| Both sides previous revisionPrevious revisionNext revision | Previous revision |
| interviews:kell [2012/11/11 20:13] – onetruepurple | interviews:kell [2012/11/11 21:14] (current) – onetruepurple |
|---|
| Kell and I "met" via IRC, he was so kind to sacrifice more than two hours for this. | Kell and I "met" via IRC, he was so kind to sacrifice more than two hours for this. |
| I tried to ask questions that are not the usual "Hello, what are your hobbies" but squeezing the essence of Quake-mapperish goodness out of him. | I tried to ask questions that are not the usual "Hello, what are your hobbies" but squeezing the essence of Quake-mapperish goodness out of him. |
| Kell was so very nice to reformat all his answers into nice paragraphs. Bits that //look like this// mark additional remarks/fixes that were added after the interview itself.\\ I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed interviewing!\\ Comments are welcome in the [[http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=60066|news post at func]]. | Kell was so very nice to reformat all his answers into nice paragraphs. Bits that //look like this// mark additional remarks/fixes that were added after the interview itself.\\ I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed interviewing!\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| | Comments are welcome in the [[http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=60066|news post at func]]. |
| \\ | \\ |
| | ---- |
| <span interview-question>Are you a Quaker since the early days?</span> | <span interview-question>Are you a Quaker since the early days?</span> |
| |
| As for mods - tricky, I'm sure I played a couple of very very sketchy mods thrown together by some of my coder flatmates at the time, but they didn't involve much more than changing the speed of rockets or other equally minor things. I did play pain keep and rune quake a few times over LAN. With only one other flatmate - who wasn't as skilled as me - there was only so much we were going to get out of it.</span> | As for mods - tricky, I'm sure I played a couple of very very sketchy mods thrown together by some of my coder flatmates at the time, but they didn't involve much more than changing the speed of rockets or other equally minor things. I did play pain keep and rune quake a few times over LAN. With only one other flatmate - who wasn't as skilled as me - there was only so much we were going to get out of it.</span> |
| |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/rubicon1.jpg|{{:interviews:rubicon1_thumb.jpg}}]] | {{:interviews:rubicon1.jpg?direct&400|}}{{:interviews:rubicon2.jpg?direct&400|}} |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/rubicon2.jpg|{{:interviews:rubicon2_thumb.jpg}}]] | |
| \\ Rubicon | |
| |
| <span interview-question>Do you have a favorite map or episode? What do you love in it so much?</span> | <span interview-question>Do you have a favorite map or episode? What do you love in it so much?</span> |
| It's one of the standout accomplishments of amateur mapping, it really shows the significance of customisation of games like Doom and Quake. Iikka basically created an entirely new theme and style, but one that aligned so brilliantly with what was already in the game, then used it to map out a whole episode of entertainment. And all for free, just as an expression of his own talent. Really, I think ikblue still says something about the impact of Quake and customization. And all that beautiful blue lapis lazuli sticks vividly in my mind :)</span> | It's one of the standout accomplishments of amateur mapping, it really shows the significance of customisation of games like Doom and Quake. Iikka basically created an entirely new theme and style, but one that aligned so brilliantly with what was already in the game, then used it to map out a whole episode of entertainment. And all for free, just as an expression of his own talent. Really, I think ikblue still says something about the impact of Quake and customization. And all that beautiful blue lapis lazuli sticks vividly in my mind :)</span> |
| |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/impsp2.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/impsp2_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | {{:interviews:impsp2.jpg?direct&260|}}{{:interviews:ikblue1.jpg?direct&278|}}{{:interviews:ikblue2.jpg?direct&278|}} |
| \\ biff's House Of Spikes (impsp2)\\ | |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/ikblue1.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/ikblue1_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/ikblue2.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/ikblue2_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | |
| \\ IKBlue | |
| |
| <span interview-question>What is your very own motivation to work on Quake related stuff?</span> | <span interview-question>What is your very own motivation to work on Quake related stuff?</span> |
| |
| <span interview-answer>I think I've touched on some of the motivation above, but to elaborate is....a challenge. It's hard to put into words. What I can say is that creativity is the most important thing in my life. That's not by choice, I was born that way. Anything in my life that has ever made me really happy or sad has always come down to my ability to create. So the desire - a sort of mental pressure - is always there, seeking release.\\ | <span interview-answer>I think I've touched on some of the motivation above, but to elaborate is....a challenge. It's hard to put into words. What I can say is that creativity is the most important thing in my life. That's not by choice, I was born that way. Anything in my life that has ever made me really happy or sad has always come down to my ability to create. So the desire - a sort of mental pressure - is always there, seeking release.\\ |
| | |
| | {{ :interviews:contract1.jpg?direct&240| }}{{ :interviews:contract3.jpg?direct&240| }}{{ :interviews:contract2.jpg| }} |
| \\ | \\ |
| Quake is such an incredibly accessible, rich palette to attack creatively. One of the things that makes it so attractive is something discussed many times in the community, but I think Kinn summed it up best when [[http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=1&start=5411&end=5411|he wrote]] "at the end, id just threw it all together and hoped for the best - and it was." Quake is, in a design sense, very rough around the edges. It implies and suggests so many things, but is explicit about very few. That makes it very easy to imprint your own creative identity on it, as I did with the knave/fodrian theme. Also, the fact that Quake is a FPS. I've always noted the strong similarities between mapping and other activities; in the case of [[http://kell.leveldesign.org/convoked.html|Contract Revoked]] especially I really felt like I was being - vicariously - a roleplay dungeonmaster. It's a very similar thing. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Petersen|Sandy Petersen]] of course was not only the author of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Cthulhu_%28role-playing_game%29|Call Of Cthulhu RPG]], but was an experienced and supposedly rather devious gamesmaster himself. Which I think accounts rather well for his style of trap-fest SP mapping. That combination - empowerment of the egotistical GM along with the immediate interactivity of the FPS games - makes it a very seductive medium in which to express oneself. And that I'm sure is evident in any of the good SP maps/episodes anyone could care to mention.\\ | Quake is such an incredibly accessible, rich palette to attack creatively. One of the things that makes it so attractive is something discussed many times in the community, but I think Kinn summed it up best when [[http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=1&start=5411&end=5411|he wrote]] "at the end, id just threw it all together and hoped for the best - and it was." Quake is, in a design sense, very rough around the edges. It implies and suggests so many things, but is explicit about very few. That makes it very easy to imprint your own creative identity on it, as I did with the knave/fodrian theme. Also, the fact that Quake is a FPS. I've always noted the strong similarities between mapping and other activities; in the case of [[http://kell.leveldesign.org/convoked.html|Contract Revoked]] especially I really felt like I was being - vicariously - a roleplay dungeonmaster. It's a very similar thing. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Petersen|Sandy Petersen]] of course was not only the author of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Cthulhu_%28role-playing_game%29|Call Of Cthulhu RPG]], but was an experienced and supposedly rather devious gamesmaster himself. Which I think accounts rather well for his style of trap-fest SP mapping. That combination - empowerment of the egotistical GM along with the immediate interactivity of the FPS games - makes it a very seductive medium in which to express oneself. And that I'm sure is evident in any of the good SP maps/episodes anyone could care to mention.\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| For me, the most personal attraction to mapping is the opportunity to create whole environments. Worlds, in fact. It's not something I think I can really explain any further than that. That's for psychologists maybe ;)</span> | For me, the most personal attraction to mapping is the opportunity to create whole environments. Worlds, in fact. It's not something I think I can really explain any further than that. That's for psychologists maybe ;)</span>\\ |
| | \\ |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/contract1.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/contract1_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | \\ |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/contract3.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/contract3_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | |
| \\ Contract Revoked\\ | |
| {{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/contract2.jpg?nocache}} | |
| <span interview-question>Your works (just as Quake itself) are highly influenced by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraft|H.P. Lovecraft]], what makes him such a great reference?</span> | <span interview-question>Your works (just as Quake itself) are highly influenced by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraft|H.P. Lovecraft]], what makes him such a great reference?</span> |
| |
| <span interview-question>Was there a feature of more advanced engines you did miss (for example pixel shaders, volumetric fog, something mapping) whilst developing your maps?</span> | <span interview-question>Was there a feature of more advanced engines you did miss (for example pixel shaders, volumetric fog, something mapping) whilst developing your maps?</span> |
| |
| <span interview-answer>Fog is certianly something that would be relevant to Quake, both local and global fog methods, a la Q3 engine.\\ | <span interview-answer> |
| | {{:interviews:sock_pom.jpg?direct&300 |}} |
| | |
| | Fog is certianly something that would be relevant to Quake, both local and global fog methods, a la Q3 engine.\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| Shaders? Well, basic obvious shader effects like glowing pentagrams etc. certainly offer something in the way of better decoration - the glowing red runes from the runic metal wad are an obvious candidate for shaderfying. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee%27s_Alice|American McGee's Alice]] has just such runes in a few of its maps.\\ | Shaders? Well, basic obvious shader effects like glowing pentagrams etc. certainly offer something in the way of better decoration - the glowing red runes from the runic metal wad are an obvious candidate for shaderfying. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee%27s_Alice|American McGee's Alice]] has just such runes in a few of its maps.\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| But the subtler shader effects coud be more relevant. Terrain, such as was demonstrated by sock in his Q3 map [[http://simland.planetquake.gamespy.com/pages/q3maps/pom.htm|Pyramid Of The Magician]], is something I'd love to be able to populate with fiends and droles. The terrain in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl|S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]] - the best I've yet seen - is very much what I'd have in mind, though perhaps with less concrete :P\\ | But the subtler shader effects coud be more relevant. Terrain, such as was demonstrated by sock in his Q3 map [[http://simland.planetquake.gamespy.com/pages/q3maps/pom.htm|Pyramid Of The Magician]], is something I'd love to be able to populate with fiends and droles. The terrain in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl|S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]] - the best I've yet seen - is very much what I'd have in mind, though perhaps with less concrete :P\\ |
| | \\ |
| | \\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| Those are things that have burgeoned over the last 7 or 8 years I'd say, as FPS games have tried noticeably to move outdoors. Outdoors is somewhere I think Q1SP always wants to go. Though it should not be at the expense of indoor environments too - I wouldn't expect an engine primarily designed to render terrain ( [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Cry|Far Cry]] perhaps? ) being the right choice for a Q1 reinterpretation.\\ | Those are things that have burgeoned over the last 7 or 8 years I'd say, as FPS games have tried noticeably to move outdoors. Outdoors is somewhere I think Q1SP always wants to go. Though it should not be at the expense of indoor environments too - I wouldn't expect an engine primarily designed to render terrain ( [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Cry|Far Cry]] perhaps? ) being the right choice for a Q1 reinterpretation.\\ |
| But that's stuff I feel would not be at all incompatible with what makes Quake Quake. Terrain, fog, portal sky, ragdolling - these things are relevant to the Q1 feel.</span> | But that's stuff I feel would not be at all incompatible with what makes Quake Quake. Terrain, fog, portal sky, ragdolling - these things are relevant to the Q1 feel.</span> |
| |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/sock_pom.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/sock_pom_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | {{:interviews:alice1.jpg?direct&400|}}{{:interviews:alice2.jpg?direct&400|}} |
| \\ Socks's Pyramid Of The Magician\\ | |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/alice1.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/alice1_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/alice2.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/alice2_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | |
| \\ American McGee's Alice | |
| |
| <span interview-question>Now a tough one: What makes a perfect map?</span> | <span interview-question>Now a tough one: What makes a perfect map?</span> |
| I don't want my secrets to potentially ruin a map - by giving a powerful weapon too early on for example, but that line near the start of the Contract Secrets page is true - I enjoy building secrets. Part of the reason I make so many is because I tend to just construct areas that are not actually necessary for progression through the map, but seem to make architectural sense. And part of the reason is that I know that, because they are secrets, the player might not find them and *isn't required to find them*. A player needn't feel they failed because they fought righ through one of my maps and didn't find all the secrets. That's sort of what secrets are for: not to be found right away. So I take that opportunity to build things and place things as secrets that are a little more entertaining for me. In red777 for example, there are two secrets, one at either end of the the central line of symmetry of the whole map. Part of me building those is just to allow me to *show* the opposite ends of that symmetry line and at each, build a window that opens out onto the skybox. It lets me add a little detail that suggests more exists beyond the confines of the map, without actually having to work that heavily into what's going on in the main gameplay areas of the map where such features might really conflict with the actual gameplay. So secrets are a pressure release in a way, for me to enjoy my own map as it were, without interfering so strongly with the main part the player is there for.</span> | I don't want my secrets to potentially ruin a map - by giving a powerful weapon too early on for example, but that line near the start of the Contract Secrets page is true - I enjoy building secrets. Part of the reason I make so many is because I tend to just construct areas that are not actually necessary for progression through the map, but seem to make architectural sense. And part of the reason is that I know that, because they are secrets, the player might not find them and *isn't required to find them*. A player needn't feel they failed because they fought righ through one of my maps and didn't find all the secrets. That's sort of what secrets are for: not to be found right away. So I take that opportunity to build things and place things as secrets that are a little more entertaining for me. In red777 for example, there are two secrets, one at either end of the the central line of symmetry of the whole map. Part of me building those is just to allow me to *show* the opposite ends of that symmetry line and at each, build a window that opens out onto the skybox. It lets me add a little detail that suggests more exists beyond the confines of the map, without actually having to work that heavily into what's going on in the main gameplay areas of the map where such features might really conflict with the actual gameplay. So secrets are a pressure release in a way, for me to enjoy my own map as it were, without interfering so strongly with the main part the player is there for.</span> |
| |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/red777_1.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/red777_1_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | {{:interviews:red777_1.jpg?direct&400|}}{{:interviews:red777_2.jpg?direct&400|}} |
| [[http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/red777_2.jpg|{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/red777_2_thumb.jpg?nocache}}]] | |
| \\ Red777 | |
| |
| <span interview-question>Is there a work of yours you are particularly proud of? (Quake related of course)</span> | <span interview-question>Is there a work of yours you are particularly proud of? (Quake related of course)</span> |
| \\ | \\ |
| That was actually kind of an important map for me, even though it isn't the first thing people will think of, because I built it partly to *be* a map consciously influenced by real castle architecture. There have been so many 'castles' built for Q1, and all the ones I've seen struck me as not remotely like real castles; spiral staircases that fill the whole diameter of a tower, square instead of round towers, surrounding the whole castle with cliffs, because there's no other way to end the terrain in a Q1 map. Stuff that just totally broke the feel of castle for me. So I tackled kdm3 as an antidote to that. It contains what I suspect is still the most architecturally realistic spiral staircase in quake - which is some sort of achievement :P Then I had to make realistic castle architecture actually yield a playable layout, and as I said earlier, my DM mapping has never been that great. So I was very pleased that it was [[http://mpqarchive.pauked.com/index.php?view=viewcomments&review_link=17375|reviewed with glowing praise]] at the [[http://dazdranz.planetquake.gamespy.com/|Daz/Dranz level cave]].\\ | That was actually kind of an important map for me, even though it isn't the first thing people will think of, because I built it partly to *be* a map consciously influenced by real castle architecture. There have been so many 'castles' built for Q1, and all the ones I've seen struck me as not remotely like real castles; spiral staircases that fill the whole diameter of a tower, square instead of round towers, surrounding the whole castle with cliffs, because there's no other way to end the terrain in a Q1 map. Stuff that just totally broke the feel of castle for me. So I tackled kdm3 as an antidote to that. It contains what I suspect is still the most architecturally realistic spiral staircase in quake - which is some sort of achievement :P Then I had to make realistic castle architecture actually yield a playable layout, and as I said earlier, my DM mapping has never been that great. So I was very pleased that it was [[http://mpqarchive.pauked.com/index.php?view=viewcomments&review_link=17375|reviewed with glowing praise]] at the [[http://dazdranz.planetquake.gamespy.com/|Daz/Dranz level cave]].\\ |
| \\ | |
| | {{:interviews:beaumaris.jpg}}{{:interviews:caernarfon.jpg}}{{:interviews:kdmd.jpg}} |
| Remaking it for QExpo also made a very clear, visceral marker for how I'd developed as a mapper. All in all, a satisfying achievement - even if no bugger has ever actually played it :P\\ | Remaking it for QExpo also made a very clear, visceral marker for how I'd developed as a mapper. All in all, a satisfying achievement - even if no bugger has ever actually played it :P\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| So that's the sort of stuff that actually influences me the most, rather than the highlander/braveheart sort of thing. Having realised that about the knave wad, I've started thinking about how else I might influence my own imagination. Unfortunately, my budget isn't likely to stretch to travelling to the middle east to soak up islamic geometric designs just yet. But it's something to aim for I guess :)</span> | So that's the sort of stuff that actually influences me the most, rather than the highlander/braveheart sort of thing. Having realised that about the knave wad, I've started thinking about how else I might influence my own imagination. Unfortunately, my budget isn't likely to stretch to travelling to the middle east to soak up islamic geometric designs just yet. But it's something to aim for I guess :)</span> |
| | ---- |
| {{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/beaumaris.jpg?nocache}}{{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/caernarfon.jpg?nocache}} | |
| \\ Beaumaris and Caernarfon\\ | |
| {{http://www.quaddicted.com/interviews/kdmd.jpg?nocache}} | |
| \\ KDMD | |
| //"Recorded" 2007-04-24, Published 2007-04-27 - Spirit// | //"Recorded" 2007-04-24, Published 2007-04-27 - Spirit// |
Easily install and launch Quake maps with the cross-platform