Hello, my name is Alexander and I’m a Level Designer at People Can Fly. I’m a worried man. There is no other explanation. The other day I was routinely playing through one of my levels. All of a sudden I triggered a combat situation so fun that I immediately felt it warranted for a new Skillshot. I even thought of a name for it – “Blindfire” and it involves the player doing stuff while being blinded by an enemy. What follows is a recount of me trying to get it into the game.
Being the proactive team member that I am and willing to share every idea that sometimes sparkles through my mind, I knew whom to go to. Or so I thought. Arcade – our Game Designer – is always willing to listen to new ideas. Full of enthusiasm, I approached him and told all about the awesomely amazing Skillshot I had come up with. The response was quite positive but suspiciously devoid of “Yes! I’m gonna do it right away” feel in it. Oh well, he is a busy guy, our Arcade. Having fulfilled my duty, I returned to my tasks and bugs.
I kept reminding him about it during the day. I was reassured that it’d most definitely be implemented asap. The next day I encountered Arcade at the kitchen manipulating a salt container… which is not the point. The point is that I threw yet another “By the way, Arcade, the Blindfire thing…” at him and got yet another “Un-huh, you’re absolutely right! Gonna do it!” before he rushed off into the artists’ area.
Time seemed to fly by. When all my bitchin’ failed to produce a result, I finally confronted Arcade by his desk. He made the most serious of faces as if saying “I am going to do it today. Honest.” He then pulled out one of his numerous notepads and wrote down a to-do task: “Blindfire Skillshot!”. I felt relieved. For a moment. He wrote it in one place that I knew he would never-ever look in again – his Polish classes notebook.
It's in there!
Now, constantly reproducing that Skillshot sequence when playing, I was getting annoyed for not getting the reward.
Then, when all hope was lost, I got a short email:
My friend.
That’s right – a task submitted to the programmers to implement the “Blindfire” Skillshot. And it was – the very same day. When I checked the actual dates, only three days had passed since I first brought the whole thing up. Maybe I just worry too much. Because things do get done around here, ideas do get implemented, and – the most shocking of all – Arcade actually reads things in his Polish classes notebook.
Always as satisfying when an idea of your own gets into the game. It’s to die and live for… as well as Arcade’s polish notes…
Its true, some very persistant people have died of old age after taking it upon themselves to understand Arcades handwriting.