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{{ | {{Infobox personnel | ||
''' | |title = Katie Sorrell (neé Lea) | ||
|medievil= Mapping / Development Assistant | |||
|medievil2= Mapping | |||
|resurrection=Special Thanks | |||
}} | |||
==Interviews== | |||
===[[MediEvil EU site]]=== | |||
====1998{{Siteref|MED-EU-Site|spanish/sorcerers/sorcerers_katie_1.html|Sorcerers - Katie Lea}}==== | |||
*'''Education''': Art Foundation & Art at Cardiff University | |||
*'''Joined Sony/Millennium''': 1993 | |||
*'''Favorite Drink''': Black Currant Juice | |||
*'''Previous Jobs''': Mapping with Vectordean | |||
*'''Favorite Task''': Texturing | |||
=====LEVEL MAPPING===== | |||
'''What is a Level Mapper?'''<br />It's quite a vague title but it means that I position all the enemies, energy pickups, money pickups etc. I also set up quite a lot of the spy cameras, chase cameras. . . various different types of cameras. I also place collision perimeters which govern where the player is allowed to walk and also keeps enemies out of places they're not supposed to go. . . | |||
'''So it kind of moulds the level together?'''<br />Yes, the artist's actually responsible for building the level models and I place the things that go in it, under guidance from Jason who actually designed the individual levels. I get input from everyone in the team about where characters and items in the game should actually go. | |||
'''Where do you put them physically?'''<br />We have a great graphic interface. I use a Silicon Graphics machine for plotting and use an internal plotting tool called "Mappy". I load the model and I have small markers to place them. For example, I have the model of a small zombie and I change the additional settings that need calibration, such as cell doors, which could present some requirements to open. . . that kind of things. | |||
'''Is it a reusable software tool? '''<br />Yes. It was used in ''Frogger'' and in ''Beast Wars''. It is the basic interface, but it has different types of connections for different projects. It does different things for different projects, and I think it is also used by some of the SCEE London's internal teams. | |||
'''Was it difficult for you to be only a level mapper, between teams of artists and teams of programmers? '''<br />Actually I am part of both teams. I have to work a lot with the artists because I do model texturing. I must also collaborate with the programmers when placing the items they have programmed. I am a kind of bridge between the two. | |||
=====ARTIST OR PROGRAMMER?===== | |||
'''So what is your background? Artist? Programmer? Marketing? '''<br />Well, actually I have an artistic background. It started off at school where art was my strongest, then I went on to do an art foundation course and I started off doing an art degree at Cardiff but left halfway through. And then I just kind of fell into the games industry. | |||
I was friends with Chris [Sorrell, Producer of MediEvil] and one evening I was just sitting around waiting for Chris to finish, I'd played all of the games in the office, so he suggested I had a go at level mapping and off I went. This was at Vectordean. I started on a 3-month contract working on James Pond 3 doing the level mapping. | |||
'''What did you start working on? '''<br />Well, at the beginning, I was working on some projects from home, and I worked internally on ''Deadline'', ''Silverload'' and ''Scroll''. | |||
'''Level mapping? '''<br />For ''Scroll'', I was working on the script. It was a role playing game where the graphics were very important. I did basic programming: "the player goes here and here's what happens". I was a "development assistant", which meant I had to do many different things. On ''Deadline'' I was setting up, on ''Silverload'' I was ''helping'' one of the programmers, Gary Richards, in the basic installation of the different elements. That meant using C, but I did not know it very well. . . It was just about cutting and pasting, and installing the animations and the rooms in the game. | |||
=====DOWN ON THE FARM===== | |||
'''What do you do when you aren't level mapping? '''<br />Play games. At the moment I'm playing ''Alundra''. I can't wait for the next one. Another favourite is ''Castlevania''. | |||
'''What's the first one you really got into?'''<br />I first started getting into games when my brother got an Amiga. I think the game was ''Rodland'' or something like that. I really liked it. It was just funny little fairies going round. | |||
'''Did you fight each other to get on the machine?'''<br />We used to have a lot of 2-player games so it wasn't too bad. My brothers were younger then me so it wasn't too bad! I didn't get into games as early as a lot of other people seem to have done though. | |||
'''So, if you stopped level mapping what would you do for a job?'''<br />Maybe something on the Internet, web page stuff, I like that. I like things that have got a slightly artistic bent but have also got quite a lot of technical knowledge as well, so you can combine the two. This is why games are perfect for me. Anything else has got to be something that is quite changeable so I'm not doing the same thing over and over again. When I was little I used to want to be a farmer. | |||
'''Did you look at someone on a tractor and think 'that could be me'? '''<br />No, I think it was that I used to like cows. . . | |||
'''Are you a country girl? '''<br />I grew up in Chesterfield, England, which is an industrial city, but I spent my holidays on the farm, where my parents rented a little house. | |||
=====MEDIEVIL===== | |||
'''So it's pretty good then?'''<br />I've done so many little bits and pieces so on the whole I'm really quite proud of the game. One of my favourite parts of the game is actually the last level coz I think we've got some really cool looking enemies and it's really fun to play and funny too. . . it's really, really funny. | |||
'''Which bit was the worst - the one that you had to keep re-doing to get right?'''<br />Probably setting up the cameras. You can never make everybody happy so you do one version and that's cool until someone turns round and says 'oh I don't like that'. So I guess I go round in a circle a lot of the time trying to keep everyone happy and not keeping everyone happy. | |||
'''Don't they beat you up? '''<br />Oh, they beat me up a lot. People always arrive and say "Oh, Katie, you can do this, you can do the other." My monitor is always covered with sticky notes. | |||
'''Do you sometimes refuse to do something? '''<br />Only when it's too late, I'm dead from sleep and want to go home. | |||
'''How long does it take you to map a level in ''MediEvil''? '''<br />Initially, it takes about a week to install the cameras, create the collisions and position the enemies but it gets redone so often that it is difficult to say. | |||
'''So are you still working on it? '''<br />Oh yes, we fix things, we change things all the time. | |||
'''Do you work on multiple levels simultaneously? '''<br />Yes and it's pretty hectic. For artists, it's clearer: they know when a task is finished, but for programmers and myself, it's a lot less accurate. | |||
'''But it seems to be worth it.'''<br />The comments were good. We hope critics will like it. We can never be sure of that, either they like a game, or they hate it. | |||
=====CROSS-DRESSING===== | |||
'''Somebody was telling us about Matt doing weird stuff?'''<br />You mean the cross dressing? He only does it for a laugh - he doesn't do it every time he goes out somewhere. | |||
'''What is it, a stockings thing?'''<br />Well he's got striped stockings, he's got various skirts and dresses. He recently bought a long silver dress. You can imagine how he looks with his hair as he's not a petite boy is he? | |||
=====PINHEAD===== | |||
'''What's your favourite genre?'''<br />I like a lot of different types of games - probably some kind of action game, but I like platform-type things and puzzle games. My favourite game of late has been ''Resident Evil 2''. Really cool. I am a big horror fan. | |||
'''So you like horror films as well?'''<br />Oh yeah. I love horror films. ''Hellraiser'' is my all-time favourite film. | |||
'''I've never seen that.'''<br />It's about a magic puzzle box. It's gory. It's had quite a lot of sequels but the first one is the best; Cenovites and Pinhead. I'd love to play a puzzle game head to head against Pinhead. | |||
==References== | |||
{{Reflist}} | |||
[[Category:Corporate]] | |||
[[Category:Personnel]] | |||
[[Category:Sources]] | |||
[[Category:Interviews]] | |||