An Interview with Vondur

vondur_koohoo.jpg


Could you briefly introduce yourself (age, location…) and tell us since when you are active in the Q1 community?

I'm 33. I work as professional level designer at Nival Online, Moscow, Russia. I was most active member of the community in the period 1998-2005.

How did you get involved in the community?

At first I liked the game. Then I've got he internet, and then I've found planetquake and cdrom.com archive. I got seriously hooked by how people can create levels in their spare time. I decided to learn this thing and here I am.

What Q1 contributions are you best-known for? Which of your works is your personal favorite?

I think most of all is my deathmatch level for Quake - Zen, and for single player - Castle of Koohoo and maybe Adamantine Cruelty. My favourite is Zed2 and AC. Though, I like all my levels except the very early ones which suck.

What was your initial motivation to work for Quake?

I liked game's sinister and dark atmosphere. It perfectly suited my moods. So I decided to contribute with my own visions of darkness and evil.

Do you have a website/links where we could check out your stuff?

http://vondur.net

What are your best memories about this community?

Working on Nehahra project. That was a great time! We were working for 2 years non stop on it. And worked hard. Using this interview I'd like to say hello to Mindcrime! :)

Are you regularly playing Quake? Are you trying out mods, maps and engines?

I play QW very rarely with friends. I play new single player levels too. As for the engines, no I hate all the engines that add some hires textures and all those colors. So I stuck with my fave Fitzquake.

Have there been other games you have been playing a lot?

I think I'm still in the community as I still hang on terrafusion channel ;) Though my last level was released quete some time ago. Of course I play alot of games, but currently it's Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft.

How would you describe the Q1 community right now? Is there any contribution that really impressed you in the last couple of years?

Q1 community still lives, just because there are new releases and there are places on the net where game's fans still gather together. And of course there are awesome new single and deathmatch levels. I won't name it here, just check func_msgboard ;)

How do you picture the future of the community? Do you (objectively) think that people will still be modding/mapping for it in, say, 10 years from now?

Sure they will, look at doom community. The matter is that this game is so cool to tinker with, hence there are people who gonna be busy doing that. It's not that complex overall like modern next gen engines like u3 and source. So, simplicity will attract people for a long time I think. Maybe not that many but there will be enthusiasts.

Your #1 secret special ingredient to a good map (imagine a newbie asking for your advice)?

Just have an image of what you're going to create and follow it. If you won't have strong goal, you'll be lost in the brushes.

What is the question you would have like to be asked (but weren't), how would you have answered it and how pissed are you for me not thinking about it?

What?