ModDB recently conducted an interview with one of the Battlefield: Bad Company developers, more specifically, a map designer. Here is what he had to say:
To check out the rest of this interview, click here.
For the first interview in this series I sat down with Diego Jimenez, a level designer employed at the lavish Swedish headquarters of DICE (Digital Illusion Creative Entertainment, for those of you in the know) to talk about his experiences so far in the game industry and how he managed to get his foot in the door.
Ryan Anderson: Hey Diego, thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to talk with me today. Why don't you introduce yourself; tell us what exactly you do for a living and where you do it?
Diego Jimenez: Hello there, Ryan! My name is Diego Jimenez, and I am a self-described jungle boy hailing from one of the last undiscovered little corners of the world. The land of fiery volcanoes, ill-humored monkeys and cunning street muggers [He's talking about Costa Rica - ed]. To everyone's disbelief I now find myself designing single-player levels for Battlefield: Bad Company. It's been precisely two years this week since I have been here, and we just wrapped up the game.
RA: Modding was a part of what helped you land your position at DICE, let's take a look at how you started out modding for games. Where did you get your start in modding and how many mods have you actually worked on?
DJ: I was 14 when I dabbled naively in mod-making for Half-Life 1 and Deus Ex. At 16, I had a newfound sense of purpose and would spend the next 4 years or so learning on my own and working on what would eventually become 7th Serpent. We put out the first episode in mid-2006 to generally good reviews, with a subsequent release being readied right now. I did the level environments, as well as designing the gameplay and helping to manage the overall effort.
I also spent an entire year doing environmental level design (ie. level geometry) in an as of yet unfinished project dubbed Mona: The Assassin for Max Payne 2 — essentially an unofficial level pack, which will likely be finally released later this year. I was always a bit selective on what I would put out there for people to play so strictly speaking, my name has only been on a a single public product up to this point — the aforementioned 7th Serpent episode.
Ryan Anderson: Hey Diego, thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to talk with me today. Why don't you introduce yourself; tell us what exactly you do for a living and where you do it?
Diego Jimenez: Hello there, Ryan! My name is Diego Jimenez, and I am a self-described jungle boy hailing from one of the last undiscovered little corners of the world. The land of fiery volcanoes, ill-humored monkeys and cunning street muggers [He's talking about Costa Rica - ed]. To everyone's disbelief I now find myself designing single-player levels for Battlefield: Bad Company. It's been precisely two years this week since I have been here, and we just wrapped up the game.
RA: Modding was a part of what helped you land your position at DICE, let's take a look at how you started out modding for games. Where did you get your start in modding and how many mods have you actually worked on?
DJ: I was 14 when I dabbled naively in mod-making for Half-Life 1 and Deus Ex. At 16, I had a newfound sense of purpose and would spend the next 4 years or so learning on my own and working on what would eventually become 7th Serpent. We put out the first episode in mid-2006 to generally good reviews, with a subsequent release being readied right now. I did the level environments, as well as designing the gameplay and helping to manage the overall effort.
I also spent an entire year doing environmental level design (ie. level geometry) in an as of yet unfinished project dubbed Mona: The Assassin for Max Payne 2 — essentially an unofficial level pack, which will likely be finally released later this year. I was always a bit selective on what I would put out there for people to play so strictly speaking, my name has only been on a a single public product up to this point — the aforementioned 7th Serpent episode.
<a href="http://images.totalgamingnetwork.com/images/Diego.jpg"><img src="http://images.totalgamingnetwork.com/images/thumb_Diego.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://images.totalgamingnetwork.com/images/DICE_office_5.jpg"><img src="http://images.totalgamingnetwork.com/images/thumb_DICE_office_5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://images.totalgamingnetwork.com/images/BFBCmultiSCRN3.jpg"><img src="http://images.totalgamingnetwork.com/images/thumb_BFBCmultiSCRN3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
To check out the rest of this interview, click here.