Level Designer seeking job placement with Source Mods Thread

Nickname: Sythen
Real Name: Scott Baker
Country: Ireland
E-Mail: webmaster@scottbaker.eu
Position of Application: Level Design

Previous list of works:
- Outbreak: Condemned: Moddb.com
Worked as a lead level designer for the Outbreak: Condemned team for two years.

- Other level design projects I have worked on have been with teams that have since killed their projects. So unfortunately, all I have to show is my own projects.

When working on my level designs, I take into extra care the essentials such as optimization, gameplay elements before I finish all the other elements such as Atmosphere, model placement, and lighting of the level. You can be assured that the levels I will create are of both performance, and quality.

- Scott "Sythen" Baker.

Edited by: Sythen

thats some awesome work but you cant work with the UDK?

I can most definitely work with the UDK, I just prefer source. =]

Wish I had any type of helpful skills related to mods or else I'd say "Hey we can start a team"

But I can only think up ideas and that's about it. Not very useful if all you can do is think of something and not make it happen. How difficult is Hammer to use? I'd like to at least accomplish something.

All these ideas in my head and no way to show them to anyone. x.x

Nowadays, if you want to get into level editing I'd suggest just starting off and learning UDK. I learned hammer as my native editor, and it's an easy editor to use but can be used to create advanced maps, if you have the know how. It has a more simplistic interface than UDK. But since everyone is moving to UDK, if your going to start off with level design. I suggest learning that instead of hammer.

It all boils down to the game you want to design for, if you want to design for the Half-Life series, Portal or Left 4 Dead Series. Then use Source, otherwise try UDK. Or if you want to do level design for games like Doom 3, use Radiant! It's all peripheral.

- Sythen.

I agree start off with UDK. I started with hammer, and really wish I'd used UDK.

@Sythen: Don't suppose you'd be interested in Deathmatch Classic: Source? Moddb.com You can apply over on out forums Dmcsource.hlmods.com

Edited by: Tennisball

Sythen wrote: Or if you want to do level design for games like Doom 3, use Radiant!

last time i used radiant it was terrible.

Edited by: shaftling

Radiant was one of my favourite editors. Although it's very very non-user friendly.

Yeah I'm definitely interested in Deathmatch Classic: Source. I'll hit you up on your forum.

EDIT: Actually I'm gonna have to decline Tennisball, I wish you the best of look with your mod, however I'm looking for... more.

Edited by: Sythen

Fair enough.

I threw an Email your way regarding a position as a level designer for the source mod Black Ops Source, if your still interested.

I'd be happy to join your team Crysis2222, Hit me up on skype or msn.

great job I might hit you up to share some tips with me man.

Sure stuff Sydrose, hit me up on skype. It's where I teach hammer level design.skype: hl2mapping

I'll be on skype/msn in an hour or two. Sorry for the wait.

Sythen, if you are still looking for Source level design projects, please consider Half-Life 2: Wars. The basic gist: HL2-universe RTS, public alpha/beta releases for three years including one a few weeks ago. We lack high-quality multiplayer maps and could really use someone with your skill. You don't have to work as an "in-team" level designer if you don't want to, we'd appreciate submission of even a single multiplayer map. If you want some more information message me here on Moddb or register on our forum. Thank you!

Ennui,Have you skype or msn? I would be more than happy to work on a level design or two for Half-Life 2: Wars. Providing you give me some information on what your looking for. MSN or Skype would be the best to converse about this. Or of course, Steam.Skype: HL2MappingMSN: Sythen(at)scottbaker.euSteam: shinraya

Sythen can you learn to use Unity? We need a level maker to create the insides of our houses within the game and some other locations on the map as this is a big game.

Have you any concept art or work on the game you could show me? It'd be nice to see some content or links so I can judge.

Do you have skype?

I do: hl2mapping.

I have added you

Sythen wrote: Nowadays, if you want to get into level editing I'd suggest just starting off and learning UDK. I learned hammer as my native editor, and it's an easy editor to use but can be used to create advanced maps, if you have the know how. It has a more simplistic interface than UDK. But since everyone is moving to UDK, if your going to start off with level design. I suggest learning that instead of hammer.

It all boils down to the game you want to design for, if you want to design for the Half-Life series, Portal or Left 4 Dead Series. Then use Source, otherwise try UDK. Or if you want to do level design for games like Doom 3, use Radiant! It's all peripheral.

- Sythen.

I gave UDK a try for the heck of it to see what it was like a while ago, got to the "Uuuuhhhh, what do I do now?" stage and just uninstalled it because I had no clue what I was doing. It wouldn't do me much good anyway. I don't own UT 3 and my current comp can't run it. Nor can it run the newest Unreal Engine. Aside from my video card the comp itself is pretty much ancient.

Game development in today's industry standard is literally going two ways. Unity and UDK. Unity can be for creating indie games, everything from Mobile to state of the art computer games. UDK however is the epitome of state-of-the-art. Either way, at some point games are going to be at Unreal Engine 3 standard, so maybe the best thing to do is to shell out a few bucks on some new parts.

Don't give up so easily either, making games with new engines, like everything, requires a lot of learning and persistence. Keep it going, and you'll do fine.
If you have any questions at all you of course have the Moddb community, and the Unreal community to back you up.

- Sythen

Sythen wrote: Game development in today's industry standard is literally going two ways. Unity and UDK. Unity can be for creating indie games, everything from Mobile to state of the art computer games. UDK however is the epitome of state-of-the-art. Either way, at some point games are going to be at Unreal Engine 3 standard, so maybe the best thing to do is to shell out a few bucks on some new parts.

Don't give up so easily either, making games with new engines, like everything, requires a lot of learning and persistence. Keep it going, and you'll do fine.
If you have any questions at all you of course have the Moddb community, and the Unreal community to back you up.

- Sythen

Well. My problem is work is hard to find in my area. So if I had the cash I would have retired this ancient net browsing dinosaur a long time ago and put my new graphics card in a motherboard it's designed for. Another problem is I'm epileptic so learning such stuff by myself would be a bit harder for me than it would for someone else.

As for choice of jobs mine are limited because of it which makes it harder since my area is mainly looking for doctors, engineers and anything else you need 6 years of experience in.

As for this Unity engine. How hard is it to learn?

Unity isn't too difficult to learn, but theres a good bit of Javascript programming involved. I'm sorry to hear about your problems, I know someone who has a learning deficiency caused by epilepsy too. But that person doesn't let it get to her, instead she tries her best to learn regardless. So I'd offer that same advice to you, don't let your issues cloud your ability to learn. Try your best and don't stop!

Unity is definitely a lot easier to learn than UDK, but there is a lot of things about it that would be as difficult as UDK. So it really is your choice.
Either way, you have the Unity community, and Moddb community their to help you along the way. If you have any problems at all, just ask!

- Scott.