a Half-Life² single player story
GDC '09 : I was there !
Yo guys !
The GDC '09 in San Francisco, that was taking place 2 weeks ago. And I was there !
My objective ? Get contacts !
So, 2 days before it started, I decided I'd go to the GDC, and got the round flight ticket for ultra cheap. And, well, as I was there, it was also the opportunity to get lost in the Yosemite National Park for a few days !
Good for me, John, the guy I currently work with on a little Half-Life² - Episode 2 mod was also going there, so I wouldn't have to worry about finding a place to sleep.
So I went to the GDC from wednesday to friday with my Expo Pass wich would allow me to access the Career Pavilion, a hall were companies could have a booth full of HR people eager for résumés, and the... well, let's call it the Technologies Hall, where companies working around the video game industry could present their latest products ; Engines, indie games, security systems, modeling systems , motion capture, etc...
My first impression as I got there : Dammit ! It's huge !
Actually, 3 buildings were needed to hold all the conferences and different activities.
Well, it looks huge, but with an Expo Pass (understand No Conferences), it's directly much smaller ;-)
So when I got in, I first walked around the Career Pavilion, checking the present studios : Blizzard, Activision, Ubisoft, Crytek, THQ,... Valve... great names :-)
In order to get the temperature, I first went to an unknown company's booth, releasing my usual speech :
- "Yarh matey ! I'm Raph' and I'm the creator of Rebellion, a mod for Half-Life². I'd love to show it to ya' ! Here's my card."
- "Err... here, take this paper, there's a link to our webstite, were you can check our position and apply directly."
What the... Do I look like I spent 16 hours in a plane just to get a paper telling me on which website I should go in order to apply for a position ? Come on...
Mmmh, maybe I did something wrong... let's try again !
So I went to Obsidian's booth and listened to the guy before me, in order to get some idea of something I missed. Well, the guy was totally rubbish, but the HR guy said something important :
- "Fuck visit cards, I'll just loose them. But your résumé, that's heavy man !"
Alright.
I have no résumé with me.
Actually, at the GDC in Paris last year, I printed many résumés, for absolutely nuts. People there were developers who totally didn't care about my résumé. They were more interested in my work and contact. So I spent my time there meeting people, talking a little about my mod and ended up giving my card. And more important, getting theirs.
Here, in San Francisco, things are a little different. Many people who are NOT from the industry come there, in the hope to get in touch with developers. That's probably why there's a Career Pavilion, full of HR guys, which constitutes a "defensive line" to protect the devs. Not saying that that pavilion will attract even more people who are not from the industry.
So... things are a little more formal. And more formal things work with résumés.
I ended my day walking around, listening to some people talking to HR guys and visiting the Technology Hall.
At the end of the day, they had the Indies Awards, followed by the GDC Awards.
Well, I'll say it was distracting. I don't know much about Indie games, but had the chance to get a closer look at it at their booth in the Technology Hall, the next day.
As for the GDC Awards, well, between nominees which were always the same (Little Big Planet, Fallout 3...) and winners I remain sceptical about (I believe Americans and Europeans don't have the same taste :-) ), the most interesting thing to me was their intro game, inspired by the old Lucas Arts adventure games.
You can play it right here :-)
Well ! The next day, I was up and ready with my bag full of résumés !
So, I went from booth to booth, introducing myself shortly, saying I'm coming from the Half-life² modding community, that I've created my own mod and and that I was willing to give them my résumé.
Well, that language was theirs. Not one I find so interesting, but well, I suppose that showing up at the GDC is always better than sending an email ;-)
In the end, the contacts I found the most interesting were :
Valve.
Once I arrived at the booth and introduced myself, I got an appointment with a Level Designer. We had a nice little talk about my mod, how I managed to test it and how it helped me, how many bsp's I had...
I got his email, and now have to send him all infos I have about Rebellion, reviews and stuff.
The guy told me how Valve believes that modders are more interesting than some people from who are already working in the industry, as they actually have been through all steps of deliveing a game, from conception, to development and release.
These words warmed my heart :-)
Blizzard.
Not because of the HR guy welcoming people at the booth, but because I could actually sneak around and talk a little to the HR girl I have had on the phone a month earlier. She actually remembered me (she said :-) ), and is now able to put a face on my name, which is what I wanted. A believe that a Phone call is always better than a mail, and a face to face meeting even more ! Well, the more personal it gets, the better.
Ubisoft.
Yay, I could speak french on that booth :-)
And the french HR girl I spoke to felt relieved. So we had a nice contact, she gave me her card and asked me to send her infos about me and my mod. She would be the person who would send my profile to all Ubisoft studios in France, which is definitely what I'm looking for.
And that was it for the GDC !
I just came back from the states, so... let's send emails !
And because pictures talk for themselves, here they are :
The Technologies Hall :
Entrance of the Moscone West building (the one with the Career Pavilion) :
The Career Pavilion :
from left to right : Raph', John with who I work on Ham Handed, RG a friend of John and Andre another John's friend.
And to end up with, welcome to the States !
(actually, it was terribly good !)
That was it !
Cheers guys :-)
Raph'
A little Review...
Hi there guys !
Let's come over with some news, as many things happened since I released the version 1.3 of Rebellion at the end of January !
My objective with rebellion has always been to use it as a demo of my skills in order to get a job in the Video Game industry as a Level Designer.
So, as soon as I released the game, I started sending emails and phone calls to the contacts I made last year at the GDC 2008 in Paris.
Unfortunately, not so many answered back... I suppose that's how things work.
Anyway, the ones who did answer were really interesting studios and I started to get a very nice contact with them.
I had a few phone calls and many emails were exchanged.
This resulted in 2 great interviews.
Great, probably because I was directly talking to guys from the industry : Level Designers, Project Leaders and Artists... and eventually HR guys (but never alone !... no sweat, guys ;-) ).
In the same time, I went on Gamasutra with the idea to take the list of studios there, and send them a presentation of Rebellion and myself.
Have you guys ever been on the Companies list ? Man... it's huge !
So... I started to choose one country, UK, went on every british companies website check if they were making computer / console games (not cellphone), finding an email, and sent the presentation.
On the 30 / 40 emails I sent, I received exactly... 3 answers :
- "We don't need Level Designer."
or
- "Thank you for your interest, blablabla, but we actually don't have any Level Designer position available... etc..."
Well, at least, THEY answered.
Let's call this as it is... a waste of time :-)
Apparently, I hadn't enough and did the same with France... with almost the exact same result.
Yeah, almost. Since sometimes, there are jobs offers on the website, and it's possible to apply directly from the website.
I got one single interview, and it was not interesting.
But... it looks like even if people don't answer to my emails, they looked at my stuff anyway, and kept it in mind, which is probably what I wanted.
The result of these emails is that I later (one or two months later) got an email from a cool studio which said they found my profile very interesting, and that they wanted to stay in touch until they get Level Designer openings. Sweet !
I later went to see them (I asked for it) to say hi and make a little presentation of Rebellion.
So... even if it took a lot of time to get all these emails in order to send them a presentation of Rebellion, for that only nice contact I had I think it was worth it :-)
I might also always get a mail from one of the contacted companies later on... who knows.
Well... right now, I'm still in contact with studios, in the hope it will end up with a contract.
I think it will.
I also think that patience and perseverence are essential assets :-)
And that sounds like what you need when creating a mod, as well... ;-)
Take care guys !
Cheers !
Raph'
Version 1.3 !
- Diversion assault is more realistic, soldiers will take cover.
- After completing the first objective, a second objective will appear, telling you to clear the outside of the communication center.
- No delay when the office downstairs is cleared, Threepwood will directly recieve the order to open the gate once the last opponent is killed.
- Citizens at the end won't run too much anymore.
- During the first conflict, when meeting Zero, the player can shoot the soldiers a little before the end of Zero's final talk, right before she says "... then fight !" without the mission to be a failure.
- Correctly aligned some textures.
- Fixed the falling shelf timing so that it always kills at least one soldier.
- Fixed the helicopter damage that was reset after reloading a game.
- Fixed the color of the dynamic light in the sewers wich was becoming purple after reloading a game.
- The door Threepwood blasts should correctly fall on the ground.
- If Zero or Threepwood dies, the reload will come in faster.
- The top of the AR2 weapon won't appear anymore.
- The doors of the lift will make a sound when closing or opening.
- The lift's shadows have been disabled.
Hi everyone !
Here I come with the latest version of Rebellion. And that’s probably going to be the last one. I now want to move forward and work on new projects (and especially find a Level Designer job !) :-)
Version 1.3 :: 17/01/2009
Invasion has Begun
Point of No Return
The Vault
Thanks to everyone for the feedback !
Really.
Update 1.2
- Default difficulty is now set to "Medium" instead of "Easy".
- I've corrected some spelling mistakes in the subtitles.
- Some environment details have been added (sparkles & flicking lights).
- Killing a Confederation soldier before the bomb is planted won't result in a Mission Failure, except for the soldier who actually plants the bomb.
- I've worked on optimization (hints & func_occluder).
- Inside the Confederation Outpost, during Spade's communication, once Threepwood and Zero start moving, shooting at a Confederation Soldier will start the chase, instead of resulting in a Mission Failure.
- The chopper will do much more damage and be more aggressive toward the player, so you better hide in the holes before he shoots.
- During the last scene, when the player is surrounded by Confederation Soldiers, the officer will say something to help the player understand that shooting isn't the best thing to do.
Hi there, friends !
I've just released a new update after getting so much feedback from the community.
Man, as I've said it so many times, that feedback is such a valuable information ! Thank you so much everyone who played it, and especially those who took the time to lay down their feelings about the game to point out what they liked and didn't like.
That really helps me, after each update, to make Rebellion an always smoother and more intuitive game experience.
Here's the "patch note" :-)
Version 1.2 :: 12/10/2009
General
Aboard the Mothership
Invasion has Begun
Point of No Return
Rebellion release !
Hello Everyone :')
Today I'm proud, happy and relieved to be finally able to anounce you that the Mod I've started to work on 2 years ago has been brought to its end !
Here are a few things I'd like to say.
Rebellion is supposed to be a 45 minutes representation of what I'm capable of doing with story-creation tools.
What motivates and passionates me when building my levels, is creating content. I consider the map as the shell, and the story, the scenes and sequences as its content. A map can be as beautiful as one can be, without decent content, I believe it will always be an empty shell. A body missing a soul.
I've started to create this mod because I believed this was the key that would get me the job I've always dreamed of. Game Designer.
This job has always been for me the position of excellence for "imaginating things".
But that was not all, I also needed to bring these ideas to life.
As I started to get hands dirty with Hammer, I discovered what Level Design is all about (I even read a book "Level design for Games"). And actually, I realized that was really fun ! But not only that, it's the perfect continuity of Game Design. If you imagine stories, get ideas and write them down in a clear structure as a Game Designer, you, as a Level Designer base your job on the Game Designer's High Concept and Design Document.
With Rebellion, I've been able to Imagine my game as a Game Designer, create it as a Level Designer and live it as a player. And that's exactly what I find is so amazing about developing video games.
And that's exactly what I want to do in my life.
Now that Rebellion is done, I want to share it with you :)
But well, "done" doesn't really mean "finished" (I have the feeling a game is never "finished", that it can always be improved). That's why I'm really eager to get your feelings about the game. Did you like it ? Didn't you like it ? Which part exactly ? Any comments ? About the dialogs, the gameplay, the story, the action, the puzzles... I have my ears wide open.
You can leave a message on the Interlopers thread.
Enough talking for now, here's the mod :
All images are property of Valve.