Hello, everyone! As most of you know, the Dev team tries to keep a close relationship with our players. In the spirit of keeping the communication going we have another Dev feature piece! Today we're going to take a look into the mind of: Lothar. He's one of our 3D programmers and plugs away at fixing the bugs you encounter in the game.
3D programmer seems pretty straight forward but what would -you- say you do in Face Off?
Lately with the number of changes being made, bug reports coming in, and new features being added to the game, I feel my main role in Face Off has become Investigation. I have to poke around in the code, look at bug reports, and debug and watch lines of code executing in the problematic areas of code. Then once I gathered enough information I can begin fixing the issue. And when I’m not investigating, I’m probably programming something new, engaged in a heated discussion over gameplay, secretly trying out my own new ideas or trying to come up with something useful to us, or I’ll be hanging around watching the Face Off chat where I’ll answer a few questions and play a game or two.
What would you say your greatest programming strength is/your best area?
I wouldn’t say this is my general greatest strength when it comes to programming, but working on Face Off what has probably paid off for me most is confidence. Confidence in my abilities is a great help because I’m new to a career in programming and I’ll try almost anything that gets thrown at me, but I’m also not afraid to confidently say when something is beyond me and what I’m able to do. And confidence is a strength for me in other aspects other than programming as well, like in group discussions. I can’t tell you how many arguments I lost over how I think something should be done in our game, but that doesn’t stop me from putting my opinion forward every time and trying my best to promote possibilities for design that could create a better overall experience in our game. Without that, I think I’d just be some other programmer.
A lot of people are saying that Republic are weak compared to Alliance and that everyone plays Alliance. As a fellow Republic player with what some have called 'an evil Republic deck' what would you say to the people who avoid playing Republic?
Well first of all I think Republic was by design meant to be viewed as the underdog faction. It has to be when you label Alliance as having “brute force” tactics. So what would I tell someone avoiding playing Republic? I would tell them “Wait and see…”. Republic may very well be the underdog faction, but that means it needs to take on different values to be competitive with Alliance. I find most of its value comes from its early game advantage and versatility for dealing with different situations. And I think that variety and versatility will allow Republic to stand strong even amongst future factions where Alliance may not have the advantage it currently holds.
A lot of the Devs are active in the chat and in communications with players but the behind-the-scenes parts are separate. Would you tell us a little bit about what it's like to be a Dev for Face Off?
Well, being a Dev for Face Off is the first and only programming job I’ve ever had. And I really do enjoy it and I like working with the Face off team. From my perspective, behind the scenes is mostly me working on bugs in the code or writing new code for something I was just told about. It’s also a lot of Skype calls and a lot of e-mail/instant messaging coming and going in all directions across the face off team. I probably miss a lot of the behind the scenes action myself because most of our team of programmers and people I work with work remotely from me. So it’s probably actually a lot more boring than what you picture when you think “Game design”.
Of all the programming you've done and all the work on the game, which part would you say is your favorite or that you're most proud of? Brag~
I’m not really sure. A lot of the work done on Face Off is a group effort from all of our team members. So most of the time, most of the work I’ve done was an improvement of something that was already there and started by someone else. I think I’m most proud of the decision and implementation of the Tutorial being presented as an optional popup with further instructions for how to access the tutorial later. But I can for sure tell you my least proud part of the work I’ve done. I suggested we use the sonic tank effect with a blue energy ball for Domination Damage. Yeah, that was me. And it’s pretty regrettable, but also funny because we now have to have these serious team discussions about what to do about our blue balls. And well.. that.. just makes me giggle.
I've heard it through the grapevine that you're a fan of the original Warcraft games. What was it that you enjoyed about them?
I am a really big fan of the Warcraft RTS series. When I started gaming it was on the PC when I was only around 4 years old on my Dad’s Windows 3.1 computer. I played little kids games as well as violent games (*sound of parents hissing* “ooooh.”) like Duke Nukem, Diablo, Castle of The Winds, Doom, and more. I was probably 5 when I started playing Warcraft and of course I got really into it, the story of Orcs vs Humans battling all out to claim the realm of Azeroth was probably the most gripping story I’ve ever heard in my life at 5 years old. So of course I begged my parents to buy me the next one and the next one when Warcraft 2 and 3 were available. I even got more into the RTS genre by playing titles like Age of Empires and Command and Conquer between release periods. I think when I first ever signed up to play Runescape for the first time I started going by the name of “Lothar100” and I’ve made it a tradition to use this screenname base on a character from within the Warcraft lore: Anduin Lothar. In my mind he was an amazing character of the Warcraft series, he was a commander (of basically everyone) who was a skilled warrior and lead his people with unyielding determination.
Gamers need fuel to live. What's your fuel of choice?
I can usually go without food until its dinner time. I’m the guy who works while everyone else is eating lunch. But if I had to pick something I would probably say Strawberry Poptarts. They are my special snack.
Face Off has a lot of up-and-coming plans for the game. There's adding the factions, talk of a more extensive PVE experience, and a whole mess of other things. Which to-be-released thing are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to seeing the game with all the main factions from March of War. In my eyes, Face Off is still incomplete until it reaches that point. And in reality, it is the most important and essential part of it being a good card game.
The genie lamp we got you was broken. Or...maybe the genie was just lazy.You get one wish and one wish alone!
No wishing for more wishes? I would probably wish for the ability to instantly and safely travel to any time or place on my command and to be able to undo that wish anytime I want. Got to leave myself an exit to the wish because genies be tricky, never trust a genie.
Lastly, any message that you have for readers: words of encouragement or anything like that?
“Have confidence in yourself and you will do great things.“
I'd link to previous interviews but as the man said, he's new! Lothar has been doing a good job for you guys and we think he's nifty. Were there questions you wanted to see asked? Who do you want us to hunt down in the hallway and ask our questions to next?
Dev Discussion
Visit the link above and put your suggestions in! As always, see you on the battlefield!