How do you work?

[Alex Ros]

Since the very first FPS game I've played 20 years ago Wolfenstein 3D I realized it's a new form of art. Painting, sculpture, literature, poetry, theater, film, animation and now at the end of the XX century the new form have born. The first dreams were in particular about the Divine Comedy by Dante, interactive excursion into the Inferno. So since my very first encounter with the games I knew that sooner or later it will become a new kind of art. Dear Esther was a first sign, at least the first one noticeable.

As for modding it all started with the release of the STALKER Clear Sky at the august of 2008. The game was horrible in comparison with the original STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl. So that's how it begun. And until late 2011 I was working "Old Good Stalker Mod CS", known as the best mod made on CS platform ever, which I am kinda proud of a bit. Sadly it wasn't ever translated into English so there's no ModDB page for example. It's well known only in Russia.

Anyway, until then I got back to my childish ideas of making an art-game. And here I am now and I do know what to do exactly. Maybe someday I will open a special thread at the Off-Topic section to announce what I am working on last... well, for quite some time already.

Oh and in parallel I really love HPL engine interactivity. So it's possible that I would release some HPL maps. Probably, I am not sure about that. And most likely that would be just empty maps without story or gameplay. Presumably, not sure about that too. Maybe I would decide to waste some time on making normal mod, not just empty maps. I do not know... yup... everything is possible...

1. Do you listen to any music when making a CS, if you do, what kind of music?

If I listen to the music, when working on something, most of times it's an ambient music without a melody. LUSTMORD for a clear example. Sometimes it's just instrumental music, but quite druggy and somehow heavy but psychedelic. For example it could be 5IVE. Anyway, most of times I do not listen music, when I am doing something. I try to give the music a separate time, I sit down and listen to music and nothing more. The musicians did invest their time into writing music, so it's honest to admire that and invest your own time in listening that music.

2. How often does your development stop or pause?

If I start something, then I would not stop, until it's finished. No other way. That's way I am very careful with starting anything at all. It's better not to do anything at all in my opinion, then start something and do not complete it.

3. How often do you work on your project? 2h a day? 2h a week?

If I work on something, if I started something, then every free minute I am investing in work. Yup, I am surely a bit crazy son of a bitch maximalist.

4. Do you have any unreleased, private CS done or full conversion?

The only things that I can leave unreleased are ideas, design documents, even fully complete .PDF documents. But no mods or work-in-progress.

5. Which kind of problems appear most often to you?

A lack of the free time. Everything else is just something I can learn, there's nothing I can't learn.

6. Have you ever stopped caring at some point or thought about making a non serious or a complete cliche CS?

I do not like to work on something not fully seriously. More of that I do not like other people works made not seriously, just for fun. I do not like with all my heart. But do not get me wrong. Do not confuse a comedy with something made for fun not seriously. I really love comedies and laughing.

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Anyway the main question is "How do you work?" The answer on that question is quite simple: "Thinking. Thinking over again. Trying to write down and formulate my thoughts. Thinking again and mostly about possible production problems. Thinking on how to minimize any possible production problems. Writing down final design document with all photo references, pictures, sketches, etc. And then... then I am observing what I've done and thinking again. Thinking about the amount of the free time I have and the amount of time which that project might need. 99% of times I realize I can not make that, there would not be enough energy and free time. And that's OK, it does not makes me sad in any way. Simply because I love the process itself, not the final product and the reaction of the auditory."