Interview mit Level Designer Sten Hübler

[Willy]

Thanks again, Mocib!

That's a very interesting interview, especially the parts that have not been translated yet...

[warpspeed]

Here's another small translated part. Unfortunately I'm at work and I don't have enough time to translate all/faster .

Golem.de: Is a Sandbox- and Open-World-Level the same for you?

Huebler: There're both greatly open levels. Whereas GTA 4 is clearly bigger than this what we've done with Crysis. We've done greatly open levels, so rather Open-World. The other side are Sandbox-Games where you can drive into the whole city.

Golem.de: How much complexer is it to create an Open-World-Level, in comparsion to classic linear levels?

Huebler: In Crysis we've for example the harbour level. The player gets to the spot via a high-flyer and his target is to reach the harbour and plunge a ship. After this the reinforcements arriving which asure the harbour. This can be coded linear and via a Open-World. Only the way how I build a level, the dimension, how I use the scripts and how I push it forward are different.

[Waldmaista]

achtet mal darauf, wie crytek immer wieder konkurrierende entwickler in der öffentlichkeit lobt.
hatte cevat yerli auch schon bei den fear-machern getan. (monolith)

sieht man in anderen Gewerben mehr als selten.

[Born_Brainless]

So, der Rest von Part 2, hoffentlich habe ich das halbwegs akzeptabel übersetzt :P

One problem for us as level designers: the more content you make, the more time you need. If someone wants a very open world, you have to generate a lot of conent. Because erverywhere, where the player can go, has to have a certain qualitystandard. Therfore we make sometimes compromises. For instance when I know which main road the player most likely takes. Then there are also the side paths, which only the gamers see who are exploring every corner of the game. Here you are efficent and don’t put as much detail into it.

Golem
When you now begin to create an “open world level”, what do you make different than during the time of the developtment of Cryis?

Huebler:
You collect a lot of experience and recognize problems much faster. Our approach on Crysis was basically correct. We only overlooked some things at the beginning and handle these things now different. For example the size of the levels .In Crysis we made them much to big and had do scale them down. We concentrate now much more to the core of the level, the main mission.

Also I am a big fan of what the Englishman call “Location Scouting”. This is importand to make the scenes and locations authentic. For Crysis parts of our team flew to Hahiti, and i think this was good, to get the look and feel for the game.

Golem
In your presentation at the GDC here in Paris you told us about a colleague who pays a lot of attention to make a beliveable construction of the gameworld.

Huebler
The basic approach was, that a level doesn’t get automatically better when you have references like pictures. I have to analyse these pictures, because i can’t use the refernces directly, but also have to take into account the gameplay. It is only an inspriation, i have to understand, why it looks better how it looks. This step we had to learn first.

[Mocib]

Golem.de: Is a Sandbox- and Open-World-Level the same for you?

Huebler: There're both greatly open levels. Whereas GTA 4 is clearly bigger than this what we've done with Crysis. We've done greatly open levels, so rather Open-World. The other side are Sandbox-Games where you can drive into the whole city.

I'm sorry, but... could someone re-translate that part?

It's the first question on page two.

[warpspeed]

This part is hard to translate... translating it into english, gives no sense for some reason .

[Born_Brainless]

This part is hard to translate... translating it into english, gives no sense for some reason .

Have to agree, tried to translate it...and failed

[M3nTo5]

I'm sorry, but... could someone re-translate that part?

It's the first question on page two.

What exactly is the problem?
If you tell us we can help you understanding it.

[Mocib]

Well... it simply does not make any sense

[Mocib]

Have you guys given up?