KoolBear's Descent - [LL]Atan's Descent Level Designer Interview

So, (LL)Atan tell us a little something about yourself. You know BIO type stuff the usual age, location, motto and shoe size. No wait forget the shoe size

Well I'm 48 years young, coming from Northern Germany near the Baltic Sea and about a motto... Try to be friendly always..

What nickname have you flown under from the earliest days (those you care to share)

From the beginning I have used (LL)Atan, I never changed it or used any other. No need to hide behind new names.

Are you married, do you have any children? I can't see how with all the time you must spend on the DescentBB and developing new toys for us Descent'rs!

I'm married and have two children. Both are going there own ways now, so I'll own some time more for my hobbies now

What are your Other Hobbies?

Computer, Programming, Books, guitar, chess

I think I probably speak for most Descent'rs on the NET when I say THANKS FOR your time spent to create the levels we enjoy.

Thanks, hope I reached some players with my style of level building.

How did you start playing Descent, Descent 2, and D3?

Playing the D1 Demo.. and I was captured by this game :)

What has playing Descent done for you?

Produced a lot of work and sure.. fun.

Why do you continue to play Descent?

in my opinion it's still the best game, worth playing it.

OK, well let's get this party on the road! Speakin' of road/mines how many levels have you developed?

Missions Designed/Created by (LL)Atan
Version	Mode	Name	Detail
D1	SP	Arkon 1-3	included in Ironblade a 7 level set, a project with Grant Hallman and Lars Christensen


D2	MP	Star 01 - Star 16
		TwoStar
		FourStar

	SP	Moon 01 - Moon 14
		Harqyjia	(4+1 levelset);
		Lagrande	project with Grant Hallman and Lars Christensen


D3	SP	FiringRange

	MP	Bf01
		Bf02
		SubwayDancer
		The 'Town of Bree'	level in Lord of the Rings. A Fellowship level I did with Roadi and Fischlein
		Blown Starship	Both MOD and NO MOD versions

Means around 47 released Descent levels up to now, not counting the
rest..
SubwayDancer seems to be the most popular one out of this list.
Sure I'm a little proud seeing it is still being played.

Built some little tools/programs ...
D2-Tools
D2-Custom Robots
D2-Briefing
D3-Mods
D3-LevelScripting
D3-Robots
CustomAI for them
D3-weapons

and still programming a little around with D3Edit.

What/Who influenced you to try Descent and when was that?

As I said, I got the Demo, it was attached to a Game magazine, maybe 91-92?, can't remember.

When did you create your first level, what was it, and was it "good"?

I had no connect to the www that time, so I never saw something about the Descent scene in the world, but I got a CD containing many 'selfmade D1 level' and was disappointed.
99% of them I disliked.
But I got my first editor with this CD too, it was Devil.
I started with building Singleplayer levels and sure they were good ones, heh, for me

I shared these with my friend and he liked playing them, this feedback was the engine to work ahead.
On the other hand I made some Multiplayer levels too, we liked to play them at that time, today I would prefer other level styles

Why do you spend countless hours developing Descent Levels?

A question which I asked myself often..
Maybe it's because I can create something, and produce some fun for ppl who like this.

Of all your levels can you say hey this is my favorite level in each of Descent, D2 and D3, come on I know you have a few, so give me a few then?

You mean out of my own levels?
D1: Arkon 2
D2: Moon 13, and sure Lagrande where I did the new custom robots and destroyable boxes
D3: My new one: Blown Starship, I put such a lot eyecandy inside and it's still playable, have a look.

OK, I really want to know what level designer style sticks out in your mind, you know every time you get a level from him/her, you have to stop/unzip/load/look at his/her levels?

Hard to say, because I don't prefer a single designer.
I respect all who spent so much time in creating level, building tools.
Just a few names: DwnUndr, Otherone, Lars, Roadi, Fischlein, (LL)Dark, (LL)Diti and all the now unnamed.

Tell us a little something about your current Descent related project(s).

I can't say that I'm focused to ONE project only, I'm playing around with a lot of stuff always.

I'm still working at D3Edit, added some new stuff in the meantime but I'm focused at BNodes now.
Hope I can make life easier for the very few SP Designer by this ;)

(LL)Dark and me still working at one SP Levelset, here I'm doing some custom objects, level scripting, custom weapons, new robots + AI. SP building is a very hard, we are working 2 years now at this levelset, but just 2 levels are ready.

DwnUndr requested a D2 like Smartmine, so DigiJo made the hardware (mine) and I programmed the needed dll for it. The mine is in test phase now, hope I can finish this one.
It works good in SP level, but online I run into trouble with it.

My own Entropy Mod is still in work.

And I'm playing around with 'LevelCheck', this is a little D3Mod that provides Room/Level information by flying through your level, it's just a designer tool.

My own SP project idea is growing, some new MP ideas.. ok, enough said

What do you want to say to the Descent'rs that use your levels?

Thank you for playing my levels, I hope you have fun and nice fights.

Where do you see Descent headin in the future?

Even if it's a little old now, it's a great kind of game. No blood, but a lot of action inside.
Today's hardware makes it really good and playable.
But I can't see that a D4 would be a new hit if it would just follow D1, D2, D3...
Maybe a combination of Inside/Outside (the pyro!!) gameplay could give it new energy.
Thinkable a team controlled Pyro, i.e. Pilot and gunner.
Teams could share work, some are flying and some are as foot-trooppers
defending homebase against other Pyros (using anti air weapons)
and protecting the base against possible landed trooppers.
What about capturing enemies pyros at their home bases, limited flight energy,
destroying Energy centers and so on so on..

WHEW, long winded huh!
Is there anything you would like to add?

All level designers take their energy from the feedback, remember always

In closing, Descent RULEZ because of people like you that are reading this and people like (LL)Atan for keeping new and exciting things coming our way!

Thank you for reading this and Atan for taking the time to share some of himself with us!