A question to all mappers

[Fearlezz]

I'm gonna finish school, and then go work in the game industry. This is what I do, and this is what I enjoy doing. DICE HQ is just a train ride from the station near my house, so it's close.

Level Design is Level Designing, even if its in Hammer or not. Its still level designing and thats what I love to do, create maps for games.

 

[grazr]

Originally i was going to set up a Graphic Design Studio with my partner. She speciallised in Illustration whilst i speciallised in Graphics. It was a great dream/prospect. But when our relationship later deteriorated i had to make new plans during my final year of University, which was difficult.

When i was given our dissertation brief i decided i wanted to do it for level design. I have used so many editors for different genres, in particular World Craft for HL1, aka Hammer 4. I figured when i get home from work or University the first thing i do is open up Hammer and do level design. Not photoshop or illustrator for graphics or illustration.

I love it, and doing it as a job would not take away the joy. Heck.. you're being paid for it. The trouble with it as a hobby is you have to balance it with life and work which is difficult. It wouldn't be hard to take a break from Level Design when you're not likely to run out of time with other things like another job. Atleast that's my logic.

My new goal is to aim for the games industry. Most of Valves Level Designers originally speciallised in Graphic Design, so i'm not that worried about not having a Game Development degree/background.

 

[tanuki]

I want to work in the industry actually but I really want to whole game design. The only problem is that I dont have any real programming training and the games I designed ended up really buggy as a result. I really like level design and I think its the next best thing, besides, some level designers ended up as game designers like John Romero, American McGee, and Cliffy B. While the first 2 didnt really make any games worthwhile (Alice being sorta a borderline example) I think its a good leaping off point. Also I always had a thing for architecture, which is similar to what we do anyway. I used to lie and tell my parents/teachers that I wanted to be an architect because I didnt want them to try to squash my game design dreams. psh

 

[potatocubed]

Speaking as one of the older people here (judging by the recent census, at least) I'd say that I'm not really looking to get into the video game industry because I'm perfectly happy with the job I have. I map because I enjoy creating things - the same reason I write, I play RPGs, I make origami models, and so on.

That said, I have worked in the tabletop RPG industry and I can tell you that working on your hobby is great. It changes your perspective, sure, but it doesn't drain the fun out of it at all. So if you want to get into game design, go for it. Just don't get blinkered and let other opportunities pass you by.