Rulero

Hello Evryone. My name is Remco Ernst, I am a texture artist / graphic designer from Holland. I prefer creating textures the oldschool way as i think it allows for a game to give it a more personal touch. many FPS games of the nineties could be recognised just by their texturework. Big inspirations are ofcourse Kevin cloud and Adrian carmack. I really love compositioning and creating abstract environments with selfmade texture sets. However i am not a level designer, instead i just love to create Architectural visualisations for FPS games. My first project as a texture artist was Wrack, the oldschool fps by skulltags creator (Brad Carney) that has been released in 2014. The musical score was done by Bobby Prince. I have had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Cloud and John Romero at quakecon 2014, who convinced me to go trough with it. The second Wrack game i worked for is not barely using BSP(like) architecture anymore, and i really miss doing textures this way. When i recently build my portfolio i came to the conclusion that i had a lot of assets but they all had the cartoony cell shaded Wrack style, and where already 5 years old. My skillset has improved a lot troughout the years, so as a means of expanding my portfolio would really love to create a completeley new textureset that fits Doom, without recycling or using parts of existing textures. My question herebey is if there are any (Mega)Wad creators / mappers / modders that want a completely new textureset in a certain style or theme. Let me know! :) You can take a look at the Wrack texturesets that i have displayed over here! https://www.artstation.com/rulero/albums/1369721

This looks very cool! i would love to contribute textures to that. can i contact you somewhere?

Your criticism is fine, you have all the right to express it. Actually eisselfortum has been on the team in the early days. I dont know for what reason he stopped working on the game. he has given me tips on texturing back then. we have tryed to take on a few more people from dw. but people just vanished after a week or 2 or had other things going on or they did not abide with deadlines and such,even toh it was a payed position. i rather did not get involved with these things back in the day. I just wanted to stay in the background and be neutral. because some people seem to have a history here. We have been stuck for a year or so trying to find people to do it but we could either cancel the game or go further with what we had. I cant argue about level design because im not a mapper. and i do not have enough knowledge about it. i create all the texturesets and monster textures particles etc according to what i read about it int he design document. so basicly anything 2d. but once again we are not trying to copy doom or its atmosphere. its something different. also the levels from back in november do not represent the game anymore. if you scroll a few pages back you can see some screens from the new level layouts. wich where recieved pretty positive here. Also if an experienced mapper would apply to work for Wrack i would immediatly say yes to that. unfortunateley the budget is running thin. and i think it is a bit too late. maybe with episode 2. as for the monsters. they are not just randomly made or plopped into The game. Look at the monsters for megaman for example. we want to be closer to that then to doom. A combination of drones, robots, and humanoids in suits. and big boss guys. http://images.wikia.com/megaman/images/3/3a/MMOCWMM5Enemies2.jpg you say that the demons of doom have personality and our robots and drones don't. This is an opinion or matter of taste. There is no basic ruleset for how enemeis should look in this type of shooters. there is nothing i can do to chance that. but you have the right to not like it. As i stated before it is hard to please evryone. And luckily the majority seems to think otherwise. Heck some people even asked for Geizer plushies already. ( a monster from the game) i think that wouldnt have happened if it had no personality. I cant decide what happens with licensing the engine because Brad is the project lead and all decisions are made by him im just a freelancer / employee. He will look into this further You should meet him at Quakecon im sure he is open for discussion. it also would be cool if you could give the game a go there. Maybe your vision about it can alter a bit when you have played it. who knows! Thank you

Thank you for your feedback DooM_RO i appreciate it. Ive taken a look at refinery and played trough it. I see what you are trying to say. while it looks good it is just the thing that we want to avoid. As ive stated in my video. A realistic style would not support the direction we gave the game. Not only was the map realistic but it was also very dark and monotone in color usage. Altough i liked the architecture a lot. And i understand what you where trying to say about the sections. also other levels from Tormentor like Sapphire have great use in color as well. A common misconception about wrack is that it is seen as a 100% Doom tribute and nothing else. While the shooting mechanics and some other design choises are ofcourse in the vein of doom, at first sight it might look like wrack is a doom clone. That has been the reason why we have put the emphasis more on the other half of the game. when you take a look at the game when we where called strike / vega people thought it was quake 2. cube 2. or something like that. so if we kept to that it would confuse people even more. and the "unrealism" of the level design would look totally silly. So why are the levels unrealistic you would ask me. well, As wrack is partially based on old arcade games we want to emulate that feeling in the mix with first person shooter. If you take a look at some of the snes games i mentioned at youtube. You would see that almost all of the level designs do not make sense in terms of realism. its all in favour of the gameplay, and more of a obstacle course approach. And i think so far we did reach pretty well with our game. On the enemy part, when i joined the wrack team i thought the same as what you describe, but now that Carn has put the story in and the description of all monsters, it becomes clear that evry monster or robot has its reason why its looking and behaving like they do. For example, a lot of people question us. "Where does the sword come from, i dont get it.." All those kind of things are getting answered in the story and dialog. The sword was a present from Kains friend, Fabian wich also plays a keyrole in the episodes.he has made the sword in the Hyperion generator, Altough weapons are not allowed to be made with it, they where impressed by its design and it was clearly made for its looks. so as an exception kain could have it as a decorative souvenir, and thats just right before the invasion starts as seen in the cutscenes. so kain ends up with that sword in his hands when the game begins Also i can tell you that im a big fan of oldschool shooters like unreal 1, quake 2, or even sin. wich are more close to what you describe, and i would sure love to do something like that in the future so i understand what you are missing in Wrack. But then again. Wrack is not aimed at that target audience specificly, But it might appeal to a lot of people with that background, but youre never going to make evryone happy. I hope i clearified some things up for you and ofcourse still hoping you would like the game. Im also heading for quakecon this year. so might see you there. and thanks again for the feedback :)

in an honest unbiased opinion even if i work for carn, i wasn't really into Carn's story when i read it on paper at first, the elements it had sounded all too generic to me, and i was like, dude it doesnt need this.. Personaly im more of a person that likes to fill in the story himself in a way that the first unreal did, or doom, just being a nobody trying to escape. Then some months later when the character biographys where written and the dialogs started to enter the game i was suprised by how it unfolded. And im not just saying this to promote Wrack, In fact im not always happy with certain design choises or directions carn takes, we differ a lot when it comes to Taste. But to get back on the story, The "generic" elements are still there but it is brought upon such a way that it is quite unique, the characters all have their own tone in dialogue and personality wich start to grow on you once you get further in the game, Its even so that if their names and portraits arent visible im already able to figure out wich line belongs to whom, The game is also full of silly humour but never so much that it breaks the games flow or get in the way of the story, it felt much like how they did it in the pokemon Gameboy games, the games are presented light hearted and humorous but also serve the player with darker mature elements. For example in the pokemon games there was a town where in some pokemons got missing and it turned out that team rocket stole those pokemons to only cut of their tales to sell them, This is a mature subject and you could feel sorry for the pokemons in the story, but the game itself wasnt dead serious, but it could make you care for the story and feel emphaty with the characters. I think Wrack does this fairly well and im eager to see what carn has in store for the future of the game, because as it stands now it has quite some ways to evaluate. Im currently working on certain story elements too in my art, the current levels are facilities of a company called Ostern Technologies wich is now visible and hinted to the player. In our next release players now can experience the reasons why they are in the place the levels take place.

A new shot! http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/902980_431479436946446_808659120_o.jpg

I only do texturing. and particle effects. i cant guarantee anything animation related,If you or anyone else have suggestions in terms of texuring or art i will take note of it and try to improve on it. For all the other things im sure either carnevil or the doom freak will read them too, and they might take note of it.

There is a minigun and rocket launcher and guass gun on the way. the gore system that is currently in is a prototype. and it will be a lot messier in the future. The next update will also include breakable crates and explosive barrels with debris that wont dissapear from the battlefield. Also Level 4 and 5 have recieved a full texture overhaul. The lower arcturans ( the yellow skinned ones will get a new model to add some diversity to organic enemies. i will take not of some of your problems. thanks for the feedback!

The managing is not my position inside the team. Yet im very sure it has not been a managing issue because evrything is handled very clearly, and just vanishing without any sign of communication while they have signed a contract has more to do with unproffesionalism from that person itself then the manager. in evry other aspect of the team. modelling. texturing. sounds. music. animations, and what not it all goes perfectly. The point being, There has been put a lot of effort in trying to improve on the levels with the help of others but so far it hasn't beared any fruit. Its always very easy to tell people how things are done while standing on the docks watching other people steering a ship. but it is not as easy as some make it sound to be. Im not saying our game has no room for improvement but The feedback on the internet and on gaming sites have been fairly positive with high ratings and expectations. Its only on this site where there seems to be a lot of concern regarding the levels, wich i do understand because people here are used to higher standards. i for one, maybe im not speaking for the whole team, but i think doomers are an important part even if it is just a small bit of players and not the main target, I know you guys do care to some extend otherwise you wouldnt be here discussing the game. I really would like to have a great level designer on our team, At this point we just dont know where to find one that is as enthusiastic as the rest of the team.

If you get feedback, you try to find ways to improve on it. as a lot of people here seem to know exactly how the levels need to be build. why not look here?. Myself being a doomer as well and i havent run away yet. Carnevil's company is not some triple A company with millions to spend to hire some veteran game designers wich demand a full 1500 dollar loan each month. And you have to start somewhere. And as a payed position it can turn out great. Freelancing doesnt mean there is no staying power. Our modeler and myself as texturer have been on the project for 3 years and longer. Also the freedom i was talking about is not a bad thing at all. When i have to create a Tileset or a monster skin I'm told what kind of theme it needs to be. then i start tooling arround with ideas and once the sketching face gets approved i work it out. The theme and overal concept is set. but the direction, design, and color use i take it in is totally on my part. I have my deadlines and my duties. we all get payed and have to sign contracts. all of us do. so i have no idea where you get the idea from that we are all running arround like headless chickens. Nonetheless i wont hold you back expressing your opinions, and i appreciate you doing so P.S excuses for my grammar im not a native speaker

I'm the texture artist on wrack for both levels and models. Im usualy not active on this forum, because the overall pesimistic nature over here is kind of demotivating. I'm open for advice and feedback on my work. but i find it a bit unfair if someone states the levels only include 5 textures. while for example the texturemap of e1m2 includes 165 different ones. Also im aware of the fact that our level design can improve to some extend, but let it be known that we hired several people from the community after we have recieved the feedback on the level design. and then for whatever reason without communicating, people just vanish or quit. or fail to deliver a single level after weeks of time. While they get all the freedom they have to create somethin to their preferences. This situation has happened over like four times. In this situation we can do two things. we can either quit and throw evrything away, or we can keep our textures, music, sound, models, animations, and engine. and try to do the best we can until we find someone who can lend us a hand. just my 2 cents

I bought The ID super pack in decembre since then i have played trough D 1 & 2. TNT Plutonia 1 & 2 memento mori. icarus and Eternal doom. i still have a lot of megawads to finish i recently played a level from realm 667 called Sapphire i really liked the modernized look. and wondered if there where any modern weapon and or monster wads as well that replaces the skins and sounds of the original weapons and monsters but still acting the same. I tried WW Redoom but it was still a bit buggy due work in progress. i tried buetifull doom but it tried to do to much imo thanks in advance for the help cheers Rulero

i played almost evry fps to date and i am getting quite dissapointed in modern shooters. Crysis for example may look great. but its gameplay is weak. and comes nowhere near the tense and pace of doom i had tons more fun playing trough final doom then i did with crysis i really have a big love for classic shooters the ones with high pace. high difficulty fast movement. no reloads. and tons of action. The subgenre has died out a bit. and is now replaced by wannabe realistic and dull casual shooters with health regenerative systems and low difficulty thats the reason i love doom loads of content. easy to run. hard to the bone what i ment with my question is. if there where just some simple graphic replacements. that make weapn animations look smoother and maybe with some heavier sounds