This is a multi-part article, you can find Part 1 Here --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resume Transmission --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C: More ambience in a way. So it'll be dope to see how everyone uses those 'cause like you said, there is a lot more in infinite forge that we are able to see just from the Co-op flight that. Makes things just absolutely amazing; even with the maps that we have now coming through there. Of course like there's been, like other people posting their stuff too, like there was a Toy Story map and somebody made like a really detailed destroyed city. And then you have been making all the remakes and stuff. It is insane to see how much detail people are able to put into a lot of these projects overall. Even on just the Co-op flight and what we have in there. When it comes to like making like the ambience and the sounds and all that type of stuff like, is that something like you try to focus on the remakes at the moment? Is that something you like to try to make them really detailed? Like is that something that you enjoy more than the art or the level design? What is your favorite part of the process? U: I enjoy it all really, but my favorite part is seeing it all come together finally take shape. When you finally get that block out done and you can walk around on it and it is a map. To me, that's the best part, but something I definitely enjoy doing is arting the map, adding the foliage. It's very tedious, but to get that end result, it is definitely worth it. And audio is always satisfying to place in there. C: Would you say you spend the most time on the art or the audio? Typically when it comes to that 'cause I know audio can be just as just as stressful sometimes to work with as the art. Sometimes, as you gotta get just the right sound or have the emitter be just far enough away so it's only in that one area type of thing. U: The audio you are more fiddling with the settings and that can be tedious to some people, but there is a little less to do when it comes to audio. When it comes to arting and foliage in a map, there's usually a lot more placing of stuff and you don't really have to scroll with any settings so it's just you pick what you want and you place it down and do place it again. Audio settings you're scrolling through, different settings and then as you said, you are fixing the emitter zones and how far you can hear it and whatnot so it is a little bit more tedious the audio, but there is a little bit less to do. Depending on your map, really. C: Definitely, I guess. It also depends on how much audio you want to have on the map in comparison to art to where you have to actually kind of like make it go throughout the entire map. U: Essentially, you can get a pretty good ambiance with very few audio emitters placed down. So I find myself taking more time too art the map that I do to add the ambiance in. C: Definitely and ultimately like you said, like doing the Art Pass and the audio stuff like it is. It's very liberating and very nice to be able to see the end product of all that. When it comes to like Forgers coming into the scene, what would be some recommendations that you would give to them? When they are starting off, whether that be. When they are creating their new maps, or when they are creating their blockouts, would you recommend blockouts? Do you recommend, like a partial block out to where it is blocked out with art? What would be your recommendations to new Forgers coming into the scene starting with infinite? U: The way I look at original designs. I looked at them in three steps. Means pretty much how developers go through their map development as well. Start off with a basic 2D draw it on paper, see what you want, you know. Figure out lanes, paths. Make sure you have you know if it's a big team battle map. Make sure you have vehicle space. Make sure you have a spot where vehicles convene. Make sure vehicles aren't going to be overpowered against infantry. People running around side paths and not and whatnot. There is just small things that you have to take into. Mind, but first step draw it out. And then you take it into Forge. And you start with a block out. You don't have to go into really high detail. Nothing really has to be perfect, it just has to be. The shape that you want it and the kind of line of sights that you're going to. Expect in the game. You put all your...uh put all your gameplay objectives in there, and then you take it into testing. And you see if it flows alright. If you have congestion or areas that nobody are using, maybe go back and get rid of them. But player feedback is huge, so I always suggest doing the block out before the art, because if you do the art, and you realize an area you just spent. 10-12 hours arting and nobody goes there, then yeah, kind of have to scrap that area or it's just pointless essentially. C: Yeah, and like that will ultimately like kind of suck 'cause you might have got attached the art that you put in that room and then like you feel like you wasted time, yeah? U: And another benefit to blocking out a map and adding detail within the block out using basic blocks is you can go back and into that version. After you've done your art out and whatnot, you can go back a version. You can change the theme of it relatively easy, because you have that plain untextured on unfoliaged version of it. C: Yeah, and that could allow you to Re-evaluate what art you want in that area as well, even like even like pretty foliage in that version. U: So essentially, I can go and take High Ground and then just change all the textures. Make it Snow Ground haha. C: Snow Ground snow grounds that is the mood just you had even had like a Christmas theme to it. Just put like a bunch of lights everywhere. Put light spreads. U: I was actually testing those the other day light bulbs for Christmas trees and such. C: The real question I guess would be is, would you put some snow like in the bunker like I guess like add some holes into the bunker that would make snow come in more or would you...I guess just like make it like the interiors or snow free? That would be interesting to mess around with on the on the theme I guess. U: There is something that is pretty cool within. With the textures is you're allowed to change like the grime and such on it. And one of the grime settings you can put on there is frost, so you can essentially make the ground look frosty. C: Nice, I'm interested. I'm interested to see 'cause I haven't played around with it too much. If that iss the same frost and grime as Halo 5, or if it is a different texture, but that will be interesting to see how it works out. Would there be any other advice you would give to new Forgers coming in, whether that like be just like general advice for starting off or how to like get their maps out there? 'cause of course you have got your maps out there by like posting them on Twitter and stuff. And I'm sure sharing them in other ways as well, but I was just wondering if, like you had any other advice in in that department since of course you have become more known over time through through your sharing methods by posting them on Twitter and other areas as well. U: Yeah, right now from what I have seen, most of the Halo community is accumulated in like 3 areas. Essentially it's discords, Twitter and YouTube. That's what I have noticed anyway, and what I try and do is posting videos to YouTube for showcases and then post on Twitter for the rest of the Halo community to hopefully find. As of lately, it has been pretty incredible. The amount of increase that has been happening with viewership and. Followers, it is and still has been a pretty good ride so far. But I would say just make sure that if you are posting maps or map showcases too list details about the map within the description or a quick snippet before your video. Uhm, displaying what the map is for, what game types are meant to be played on it and so on and so forth. How many players? But take that and go out there and join 5... at least five different discords I know of that are all about Forging and they all have great communities. And I'm sure somebody out there is willing to test out your map and with the whole new filesharing system that is coming to infinite. It is going to be a lot easier too get your map out there in that sense too. C: Yeah, it is going to be really interesting to see how that all plays out, because I mean like in retail right now we have like a file share technically, but it's for just the 343 game modes and 343 maps, so it will be interesting to see how the maps ultimately play into that new system. U: Yeah, within the leaked build you can kind of see how the UI works for the file share and it has a recommended, most popular, most downloaded, and it also has a prefab save section. So essentially you can, if you design a really cool tree or something, you could save it and put it on your file share and somebody else could download your tree and floods people like your tree, that is another way you can get your name out there. C: Yeah, that is going to be sick to see, seeing how all the different foragers come in in different areas, whether that be prefab Forging, map Forging, even just like scripting Forgers like going insane on script brains is going to be interesting to see. U: Yeah, being able to save scripts and put them on your file share as a prefab is going to save people like me that are not very good at programming and knowledge when it comes to the whole node system, I haven't really spent too much time with it, but I know if I sat down and went through the whole menu system I could figure out what does what. But it's more or less that is out of my expertise. C: Same here, don't worry what you taught on one of my maps site in Halo 5 I had to go to the Scripters Guild to get a friend of mine to make a make a rocket properly fire off into the sky and come back down. Uh, not come back down but rechamber that was, that was a fun scripting...a fun scripting challenge to watch him overcome haha. It will definitely be interesting to see how the Scripting Guild also evolves with that because they have a lot of really cool people in there that hopefully will help us all program a little bit on our maps if we want any cool things. What would you say has been your favorite project that you have worked on over the years? U: I don't think I have enjoyed Forge as much as I have until now. Forge has always been fun, but now it brings the reality of almost being a developer. You know, growing up as a kid. Playing Halo 1 and Halo 2. That was the dream you know you wanted to, to work for Bungie back in the day. C: Same here, I get it. U: But just Forge made that dream a little bit closer. C: Kickstarted the dream of level designer in a way U: Yeah, exactly. And that's where the whole passion towards video games have has come from. Really it started with Halo. Just loving games, playing and then Forge, gave me a whole new perspective on games. And a whole new passion towards them too. C: Yeah, same here and I think a lot of people definitely also have get that same passion from Forge. But some of them keep it as a hobby, and some of them actually continue and try it. I am sure you know, like a lot of people who also have that same mantra there have been a few people that I have known through the years who actually have upgraded to game developer from just their work on forge, which is really neat to see. U: That is the ultimate dream, really. C: Oh 100%. U: Nothing like having excited dev tools for your favorite video game. C: Definitely, especially when you are able to make whatever you want with said dev tools, no, no limits, in a way. U: There's so much you can do within the Halo universe. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Postpone Transmission --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a multipart Article, to view the final part go Here