|
|
 |
| New Doom Interviews |
| Interview With Chris Hansen |
By Jason 'FACE.UK' Sloan |
Page 1 of 1
02/07/03 - We have an interview with someone most of you will have heard
of. His name is Christian-Nygaard Hansen. He runs The Doomer's Recess, which is
well known for its reviews. Chris is also the author of the CH Retro and the Flay
The Obscene series. And he's mad about Minis.
 Name?
*Computing...... beep....* Chris Hansen.
Age?
*Calculating...I...bzzzzzzzzzzz* 22
Website?
The DooMer's RecesS
Can you remember the first time you played DOOM?
Hell yeah! It was some time after its release, and computers didn't really
interest me that much. In fact, the only thing I knew about them was how to turn
them on and off. A friend of mine and his brother came over to load a couple of
games into this slow 486 SX-25. One of them was DOOM. At first I stumpled through
it getting killed by Former Humans pretty fast. Remember it was the first PC game
I had ever played at this time. Needless to say, I shit my pants in fear the first
time a Demon came running right at me! At E1M3 I was hooked, and needed more!
Much more! A couple of days later it had me in its grasp and I installed DOOM
II. After that, I just never let it go. Or did it never let ME go...
What is it that keeps making you come back to it?
Well it's like a cigarette, or a cop of coffee in my case. It's just plain
addictive! I really don't know what to say here... it puzzles me. Maybe it's the
fact that editing is so time consuming; a level in my case spans several weeks
or months. Time flies, you know.
What is the best wad you have played?
Uhh, Jason, tough one! I think it might be "The Darkening". No, not "Darkening
2", but the first one. It tought me everything. From how to create spectacular
environments with detail to scaring the player with various neat tricks. That
wad simply had it all and each level was extremely well made with the right amounts
of originality in design to involving the player in a classic and very DOOMish
gameplay through environments with great flow in them. It was scary, action packed
and gave us a new angle to DOOM designing.
What was the last one you played and was it any good?
I believe it was the "Mockery Teaser Release". And honestly it sucks! Bigtime!
However, if I'm not mistaken, that is its intent, because geeez, that's a bunch
of seriously ugly levels! Yet, I can't help but to think, that it must be difficult
for a designer to so drastically shift into a mode where everything has to look
like it was made by someone who doesn't know anything at all about editing. It's
harder than most people would think to remove any wellthought process in your
head, when you're actually a good designer like the authors of these levels are,
when working on something like this.
What levels are you working on at the moment?
A DOOM II level... There's 8 screenshots of it posted of it at my homepage
and soon there'll be 10, maybe 12.
Which editor(s) and tools do you prefer to use when making levels and which
port to you usually make your levels for?
I'm part of an elite group called "The DoomCAD'rs". Like a member quite appropriatly
said in the DW forums once: "I like connecting the dots!" And then it's good for
your health with those insanely stupid bugs that makes it crash if you're not
careful.. I don't edit for any specific port. I usually use zDoom to test my levels
that require a port because they are so tremendously overdetailed. It's mostly
my DOOM II levels that end up being labelled: "Use sourceport of your choice".
I aim at the vanilla Doom.exe when making an Ult. DOOM level, although a couple
of my "2002 A Doom Odyssey" episode 4 levels drown in VPO's.
 What
would you say is your best level you have made?
My breakthrough level "Flay The Obscene". Looking back at it, there is a lot
things that could have been better, but it was first real public release into
the big DOOM Community. It appeared at Team Insanity first I think, where it was
reviewed by Simon Varszeghy and received 9/10. It was my ticket into "Doom Millennium".
It is a good level with an interesting layout. I remember having a ton of ideas
for it when making it, and there was an endless stream of ideas coming out that
I had never had before. After having completed and released this level, I knew
that it was going to be part of a... well, trilogy. The last two "FtO" maps are
even better, and the third one is particularly memorable with it's blood pools
and advanced design.
As well as editing you are also known for you reviews. Have you ever really
upset someone with a bad review?
Hmm, I don't think so. Once there was this anonymous guy commenting to a news
thread regarding an update on TDR, at DoomCenter. He wasn't exactly positive and
complained in a let's just say, childish way. He was flamed, torn apart and squashed
pretty fast by a couple of 'community members'. All in all, I think I'm fair when
reviewing, and I think people are aware of the quality of their creations. I have
a couple of times talked people out of letting me review their wads, because I
felt it could permanently damage any potential future of theirs in the community.
Do you ever look back over some reviews and think that the score you gave them
was too much?
Yes, there is a couple. However, I won't tell you... And it wasn't overmuch.
Have you ever had a bad review yourself?
Well, yes. "Flay The Obscene -Part Two" was once deemed way too difficult by
a guy who is no longer involved in the DOOM community. At least I think so, his
site isn't available any more, which by the way was a review site in case you're
wondering.
When DOOM 3 does arrive do you think that DOOM and DOOM II will just fade away
or do you think levels will continue to be made for them?
In a rather angry state of mind after having visited alt.binaries.doom I wrote
this at my homepage
Now what I think will happen is that you will have all these First
Person Shooter fans (nothing wrong with that!) who've been playing Quake II,
Half-Life, Red Faction, Jedi Outcast and Soldier of Fortune 2 becoming big fans
of DOOM sometime in the near future after its release. Most of them will remember
the original game, however many will wonder why it's called DOOM III and start
roaming the Net for info, mods, cheats and levels about these mysterious prequels.
Eventually they'll wind up here or over at Swedish Fish's site, GG Inc., Jason
Sloans homepage or perhaps Kristian Aro's Brotherhood of Ruin homepage. They
won't understand what they see. Why is it so 'ugly' and where's the volumetric
lighting and advanced pixel shaders? They'll mail us by the ton on a daily basis
asking why they can't play the Classic Episode or Flay The Obscene with DOOM
III. New personal homepages will pop up with mods and levels to praise DOOM.
No, DOOM III, moron! Not fucking DOOM! DOOM III! Eventually they'll take over
at Doomcenter, Doomworld and NewDoom and leave no room whatsoever for news about
updates and pages like Karthik's, Hellcore or jDoom. Exsisting fans and die-hard
DOOM designers will convert and start editing for the new DOOM III. People like
me will become extinct. In the beginning we'll have two camps, then one. Or
maybe I'm wrong...
In retrospect, I might have been way off. I dunno, it's hard to tell what will
happen.
There has been talk of a DOOM movie flying around the internet and I was wondering,
do you think it would be a good idea if it was made? and Who do you think should
play the DOOM Marine?
Actually, no! There's not enough interesting substance in the DOOM story that
can even remotely justify a DOOM The Movie. It works as a computer game, leave
it at that. I mean, maybe Half-Life could have been a more interesting subject
as a movie on the count of its intrigueing story and political dilemma. If they
ever made a DOOM The Movie, the only correct actor would be Rainier Wolfcastle.
'Nuff said.
 Well
just before you go I know that you have a love of the good old British Mini. What
is it about the mini that you like?
Hell, look at it! The Volkswagen and Ford T. can take a walk! It's the only
true car of the century! It introduced a series of new aspects to car design while
still serving as the perfect little car in the middle of the oil-crisis years.
And then it has these old fashioned looks that make it stand out in the croud,
and that's something I take great value in; don't blend in! That's why I'm a DOOM
designer, got this Beckham styled Mohican haircut (which is it pretty wild in
my circle) and don't do things that are expected of me by the society around me
while still being a nice and law obedient guy. It's a fine line, and sometimes
it's hard to balance it perfectly. Some times I might just be a bit too ordinary
after all.
There is a movie called the Italian Job starring Michael Caine in which the
Mini features quite a bit. Have you ever thought of making an Italian Job TC?
I know a lot about that movie and have sadly enough never seen it. Can't seem
to find it anywhere. Perhaps if I knew something about editing for Carmageddon
II! Another favourite game of mine! Now that was an interesting angle, huh!?
Related Links:
· The Doomer's
Recess
· Doomer's
Recess Reviews
· 2001
ADO
« Interviews Index
« NewDoom.com Index
| | | |
