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Geek Culture / Message for Raven...

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Soyuz
21
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Joined: 17th Dec 2002
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Posted: 31st Jan 2003 15:47
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I'm currently compiling a portfolio + resume of my level design work with the intention of applying for some level design jobs in the not too distant furute. You seem to have considerable experience in the sector, so I was wondering if you'd be able to cast your eye over this and offer some suggestions, hints, tips etc that'll help give me the best chance at landing a job?

For the record:

I'm 27. I've been creating levels for Q3A engine pretty much full-time for the past 14 months doing around 10-14 hours a day, also used Worldcraft for about 6 months. What I'm saying here is that when it comes down to a question of "How many years experience do you have?" this wouldn't give a true picture, as I really have the same hours as someone who has done say 4 years at a few hours a day after work. - you see I'm a freelance graphic designer so have the luxury of dedicating a considerable amount of my time to learning the tools.

I was the level designer + modeller + skinner for still the only full conversion mod for Return To Castle Wolfenstein - "The Wildwest" - I think amongst other things this is useful to show that I am capable of seeing a project through to completion!

I have a degree in Structural Enginnering + Architecture - ie I have an appreciation of aesethcis, layout and construction. I worked in CAD for 8 months before becoming a graphic designer for 4 years - excellent photoshop skills.

In the resume + PF I'm covering the thought process that goes in to desinging my levels - technical aspects, dealing with engine constraints and getting the most out of them, visual, gameplay and how I go about planning and constructing the levels.

That's the basics of what I'm covering. Would you perhaps have a moment to cast your eye over the work and resume once I have it completed and also do you have any comments or suggestions now which you feel a potential employer may be looking for in an application.

If you'd be ok with discussing any of this by email I can be contacted at kev.bolt@btinternet.com!

Many many thanks indeed for any input you can offer.

You can see screenshots of the Wildwest work I've done at [href]www.the-wildwest.co.uk[/href]
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Soyuz
21
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Joined: 17th Dec 2002
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Posted: 31st Jan 2003 15:48
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bloody html links!!
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Megaman X
22
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Joined: 21st Oct 2002
Location: Sweden
Posted: 31st Jan 2003 20:01
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It's url and /url instead of href and /href

"A true warrior fights with skill, not anger..."

Gif edited by Kangaroo2
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Shadow Robert
22
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 31st Jan 2003 21:52
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there are alot of things i'd like to input about this and i'll compile an email later about the points and how you should outline yourself

will take a while to explain a few things and not be small (even by my post standards) so make sure you have a good few hours free to read it carefully. i'll send it in the morning.

probably the shortest and most important thing you should note ... is how well you can work around and incorporate ideas - i don't have RTCW nor could i get the mod to download from the link given, which is a shame because i'd of liked to see the work you have done in action.

Your prospected employer will as well, so i'd suggest you look into designing a world for DarkBasic to show off your talents.

Give yourself a time frame to complete from concept to finish, whatever you haven't done by the time the time is up DON'T continue or lie about the time taken send in within an AS IS state. This shows far more about what you do and your style than words, facts or qualifications every can.
I mean sure you work 10-14 hours as day, and to be honest you will be expect to work more to actually hit deadlines - the real question is what CAN you do within these 10-14hours!

as i said i'll lay out everything in much greater detail, but i'd find yourself a decent programmer here who can work paralell to yourself and create an interactable world in DarkBasic Pro within a set time limit
(don't give the Programmer the same time limit, as you want his code to work and show your world at its best - as it isn't about him its about your work )

Anata aru kowagaru no watashi!
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Kangaroo2
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Joined: 26th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 31st Jan 2003 22:13
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Sound advice Raven will see you well

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Soyuz
21
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Posted: 1st Feb 2003 01:15
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I am imensely grateful to you and look forward to a good read. I'm currently making another WW map which I'm giving myself two weeks to complete. I think is a fairly tight deadline considering the size of these multiplayer maps for RTCW and such like.

I'll check up on those download links - been a while since I last checked them.

Many thanks
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Shadow Robert
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 1st Feb 2003 20:52
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lmao... oki sorry i forgot to write it
got too caught up in KG's NetScript code i forgot all about it - and then fell asleep.
oki could you simply build 1 of your worlds in Quake3 format and upload it for me? I'd like to see if you know you couldn't do with some tips in your designing

another tip whist you wait for this email, which i really should get right on.

Explain to the employers your abilities, don't sound cocky in them. Your giving them the impression and the attitude within this cover letter and CV to tell then why you are the best candidate your not trying to show off to them.

i'll show you, if you were to put this in your Cover Letter
Soyuz - "I'm 27. I've been creating levels for Q3A engine pretty much full-time for the past 14 months doing around 10-14 hours a day, also used Worldcraft for about 6 months. What I'm saying here is that when it comes down to a question of "How many years experience do you have?" this wouldn't give a true picture, as I really have the same hours as someone who has done say 4 years at a few hours a day after work. - you see I'm a freelance graphic designer so have the luxury of dedicating a considerable amount of my time to learning the tools."

then i'd actually reword it slightly
"I believe that I would be a good asset to any development team creating 3D Game Worlds. Over the past 14months i have been actively building worlds for a Modification game for Return to Castle Wolfenstein game, called <a href="http://www.the-wildwest.co.uk" target="new">The Wild West</a>. I have been creating these world by learning GTKRadient and trying to bring them to life by learning about world Ambients, Level Design, Lighting and such.
I have been working 10-14hour days to make worlds which are large and life like enough to totally immerse the player into believing they are within the Wild West.
I also have around 6months experience developing within WorldCraft, and learning how to achieve certain level design aspects through both products."

More words, More information, less attitude ... thats roughly the impression that you should be trying to put over. Make them think that you WILL be a good asset

perhaps you might want to discuss exactly what you'll be making as you're sample-work
remember you should always be pandering to roughly what the company is about ... for example you go for Rare you wanna make a world suchas a Missile Silo (ala Goldeneye) or Child like platformer (ala Banjo Kazooie)

or if you go for Codemaster, making a world for a car that could drive around it

whatever you do remember to keeps a style of your own, for example i recently made a Portfolio Movie specifically for a company - where you have people in a war, only it was based far in the future rather than a mythical past

Anata aru kowagaru no watashi!
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Soyuz
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Posted: 2nd Feb 2003 01:12
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Thanks again for all this.

I'm not sure how well the maps will work out in Quake 3 as there's a fair amount of incompatibility to RTCW - I'll have a crack at it in a bit. I don't suppose you have Gtk, then I can send the map file - although I've mostly used custom textures so you're looking at around 15-20 mb download either way.
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Shadow Robert
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Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 2nd Feb 2003 02:56
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yup i have GTK 1.2.10 , WorldCraft 3.32, Hammer 1.x, Qoole 2.50, Qoole '99, QeRadient, Quark 6.24, etc, etc...

hehee plus a few i've developed myself because they don't have the needs i wanted.

with GTK its actually quite simple to recompile in Quake3 from RTCW - mostly just editing the Entities to Quake3 Standard ... deleting alot
Had to do alot of converting between Q3A and JK2, can be a bitch to do but is just length rather than hard

Anata aru kowagaru no watashi!
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Soyuz
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Posted: 2nd Feb 2003 16:34
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I've not done any mapping for Quake - went from Counter Strike to RTCW. Obviously designing a map for RTCW is quite different from Quake what with objectives, forward spawn points and the fact that it is team v team rather than all v all - so I'm sure you'd appreciate that layout will reflect this.

If you want to check the maps out I've made them publically available at [url]www.kev.bolt.btinternet.co.uk/wildwest/wildwest_maps.zip[/url].

If you have the patience you should be able to download the mod from one of the links on the download page at [url]www.the-wildwest.co.uk[/url]. This is probably the easiest way for you to get the pk3 with the custom textures if you want to load the maps in Radiant. I don't have enough web space to host just the textures unfortunately. For this reason I plan to put together a CD for portfolio purposes.
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Shadow Robert
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 2nd Feb 2003 17:20
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[url=www.kev.bolt.btinternet.co.uk/wildwest/wildwest_maps.zip]Kev's Map Zip[/url]

if that doesn't work then its probably because of the extra 2 "."'s in the primary domain - this forum is very basic in the design right now and if there is anything outside of standard parameters and it just refuses to work.
buht ya know most people show work from Geocities or Angelfire to me, which drives me nutz but get used to cutting and pasting links.

downloading now ... and yeah althought the style of development is different - the actual world formats should be identical so i shouldn't need the entire thing to get the general feel

i mean if i really wanted to get the full experience i'd have to play with several people online, you ever tried Q3 over the net on a 56k - enough said

should be able to see what there is to be developed thou
sitting here half asleep from coding most of the nite trying to get my N64 USB connection working - coded it enough to know there is a bitstream, however right now its having trouble decyphering it hehee
slowly-slowly catchy monkey

i'll offer some more advice later, i really can't be bothered to mess about with msn or aol to send email - just doing so much think i'll just keep comming out with the lil perls of wisdom here.

Anata aru kowagaru no watashi!
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InSiDeR
22
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Joined: 12th Sep 2002
Location: Australia
Posted: 2nd Feb 2003 19:46
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[href]www.darkbasicplanet.com[/href]



InSiDeR
Visit the NEW DBPlanet, Click Here
"...Yay i got one strap loose..."
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InSiDeR
22
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Location: Australia
Posted: 2nd Feb 2003 19:47
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O_o??
when did that stop working...
i always thought it was [url]www.darkbasicplanet.com[/url]

InSiDeR
Visit the NEW DBPlanet, Click Here
"...Yay i got one strap loose..."
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InSiDeR
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Posted: 2nd Feb 2003 19:48
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O_o??
meh, like i care

InSiDeR
Visit the NEW DBPlanet, Click Here
"...Yay i got one strap loose..."
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Martyn Pittuck
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Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 3rd Feb 2003 09:45
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[url]www.darkbasicplanet.com[/url]

[ url ]?

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Martyn Pittuck
22
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2003 09:45
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[html]www.darkbasicplanet.com[/html]

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Martyn Pittuck
22
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 3rd Feb 2003 09:46
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http://www.darkbasicplanet.com

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Martyn Pittuck
22
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 3rd Feb 2003 09:46
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ahhhh, you need to use URL with http://

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Soyuz
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2003 12:34
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lol

[url] http://www.kev.bolt.btinternet.co.uk/wildwest/wildwest_maps.zip[/url]

just testing that on a file link.
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Martyn Pittuck
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 3rd Feb 2003 15:46
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http://www.kev.bolt.btinternet.co.uk/wildwest/wildwest_maps.zip

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Martyn Pittuck
22
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Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 3rd Feb 2003 15:46
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http://www.kev.bolt.btinternet.co.uk/wildwest/wildwest_maps.zip

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Shadow Robert
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Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 3rd Feb 2003 20:20
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lol oki well thats odd why does the [url= ] not do it when the [url ] does

Anata aru kowagaru no watashi!
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