Welcome to the rabbit hole
Entry posted by MikeClarke ·
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I have a tendency to write random thoughts which appear on facebook or randomly to a friend on skype. So I decided to make use of the blog system here since most of my thoughts are somewhat game related. The blog is called 'Inside the mind of eternal insomniac' which isn't far from the truth, I am an insomniac and have been for a v.long time and even if I wasn't my mind tends to function in overdrive at times and see very odd connections.
So 'Welcome to the rabbit hole', my current thoughts are on three large topics.
A hat of all shapes & sizes, as most indie developers will know any project on the Indie level requires you to handle various roles you wouldn't need to as an AAA developer. You fill every team spot you can. This is something that I must admit concerns me. I have a history with code (web mostly) so that should be my main focus since I've done it for 10years as a career but old fashioned level design is my passion when it comes to Game Dev that I've so far neglected to stick my head in the C++ or LUA arena' I have tinkered with some blender stuff though.
The second thought im tinkering with is Operation Mosquito which is my main project, although slow going whilst I get used to things and learn it's always on my mind. I play CoD Black Ops (Original not 2) at night with family and between almost every map (and often during) my mind will wonder and I'll find myself hunting for lines of sight figuring and calculating the likely hood of a real life use trying to find that "seam" between the game and reality from a gamer perspective. - Strange, yes - Crazy, yet to be confirmed
Finally my thoughts are on a post by Josh, wanting to blur gap between Indie & Modders. I got my game dev start with mods and they were great fun, but regardless of Indie or Mod finding reliable team members is never easy. I can understand why, it's a big commitment and time is a factor - not everyone can walk away from a decent job hell it took me several years to kick myself into it and my job wasn't great lol
If you put your time into an indie or mod project, you need to consider the time factor, for a good rate of turnaround 10-15hrs would seem like a fair amount, obviously more or less depending on task load and availability of other developers assets. That's a part time job in itself, and I think alot of people would rather put that time into a project they want made. The game they want to play, not necessarily someone else's.
I understand and appreciate this, I don't know if anyone out there is reading this but would be good if there were - or if you followed my ramblings this far in. There was a "Community project" for LE2 the zombie game. I would be in full support of a community LE3 project. Something that we provided as a framework to other people.
Incase there is interest in another game, maybe fps or remake of the original LE2 project then count me in as a Level Designer I'm willing to put in the hours mentioned above and more if needed. After all would be a good learning opportunity to learn from other people here and maybe find people to work with down the line.
Until next time, don't leave the rabbit hole, dont feed the shadow, tip the waitress.
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