similarities. The main difference, is where and how objects are build. Most of the architecture, and terrain is being built in 3dsmax (luckily, I know it). Instead of targeting a polycount of 800-1200 max, I am working on terrain alone, that reaches 8000 polys. f**king wow! I almost don't know what to do with all the new possibilities. Animated skyboxes, in which you can render 3d objects, Super high poly counts, huuuuuge levels. It's a bit overwhelming. If it wasn't for the shoddy editor (evil Dedit), I'd be blowing and going.

This week, I focused on starting terrain development; first creating it in a program called Leveler (pretty cool), then importing it into Max, and optimizing it to hell....then finally getting it into the editor and the game, where I battle the ridiculous texturing setup with Dedit.

This is quite a challenging job....thank god I love it.

The guys I work with are all cool, and they fire up the LAN at lunch and after work, mainly playing Unreal and BF1942. I'm working to get em hooked in HL, but that's a battle in itself.

Till next time.

Sounds awsome dude. it's suprising to me that a newer more capable engine would have such a s**ty editor.

Congratulations my good man - but always remember not to waste a single polygon no matter how high your limit is.

Wise words Cass. Coming from Halflife design, has sure instilled that philosophy in me. That has actually made it difficult for me to just jump in and start concepting these levels. I'm not quite sure, yet, where the boundaries are.

Actually, I don't think the owner of the company knows the boundaries of this engine....he is fixated on pushing the envelope. My one big concern, is that when playtest time comes, we will be looking at serious frame-rate issues. Who knows, maybe I'm just freaked out with such a polygon allowance. We will see soon enough.

I know this is a risky business for a new company, full of green artists. No matter the outcome of this game, I am grateful as ever to have this chance to learn, and do something that truly interests me for a living.

Wow, nice. Show 'em what leveldesign is all about. =)

:biggrin: