http://www.3drealms.com/gethired.html

Apogee and 3D Realms are die hard game players who make games without marketing pressure, corporate management, or arbitrary release dates. We make games we want to play, and we work on them until they are perfected and done.

Understatment of the fucking year.

Anyway, 3d Realms wants to hire level designer's to sit around their offices all day not making Duke Nukem Forever.

Job requirements:

Unreal / UnrealEd experience is a huge plus. You will need to learn our rendering, lighting and game play trigger systems, but placing brushes is similar.
Ability to construct level geometry, as well as texture and light it to reasonable aesthetic standards.
Ability to add game play, AI, scripted events.
Do all the above while maintaining frame rate and within technical constraints.
Technical knowledge and thinking. You will deal more with technology than you will with art.
You will not create art assets for your levels.
Ability to design missions, analyze what's fun about games and mold all that into an experience.
Prior game development experience with a first person shooter is a very strong plus, but not required. But we're working on an FPS, so it would be nice if you were a fan and knowledgeable of the genre.
This is a full-time position with relocation to Garland, Texas (suburb of Dallas), USA.

Benefits:

Competitive salary, based on skill and experience.
Signing bonuses available (into 5 figures based on experience).
All moving expenses paid.
Medical / Dental benefits.
You share in the profits of every dollar we make, on the games you ship, as long as you are employed here.
Small close-knit shop (25 people), and we focus all our efforts on one killer title at a time.
In business since 1987. Never had a loan. Never had layoff's. Multiple million selling titles leading to an extremely stable, and successful environment.

More info on the page 

I guess I need to have more maps under my belt before I start applying for level design jobs. The thing is though, in this day and age, would I be taken seriously if I'm still doing stuff for Quake 1? 

highly doubt that. Would be cool though, but mapping tools, standards and requirements have evolved so far beyond Q1. 

No one cares about Q1 mapping anymore except us, and even if they did they probably wouldn't have a copy of Q1 sitting around to test your maps. 

DaZ did manage to get hired not too long ago based solely on his Q1 maps. But maybe that's just saying something about the UK industry. 

Mapping for the Q1 engine, but not limiting myself to 1996/7 standards. AFAIK, the editor I am using to make Quake levels is also being used to create Half-Life 2.

But I do agree that after I finish my next map I should definately move on to a newer game. 

If you can make a first rate (and I know you have it in you) shooter total conversion (meaning in this case the end user doesn't need Quake) using a modern varient of the Quake engine, I think it could only help your chances of getting employed, if that is your goal.

Or if that sounds like a LOT of work, other things you could do to impress them -- improve the AI and Physics and stream line that Spaghetti code we call QuakeC. Another idea, replace QuakeC altogether with a modern embedable language like Lua which is becoming a game industry standard. That'll impress them as well.

Personally, I like what I do to get buy; the livin' is easy and I meet the strangest people on the planet, but if I ever burn out of it, I could see persuing the Dream as well. 

If someone applied for a design[1] position with a portfolio of quake maps rather than a more modern game like, say, UT2004... would that be a disadvantage?

* People are less likely to have Quake installed, so they're less likely to be arsed looking at the maps.

* But on the other hand you could make a nice cd that boots into quake[2], which is even better than having to shout round for a copy of UT.

* A quake map is not going to have the same impact (particularly graphically).

* But on the other hand, most design principles remain the same, and it shows you're not just a graphics whore.

* So it's swings and roundabouts, but a quake map certainly wouldn't disqualify you.

Personally, I'd play it safe and go with a more modern game and add some variety (e.g. ut and bf), but it's not a clear cut decision.

[1] Important! Not a level builder.
[2] http://raket.tty0.org/~jogi/ 

I am a lowly gameplay coder, not a producer - but I do get to talk to them occasionally. 

Well, I'd consider anything if it means I have a shot at getting into the industry.

I don't really have the time to do a one-man TC, and besides, I'm no programmer (although I do have a rather solid grasp of QuakeC). I did make quite a few enhancements to the monster AI in Bastion - nothing really major, but most notably I made a "monsterguide" system which allows better route finding in combat situations.

I guess all I can do really is make my next level as good as I possibly can, and re-assess my situation then. 

Ok, so I'm not very good at this talking thing. My apologies. For the people who are still confused:

1) I am not a producer.
2) I went and asked an (unnamed) producer the question that isn't in quote marks.
3) He rambled on for bloody ages, so I summarised his points in quote marks.

If you're still confused, try inserting nearby heavy objects into your skull. 

Some cool insights there :) I guess I could stick everything they need on a cd - besides, with the plethora of custom engines available, you can still make Quake look quite spiffy (Tenebrae anyone?) 

My first reply was for HeadThump, before you posted yours :) 

Sorry, I wasn't calling you confused. It's these fucking eunuchs on irc. Glad to help :] 

you're not a producer? 

I was hired by Eurocom in May last year as a game designer, not a level designer. The difference is that I only concerned myself with placing entities / scripting / gameplay stuff while the 3d artists / level designers made the actual maps. The closest I got to making actual maps would have been making super simple box maps with the layout required to create a certain gameplay situation.

SO there is quite a big difference between game designer and level designer. Im sure 90% of people here know this already but I just wanted to say that for anyone that wasn't sure/didn't know.

My opinion is that Q1 mapping is enough to get a game designer position, if you can show that you understand the games mechanics and can create levels which use these mechanics well and so so consistently, then thats a great start. The other thing I would suggest greatly is learn how to script events as more and more games use scripting now and is quite a major part of a game designer position. 

Dark Places Quake IS a more advanced renderer than UT2003 and at only a fraction of the size. So it seems to me that it would be easier, even if you were a graphics whore, to carry around a portfolio based upon that instead of having to dig up copies of one of the several different versions of Unreal.

Daz has a great point about scripting, however, which Quake has limited native support (I'm thinking of Scourge, Lost Mines). 

.. considers modelling now part of mapping. So if you can use the latest modelling package as well as make Quake maps, you may be OK. This week. 

Hi I'm starting a new quake mod here's what it's about.

Basically it's a Single Player first person shooter that has midevil and futuristic themes combined.

This is a serious mod, and i'm a serious quake 1 modeller. I can make pretty good models for quake standards. I really need a good mapper who can make a couple of maps for a demo, that's all I need right now.
The player is an elven who has to defend his community from an alien takeover.
The game includes already implemented features such as alternate and primary fire, flitching corpses (when you shoot them) multi-attack monsters, and bosses.
The weapons are:
1 Duel Swords
2 Cross Bow
3 Riot Gun
4 Tesla Rifle
5 Devastator
6 Chain Blade Cannon
7 Ion Blaster
8 Staff of the Hell Iron

The maps should have a dusk-futuristic setting, and I will provide you with custom textures with a constant theme.

I have new monsters that I need to program and then will be ready to implement. They include:

horde-monger - a machine gun toting soldier troop who's alternate attacks include grenade and melee

captain - a sniper that is better skilled at melee combat and has martial-art like moves.

trelapaehc - a large gargoyle creature with long claws on its feet and machates for hands

The player will also be able to gain experience from monsters and eventually be able to "level up" for such attributes as

strength- allows the player to wear heavier armor and carry more ammo

health- pretty self explanatory

speed- increases players running and attack speed (even for guns)

I'll be using the darkplaces engine which is way better than the normal quake engine.

The models are very high poly and I'm also using a feature that allows the mapper to place any model he/she wants in the map without any qc programming on their part.

I put in a feature for the riot gun so that when the player shoots a monster, the monster continously flinches and can't counter-attack. Very funny to watch.

This Total conversion is redoing everything in quake, I even made a new conchars font.

Let me know if you're interested thanks. 

I say this on Rust, dated July 2, 2004:

Pineapple Interactive Ltd a UK based game developer is seeking a level designer.

The job entails using in-house tools to create large open plan game play areas for an upcoming action adventure title for Xbox and PC.

The successful applicant will be a dedicated and creative individual who has experience in level editing and scripting and has the ability to bring design concepts to life.

Please send multiple examples of your work (level editing + scripting preferred) to barog@pineapple-interactive.com

--
Simon Barratt, Lead Developer, Pineapple Interactive Ltd
e: barog@pineapple-interactive.com

Source: http://www.gamedesign.net 

http://finger.planetquake.com/plan.asp?userid=rjohnson&id=16241
Not mapping, but not everyone here only maps

User Interface ( UI ) Designer
This person will be responsible for both creating in-world UI�s ( control panels, consoles, information panels, etc) as well as player interface menus for a Doom3 based product. UI's will be written in a custom language that is part of the Doom3 engine. Raven has constructed an integrated visual tool which assists the user in creating most UI functionality.

Qualified applicants should be familiar with / demonstrate:
* Adobe Photoshop 7.0
* Adobe Illustrator
* Quake3 / Doom3 style shaders / materials
* Quake3 UI ( .menu scripting format a plus )
* Strong visual layout and design skills, both in terms of visual appearance as well as functionality
* HTML, DHTML, ASP, JSP, Java Script, PHP, or Flash experience is desirable

Responsibilities will include:
* Fully concept out, draw, and implement UI�s
* Balance the visual appearance vs. rendering cost
* Script in functionality based on user input or other events
----------------

Too bad I don't know Illustrator (I have it though) or anything with Q3.. I applied anyway =\ 

http://www.angelfire.com/weird/danstuff/dp0000.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/weird/danstuff/dp0001.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/weird/danstuff/dp0002.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/weird/danstuff/dp0003.jpg

These are screenshots of Horde so far. If you're interested in helping me out with making some levels for it, please let me know, my email address is dannyj86@yahoo.com or go to irc.gamesurge.net and
on channel #qc and you can usually find me there. Thanks for reading.

Chillo 

nice angelfire logo on every link.... 

.. is going on on this page?
http://www.angelfire.com/weird/danstuff/ 

mommy, i'm scared