Tribes: Vengeance
My Role: Single and Multiplayer Level Design
Studio: Irrational Games
Released: 2004
Platform: PC
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games
Tribes: Vengeance is the third game in the Tribes series, and the first to feature a complete single-player campaign. The story is told through the eyes of six different characters over two generations. The game is a first-person shooter with an emphasis on futuristic weapons and robotic armor that includes a jetpack, which allows the character to jump into the air and fly for a limited amount of time.
“Do you know what makes all this possible? The Empire.”
Tribes: Vengeance was the first game I ever worked on professionally. I was brought onboard after making a lot of amateur maps for Half-Life, both single and multiplayer. I had previously made maps for DOOM, DOOM II and Duke Nukem 3D.
It was a baptism of fire. Not only did I have to quickly learn how to use Unreal and rank up my design skills, I also needed to learn about the ins and outs of game production as a whole. It was a stressful, creative and very rewarding experience that kickstarted my games career.
Just A Game.
After T:V was released, I continued to create and release multiplayer maps for it for some time, coming up with new and interesting combinations of gameplay and layout.
One map called Arecibo caught the attention of Nathan Moller from Mu Productions, who used it as the backdrop for a short film called Just a Game. I was thrilled that the design of the map had inspired someone enough to want to use it in a film!
Building original locations and experimenting with the editor became quite a hobby. Even now I still get the occasional itch to crank up the editor and create some new spaces.
