So hardcore fans makes and sell content to non-hardcore fans, while the developing team makes and sells more content to the hardcore fans, while the producers makes and sells bandwidth and servers to the developing team?
That's not a pyramid scheme; it's a trickle-down economy.
Would that not imply that Jupiter is a star-turned-white-dwarf?
No, just that Jupiter has a high carbon content (highly likely) and that the core is under intense pressure (certain).
Arthur C. Clarke endorsed the idea in 2010: Odyssey Two. He also invented the radio satellite in 1945. The guy knows his stuff.
Remember that level design, texture design, and even texture application are often three different jobs done by three different people (or, more often, teams). Level design is architecture. Texture design is a very specialized form of 2-D drawing. And texture application is basically interior decorating.
Assuming that you want to lay out levels, then study architecture. You want to be able to make things that look real, atmospheric, and cool. A good exercise is to find a dynamic and interesting space in real life and model it as precisely as you can in a game engine. This will give you a feel for the level of detail needed to build a truly immersive level.
Also, don't limit yourself to one tool or even one game. Some of the more full-featured and late-generation editors have a huge amount of crutches that you can easily get dependent on. Make an RPG dungeon and an RPG city. Make several RTS maps (these are great for gaining a macro-level understanding of balance and flow) for single-player and multi-player games. And, of course, make a lot of FPS maps. Even a dippy little fragfest map can show off your talents if you put a lot of work into it.
Finally, be aware of industry trends. For instance, single-player FPS campaigns are starting to veer away from the strictly-linear style of the genre's forerunners (look at MOHAA for an example of why... the levels are very stale and scripted). Play, play, play. And take lots of notes.
I say, that merely by virtue of adding to the pool of Linux users, they are giving the open source movement exactly what it needs most.
Are they really doing that, though? Sure, maybe their sysadmins need to brush up their *nix skills, but the techie/geek circles already know the benefits of OSFS.
It often seems to me like Linux is the dirty little secret of the internet. If every company who ran an Apache server had a link on their front webpage saying something like "This server is run by open-source software. Click here to find out how OS can help you!", or, better yet, optimized their pages for Firebird instead of IE6, then they'd really be "adding to the pool of Linux users."
The hardest part of making a game is writing the code, not the artwork, not the music, its the code. By paying for the actual development of code creation instead of the whole package, we allow hundreds of thousands if not millions of talented artists and fans to create their own versions.
This worked fine with Doom, mods appear when you give people access to the Engine, and new games are created based on the old engine. Open source would take this to the next level where all games would use the same engines, the difference in games will be the storyline, the art, the music, and the gameplay.
This logic doesn't stand up to the facts. How often do you find free games based on these tried-and-true engines? A mod is one thing. A completely new game with brand new art, sound, and music (not to mention gameplay) is something else altogether.
Art assets are expensive. Was Hexen free?
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So hardcore fans makes and sell content to non-hardcore fans, while the developing team makes and sells more content to the hardcore fans, while the producers makes and sells bandwidth and servers to the developing team?
That's not a pyramid scheme; it's a trickle-down economy.
Ack! Republicans in the game industry!
Would that not imply that Jupiter is a star-turned-white-dwarf? No, just that Jupiter has a high carbon content (highly likely) and that the core is under intense pressure (certain). Arthur C. Clarke endorsed the idea in 2010: Odyssey Two. He also invented the radio satellite in 1945. The guy knows his stuff.
Remember that level design, texture design, and even texture application are often three different jobs done by three different people (or, more often, teams). Level design is architecture. Texture design is a very specialized form of 2-D drawing. And texture application is basically interior decorating.
Assuming that you want to lay out levels, then study architecture. You want to be able to make things that look real, atmospheric, and cool. A good exercise is to find a dynamic and interesting space in real life and model it as precisely as you can in a game engine. This will give you a feel for the level of detail needed to build a truly immersive level.
Also, don't limit yourself to one tool or even one game. Some of the more full-featured and late-generation editors have a huge amount of crutches that you can easily get dependent on. Make an RPG dungeon and an RPG city. Make several RTS maps (these are great for gaining a macro-level understanding of balance and flow) for single-player and multi-player games. And, of course, make a lot of FPS maps. Even a dippy little fragfest map can show off your talents if you put a lot of work into it.
Finally, be aware of industry trends. For instance, single-player FPS campaigns are starting to veer away from the strictly-linear style of the genre's forerunners (look at MOHAA for an example of why... the levels are very stale and scripted). Play, play, play. And take lots of notes.
/. readers now know that michael has a typographer inside him! Get it out, michael!