Battle on the Outer Rim
Emambu breaks out the interrogation light again to hear from Evan about his upcoming Battle on the Outer Rim series. Although not revealing much about the plot, Evan describes how he got into editing and some of his design work for the level thus far.
Let's start off by telling us a little bit about yourself. Who are you and what got you interested in Star
Wars and editing?
I am Evan Carson. In the JK editing world I'm a level editor at Saberworks. I got started when I had played
through all the JK levels and went looking for a way to make my own. I found JED and made a couple of small SP levels and kept on editing.
Do you have any previous editing experience? Have you released any levels before now?
Haven't released anything wonderful. Just some early SP levels(pre-warzone stuff) and a couple small MP
levels.
As most people know, there are numerous paths to choose form when creating a level. What made you settle
with the premise of your level? Also, why did you decide to have the main character be imperial instead of a rebel (or Katarn)?
I wanted to make a level from a different point of view than the usual. I was definitely not going to add to
the masses of Kyle levels out there and a lot of other people have done rebel based storylines so an imperial intelligence officer was what I
settled on.
Can you tell us a little bit about the plot surrounding the level? Will there be any surprises or twists
along the way? Any sub-plots?
Being an intelligence agent you have been sent to investigate a group of pirates on the outer rim. The
pirates seem to be working with the rebellion, so your job is to find out if this is true or not. There will be plot twists but I won't reveal them
yet :)
What kind of new characters or personalities, if any, will be in your level? From what I know, currently you
have us playing an imperial (Sergeant Eric Dalth). What kind of character is he? Will he have his own look or will he look like a stormtrooper?
There'll be a couple new characters apart from Eric Dalth. There'll be a power-hungry darkjedi introduced in
the second level as well as some other minor characters. He'll look different depending on his mission. In level 1 he'll be disguised as a smuggler
but in later levels he'll be different depending on his mission.
How many levels will be released, total?
Three or four, Only planning on 2 normal sized levels, the others will be small darkjedi ones.
Will the levels be released separately or as a pack?
Originally separately but possibly will be combined later and re-released.
Let's get into the levels themselves. What kind of architecture and overall design do you have planned? Will
it be more then a random series of boxes?
I hope so! I'm a fan of the fuel station level from JK so I like pipes a lot and this is shown in levels 1
and 2. I'm hoping that the strengths of these levels will be the architecture.
How did you plan it? Did you make it up as you went along or did you sketch out the architecture and set it
up first before creating it?
The first level I just made the level and then chose a story to fit. Level 2 is slightly more planned out.
Level 3 was another thrown together one.
What kind of enhancements, or features, do you have in store? Will there be any new COG's, MAT's, 3DO's,
PUP's, AI's, etc?
I'd say somewhere along the lines of 30-40 new cogs, lots of 3do's and a couple new enemies. Where necessary,
there'll be new pups and animation. Weapons wise there won't be much different, at this stage I have only 1 new weapon planned.
Since this is MOTS, will there be any colored lighting?
Yep, I use colored lighting a lot.
What kind of mood do you want to put the player in? How do you plan to use the lighting and atmosphere to
create said mood?
The mood changes depending on where the player is. In cantinas there'll be bright lights but in the mines and
tunnels I've used the lighting for a darker, more eerie atmosphere. It should be a very immersive level and to help achieve this I have got a few
good voice actors to play each character. Hopefully this means the player is drawn into the levels more.
Just a general question here: Why did you decide to edit on the MOTS engine as opposed to the JK one? Is it
easier to edit, or is it MOTS features, or is it something else?
The main reason I chose MOTS was for colored lighting. It is a huge improvement over the JK lighting system.
I've used a lot of the new enemies too but mainly the lighting. Colored lighting offers so much when it comes to atmosphere.
Do you plan on making an updated version of your levels if the need to arises?
I hope I won't have to but if there is something drastically wrong with the level that people want fixed I'd
try to fix it up.
Do you have a targeted release date for your levels?
Sometime in the next couple weeks I hope (for level 1 anyway).
Any final comments, thoughts, reflections, or criticisms towards the interview or anything else in general?
Well, I just hope people like the levels. Thanks for the interview.
Thank you for your time. I can't wait until "Battle on the Outer Rim" is released.