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Developer Friday

Every friday we interview one of our developers. Gets you an idea on what is going on behind the scenes, and it gives us some recognition! :)

I will be posting every weeks Developer Friday in this thread, and you can also check them out on our website: http://www.theballthegame.com/?cat=3[url]http://www.theballthegame.com/?cat=3[/URL]

Here is the one from this week, our animator Hongman Leung who has single handedly animated pretty much all the enemies in the game!

Who are you and what do you do on
 
Will is the guy who wrote all the in-game stories, he came up with most of the level descriptions, and he has also been involved in Mystery Monday. The Mystery Monday letters that were released on August the 2nd were from his hand.

Who are you and what do you did on "The Ball"?
My name is Will, and I wrote all the in-game stories you will get to read in The Ball. I also wrote some of the promotional story material and some sections for the website.

When and how did you join the team?
I
 
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I really like the additional PR info and stuff we get with the ball. The monday puzzles are really crafty as well. I was going to buy it anyway for being an TWI published game (yes i'm a blind fanboy), but its actually really sparking my interests and I can't wait to play it a little at gamescon :).

That is great to hear! :)
 
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Kevin Cytatzky is one of our level designers. He made one of the Survival levels (Amini), and various bits of the Campaign levels. At least one or two rooms of every level but the first three were made by him, including the Fan Room in Cahua II, large parts of Teotl II outside section, and one entire pyramid in Hueca

Who are you and what do you do on
 
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The interview of this week's Developer Friday is from Oliver Gam. As one of our 2D Artists he has worked on most the enemies in the game, texturing and concepting them.

Who are you and what did you do on "The Ball"?
My name is Oliver Gam and I'm a student of Medicine from Vienna, Austria. I worked on the game as a concept and texture artist. I was involved in the creation of almost all of the enemies, either texturing them (mummy, worm), or concepting them (mummy, bird, bug). I also did the German translation.

When and how did you join the team?
Hm, the first thing I did for the game was re-texturing the original "King" model, which a friend of mine had made. That was about two years ago. Some time later I started doing more work for the mod and I became a member of the team.

How did you start out with art?
Well, as a child I started drawing, like practically everyone, but the difference is that I never stopped. I started texturing when I worked on an unreleased mod for Doom 3, out of boredom.

What has been the most challenging thing you have done on the game?
I have to say, the translation. Some parts of the secret stories were really difficult to understand, and much harder to translate than I anticipated. In the end, I'm quite happy with it though.
In texturing, most problems can be solved by trial and error. You just need to know how you want it to look, and you'll get there eventually. Concepting is mostly about meeting expectations. If you know the purpose of the design and how people want it to look, it's easy. The hard part is communication I guess- you have to find out what people want. Sometimes this could come quite unexpected- while doing my first job for the mod, I also designed a lance for the king. My first design was quite simple, a balanced lance with two crossed guards. They didn't like it because it was overdesigned and looked like it had unnecessary details. I then did the most horrendous design possible, an unbalanced lance/club hybrid with a skull and a glowing crystal on it. And it was taken. I'm really glad they replaced it for the commercial release now.

What do you like the most about the game?
The puzzles and atmosphere. Usually puzzles become boring after you have sold them once, but some of the puzzles in the game really have a replay value because their design is so good. My favourite has to be either the second puzzle in Teotl II or the marble like puzzle with the rails later on in the same map, although I liked the harder version from the Teotl beta more.
 
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