Juan Linares
Juan Linares' Inside Stories (All "inside-stories" pulled from Sheri Sleyzaks "Shadow Warrior Pix & Stories" offline for 10+ years)
My level building began wayyy back with Duke3d. Man was that cool! I made a starwars like level and some other obscure ones. Unfortunately at the time I had no internet access so i couldn't circulate them. Just recently I uploaded them to gameleader. I got so good at making duke levels. I learned almost everything ranging from those super hard sliding doors, to timed explosions. My best level was called NYC. It was a city map complete with an underground subway tunnel and train. Then my computer crashed. So ended my passion for level building. A month or so after i began working on another level (NeoToyko).
NeoToyko
It was a city map with a park and buildings. I even added a subway station with a train waiting. I was near completion when Shadow Warrior came out. I decided to convert it. Thus NeoTokyo was born! Of course lots of ommisions were added, such as the removal of the subway. I thought the idea of a volcano would be cool. I got the inspiration from a a Japanimation movie called AKIRA, where Tokyo was called NEOTokyo in the future, really cool movie I might add.
Amtrak
AFter completing NeoToyko I was so surprised it received a 9 on gameleader! It was my first level that actually received attention!! Of course I set out to build another level. I wanted to top Neotoyko. First off, I am a train fanatic. I love subways, hell I live in NY. You gotta love subways if you wanna get around. Anyway, I really wanted to make a train station with a train. The station part of Amtrak.map was also a Duke level, that i converted. I worked with it and built a great looking bullet train and I even added sounds! I was so amazed at myself. The station looked great as did the mezzanine. I even added a lower level city streets complete with a tank and turret. The flaws that hurt the level were the frame rate and the city texture wasn't aligned.
1deeppit
1deeppit.map was a spontaneous level. I just started building and I remembered a level called bridges for Duke3d. I remembered how cool it was with elevated bridges and if you fell you died into a pit of lava. I thought I could make a cool level like that with black and white colors to mix with red. It was pretty cool. I knew it wasn't a killer level but it was fun to build.
NeoOsaka
NeoOsaka, now this map is my most recent. I love it because I was actually able to keep the frame rate above 30 at most places. I learned how to warp enemies in and did plenty of over and under sectors. I thought the lava thingie from NeoToyko was what made it a hit so I threw it in. Even though the explosions cut the frame rate a litte, It was still cool. Like I said before I live in NY, so I like making city levels. I got most of the ideas for NeoOsaka from the things I left out of Neotokyo. I suppose you can say its a combo of NeoTokyo and Amtrack because it has the best of both worlds. Fun to play alone and with others, and the train theme with lava! I mean doesnt it just sound cool..."Underground lava destroys city!!!!"
One more thing, my levels do prove that you can have good levels without doors! (For those of you that didn't notice!!!)
My level building began wayyy back with Duke3d. Man was that cool! I made a starwars like level and some other obscure ones. Unfortunately at the time I had no internet access so i couldn't circulate them. Just recently I uploaded them to gameleader. I got so good at making duke levels. I learned almost everything ranging from those super hard sliding doors, to timed explosions. My best level was called NYC. It was a city map complete with an underground subway tunnel and train. Then my computer crashed. So ended my passion for level building. A month or so after i began working on another level (NeoToyko).
NeoToyko
It was a city map with a park and buildings. I even added a subway station with a train waiting. I was near completion when Shadow Warrior came out. I decided to convert it. Thus NeoTokyo was born! Of course lots of ommisions were added, such as the removal of the subway. I thought the idea of a volcano would be cool. I got the inspiration from a a Japanimation movie called AKIRA, where Tokyo was called NEOTokyo in the future, really cool movie I might add.
Amtrak
AFter completing NeoToyko I was so surprised it received a 9 on gameleader! It was my first level that actually received attention!! Of course I set out to build another level. I wanted to top Neotoyko. First off, I am a train fanatic. I love subways, hell I live in NY. You gotta love subways if you wanna get around. Anyway, I really wanted to make a train station with a train. The station part of Amtrak.map was also a Duke level, that i converted. I worked with it and built a great looking bullet train and I even added sounds! I was so amazed at myself. The station looked great as did the mezzanine. I even added a lower level city streets complete with a tank and turret. The flaws that hurt the level were the frame rate and the city texture wasn't aligned.
1deeppit
1deeppit.map was a spontaneous level. I just started building and I remembered a level called bridges for Duke3d. I remembered how cool it was with elevated bridges and if you fell you died into a pit of lava. I thought I could make a cool level like that with black and white colors to mix with red. It was pretty cool. I knew it wasn't a killer level but it was fun to build.
NeoOsaka
NeoOsaka, now this map is my most recent. I love it because I was actually able to keep the frame rate above 30 at most places. I learned how to warp enemies in and did plenty of over and under sectors. I thought the lava thingie from NeoToyko was what made it a hit so I threw it in. Even though the explosions cut the frame rate a litte, It was still cool. Like I said before I live in NY, so I like making city levels. I got most of the ideas for NeoOsaka from the things I left out of Neotokyo. I suppose you can say its a combo of NeoTokyo and Amtrack because it has the best of both worlds. Fun to play alone and with others, and the train theme with lava! I mean doesnt it just sound cool..."Underground lava destroys city!!!!"
One more thing, my levels do prove that you can have good levels without doors! (For those of you that didn't notice!!!)