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10 Game Industry Questions - Gaute Rasmussen

AUSTRALIAN GAME INDUSTRY Q and A - 10 Questions with Gaute Rasmussen - Senior Level Designer at Krome Studios

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Fullname: Gaute Rasmussen

Nickname: Here's a few: Psycho Kid, Marlboro Man, The Man in Black, The Norwegian Guy, Grasmussen, Gee, John.

Gender: Male

Age: 30

Current Company: Krome Studios

Current Project: Hellboy Gaming Systems Owned: PC, Xbox 360.

1. What is your job role where you work and can you explain what it entails?

I am currently titled “Senior Level Designer” at Krome Studios.

I always have a tough time trying to explain what a Level Designer does. The best analogy I’ve been able to come up with is to look at game development team as an assembly line for a car. There are a bunch of departments that make lots of different stuff for the car, and the Level Designer is the guy at the end of the assembly line that puts it all together. Except that there isn’t a fixed way to put it together, so he has to be creative. And he has to design the car to begin with and tell the other departments how he needs the parts to be made. And he needs to test the car afterwards.

Yeah, I know. Not a very accurate analogy. Basically what I’m trying to say is that a Level Designer is the guy that puts together all the other stuff that everyone else creates. We take all the code, characters, level art, objects, game elements, animations and sound and put it all together into a giant jig-saw puzzle that doesn’t have a fixed solution. Yeah, I know. I'm mixing my analogies.

I was telling a girl about my job not long ago, describing what it is I do. After a while she seemed to get the basic principle and said: “Oh, I get it. You're God!” I explained to her that there were designers and creative directors and such that had more power than me in designing the game. “Oh, so you're Jesus, then. Or a demi-god.” And that I had to agree with.

On my current project at Krome, my job is to plan and place cameras for all the levels in the next-gen game Hellboy. This includes figuring out all the places the player can be and make sure the character is on screen, framed properly and that the player can see what he needs in the scene no matter where he chooses to go. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the basics.

On previous projects it has been entirely different things. I’ve done landscape design, scripting, set dressing, level ports and prototyping to name a few. One of the reasons I love Level Design is that it gives me the chance to continually do something different. The downside is that I to a certain degree have to relearn my job every time I go on a new project that does things a different way.

2. What games have you been directly involved with previously?

In chronological order:

Anarchy Online
Citizen Zero (not released)
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Surf’s Up
Hellboy (current)

3. How did you get your start in the gaming industry?

Wow. Now I have to put on my thinking cap here, because the beginning of that story happened all the way back in the previous millennium.

It was 1999, and I was about half way through the last year of my Computer Science Bachelor’s Degree. This was before the dot com bubble burst, so these kinds of schools had lots of big, rich, impressive companies trying to grab the best students before they could graduate and get grabbed by someone else. We used to grade how cool we thought the companies were based on how much free pizza they gave us. No, really.

One of the companies that came to my school was Funcom. I had always been a big gamer, and I thought working for a game company sounded like the coolest thing ever. I talked to them for a while and they sounded interested, but in the end I was seduced by the pizzas of another bigger, richer more impressive company called Anderson Consulting. (Now known as Accenture.) Working for AC meant huge corporate parties, getting money thrown after me, American Express cards, making government databases, working on high profile TelCo projects. And utter and complete boredom. I just couldn’t take it. So after a year I started seriously thinking back to the dream I had of working with games and I thought “Why not? Someone has to do it. Why not me?” So I applied for a job at Funcom.

The interview was kind of funny. The position I had applied for was as a World Builder for a project called Anarchy Online. I had no idea what a World Builder did or what Anarchy Online was at the time. One of the questions they asked me was “Have you played many MMORPGs before?” My answer was “What’s an MMORPG?” For some strange reason they hired me anyway. It was a pretty big step down in salary and a totally different working atmosphere. But now I looked forward to going to work every morning.

On a funny side note: Things weren't quite ready for my arrival when I joined Funcom. I had a desk and was able to find a chair. Within hours a computer arrived on my desk. The power cable for it arrived a week later.

After a couple of years at Funcom I worked at Micro Forté in Sydney for a year and then two years at Ubisoft Montréal. Canada's freezing cold weather made me remember how great the Australian “winters” were, so I made my way back “down under” again and took a job with Krome Studios. I've been here for about 8 months now and am having a great time. Krome is the largest independent game developer in Australia and has a lot of different projects going on, most of which I can't talk about. But keep your eyes peeled. There are exciting things coming.

4. What has been the most positive experience of working in the games industry so far?

The best project I have worked on was without doubt Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (PoP3). I joined the PoP3 team right before the production phase began, and I moved onto another project just as the PoP3 beta phase began. I got to do a lot of cool things on that project: I designed and built five levels from scratch, two of which were the “exotic gameplay” levels for that game. I also made the last level in the game, which was a blast.

If you have a long pre production, you can often be tired of the game by the time you get to production. And the bug testing phase after production can be even more mind numbing if you've been on the project for a long time. Being able to work on just the production phase meant that I could pour all my energy into just that part and come up with some great results. There are always things that could have been done better in hindsight, but at the end of it all I’m very happy with how that game turned out.

5. What has been the most negative experience of working in the games industry so far?

Working on a game for a full year only to have the publishing contract cancelled: Bummer.

The loss of the contract leading to almost everybody at the studio losing our jobs: Major bummer.

Realizing that without the job I didn’t have a valid visa anymore: Priceless.

6. What advice can you give to other people looking to get into a position such as yours?

Level Designers need to know a little about everything and a lot about most of what goes on in a game production. Knowledge of some programming comes in handy, as does skills in 3D modelling. It also helps knowing what the sound guys, animator, designers and testers are talking about when they get “techy”. So basically: “Soak up as much as you can about everything about making a game.”

Play a lot of different games and try to identify what makes them fun, interesting or challenging. Break it down and analyse it. Write up a paper about it if it helps you understand it better.

Get a game that has some sort of level editor and start practicing making your own levels. Have your friends play them and critique them.

Last, but not least: Be prepared to do a lot of hard work. Don’t expect to just play games and have fun all day. Making games is a lot of fun, but it requires a lot of effort as well.

7. How do you see Australia as a market when compared to the rest of the world?

I’m sorry to say Australia is still in the backwaters a bit compared to the major markets. We often get games later than the others, and some don’t come here at all. I’m hoping digital distribution will change this a little, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m afraid Australia will always be the US’s “little brother” in a way.

In terms of developing games Australia is also a bit behind, but I think that is about to change. We still haven't had a world wide mega hit come out of Australia, but with companies like Krome Studios, Pandemic, THQ and Auran (based in Brisbane, of course) all working their butts off to create AAA games, it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world discover the talent we have here in Australia.

8. Got any good stories you want to share?

Well, there was this one time I worked at this company, and this guy did a back flip from the balcony railing onto the roof. It was awesome! No, really!

No, I’m just kidding.

Seriously though, there was one time I was walking down the street in Sydney. That was a good one. It was warm (as it often is in Sydney) and I was wearing a T-shirt, which meant my Anarchy Online tattoo was showing. This guy came up to me and asked if I was an Anarchy Online player since I had the logo tattooed on my arm. I replied that actually I was part of the development team.

Now, I’m not sure if I can explain the expression this guy got on his face when I told him this. He looked as if I had just told him I was really Santa Claus or something. He grasped my hand and stuttered “It’s such an honour to meet you, Sir!” We ended up having a good conversation about the game, talking about what areas we liked and what classes were the best at the time. And I swear he ended every sentence with a “Sir”. Made my day. Probably made his month. Still makes me chuckle when I think about it.

9. What are your favourite games and why?

Oooh… How long a list can I make? I think I’ll restrict myself to my top three.

Space Invaders
This one is on the list simply because it was the first one I played, and the first time is always the best. The idea that I could press buttons on a computer and this freaking space ship (!!!) moved around and shot laser beams at these invading monsters from space was just mind boggling.

Civilization (Any and all of them)
I’ve been a fan of this series since the beginning. I have no idea how many hours I have spent playing this game and if someone were to figure it out and tell me I imagine I would be a bit embarrassed. The scope of things you can do in this game and the progression from cavemen to space travel is a testament to Sid Meier’s genius as a game designer. And the way it is implemented makes it soooo much fun to play. “Just one more turn.” Hmmm… Where is my copy of Civ IV?

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
This one is on the list because it’s the game I’m currently playing. And the game I’m currently playing is always one of my favourites. Otherwise I wouldn’t be playing it. Makes sense, right? LotRO, for those that don’t know, is a pretty good MMORPG in the same vein as WoW. It's based on the Lord of the Rings books as well as the Hobbit. As a long time fan of Tolkien’s work it was inevitable that I would stumble into this virtual recreation of his work.

10. If you could meet any gaming character in real life, who would it be and why?

I don't know! I guess I never really thought about game characters that way. Ehmm...

April Ryan because she's so cool?

Leisure Suit Larry to give him a few pointers?

Sam Fisher to ask him how he manages to sneak around undetected with three giant glowing circles on his forehead?

The Prince of Persia to ask if I can borrow his dagger? Just for a little while...

Mario to ask him what the deal is with the mushrooms?

I think I'll go with Hellboy. To ask him if he can give me Liz's phone number.

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