| Interview with the Présage Team |
By Jason
'FACE.UK' Sloan |
This is an interview with Présage,
who were the team behind Cyberdreams. The team is made up of two people Dense13
aka Gonzalo Pérez de la Ossa and Vrooomer who is also known as Albert Valls and
frequents the demo scene quite often.
Names:
D: Gonzalo Pérez de la Ossa
V: Albert Valls
Age:
D: 28
V: Born two/twenty-two/seventy-three
 First
Time You Played Doom?
V: Wow, this takes me way back... I’d swear it was in early December, 1994.
I just had bought a brand new 486-66Mhz 8Mb RAM, and a friend at College persuaded
me to come home and install some games. He brought his copy of Doom2 with him...
“I’m not sure you’re gonna like it, but you should give a try to this one”, he
said. I had never heard of the game, and didn’t stop complaining about its size
on the HD. I wanted to install the PC version of Arkanoid instead, you know...
J It’s funny, I can remember myself dealing with map 28 the day before Christmas
as I was listening to the latest King Crimson release, hehe.
D: I can tell you the day I finished Doom2 for the first time: Oct 20th, 1996.
Which is definitely a special date, since it was also the first time I used an
editor for Doom.
Would you say that you are more of a player or a map maker?
D: Obviously I enjoy playing Doom, but if I'm still connected to the Doom Community
it's because of map making, undoubtedly.
V: I used to have more interest in editing
than in other Doom disciplines. Actually most of my uploaded maps (except Beresith,
‘00) aren’t very new (1997-98). And all of them but the CyD ones are DM-only.
That’s because Gonzalo and I started to play DM in early ’97, and thus our trend
to work on our own DM maps. My playing skills were really crap then J, until I
started using the mouse in... can’t remember quite accurately, maybe it was autumn
’98. Afterwards, I started to change my preferences, and focused more on improving
my SP abilities. Finally, my ‘career’ as speedrunner begins in ’99, when I planned
to get an ‘unbeatable’ full demo collection for CyD.
What gives you your inspiration for your maps? Do you have one
particular idea and then base maps around it or just start and see what happens
when you finished?
V: Hm...hard to say, since almost all the maps I’ve done so far are kinda peculiar.
I’d say option two is the appropriate for me, although I think the Beresith set
is more consistent in comparison with, let’s say some of my CyD stuff. I mean
the CyD maps were built so that the map ‘worked’ in a specific way. They didn’t
have to be specially good-looking, not even admitted a classic SP map strategy;
they just had to be ‘functional’...and most of all, innovative. I admire all good
SP mapmakers who know how to add the correct mixture of these elements on their
work. THAT is difficult.
D: I don't think much about that. What's true is that I often try to find an unexpected
motif for the project, and then see what happens (think about CyberDreams, Machine1
or Frenzy).
 Do
you still have the first wad that you made and if you do where is it?
D: Yes, I do! It was a Doom1 map called '11gon.wad'. It's well kept in my 'DoomStuffCD',
and it shall stay there, for the sake of the Doom Community!In fact I began to
edit for Wolf with Mapedit... sigh, those were times, no VOF, no texture misalignments.
V: Of course I do have it too. And fortunately it has never been uploaded anywhere
(and it will never be!). It is a SP map named ‘Starless’, which I started and
finished in March ’97, after Gonzalo giving me some great and priceless DCK lessons.
Btw, it included the hugest room I’ve ever built in one of my maps. I don’t know
why, but I tend to think of slightly cramped zones...
Is there any reason why you seem to do more DM levels than single
player?
D: Probably the lack of free time, specially considering that I'm a quite slow
mapper (I could never enter one of the Speed Mapping contests).
V: Well, in a way we answered that previously... but, yeah, in a word, yeah there
is. More than one, actually. 1) We like DM; 2) We play DM from time to time; 3)
DM maps are easier and quicker for us to design. So there you go!
What are the most levels you have made in a single multi level
release and have you ever thought of or started a Total Conversion?
P: Obviously CyberDreams is our largest release. It started as three seperate
levels but soon it turned into a megawad project with some minor changes (which
could be called a PC -partial conversion). Since its release (May ’98), Présage
has seriously thought of getting back to the CyD stream twice. Our first idea
was to work on ‘CyberNightmares’, with a new 32-map wad using the new features
of engines such as Boom or ZDoom. This idea quickly died, though. And it was by
the time the CyD hp saw the light that we started working on ‘Insomnia’, a less
large compilation of maps which would work simply as an ‘add-on’ for CyD (this
is, only using the features in the original doom2.exe engine, as in CyD). ‘Insomnia’s
status is on stand-by right now; difficult to say which its future may be.
 Your
maps seem to be small. Do you prefer in your face Deathmatch rather than sneaking
around trying to find your enemy?
D: I can only play 1on1 deathmatch, so usually big maps become quite boring,
even if well designed. Besides, detailing a big map can be very time consuming,
and I'm tired of unfinished projects.
Machine 1. This is the strangest deathmatch level I have ever
seen. Where did you get the idea for it.
D: I guess it has a certain connection with some CyberDreams maps, specially
map 23, 'Hard Descent, Harder Climbings'. I like the idea of a DM map that changes
in time, not only the aesthetics but also the gameplay.
Your Beresith DM levels seem to have a lot of detail in them
without actually putting too much into the map it self. Do you work hard on getting
this balance?
V: Er...just a minute [Vrooomer takes a glance at the Bsith maps again...]
Well, certainly it is the time I’ve put more effort in giving some maps a fine
look. I tried to add not much of anything on them (hope you get what I mean),
so that they were consistent enough in all ways.
 Also
on your Beresith DM levels map 03 reminded me more of a CTF Map. Where did the
idea for this come?
V: Heh, I could expect any question relating map 03, except this one... Nothing
to do with /inspired on CTF mode. It is purely based on a CTC map instead (‘Capture
the Cyber’, this is) . The base of it is CyberDreams’ map 03, except for the fact
that I replaced the jailed Cybers with a couple weapons. And I gave it a ‘Beresith-esque’
look too. In other words, I tried to adapt the map to the brown-brick theme and
to the rest of Beresith maps’ playability. Not the best map here I think...
Thanks for answering our questions.
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