MatthewDoyleArt.com Blog

I just wrapped up my first round of contract work for a group of up and comming guys out of San Francisco - Shattered Reality Interactive. These guys have a ton of heart and energy, and they’re working on a unique next-gen MMO called Kaos War. My first round of design work was to help them develop a few key design documents, among them a PvP doc.

I really like what these guys are doing, and things are going very well for them. If things pan out, I may move back to good ol’ Cali’. I went to SF once to interview at Lucas Arts, just before coming to AZ. It is a beautiful city and matches my personality. The guys at SR Interactive are considering me for the lead designer position as soon as their next round of funding comes in. It would be an honor to work with Damon and the guys there.

Check out their site here: www.kaoswar.com

It’s not enough to just have a blog these days, nor is it enough to post random thoughts and occurences in your life on a blog, if you expect anyone to continue reading your blog from day to day. If you really want to contribute something to net-ciety, you need to help educate people who are interested in learning something about things you are familiar with. For me, that would be game design. So, in keeping with that opinion, and in the hopes that I give more of you a reason to return to my blog regularly, I am going to begin writing more informative blog entries about game design, level design, the business, and other related topics. My first topic will analyze what practices a good level designer uses in preparing to design and construct a level.

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Back in ‘the day’, as they say, there was a little game on the Commodore 64 called Elite. It was a vector graphics funhouse of space combat and drug running from star system to star system. Docking was manually done to the tune of the Blue Danube, and hours of my young life were wasted as I blasted and traded my way up the ranks of better ships and galactic infamy. Enter Eve Online, stage left. I’ve had my eyes on this game since it first came out. Could it be the Elite replacement I always yearned for? Could it recapture my love for space games the way Privateer did? For a long time, I avoided downloading the game. Now, here we are end of year 2006, and I finally gave in, installed the game, and forced myself to go through the incredibly long tutorial (I’ll get back to that shortly).

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