BeyondUnreal: First off, congratulations on your 1st place finish in the 'Best Assult Level' category of the fourth phase in the Make Something Unreal Contest for AS-Thrust! When you submitted your level, did you have any idea that you'd actually win the phase?Tynan Sylvester: Honestly I didn't. I'd really hoped to place, which I thought was possible. First place, however, wasn't something that even crossed my mind.BU: What are some of the things about AS-Thrust that you like the most?TS: The look and the scripted sequences. Even after spending hours making and tweaking the rocket launch sequences, I still enjoy watching them. The entire look of the level is something I thought came out well, even if it is a giant phallic symbol (and don't even talk to me about the name).BU: What things in AS-Thrust would you'd like to re-do, given the time?TS: Nothing, really. The version I submitted was the second version I did, and it was polished to an insane level already.BU: What influences you when you sit down to design a level? For example, launching giant rockets in AS-Thrust is certainly out of the realm of the norm. Your DOM-Aphrodite has a distinct, powerful theme throughout.TS: I just try to go for a look that I haven't seen before. I'm mostly influenced by beautiful things I see in real life. I've always enjoyed the look of space rockets. The lighting and the water were inspired by some of the sunsets I've seen at various cottages around my native Canada. The level didn't come close to the beauty of the real thing, of course, but the inspiration was there.BU: What do you consider to be the most important things to concern yourself with when putting together an Assault level?TS: Ultimately, gameplay is what matters when you're playing. In order to get people to that point, however, the level must look awesome. People download levels on looks, and play them on gameplay. A great map has it all.BU: What are some of the resources you use when designing your levels?TS: I gather inspiration from everywhere. Google image search is a great tool, I couldn't be nearly as successful without it.

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BU: How do you feel the MSUC has changed the Unreal-engine mapping and modding scene?TS: It's excaberated a problem which already existed - that being the unhealthy focus on getting jobs. Everyone knows that making a mod is a great way to break into the gaming industry. Unfortunately, many people end up modding for no other reason, and use the same metrics as game publishers to decide what to create - minimal risk, copy-cat game designs. MSUC can't be blamed for any of this, but it definitely didn't help.It's not all bad, however. The contest definitely helped bring more mods into existence, which is never a bad thing.BU: What advice would you give a beginning Unreal-engine level designer?TS: Don't expect any serious measure of success for a few years. You will not succeed unless you are wholly self-motivated and obsessive about design for a long time. If you have that, you've already won.One other important thing: it's never sufficient to be as good as your competition. I'd hope this would be obvious, but it took me a while to figure out.BU: Were you satisfied at how your mod, Elemental Conflict, turned out?TS: Honestly, no. EC was a full conversion mod I made a year ago. The idea was to take your standard teamplay combat gameplay and simply crank up the pace by adding jetpacks, fast hover-discs, zero-G zones, grenades and guns firing at once, and a variety of other differentiators. It was pretty intense when I got it all working, after a year of late, late nights. The mod never really took off, however, for a number of reasons that I have thought much about but are rather too long to get into here. I don't consider it a waste of time. EC taught me animation, weapon/character modeling, skinning and rigging, and Unrealscript coding. It's all experience under the belt now.BU: Are you currently working on any new projects?TS: None for Unreal, actually. I'm currently working on a singleplayer episode for Half-Life 2 called Pandemic, about the collapse of society due to a deadly disease. I'm pretty excited about that one - it's told through your journal, so I get to add little bits of text in flesh it out so the game isn't just you creating a trail of dead.BU: Thanks for your time, Tynan.TS: No problem.

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