A few words with Michael Crisp (Micky C) by Puritan on November 30-2014

Age : 21 (2014)
Location : Australia
Occupation : Civil and Structural Engineering Student (will graduate as a Geotechnical Engineer).

CGS : When did you first get in touch with Build/Mapster?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : It must have been late 2009, when I started modifying the original Duke maps and then started my proper first map. I did try making a really simple map a year or so before that, but when I tried putting enemies in, they wouldn't do anything in-game, which was pretty frustrating and it put me off for a while. In hindsight I wasn't using the actual actor tiles. To think I could have had an extra year of skill behind me. D'oh! I didnt even know Duke 3D existed until about 2007/8, when I decided to do a bit of research on one of the first games I remember playing; the shareware version of Duke Nukem 2. When I first found it, I thought "aww that's cute, they made an obscure FPS game for him," and tried it out of curiosity. I instantly loved everything about it and got the full version. Then I joined the 3DR forums and as you know, later started mapping.

CGS : What was your first map, released or unreleased?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : "Action Time on 7" was my first map made from scratch. It used the HRP, polymer lighting, and Dukeplus. It's not bad for a first map and avoided several pitfalls that noob mappers tend to fall into, although the layout didn't make a whole lot of sense. Nobody could really play it though due to polymer's unoptimised state. But it was definitely a good learning experience as I tried out pretty much all the effects in it.

CGS : What is your favourite among your own maps?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : Hmm that's a tough one. I'm definitely proud of Parkade, since it was the first full sized map to make extensive use of TROR. It had a lot of original TROR tricks in there and pushed a lot of limits, plus had an intricate 3D layout. CBP 8, which I was in a semi leadership position for and did heavy polishing for is also up there for me, even though I can't really take credit for most of it. Then again I'm also happy with the canyon work and UFOs in my DNF 2013 DLC map, and some of my AMC TC Episode 2 maps are pretty good in their own way (especially "Ghost Ship")... there's really no one map that's my absolute favourite. It'll probably end up being something released a few years from now; "Micky Begins" for AMC TC Episode 3.

CGS : How many maps have you done?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : Boy that's a messy question. 2 vanilla maps by myself, 3 or so collab/CBP maps, 1 for that DNF thing. Maybe the equivallent of 6 or 7 maps tied up with the AMC TC, and even a polymer map for Zykov Eddy's Quake TC demo "in the works". Plus of course several abandoned bits and pieces over the years, especially early on in my mapping days. Played around with WGRealms 2 for a long time but my skills were always improving and ultimately I was never happy with any of the stuff I did for it. I'd say less than a quarter of the good stuff I've made/working on has actually been released.

CGS : Where do you get inspiration from?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : I like to base my maps around a central idea, like a location or gameplay aspect/special effect, and just build off that. E.g my CBP 8 segment had rotating rooms, Parkade was the first true multiple story building map, the DNF map had flying saucers around the place. Most of the time the ideas flow from that fairly well, building on how things should logically progress or otherwise what would be cool. But of course with a little bit of foresight so that things tie together well. I generally pay special attention to making sure that certain things like height variation or strong shading etc make it somewhere in the map, which in itself can generate further inspiration. And of course if there's something in a game I really like I might try to do something loosely based on it, and to a lesser extent movies. My 2nd map, and one of the AMC TC maps I'm working on are based on real life locations (my high school library and a big chunk of my university respectively), so there's that as well.

CGS : Do you listen to music whilst mapping? If so, what did you listen to?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : Sometimes. Personally I'm not into music, which can lead to awkward situations when friends start talking about nothing but bands and I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs (I'm the only person I know who's not into music). However sometimes I listen to music from other games, either because they're meant to invoke a certain kind of atmosphere, or maybe because I associate them with a certain segment of cool gameplay. If I already have a track picked out for my map, sometimes I listen to that while mapping too, although I have to switch it off if I'm mapping for an extended period otherwise I'd probably end up hating it. I actually sometimes watch tv shows on my computer while mapping. Helps me get through some of the more tedious, repetitive aspects of mapping. I don't do that very much though.

CGS : Do you see mapping as competitive?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : That depends on the definition. Naturally mappers aren't people at each other's throats, obsessed with making the best map ever. However I firmly believe that each and every map should have *something* that sets it apart from all the other maps out there. And in that respect mapping is competitive because you're competing for uniqueness. Your map needs to have something that no map has ever done before (e.g a location, theme, or special effect/gameplay situation), or improves on an aspect of another map, or otherwise is a damn solid piece of work, such as perfectly emulating the 3DR style, or incredibly polished. IMO at the end of the day if your map doesn't have something distinguishing about it that makes it stick in someone's mind, and then you've failed. Of course you can still have really fun, well-built maps without distinguishing features, but then they should stick in the player's mind anyway if they're that good.

CGS : Do you still touch Build/Mapster?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : Yes, I'm still pretty active with it. My activity varies at different times of the year; obviously not too much during the semester since university is pretty time consuming, but I try to map when I can, and sometimes it can be a nice distraction from uni work. Many, many hours are spent in it during holidays. I easily spend a lot more time in the editor than actually playing the game.

CGS : Are you playing any DN3D maps these days?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : Not as much as I should, I'll admit. Like I said, I spend most of my Duke time in mapster. I haven't yet played all the classic maps, and I've definitely let some fantastic looking maps pass me by, because I'm always "too busy". I keep telling myself this but I really need to set apart some time and just play all the maps I've missed from the last year or two. I tend to have a quick look at new releases in mapster to see if there's anything interesting about them and how well they're made overall, rather than actually playing them. I know I'm probably spoiling the maps like that and am missing out on the experience, but as an engineer it's very efficient. Classic Duke is starting to wear a bit thin with me, and as I've been playing more FPS games with RPG elements lately, I've come to prefer a bit of RPG and continuity in Duke, as can be had in the Attrition mod. I really need to start playing more maps...

CGS : What's your favourite map of all time?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : Another tough question without an exact answer. Gambini's It Lives is quite brilliant in terms of detailing and incredible use of vanilla effects original and interesting ways, but then again it's everyone's favourite map, and I've probably had more fun playing other maps, so for those 2 reasons I'm shooting that down. Although I haven't played it in forever, I remember having a lot of fun with Spiker's Project Zero; just the gameplay and the whole 'mission' feeling to the thing, as well as variety in gameplay. Although I have a strange feeling that if I play it again I won't like it as much, so I'll let that stay in my memories. Mill Town Rampage by David B left an impression on me with its realistic design using the HRP; really good stuff. I also really enjoyed the large, natural/medieval themed environments and gameplay of WGR2, as well as the large, intricate maps of the AMC TC, with its deep gameplay and story as well as its varied design and great special effects. In terms of mods I'm a fan of DanM's great Duke Nukem Eternity episode which had good, realistic layouts, architecture, and solid gameplay with neat use of Dukeplus features, all accentuated with well-done polymer lighting. While on the topic of mappers, James Stanfield does very nice things with contrast (coloured lights etc) and has a very good eye for detail and texture combinations (especially when custom textures are involved). I've learnt and improved an incredible amount since I started working with him on the AMC TC. Sorry for the rant, but I can't really narrow it down. It's probably one of my own maps, not that I can narrow those down much either. Actually.. on second thought there's a map a random guy called Snowball recently made for the AMC TC called Zeta Base, set on Mars. The look and feel of the map is incredible and it's easily one of the more ambitious maps out there, certainly one of the largest maps. Very natural, believable and lived-in as far as Duke maps set on mars go. I hope he makes more.

CGS : What are your opinion about the HRP and Polymer projects?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : I think the HRP looks pretty good, especially when used with polymer lighting with all the textures' spec and normal maps. Mappers like Mia Max, DanM and David B can and are doing some fantastic looking stuff with it. Don't forget that I started out with the HRP and polymer. Of course I'm primarily a classic assets mapper now for a few reasons. 1; it took way too long to scroll through the tile selection screen with the HRP as the tiles loaded, and 2; I realized that the low resolution of 8-bit art makes a lot of tiles somewhat ambiguous, which means the original tileset is a lot more flexible than the HRP. It would take me a bit of time if I were to get back into HRP mapping though because some of the HRP textures have slightly different colours and styles to their original counterparts which could affect which texture combinations I'd use. It also helps with framerate during gameplay. I really hope that polymer gets optimised in a reasonable timeframe, since I'd love to do some epic stuff with polymer lights, probably with classic textures (for performance) but who knows.

CGS : What other games do you fancy?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : I don't play a lot of games these days, partly because I don't have the time I had when I was younger, and also because a lot of games just don't interest me. I used to like Real Time Strategy games a lot like the Command and Conquer and Age of Empires series (more recently Starcraft 2), but not so much these days. Obviously I also like First Person Shooters like Duke 3D, Serious Sam, Shadow Warrior. More recently I've been getting into the Deus Ex series as well as games like Bioshock Infinite which I'm really enjoying. It's nice to have really deep gameplay sometimes. Then again it's also nice to have simpler, but solid gameplay like Duke 3D at other times.

CGS : Finally, is it something you'd like to say to the DN3D community?
Michael Crisp (Micky C) : Sure. Even though I've only been a part of the community for 5 or 6 years, it's one that I'm proud to be a part of. There's a lot of good content out there and I'm sure that people will stick around and continue to make content for a few good years to come. If the eduke devs are reading this, hurry up and finish polymer and multiplayer; those things are essential to the community's long-term survival! If you've played my maps, thanks for playing them, and if you haven't played my maps, what are you waitin' for; christmas? Try them out now, especially the newer stuff. Keep on Duking

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