Fallen Earth: Meet the Dev "Ninjanomics"

In this week's Fallen Earth Dev member/victim interview, level designer "Ninjanomics" spills the beans on his favorite things, using the development engine and eternal struggle with pirates:

Alias/Forum Name: Ninjanomics
Title / Position at Fallen Earth: Level Designer

What games have you played and worked on?

Half Life 2, Bioshock, Civ 3/4, Mega Man, Mirror's Edge, Katamari

How long have you been working on Fallen Earth?

4 years

How did you get involved with your job position?

Demo Reel

What type of college courses or schooling did you have to prepare you for your position at Fallen Earth?

3d Art & animation certified

What in particular inspired you to work in the gaming industry?

Being a gamer since birth

What games stand out in your memory for positive reasons?

Final Fantasy 7 & Tactics

What advice would you give to budding games / software developers?

Work Smart, not hard and get your inspiration from everywhere.

On an average day, what do you do at Fallen Earth?

Create badass dungeon levels.

What is your favorite:

Game: Castlevania Symphony of the Night
-Book: American Gods - Neil Gaiman
-Song: Gravemakers & Gunslingers - Coheed and Cambria
-Season: Summer
-Past time: zazen
-Drink: Green Tea
-Color: Dark green & yellow (Lotus, anyone?)
-Food: Sushi
-PnP: Diplomacy
-Faction: Lightbearer

Do you:

-roleplay?
-have any pets? Kittehz!
-like beer or wine? Guinness, plz
-like coffee or tea? Coffee in the morn, Tea at night
-like cake or pie? Key lime (or chocolate custard)
-Coke or Pepsi? Water, plz (Soda cleans up driveways)
-Pizza or Hamburgers? 'za
-Chocolate or Ice Cream? Chocolate
-Boxers or Briefs? Neither

Have you ever styled/had a mullet?

No

If you could have one wish what would it be?

Mullet, Brock Samson style

Name one thing you would take to an abandoned island and why?

A Wilson Volley ball.

Does the Landshark really exist?

Landshark resides with the Flying spaghetti monster, and the Pirates rejoice!

Are you willing to be bribed for an alpha spot and what would it take?

Black 13 taking me to dash.

Ninjanomics also answered several fan questions on the forum, and here's some of his answers:

1) Are you often a world artist as well as a level designer, or do you stick very strictly to interior spaces for FE?

In the early part of the development cycle I switched a lot between prop building (modeling/texturing), Object placement in the world via our world edit tool, and Interior spaces. As production has ramped up, I have been able to devote larger and larger portions of my time to the Level Design aspects of FE. (I especially liked doing Cave of Beasts )

2) Did you ever play LucasArts' Outlaws?

J. Anderson is who I pictured Roland Deschain as while reading King's Dark Tower series.

3) How would you rate the Icarus Development suite in comparison to the tools you've used in the past?

The Icarus Dev suite is a really powerful tool in terms of pulling in assets quickly from Max and Photoshop, then implementing them into the game world. There are some really slick things one can do with populating a level: I.E. using the exports locally to see what the results will look like when your changes go live, all before uploading anything to the server.

4) Are you under any limitations in size or faces for the interiors you design? It seems like size is a non-point in a seamless environment, but I thought I'd ask.

This is the nicest thing about Level Design for Fallen Earth. The entire level uses the same group of textures, and each area dynamically turns off all other areas of the game including the outside world and any other parts of the level that are behind a closed door or bend in a hallway or tunnel. This takes a lot of the limitations away from polygon counts across whole levels (making for a high level of detail in individual rooms)

5) How do you feel about the recent use of the noun "ninja", as a verb? Example: He ninjad it in there right before the deadline!

It would seem as though the noun "ninja" has been invented to substitute for "steal." This can be viewed as almost correct. You see, to truly ninja something, you have to steal it AND kill the person who also wants it. Otherwised you have just stolen, or 'thieved' it.

6) Will the folks at Ninjai EVER release the next chapter, or is it completely dead?

Ninjai went the way of Duke Nukem forever (Ask a Ninja is the future of Ninjistics as I see it)

7) Do you include overhead support beams and catwalks in your dungeon designs for sneaky players to use?

This question brings to mind an upcoming level I mean to incorporate this very concept into for sector 4

8) Some have commented that screenshots from the game make them think that surfaces in the world are 'a little too clean' for a post-apocalyptic setting devoid of cleaning staff. Do you do anything special in your designs to alleviate that appearance?

I consistently attempt to fill my levels with random debris and the grubbiest textures I can find. With the exception of the Character select screen (which I attempted to exact a high level of technology which appears old and worn rather than pillaged and gutted) most levels I work with tend to be the mine shafts and bunkers. Mines are fun to do since a good bit of the debris props fit right into collapsed tunnel sections and rock walls. Conversely, bunkers can easily be strewn with a lot of bulky rusted out husks of machines whose purpose has long been forgotten.

So far, seems like none of the Fallen Earth developers want to admit if they roleplay or not.

Stay tuned for next week's Fallen Earth Dev, right here at WarCry!

Source: Fallen Earth Official Forums

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