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Reply With QuoteThis is an excellent idea and a good plan to do it the right way.
I'm kick starting a new feature at The Circle while the forums and site are bustling with activity. The goal is give our FM authors an honorable mention for all the hard work they've done and do, and give the community at large chance to know a little bit about the folks who have kept us thieving for so long. It's also, hopefully, going to encourage the Thief newbies who have just been introduced to Deadly Shadows to check out Thief 1/Gold & 2, as they and everyone else will be given teasers for dozens of classic, new, old and forgotten, "maybe deserve a second look" fan missions.
If you're an FM author, fill out the following questionnaire and email it to thiefnews@ttlg.com (PLEASE put the subject line "FM Author Spotlight" ... if you just say "interview" it's likely to be deleted as spam the moment it hits the inbox) ... how much of a response we get from this will determine if this will be a weekly, biweekly, or even daily feature. If we get flooded with entries, we'll probably do daily for a while, and as it tapers off, slow down gradually. I really hope that we get a chance to do it daily for at least a little while.
Real Name (Optional):
Forum Identity:
Location (country/state/province is sufficient):
What first attracted you to Thief, and when was that?
Why did you start designing missions, and when was that?
Give us a brief summary of all your currently released missions. Tell us the idea behind them, what you are proud of, and what you regret about them.
What inspiration outside of Thief 1/Gold, Thief 2, and Deadly Shadows influenced the content of your fan mission?
What do you feel is your strongest suit in mission design? Architecture? Story? Atmosphere? Scripting? Gameplay? Something else?
Have you ever worked with other people on an FM project? If so, who were they, and what did they do?
If you could rebuild any OM from Thief 1/Gold or 2 from scratch (as a T2 FM), which one would it be, and why?
What's your favorite FM(s) from other authors?
(Answer the following questions only if they apply!)
Tell us about that first mission you made in dromed, back when you were first learning the editor, which never saw the light of day.
Tell us about the mission you currently have in production.
Have you ever done any mods for other games?
When you send that in, please send or link to one (and only one, sorry) screenshot from each of your released missions. If you don't have screenshots on file somewhere and T1/2 is no longer installed, then a staffperson can help out with grabbing the shot for the article. Please put all screenshots in ZIP FILE along with a TXT file stating the caption for each shot. The caption should be the mission title, and any verbage beyond that kept pithy.
If you put bolds and italicizes into your replies, you must put them into HTML code yourself, as whoever posts the article won't have time to hunt down all your little bolds and slanty letters and put the tags in. We'll break it up into paragraphs, but any formatting beyond that, please do yourself!
Your interview will have a page to itself, and will be featured in a browseable archive at The Circle. Most importantly, however, there will be an FM Spotlight blurb at The Circle's front page itself, which will not only show the FM Author or the Day/Week/Month, but a random selection from the archive, so that once your day has passed, there's still a random chance that someone will see your spotlight displayed at The Circle's front page. We'll also get a link to your spotlight on all of your FMs in the FM database, and link to the mission downloads from the spotlight itself. Some cross refs to make sure that a person can grab your missions at a click.
I really hope we get participation from as many authors as possible. This will be done on a first come, first serve basis; spotlights will be posted in order that they are submitted, and never more than one a day (so each person can get at least 24 hours in the spotlight.) Don't be crushed if we throw your entry back at you so you can proofread and correct it either; we're not your secretaries. We'll be doing you a favor to keep yourself from embarrassing yourself with bad grammar and spelling. Keep in mind that the readership at The Circle is significantly higher than the readership at the forums, and we try to keep a certain level of professionalism in our content. We hold the right to refuse any submission we feel is inappropriate, though you can always resubmit after you're fixed it. (Fixing it like, for example, taking out the long strings of profanity. We all already know that dromed is a dirty rotten little fucker.)
Please check this post as well as The Circle news often for updates and changes. I'll be editing THIS POST and not posting new ones. Questionnaire contents and rules are subject to change, but this thread will of course be updated to reflect those changes. However no changes will be backwards compatible, so if you're interview is already posted, and we change around the questions, we can't really afford to go back and redo your spotlight unless things are really, really slow.
We've never done anything like this, so if it goes a little rocky, just remember that I love you all and please don't kill me.
Also, please don't post your answers to the interview questions here. I can understand being anxious to tell the world, but it sort of makes it hard for me to round up the info, which means it may never reach T-TC.com. Email it to thiefnews@ttlg.com ... subject line FM Author Spotlight
- Edit -
I've decided against trying to come up with personal interview questions, as they were much harder to come up with than I had anticipated. The submissions so far have been rather thorough and additional questions rarely popped out at me. Dropping that idea will also smooth things over a bit and speed up the process.
This is an excellent idea and a good plan to do it the right way.
I thinks it's daft! It's like we're famous or something!
HI..... WEll, this DOES sound like a good plan.... I would do the interview but I wouldn't call demos real FMs.I DID have a FM a long time ago, but it's gone for good.
Anyway, I guess this can wait until I DO get a real FM finished.(which may be waaaaay later if I actually stay dedicated to working on one.)
My Fan Missions page
"Those pies had enough grease to drop a Burrick!"
I LOVE this idea!!!
I hold (pretty well) ALL the FM creators in the very highest regard.
great idea!
Many of the FM are on par or close to the original Thief missions. You guys deserve a lot of credit and it'd be nice to have an Author Spotlight!
FM are keeping Thief alive!
I haven't played many (still working through TMA) but I'm thrilled to know that when I do finally finish I'll not only have TDS to look forward to but many many FM as well!
Keep em comming!
lol....I don't think I could ever get sick of THief....considering it takes me like a year to play through the game,
ThiefFm Editor, Producer, and Designer of The Bluecoat's Training Facility. Sequal Fm, -> The Eye's Betrayal. 36% complete ==> CANCELLED.
Well, we are. Hundreds (even thousands perhaps) of gamers download our FMs and play them, doesn't that make us FM makers a bit famous?Originally Posted by sluggs
jechma - I think that some of the FMs are even better than the original ones. If you look at the architecture in the original missions for example, you'll notice that it's nothing very special, and most of the missions look quite basic.
And Digi, I like this idea. I'll definitely send my answers later.
From a serious fm addict, I would like to urge all fm designers to participate! You have created a very special community~and deserve recognition for your skill and effort. In my opinion, many of the fm's I have played are better than the original. AND I can say after playing on thief 3 for a few days, that yes it is enjoyable, but I am enjoying the new fm's that are out even more than thief 3. You guys rock!
Yes, this is an oppertunity of a lifetime and any FM author can take part in it! And since I'm doing it, that's reason enough for the rest of you!
Gotta love peer pressure.
Very nice gesture
I just hope some of our FM elders will see this post (Purah, Saturnine, etc).
eep!
Gotten some good entries so far.
I just got ftp access to The Circle back today, so I am going to try to get the first spotlight posted: GBM.
very good idea!
god i do love the thief community
The links to either of the spotlights aren't working for me. Not sure if it's just the computer that I'm on or a problem with The Circle. Also, will there be a section at The Circle where an archive of past spotlights are to be stored?
Thanks for doing this Digi! I think it's a great idea and I hope it lasts for some time.
[edit] Ok, the spotlights load up find now, but none of the picture thumbnails work. Was probably just the fault of the school computers. [/edit]
Last edited by Sharga; 5th Jun 2004 at 00:52.
No, it was broken because I'm a scatterbrain. It should all be fixed now. I'll leave it up until tomorrow morning before doing KFG's because your link was down for so much of the day.
I know I'm being dumb but where are these spotlights on the site?
Meanwhile... they're a great idea ... and having tried to do an FM I'm just amazed and grateful at what some of you guys manage. Don't ever stop!
There's a link to the current one to the left of the news on The Circle's main page. The first thing under "Features".
Two points:
I'm afraid I do not understand this question. Could you elaborate?
Mission(s), surely
But seriously, this means that you'll need to update this section of each author's interview each time they actually release a mission, to reflect the fact that they are working on something else now. (It probably won't happen too often per author, but that might still be quite frequently among all the spotlighted authors)
Authors will probably want to update the brief summary of their missions when they release a new one, too.
- NV
The links to the pics for GBM's spot don't work. I need to see those nice looking UT piccies!
Gulp...
Why the gulp?
sluggs- I also noticed that, the thumbnails looked nice, I'd also like to see the pictures in all their UT glory.
eep... yes they are broken
>:|
Well... I think they are linked in one of the more recent (hahaha like that means anything) posts on my webspace
hrhm... these are them:
http://www.ttlg.com/gbm/WIP_spookhouseA.jpg
http://www.ttlg.com/gbm/WIP_copshoppeA.jpg
ICBWB my interpretation is that if you had the time and inclination to take one of the missions from Thief 1 or Thief 2, take its plot and possibly layout and then remake it yourself as if you were the person who made it for LGS, which mission would you choose to remake and why would you choose that mission.
My antidote to peer pressure: never actually get around to releasing any of my missions
The Watcher's Thief Stuff
FM: Shadowed Mayfield :: FM: Xavier's Library
Custom objects (New: Ornate Street Lamp, 22 Nov 2008)
Those are friggin' awesome GBM. Amazing work! In fact all your stuff is!
Yeah, what he said!Those are friggin' awesome GBM. Amazing work! In fact all your stuff is!
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