interview: levelord
authors: rizzuh & Exo posted: may 10th, 2003 print - comment (58)

Richard "Levelord" Gray: Normal day? There is no such thing! I've been in the military where sleep was too often replaced with standing watches. I've crammed for an engineering degree. I've pumped the overtime trying to climb the corporate ladder. Those endeavors have normal days—game development does not!

Let's look at this week, for instance:

Saturday and Sunday: Worked on my levels at home, about 14 hours each day. This is indeed heaven on earth, doing levels alone, with no interruptions, with television or music in the background, or not.

Monday: Spent a regular 12-hour day at the office. A regular day is usually 10 to 14 hours long, although there are spurts of 8-hour days at times. No complaints here, BTW, as most of this time is spent out of personal pleasure for the job.

Tuesday: Came in sometime early in the morning and never returned home until Wednesday, some 28 hours later. Most of us have done these all-nighters a few times a week for a month now.

Wednesday: Finally crashed at about 10am. Slept for one hour, woke up feeling strangely alert (this always happens after being awake for so long). Don't remember doing it, but fell back asleep sometime an hour later. About 7 hours later, spring out of bed in complete panic, "Oh my god, I can't believe it's so late!" Called the office to tell them I'd be there in an hour or two.

Next thing I know, it's 9 hours later, Thursday morning.

Thursday: Got in around and I anticipate today lasting until Saturday morning, with dabs of sleep tossed in between. Kind of looking forward to it, actually.

Notice the flashlight on the MP5. It's very useful when you run around wearing sunglasses all day.

Levelord: Indeed, we are developing on an improved system. Both Valve and Ritual have added many, many features that help the developers as well as make the runtime engine perform better. We can't list them all here, of course, so let's just say that years of tweaking have been performed on this engine since it was last seen.

As you also said, many of the maps are for single player use and therefore have been detailed and modeled many times more than a typical multiplayer map. The geometry itself is more detailed, and we have the luxury of adding many prop models that enhance the visuals of each level. We have also added motion and movement to many of these models.

All this was done without changing the sense of traditional Counter-Strike gameplay. That was the real trick, to not change the feel of the original game. It was not an easy task, either. But we did it, you'll see.

Levelord: Counter Strike: Condition Zero was easy, gameplay-wise. Let me say that I have never had this much fun making levels since entering the industry in 1994. Ever!

Why? Because CS:CZ is nothing but honest and pure gameplay.

It's been the vodka of level designing, unlike all those fancy sugary mixed drinks with their little umbrellas and swizzlers and chunks of fruit and froth that only get in the way of the fun. Is been pure, clear, and clean fun.

And, just for the record, the Levelord is a minor, minor contributor to this game compared to the other level designers. He hangs his head low in shame and obsolescence as he passes the desks of Kiltron, Castle, Mr. Clean, Kanaeda, and BALD each day. These guys are truly incredible and make me feel old.