 About Matt Wood
I took some time out and sent
Matt an interview via email, which was quickly responded too. For those of you that
do not know, Matt Wood is a Game Space Engineer for 3D Realm's upcoming smash hit Prey as
well as a personal friend of mine. Enough sentimental statements, let's get on with
the interview shall we. Of course he made me pick the best picture of him, so if I
picked the wrong one, don't blame me Matt :).
A Brief Blurb from Matt
I still don't really consider
myself a real grown-up yet. I don't think it'll ever really happen. I just try to do lots
of really cool stuff and take each day as it comes and don't get all stressed out. I think
that's what life is about, ya know? I've been on this planet for a mere 20 years and plan
on living my remaining years having as much fun as humanly possible. it just so happens
that the industry I work in encourages me to do just that. ;-)
When did you realize you wanted to work
in the gaming industry?
It never actually 'just came
to me' that I wanted to work in the gaming industry. but I suppose there was one time that
I was totally inspired to move in that direction. when I was like eight or nine, I
was playing Planetfall on my Atari 800 and my dad came upstairs and said to me, "you
know Matt, the guys that make and create these games aren't much older than you are
now." at the time he was exaggerating a bit, and I thought he was completely
insane...but when I checked it out, I realized he was right and the kids who made them
were 17-22 at the time. that totally made me want to get involved. plus the fact that I'm
totally addicted and used to cut school just to play DuneII and DOOM.
Explain how you actually moved from
wanting to be in the gaming industry to actually, becoming a professional mapper (Game
Space Engineer [GSE]).
Well, I've always thought that
getting 'into the industry' was way out of my reach. at the time, I was totally looking up
to 3DRealms, Blizzard, Westwood developers, id, and countless others. To me they were Gods
and I didn't see how I could reach their level. Total Entertainment Network had this level
design contest about a year and a half ago. I didn't really have a deathmatch level to
submit, so I like took parts of all my single player ones and tried to smash them all
together to make a good DM. It didn't have a great theme and I wasn't worried too much
about framerate at the time, so I didn't win, but I did get a free account and a bunch of
attention for it and it was sort of an ego boost for me. Made me think I had more talent
then I gave myself credit for and decided to bug a bunch of companies. Turns out 3DRealms,
was looking for a mapper and I was looking for a developer, so it all worked out ;-)
Who is your favorite webmaster :).
d00d, you know you are...;-)
Preyground rawks
What's more important to your maps? What
makes your maps different from all the others?
When I used to make maps
independently, I wouldn't let anyone see my maps until I had something in it that was
never done before. I didn't think a map was significant if it didn't stand out. There are
countless maps out there with all the same crap in them. That's not the way to get
noticed. The two things I pay most attention to is many things that have never been seen
or done before in a map and realism. As for the things that haven't been done, in Prey, we
are doing that in every map now, so its really fun :-)
Who were some of your major influences
when it comes to mapping?
Well way back when it was the
'Lord'. Levelord that is. ;-) But I think that was mostly due to his nick. Haha later I
found out that not only he did my favorite maps, but Allen Blum did some REALLY kickass
stuff too. I have to say Romero also... he did alot of rewlful stuff too.
Are you a legs or breasts man?
Ack, this may sound st00pid,
but I don't really look for a specific in a girl. Except maybe something unique and
different. ..... I cant believe I just answered that question seriously. Um....breasts :-D
(**Note: I made no mention
in the above question about women. Just tells you the type of people we have
creating Prey :grin:)
Does any particular game stick out
because of their levels (good or bad)?
There's alot of things that
the Jedi Knight team did in their levels that was really cool. Of course Dark Forces had
some really great levels too. I also really liked Rituals mission pack. At the time it
came out, it inspired my levels a great deal. Those guys have great detail and design
sense in their levels.
Explain what you are bringing to the
Prey project that no one else could.
I'm not sure how to exactly
answer this....I think our team here is the greatest and each have abilities to add that
are of the phenom variety. Each person adds to our complex puzzle that we call a design
team. this is more of a question Mr. Steed would be more than willing to answer.
Do you like Mr. Belvadere?
| I just wanted to kick all their asses on
that show. I watched He-Man. |
 |
What do you want to say
to all those level designer hopefuls out there?
Follow your dreams....
What exactly is the Preditor (mapping
utility), can it be compared to any other mapping utility out there on the market at this
time (Worldcraft, BSP, etc)?
Preditor, simply, is the
editor we use to create the worlds you will explore in Prey. In comparison to an editor
like Worldcraft (which is a wonderful editor, btw), Preditor actually uses the engine
which makes movement extremely fast. In Preditor there is no need (at least for me) to use
more than one window. Everything I do is in 3d and all of the tools William has put in it
makes it extremely easy to work in 3d flawlessly.
Have you ever worn women's clothing?
Who told you that? It was a
lie...
What is your favorite thing to do with
your maps? (Meaning do you have a special thing that you like to include in all of your
maps, a signature item?)
I like to do different things
to signify that its mine. Who knows what ill do next :-)
Boxers or Briefs.
Gotta have room to breathe....
(**Note: I think he was
avoiding the question, oh yes, and if anyone is wondering he is single :))
Favorite Quote.
'HA-Du-KEN!'
I don't think I have ever
spent this long with a spell checker in my entire life. I think I now know why Matt
is a level designer and not a coder :ducking the swing:
I would like to personally thank Matt Wood of
3D Realms for taking the time for having an interview with me. |
