|
 |
chiQ - What
was your first real job?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - My first real job ? Ack. Seems like so long ago. I worked
in retail back in Canada for a chain of computer stores called "CompuCenter".
I hated retail around Christmas time. Sales wasn't for me ultimately...
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - No kidding!
|
|
|
chiQ - what
do you want to experience that you've never done before? I'm talking anything,
from a holiday, to meeting a person, to going to the moon...anything (no
asking to meet dead people though).
|
| |
|
|
Xian - I want to rent a Humvee, pack it full of supplies, and
drive east out of Las Vegas into the Nevada desert, right smack into the
middle of nowhere and just experience complete and total solitude. Same
thing for the Australian outback. I'd like to snorkel with dolphins one
day. I'd like to buy Trent Reznor a beer. I'd like to find Mrs. Right.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - I think
your Mrs Right count just went up by a few female NZG readers...
|
|
|
chiQ - You
love your job. You love the team work. You work with a team that makes
my favourite games. Everyone has ideas they don't apply in their job though.
What if I told you that I'd hand you $8million to develop your own game...trouble
is of course you have to make a new genre...you can mix in existing game
styles, but I want something new, no FPS...what would you do with my money?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - Hmm. I'd probably do a type of game that hasn't been done
before in terms of scope and gameplay. I would probably mix in elements
from a bunch of favorite games that I've played in the past. Probably a
top down action fighting RPG that mixes elements of Street Fighter, Final
Fantasy, the old "Rampage" arcade game, the old "Commandos" arcade game,
Alone in the Dark, Mario Brothers, Ultima Online, The Matrix, and a elements
from a whole buttload of Wire-Fu films. |
| |
|
|
chiQ - What's
your favourite wire fu film?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - Don't have a single favorite. I really enjoyed "Once Upon
a Time in China", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (Although the wire-fu
was, well, a little different in that), and "The Matrix". |
| |
|
|
chiQ - hehe
natch...excellent taste :)
|
|
|
chiQ - You
work in Texas, but you're Canadian - what do you miss most about Canada?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - The thing I miss the most about Canada, more specifically,
Toronto, the city I grew up in, is the night life. The club/live music
scene is great in Toronto, so coming from a city like Toronto, where most
of my favorite bands stop on tours, to a place like Dallas, where most
of my favorite bands rarely stop on tours, is a bit of a drag.
Also, I miss Canadian beer. This American stuff is generally, pretty
horrible, so I stick to drinking imports mostly.
|
|
|
chiQ - Of the
stuff you own and use which is your favourite 'toy'? By toy I mean a piece
of technology that you own and get pleasure from using.
|
| |
|
|
Xian - My car =) When I need to escape, I just hop in and go for
a drive to take my mind off things. Inside my home though, it'd probably
be my recording studio.
|
|
|
chiQ - I tend
to work better with music playing. I have set playlists I skin to, and
I'm certain they help me focus. Do you listen to music when you work and
play? If so are the music types for the two different and what do you
listen to?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - I don't usually listen to music when I'm playing games.
I find it distracts me. When I'm working though, I'm usually listening
to something. Just depends on my mood. When I'm on a really good productive
roll, I'll find myself listening to harder edged music, and when I'm thinking
about stuff, I usually listen to more mellow stuff =P
|
|
|
chiQ - Music's
a bit of a passion for you - have you ever thought about shifting gears
and making it part of your career?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - Sure I've thought about it, but my first passion is working
at id, so realistically, music is just a hobby. I suspect one of these
days, I'll get enough material together in my spare time to fill a CD,
but that's way too far in the future to seriously consider.
Also, I'm really hard on myself. I don't think I'm all that great compared
to some of the other bands I'm into, so that sort of bums me out at times,
but hey, it's a hobby, so even if I just write music for myself, I'm having
fun.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - So do
you use your own music in your maps or would you?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - No. I don't use my own music in my maps. That's something
I came to realize working through Quake 3, is that the type of music I'm
into writing, is not well suited for computer games. I could try and do
some Bill Leeb'esque ambient stuff, or try to do some NIN inspired stuff
in the Q1 vein, but it's not my strengths, and it'd probably suck really
bad =P I'm much more into beat driven dancefloor electro stuff.
The way I rationalize it is that if there are other artists out there,
take Bill Leeb or Trent Reznor as a perfect examples, who are just incredible
musicians, why try to kill myself basically trying to be derivative of
what they are doing, when they can do a much better job, and be purely
original. It all boils down to what is the best thing for the project.
Certainly not my own stuff. Hey I'm realistic about things.
|
|
|
chiQ - You're
your own toughest critic where your music is concerned. You seem to be
into the process of composing as much as the end result...do you get as
much out of the level development process as the map at the end in the
same way? i.e do you enjoy the mapping as much as the sense of achievement
when it's done?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - I enjoy the entire process of creating a map. Seeing as
how were doing a primarily single player game for our next project, a
lot of planning goes into what you want to accomplish for a level. I'll
spend a few days brainstorming on ideas for what I want to accomplish
with an area or level, talk to Tim and the other designers, get feedback,
go back change things up here and there, more meetings, more solidifying,
more sketching, more brainstorming...
I find the planning and group brainstorming the initial planning doesn't
last more than a week usually. Then I get to the building stages once
we've established a floor plan and level flow, down on paper. Then comes
the hard part, building the thing. This is the most frustrating, yet rewarding
part for me. Frustrating, because it's *REALLY DAMNED HARD* trying to
create a new style for a new game. Initial experimentation with design
(in the editor) usually lasts a week or two.
Once I'm happy with a first pass of an entire level or an area, then
it gets handed off to the artists, and that's where the real magic happens.
That's where they take my ideas and expand on them and make them look
really good =) To me, that is probably the most rewarding part of design.
Coming up with a basic flow and gameplay design for a level/area, handing
it off to the artists, and seeing it a week or so later and it just looks
amazing. we go back and forth and discuss the work in progress.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - OK,
so is it just the mappers then artists or do people from different codes
like programing have input too?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - The rest of the company usually has their say once a level
is entirely ready to be playtested, but we're still a ways away from that
at present.
|
|
|
chiQ - I'm
no map design expert. I don't know a lot about your work. I don't even
know which of my favourite maps you made. Do you think you style of mapping
is distinctive from those of others at id and if so what makes yours stand
out?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - Hmm. I try to be distinctive, although I am influenced
largely by Tim Willits' work (at least during Q3A). While my maps may
not visually look distinctive, I'd like to think that they play pretty
damn well, so I guess that's how I try to distinguish myself from the
others (Not to say that the other mapper's maps don't play well). I try
to make things play well through simplicity, rather than overdesigning
a deathmatch map.
Q3A saw a shift in how maps were handled at id. My only baseline was
working on Q2, and for that project, the final BSP was pretty much directly
in the hands of the designer who worked on it. For Q3A, we saw a lot more
direct intervention by the artists, and while it's our job to make maps
play well, we're not artists, save for Paul Jaquays.
Hey, I'm not an artist, so I won't even pretend to say that I can't use
help in making things look better, so that was a welcome change. The artists
helped out in areas they are strong in. Making things look good.
Looking forward to DOOM, artists and designers will work much more closely
to make the world look as good as possible. So while we ultimately handle
the design and building of a map, the artists now play a major role in
how the level ends up looking. So, in our future projects, I'm really
not sure how distinctive the look of things will be from the point of
an individual mapper. It will probably be more difficult, looking forward,
to say "Oh hey! That looks like a Tim Willits area" or "Hmm, this sort
of looks like something Paul would build" because there is much more teamwork
involved in a single map.
When this process first began, having artists working directly on our
maps, I sort of didn't know how to react. It's like "Oh, so I'm not good
enough ?" You get to feel a bit defensive and bummed out about other people
working on your stuff, but then if you sit back, and think about it rationally,
you end up realizing "This is for the greater good of the project".
When I began to realize and understand that, it really changes the way
you work, and your relationship with others in the company. You have to
realize that you can't be selfish and self-serving. You *MUST* learn to
see "the greater good". If there are any aspiring mappers out there reading
this, please learn to understand this. Check your ego at the door when
you leave to go to work. You are not an island. Your other co-workers
have strengths that you don't, and the sooner you realize this, the closer
you become to being a real team player. Always try to see "the greater
good" and don't let your pride cloud your emotions or productivity.
|
|
|
chiQ - What
is your favourite time of day and why?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - My favorite time of day is probably the late evening. Just
before I go to sleep. I reflect on my day, what I accomplished, what I
didn't accomplish, what I should work on tomorrow...
Actually... I sort of enjoy the mornings too... As strange as this sounds,
I get a lot of ideas about things when I'm taking my morning shower, and
then I think about those ideas on my drive into work, and by the time
I get to the office, I'm usually ready to start working on something right
away because I've been thinking about it all morning =P
So I guess to answer your question directly, my favorite times of the
day are right in the mornings before I head into work, and late at night
right before I fall asleep.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - Like
now..and I'm breaking in on that :)
|
| |
|
|
Xian - heh...hey, I'm thinking about work, like... now...
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - what
are you thinking about?
|
| |
|
|
Xian - Right now ? I'm thinking about the staircase and lobby
I want to build tomorrow...
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - :)
|
| Discuss
this interview |
|
|
