Supporter newsletter 13

Issue
This is a copy of Eternal and Diamond Supporter Newsletter #13, published by Grinding Gear Games.

Hello Diamond Supporters!

We are well underway with 0.11.0 This is a big patch that covers quite a few things. Since 0.10.8 I have been filling more of a production role than a game design role. This has freed Chris up to (1) have more time to focus on his business development and management duties, and (2) have a more broad view of the game for planning and development.

Rory has taken to working on the unique items very well, and we have received very positive feedback from those who have been working with him on their items have been very positive about the process.

0.10.8b

We had planned to have two Diamond unique items in 0.108b. One of them needed to be removed as it lead to a crash.

The other item, Zand’s Void Battery, did make it in. The item has generated a lot of discussion. I look forward to seeing how players integrate it into their builds.

The art for Void Battery is some of my favourite item art, and was made by Filippo, who I have mentioned in a past newsletter. Unfortunately for Grinding Gear, Filippo has gone to do a two week work test at Weta. Filippo worked on movies previously, for example, he did conceptual work on the upcoming Man of Steel movie. As it is highly likely he will be moving to Wellington, Erik is filling in for making unique art until we know whether we need to replace Filippo for sure.

0.10.8c

This patch will only contain minor changes. It also includes only one unique item, the helmet from Prpnnightmare. The crash it caused has been fixed.

Insider Info

This week we’ll be doing a profile of Joel Schroyen. Joel is a 3D artist and the Path of Exile level designer. This can be a fairly complex task with a game with randomised levels. Joel needs to make graphs for all the areas, and mark up tiles so they can generate an area without causing issues.

He started down the path of level design by playing with many of the editors that come with games, including making custom maps for the half-life mod Day of Defeat.

He joined Grinding Gear Games in 2011 as an environment modeller and after learning the game tools made my way into making areas for the game. He joined as Act 2 was in full production so started tidying up the later areas. He has since done all the level design for act 3, and redone all of areas in Act 1 and and Act 2 as well.

Joel graduated from the Wellington Massey University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Visual Communication Design and was hired mostly based on the work in his portfolio. Erik notes that making custom levels or hobby game projects is one of the top things he looks for in someone's portfolio.

You can see Joel at work here: http://i.imgur.com/AEqdslv.jpg