|
icarusweb: How's work on DooM 3057 going?
X-Blade: At the moment, everything has been revolving around the release of the new resource wad. Level designing has been at a stand still until it gets released. The biggest reason for the delay was a very long wait for submissions of graphics. Those submissions are too far overdue so we decided to move on without them. We are expecting to have the resources ready by some time next week or the week after. After that, everything will take off.
icarusweb: Those are some very nice graphics on your 3057 site. Who's responsible for your site design?
X-Blade: Fredrik, our lead graphics designer, is the man responsible for that. He has taken a lot of work onto his shoulders lately, and he deserves a lot of credit. He comes up with a lot of cool ideas for his graphics, and I don't know how he keeps coming up with them!
icarusweb: It says on the site that you're planning to make 3057 a 42 level conversion. Is this a misprint, or do you have the stamina of gods?
X-Blade: Well, I layed the basic outline down for the level, and I made the story conclude on map 32 originally. Then I thought that it would probably be a good idea to have secret levels. As I was about to cut back the amount of levels, I decided to take advantage of ZDoom's features so I expanded it to include a 3 level secret hub and some deathmatch levels. I realized that this would take a lot of time to do so I decided that rather than rush through the work to produce quantity over quality, I would pick up a lot of talented level workers so we could evenly distribute the work down to about 2 to 4 levels per person. This way the author can focus on the details of his level and not feel too rushed. Everybody seems enthusiastic about being on the team so I doubt there will be a problem with people getting bored with their work.
icarusweb: I liked the cinematic start to the 3057 demo, with the "credits sequence". What inspired you to do that?
X-Blade: It's funny you asked that...I almost had forgotten where I got that idea from. I actually came up with that idea when I pulled out my old Nintendo one day. I have this game called Ninja Gaiden II, and it was an old cinematic style game. It opened up with the words "Tecmo Presents...1990....Ninja Gaiden II..." Then it followed with a cinematic story...I thought that it was a fantastic idea for the project which would give it an awesome feeling when you're starting. Since then, I've been digging up my old games looking for anything else that could inspire another idea...
icarusweb: Whilst we're on the subject of inspiration, who do you and your fellow Team Future level designers turn to for inspiration?
X-Blade: I'm not really sure about the rest of the members, but I turn to Wildman Rick Clark for cool ideas. He has done a lot of excellent things with ZDoom, and he always shows off cool new ideas that I could have never thought of. Tarin, who I am fortunate enough to have on the team might I add, is another designer who comes up with sweet ideas. I am always up to date with his latest releases because I always pick up cool stuff from him. There are others who inspire me, but Rick and Tarin are the ones who inspire me the most.
icarusweb: You got a lot of members in the team really quickly... do you get a lot of people wanting to join?
X-Blade: I got a lot of applications for beta testers, which came in so quickly that the position filled about a day after I posted that we needed them. I actually spend a lot of time going around the community finding most of the other positions, though. I go through cdrom.com a couple times each month looking for talented level designers. There' a lot of talent out there, but the hardest thing is finding it.
icarusweb: Are you planning to expand the team any further?
X-Blade: Most of the team has been built, but we need more help in a few areas. We are looking for people who are talented graphics designers, whether it be sprites or textures. There are still a few openings on the level design list which we hope to fill in the near future, too. The benefit of having a large team is that there isn't such a work strain on the designers. We hope to get everything filled soon.
icarusweb: We're both hosted by the same lovely people, but you wupping my ass in the counter numbers... what am I doing wrong?
X-Blade: I don't thing you're doing anything wrong. Our pages are doom related, but they deal with different things. The general majority of people that visit the doom community are looking for readily-available add-ons, that's the main reason why we have higher numbers. We've also gained popularity with a lot of the anonymous Doomers out there, who are really the people that projects should be designed for. After all, they are the backbone of the Doom community. We also do a lot of big updates which we post in the news to attract more visitors such as demos, new members, new designs, new screenshots, etc. I've also made an effort to get our project listed on as many search engines as possible. If you get yourself posted on a good directory index such as dmoz.org, you are likely to get a lot more hits.
icarusweb: With such a large number of members on the team, can we expect to see more projects heading our way from the Team Future people?
X-Blade: I was originally going to end the series with just the first episode which I would set up to have a different ending of course, but when I saw what a great group of people that had been put together, I thought that it would be a great loss if we disbanded after only one release. That's why we want to do such a huge series consisting of 99 total levels. They will be divided into 3 separate parts, and, after everything is finished, we will put it all together into a 99 level megawad. A lot happens in between parts of a story, though. I hope that we can keep everyone together until the full 3057 series is completed. 3057 is currently the only project on the table, and we don't know what will come after that, though.
icarusweb: What do you think are the best and worst things about the DooM community?
X-Blade: The best part of the DooM community is the enthusiasm for this great game. I don't believe that any community can top the DooM community. However, everybody flames everybody quite frequently. That has become a growing problem. Another problem is that it isn't safe to release your resources anymore because somebody usually swipes them. I suppose, though, that that is a problem in every community...
icarusweb: When was the last time you played a level and thought "Godam, that was awful"?
X-Blade: I'd have to say what most any designer would say, and that being that my very first levels sucked when I started designing. I really don't like to voice negative opinions about other doom level designers out there because I admire the fact they want to create the levels. I focus more on trying to help level designers improve their work when they ask me to check out their levels.
icarusweb: A very noble answer. As project leader, do you have to wupp some ass sometimes, or do you let things go easily?
X-Blade: I'm really pretty easy on most things. I don't set many standards for the team members, and I let them get creative with their work. I only get angry when somebody out there rips off work from our members or flames the project for no reason.
icarusweb: Any further comments to voice?
X-Blade: Be on the lookout for a new demo of DooM 3057 under the brand new resource wad!
  |