Name: Ron
Location: The Netherlands Wolf 3d Nickname: RonWolf1705
Q. Where did your nickname come from and why did you choose it?
A. It was one of those names that I settled upon because it sounded like a user name for a forum. I didn’t think particularly long about it – and it shows.
Q. When did you first play Wolfenstein 3d?
A. I was very young, I think 4 or 5 or so.
First we only had the shareware episode, which I played a lot. Later came the
full version, and my mind was blown. Even though more advanced games like Doom
were already around, I just naturally gravitated towards the more old-school
game.
Q. How did you come to be a part of the Wolfenstein 3d Community?
A. I was interested in creating my own maps –
I had discovered the Wolf3d Dome a long while ago and had downloaded mods from
there. But I always wanted to create something myself. The first editor that I
used was Floedit, and when I got a grip on that I wanted to move on to coding.
First I tried the coding tutorials over at the Dome, but when I did those I was
wondering if there were any more out there. So I googled it and that’s when I
found the DieHard Wolfers Forum. This was in 2006.
Q. What is the best part about being involved in the Wolf 3d Community?
A. The people. Not only people who are still
interested in this game, but people who have similar interests – be it music,
movies, etc. And I also enjoy the creativity they display, which in turn can
inspire me as well. The diversity in a forum also allows a user to see people
who take a different approach, and this is something you can learn from as
well.
Q. What made you go from playing mods to wanting to make your own?
A. Ever since I played Wolf3d I had wanted to
map; just to create, not with any intention to release anything but I think it
was playing the mods that led to me wanting to create mods myself. Some of the
first mods I played were by WSJ, BJ Rowan and AReyeP & MCS, and these mods
were so inspiring – I wanted to create something like that myself.
Q.
You are arguably one of the best mappers in the Community, how did you develop your mapping skills?
A. Practice, that is really the key. Looking
at the work of other mappers, see what tricks they use, how they decorate a room,
how they use the space in a map. Trying to find out what makes their maps work
so well. AReyeP’s hint section on his website was of great use to me when I
first started mapping, as it also gave me an insight in his creative process.
And another thing is to keep on trying new things. I started out mapping for
vanilla Wolf3d, and from there you make steps – incorporating coding features,
using floor & ceiling textures, etc. That’s how you evolve as a mapper, but
this also leads to a new way of mapping once you go back to vanilla Wolf3d
again. And finally, if you notice you are starting to repeat yourself (always
using 3-space hallways, guards hiding in the corner and such), try to keep
those tricks out and do something completely different. This is something I
originally learnt for my guitar playing, as I noticed that when I was
improvising a solo during rehearsals I went back to the same movements. That’s
when you have to decide to do something radically different – playing classical
music and incorporate those movements into your songs, or play like you’re a
sample machine. And this I brought into my mapping as well – to keep on
changing in order to not become stale.
Q. How did you feel about winning some of the 'Map of the Month' contests?
A. Naturally I’m flattered that the users of
the DHW forum regard my map(s) as the best of a round. It’s fun to do those contests,
and that’s why I’m participating, but it’s nice that your own creations are
appreciated.
Q. You have released several smaller themed
mods like stealth etc., how did you come up with the unique ideas for those
mods?
A. I had always wanted to do a stealth mod,
but I was always thinking big – and with my limited coding skills this meant
that I most likely would have to rely on someone else to do the coding. But
suddenly I just decided: I’m going to do this myself, and I’ll try to use my
limitations to my advantage. And I found out that limitations can actually
inspire creativity, as you have to work your way around your non-knowledge of
coding. And that’s how Stealth got made. And this is the same approach I took
to Bound and Sight – I just had a sudden idea gameplay-wise, which I know I
could do even though my coding skills were limited. It was a way of using my
limitations to my advantage. You don’t have to abide to the coding tutorials,
you can use them in other ways than intended in order to create something
different out of it.
Q. You were a part of Team Raycast when the
controversy over SonderKommando: Revolt
came out, what’s your view on the situation and how did you feel about the mod
being cancelled?
A. At the time I was very disappointed that
the mod got cancelled – I had worked very hard on those maps and at the time I
considered them to be the best maps I had done. As for my views on the
situation, I think censorship in any case is wrong, especially since you’re a
prisoner leading a revolt. I mean, we’re in an age where the biggest game in
the world puts the player in the shoes of a criminal – you can shoot and
torture innocents, rob people, etc. surely that is much worse than a
fictionalised tale of a revolt. Plus, with the resurgence of the far-right in Europe
I feel it is becoming more and more important to show the atrocities of WWII –
and not only the atrocities, but the mindset that led to them. The WWII
generation is dying, and if we forget the lessons learnt I fear we are going
down the same rabbit hole all over again.
However, I would like to state that the
game was at times very gruesome and gory, and I can see why this might disgust
people. On the other hand, given the setting this could be expected. But I’m
not much of a gore-hound myself, so I naturally prefer to tone it down in my
own mods.
Q. What has been the most rewarding thing
that’s come from Wolf 3d and your mods?
A. It enables me to create worlds, and to be
active in a creative way. Naturally I appreciate it when someone likes the work
I did, but I’m in it for the creative process.
Q. What are some of your favourite Wolf 3d mods that you’ve played other than your own?
A. I most likely am going to forget a couple
of mods, but here it goes: Spear: Resurrection & End of Destiny, Orb ofDilaaria, Totengraeber, Castle Totenkopf SDL, Absence, The GoldenEpisodes, Project: Weltuntergang, WolfCollection.
A. I have started mapping for the sequel to
Batman vs. Bane. There are also a couple of other projects in the pipeline, but
I cannot tell when they will come out. And maybe I will do another smaller mod
ala Stealth, but this I can’t say for sure; I might have the ideas, but not the
time to work on them.
Q. Do you have a 'dream' mod you'd like to make one day?
A. A long time ago, me and Megabyte had been
talking about an Inception mod and how we envisioned this; I think that one
would be cool to make. Other than that, I have a zombie mod in my mind that,
when I have thoroughly thought it true, I might propose to the other members of
Team RayCast.
Q. Why do you feel that Wolf 3d has such a long lasting legacy being it was released so long ago?
A. It’s a fun game. But also, it is easy to
edit and that might draw people to it. People who are interested in creating
their own worlds – but aren’t interested in investing hours and hours just to
get a basic hold of the mapping tools for a game. So it is very easy to jump in
and create something.
Q. Any words of wisdom you would like to leave us on?
A. Always be prepared, assumption is the
mother of all fuckups, and when you want to appear as a wise person – quote
others.
Wolfenstein Mods and Contributions
Released
Stealth
Sight
Bound
16x16
Operation Eisenfaust: Origins (With Team Raycast)
Operation Eisenfaust: Origins - Christmas Pack (With Team Raycast)
Batman V Bane (With Team Raycast)
SoD Extreme (With Team Raycast)
Cancelled
SonderKommando: Revolt (Moddb site)
Other Contributions
Map of the Month - June 2007
Map of the Month - July 2007
Map of the Month - August 2007
Map of the Month - September 2007
Map of the Month - October 2007 (Winning Entry)
Map of the Month - November 2007 - February 2008 (Winning entry)
Map of the Month - November 2013 (Winning entry)
Wolf 3d Community Mapset
DHW SDL Mapset
DHW SoD SDL Mapset
DHW TC
TAMapset Final Version
Operation Mutant Strike 3
Unreleased
Batman: No Man's Land (With Team Racast) (Moddb site)
Coding
Endlosung SDL
* From today RonWolf will be offically joining the team, look for a post from him coming soon *
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