Wish you could know more about the developers behind
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online?
The folks at Cyrptic Studios contiues to grant that wish with their
periodic Q&A sessions with the development team. The newest
interviewee in the series is Avery Wong, Environment Artist (and staff
photographer) for Champions
Online.
Q: What do you
do on Champions Online?
I am the lifter of mountains, the conjurer of light in places of
darkness, the CREATOR OF WORLDS! In other words, I am an environment
artist. My hands dip in everything from working with terrain, building
Strongholds, creating models and textures to making fog pretty and
lighting environments that will dazzle your minds and eat your souls.
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Avery Wong makes art
for video games for a living. Top that!
Q: How long have you been
working in gaming, and what did you do before
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online?
worked on City of Heroes
and City of Villains.
Before that, I was going to school at the Art Institute of California
Los Angeles to obtain a bachelor's degree in game art and design.
Cryptic was nice enough to offer me my first job out of college
(technically, I was still in school when I accepted the offer) and I
have never looked back. I have been here for three-and-a-half years and
I love it here! I love MMOs and I love making games, and I love the
creative freedom I get at Cryptic. What better place could I be?
Q: What
is your process to create an environment for the game?
first thing we do is have a "kick-off" meeting with the designers and
producers to discuss the environment and look at the different concepts
and gameplay mechanics. Next, I'll quickly white box the environment if
that hasn't already been done. After that, if it's an outdoor
environment, I jump into our proprietary terrain editor. If it's an
indoor environment, it's usually into 3DSMax or our proprietary
environment editor. After fleshing out what the environment looks like,
I go in and add lighting and FX.
Q:
style="font-style: italic;">Who is your
favorite Champions
Online character?
rather enticing in that latex outfit and pink hair youch! I love
playing psionic-type characters in other role-playing games, and the
fact that she is a psionic makes her rather appealing. I mean, she
fricking kills people with her MIND BLADES! Slice a little ego here,
cut a little id there how cool is that?
I'll be playing a mental-powered character come launch!
Q:
style="font-style: italic;">What aspect of the
game are you most excited about working on?
I love "phat lewt" and where do you get the best phat lewt?
You were going to say quests, weren't you? But you'd be wrong! It's
Strongholds, of course!
I've worked on some very interesting Stronghold environments. I can't
really reveal much, but let's just say there's literally a lot of "big
minds" at work here. Oh and dinosaurs and giant Chihuahuas. You've
got to have dinosaurs and giant Chihuahuas.
Q:
style="font-style: italic;">Tell
us a story!
much of a story, but more of a proverb once relayed to me by one of my
college instructors. "If you give a man a fire, he will be warm for a
night. If you set a man on fire, he will be warm for life."
Q: What do you do when
you're avoiding work?
When I was in school, playing videogames was called "studying." My
major was game arts and design, so it worked. Now that I am in the
industry, playing games is called "research." I guess I do a lot of
research. I'm also into photography and can be seen roaming the office
lugging around my gear for one reason or another.
Q: What is your secret
superpower?
I can detect where Shayne is in the building at all times. This allows
me to avoid his awkward advances.
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Find an environment
in Champions Online,
and you'll find Wong's handiwork.
Q:
style="font-style: italic;">What
is your guilty pleasure?
microwave. Ack! I read the question wrong! I'm a major geek. I love
tech, I love tabletop war games, collectible card games and
role-playing games. Right now we're running a Warmachine league at
Cryptic. Let the good times (and heads) roll!
Q: What games are you
currently obsessing over?
Currently, I tend to focus on "researching" the finer points of
espionage and the art of the backstab in style="font-style: italic;">Team Fortress 2. I
run a TF2 league with a bunch of my co-workers and we are having a
blast (or a stab)! I've also been researching style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan and style="font-style: italic;">Second Life
recently.
style="font-weight: bold;">Q: What advice do you have for
someone who wants to break into gaming?
Don't be afraid to network and never burn bridges. You'll never know
where you'll get your first big break from even the most humble and
apparently unrelated prospect could be the key that gets you where you
need to go. Having a solid portfolio and working on projects in your
free time are great ways to improve your skills and make yourself stand
out.
That college education is a good start, but to really break in, you
have to improve on your own, outside of class.
style="font-weight: bold;">Q: Is there anything else you
would like to add?
profile photos and all I got was this lousy interview.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Champions Online Game Page.
