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.