Interview with SenChi (World Designer)
Q: For starters, can you tell the community a bit about yourself and how you came to be on the DayZ Team? You began on "Iron Front: Liberation 1944" correct?
A: Hi Yes, that's right. As someone may know, am originally from a small country town in Central Russia, where I got artistic education, and along the way experimented with level design as mod-maker. Before beginning work on DayZ Standalone, me together with fellows from Awar Studio, which one we founded, and with help of X1 software, worked on the project "Iron Front: Liberation 1944" - which is from ordinary modification for ArmA-2 one day became a commercial project. They nice people and I still keep in contact with them. "Iron Front" gave me the opportunity to do a favorite job. After that I joined to DayZ team, where I working at the moment. This is a unique experience for me.
Q: When not designing for Chernarus+ what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
A: Actually my leisure hardly differs from the average citizen leisure i belive I playing games, spend time on nature for inspiration, communicate with friends. And of course i'm dancing Kalinka-Malinka wearing valenki. Just kidding.
Q: What kind of sweet jams do you enjoy listening to while designing the environment?
A: He-he may seem wierd, but while working I prefer to listen audiobooks. Although recently it becomes harder and harder to found something interesting .
Q: The new/re-worked towns have been simply amazing, how long would you say it takes to develop these amazing places for survivors to get lost in? Do you have a favorite town thus far? (I have to admit, I'm very partial to Zelenogorsk, just beautiful)
A: Thank you. You know, I have one trait, I very rarely like the result of my own work, maybe it's perfectionism, but I find it very difficult to stop myself. Every time I look at own work I start thinking about how to change everything to make it better In average, a city with textures takes 2-2.5 weeks. The village takes 1.5-2 weeks.
Q: We all know that the North is currently being developed, care to share with us how that's going? Anything in particular you're excited about that you're willing to share?
A: Work on the north territories runs in normal mode, soon another designer will join us, and i think the job will go faster. I look forward when I can start working on the largest cities of the north (let's name will be a secret :)) but I can say that will be quite rich industrial area.
Now on to question from the community. Don't hesitate to remove questions you guys aren't willing to answer, I know the drill.
Q: Any plans to add a sense of abandoned despair to the environment? Such as: traffic jams, abandoned camps in the woods, indications of intense struggling when the "outbreak" occurred, evacuation zones? I'm willing to bet that this is a combo question between yourself and the artists who would have to create objects for your placement, but it was something that came up a lot on the subreddit.
A: At the moment we have a lot of plans on how to diversify and improve the environment in the game. Already prepared a huge list of objects that 3D artists will perform throughout the year. Certainly game world will gradually be filled with nice stuff that will help enrich the atmosphere.
Q: Can we expect more islands scattered about the map?
A: Depends on how many swimming means we will have in the future. Personally, I would prefer more lands instead of the sea.
Q: Are there any other buildings coming that'll be sprinkled throughout the map (like police stations and hospitals)?
A: Of course! It was only the first step. In the future, we can expect extending the functionality of the old cities, and more interesting buildings.
Q: Any plans to give the map more of a dynamic feel in the future? Such as probability %'s on the damaged vehicles or random "events" such as a downed heli (like the mod).
A: Who knows
Some simple yes/no questions.
Q: Is Cherno/Elektro "finished" from a map design perspective?
A: Let's say ... If I will have time I am pleased remade them. Just at the moment we are trying to focus on the creating of new cities.
Q: Will the actual size of the map ever increase?
A: Unfortunately we are limited by the physical size of map that was set at the Chernarus for Arma 2 (15.360km x 15.360 km) long time ago, perhaps in the future we will find a way to extend
the border, but right now talking about it too early.
Q: Have you guys thought of locations for your next bad ass terrain?
A: :P
Q: Will one of the new northern cities be close to Cherno/Elektro size?
A: Yep, i can ensure you, if all goes according to plan, the northern zone will have at least two cities with Cherno / Elektro size.
Q: The corn fields you and Ivan spoke of on twitter, will those become a reality one day?
A: Probably in future.
http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/205s6b/as_promised_the_senchi_interview/
A: Hi Yes, that's right. As someone may know, am originally from a small country town in Central Russia, where I got artistic education, and along the way experimented with level design as mod-maker. Before beginning work on DayZ Standalone, me together with fellows from Awar Studio, which one we founded, and with help of X1 software, worked on the project "Iron Front: Liberation 1944" - which is from ordinary modification for ArmA-2 one day became a commercial project. They nice people and I still keep in contact with them. "Iron Front" gave me the opportunity to do a favorite job. After that I joined to DayZ team, where I working at the moment. This is a unique experience for me.
Q: When not designing for Chernarus+ what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
A: Actually my leisure hardly differs from the average citizen leisure i belive I playing games, spend time on nature for inspiration, communicate with friends. And of course i'm dancing Kalinka-Malinka wearing valenki. Just kidding.
Q: What kind of sweet jams do you enjoy listening to while designing the environment?
A: He-he may seem wierd, but while working I prefer to listen audiobooks. Although recently it becomes harder and harder to found something interesting .
Q: The new/re-worked towns have been simply amazing, how long would you say it takes to develop these amazing places for survivors to get lost in? Do you have a favorite town thus far? (I have to admit, I'm very partial to Zelenogorsk, just beautiful)
A: Thank you. You know, I have one trait, I very rarely like the result of my own work, maybe it's perfectionism, but I find it very difficult to stop myself. Every time I look at own work I start thinking about how to change everything to make it better In average, a city with textures takes 2-2.5 weeks. The village takes 1.5-2 weeks.
Q: We all know that the North is currently being developed, care to share with us how that's going? Anything in particular you're excited about that you're willing to share?
A: Work on the north territories runs in normal mode, soon another designer will join us, and i think the job will go faster. I look forward when I can start working on the largest cities of the north (let's name will be a secret :)) but I can say that will be quite rich industrial area.
Now on to question from the community. Don't hesitate to remove questions you guys aren't willing to answer, I know the drill.
Q: Any plans to add a sense of abandoned despair to the environment? Such as: traffic jams, abandoned camps in the woods, indications of intense struggling when the "outbreak" occurred, evacuation zones? I'm willing to bet that this is a combo question between yourself and the artists who would have to create objects for your placement, but it was something that came up a lot on the subreddit.
A: At the moment we have a lot of plans on how to diversify and improve the environment in the game. Already prepared a huge list of objects that 3D artists will perform throughout the year. Certainly game world will gradually be filled with nice stuff that will help enrich the atmosphere.
Q: Can we expect more islands scattered about the map?
A: Depends on how many swimming means we will have in the future. Personally, I would prefer more lands instead of the sea.
Q: Are there any other buildings coming that'll be sprinkled throughout the map (like police stations and hospitals)?
A: Of course! It was only the first step. In the future, we can expect extending the functionality of the old cities, and more interesting buildings.
Q: Any plans to give the map more of a dynamic feel in the future? Such as probability %'s on the damaged vehicles or random "events" such as a downed heli (like the mod).
A: Who knows
Some simple yes/no questions.
Q: Is Cherno/Elektro "finished" from a map design perspective?
A: Let's say ... If I will have time I am pleased remade them. Just at the moment we are trying to focus on the creating of new cities.
Q: Will the actual size of the map ever increase?
A: Unfortunately we are limited by the physical size of map that was set at the Chernarus for Arma 2 (15.360km x 15.360 km) long time ago, perhaps in the future we will find a way to extend
the border, but right now talking about it too early.
Q: Have you guys thought of locations for your next bad ass terrain?
A: :P
Q: Will one of the new northern cities be close to Cherno/Elektro size?
A: Yep, i can ensure you, if all goes according to plan, the northern zone will have at least two cities with Cherno / Elektro size.
Q: The corn fields you and Ivan spoke of on twitter, will those become a reality one day?
A: Probably in future.
http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/205s6b/as_promised_the_senchi_interview/
