Introduce yourself!

[Vertigo Fox]

Hello. I do have a name. But I don't like so I make up a ton of fake ones.

I'm a 22 year old Winnipegger who loves to write electronic music and... well, write, in general. I've been writing music for six or seven years now; since I was 15. And I just recently got a paid job writing a soundtrack so this is looking up as a career as well. And I can call myself a professional too. I've also done mod soundtracks including most of the rather popular non-midi one for Descent: The Enemy Within (a soundtrack which was too big to actually be included with the mission!), with its gimmick of every-song-is-basically-improvised-with-track-layering-on-a-keyboard. I also was the main soundtrack guy on Army of Haloon for Descent 3, a soundtrack that was far more popular than it had any right to be. And I write the soundtracks for my own secret projects, as well as most of Sapphirewolf's projects now.
I'm also a singer-songwriter so if you do want vocal music for some unfathomable reason I can provide that too. Personally I think lyrics in game music really needs to happen more often but I will defer to the majority on any radical ideas like that.

Descent was also a huge part of my childhood... probably too huge, if you ask anyone who knew me then . Still, I'm really looking forward to working on the soundtrack for this project and also contributing some Descent covers (which I call remixes even though they're technically not) that may already be finished. As I mentioned I'm a straight-up writer as well so I hope I can contribute to the story too.
I've done level design on Descent's original engine and I've done a bit of design on the Source engine and the Doom 3 engine, though I've never finished a map on any engine except for Descent's.
I don't really have very many personal things to say that wouldn't take far too long, so I'm a mystery.

And last but not least my avatar makes no sense.

[DuderSeb]

Hello everyone,

My name is Sebastian Serrano, I'm 26 and I was born in Uruguay but moved to the United States when I was a child. As of last year my wife and I decided to move back to Uruguay so I could finish my degree in Mecanical Engineering and she could get more hands on experience as an ESL teacher. For about 5 years now I've worked in CAD/3D Visualization/CNC Programing for an architecture and engineering firm and before moving here I was the head of that department; however, I've now stepped down from lead and telecommute part time as regular employee once again.

My main tools are CAD, 3DS, After Effects, and Photoshop, I've been using them for about 10 years, first as a hobbyist but then, after training courses and a LOT of hours, managed to become what you might call a professional.

As for my own personal creations - I love Science Fiction, I love thinking, conceptualizing, and bringing a big degree of realism to them, cementing everything on reality and as something that could very well exist, given the technology. Last year I discovered Descent Rebirth and after an incredibly nostalgic playthrough of both Descent 1 and 2 I felt the need to pay a homage to the series, so I put my skills to use in what some of you might now as The Ascent Project. Yup, I'm the guy: who's been remaking the Descent 2 models (http://theascentproject.deviantart.com/).

I am really looking forward to this project and contributing as much as I possibly can.

That's all material defender, prepare for descent.

[odd_enough]

Greetings Descenters.

I am Jordan Cain, 28 years old, living in the US (North Carolina).

I had fallen in love with Descent immediately when I played the D1 demo back in '94. The nerve-wracking ticking sound of the level 7 boss was the selling point to my life as a gamer and eventually a developer. Seeing how sound and polish in games could create a level of immersion to make you forget you were playing a game was such an incredible concept to me. How could I do anything BUT fall in love with it?

This love for gaming, and moreover Descent, followed me through all my years in school. Then when I was around 15 or 16 years old (9th grade), I found the Descent 4 mod team. At first they were called Midnight Squadron, but eventually evolved into Orbital Inc. At that time, I was playing the role of lead sound designer for the D4 project and Olympia Gold Racing mod for D3 (despite having little idea as to what I was doing; I was just a kid). I still have the original design doc and project files for all of that on my computer

But if any of you know the history of the D4 mod, you'll know that didn't last long. Interplay was jumping all over us trying to get Outrage/Volition (Parallax) to allow us to continue, but ultimately, Parallax shut us down. Oh well.

So skip ahead about 8 very unproductive years, I had just tried my hand at programming and failed (mistake: tried learning programming with C++), and somewhere along the line got into freelance video editing.

I started my career in 3D from freelance motion graphics and video editing. I realized my work required 3D elements to stay competitive. Eventually I was hired at a studio to do 3D VFX work and was eventually transitioned over to game art. So I eventually got to where I wanted to be back when I was in school I currently work in the game dev industry as a hard surface modeler/environment artist. Primary tools include 3ds Max, Zbrush, Maya (for rigging and animation), and Photoshop.

*takes a breath*

Roughly 2 years ago, I started to work on a re-envisioning of the Pyro GX, but in high-poly form. The goal was to recreate the ship packed with functional detail and then bake it down to a cinematic res model to use in a remake of the D2 intro and make use of current VFX tricks. An extremely lofty goal. I got far enough to show some detail in a descentbb thread, but the project was put aside when I started my transition to game dev. You can see some of the progress here: http://o3visuals.com/files/pyro_LH/

So, HOPEFULLY, I will find enough free time to at least finish the ship model and bake the details down to a game res model. Would still love to remake the cinematic, but that won't be any time soon. I just want to contribute something to this project. It is so much a part of my life, that it feels like a waste to let this opportunity pass me by.

If you want to get a hold of me at any time, here is some contact info:
Skype: jordan.cain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/odd_enough
Personal blog: http://o3visuals.com/
Time Zone: GMT -5

Cheers

[emptyP]

Hello all.

My name is Mike, and I'll keep this brief. I'm 26, and I've been a music enthusiast all my life, starting with piano lessons at age 5 (that were cut short, tragically). I've been a hobbyist music writer/composer/etc. for about 10 years now. I fell in love with electronica after hearing the Descent soundtrack and the Mortal Kombat movie soundtrack. It's been my genre of choice ever since, and when I realized that it was possible to arrange (post-MIDI) music on my computer with DAW software, I started and practically never stopped.

[RemmettS]

Hey there everyone!

My name is Ryan, I am 22 years-old and I am a 3D artist and graphic designer from Georgia, USA. I have just recently graduated with a Bachelors in Digital Art, with a focus in video game design and animation. I currently looking around for work in the games industry, so I have a fair amount of free time in the foreseeable future. This will allow me to put some good effort into this awesome project!

I am primarily a 3D animator and modeler by trade. I have a lot of experience in character animation and rigging, as well as modeling and texturing. I have mostly worked with organic models so far, so I am looking forward to branching out and working with the robots and weapons of Descent. I work almost exclusively in Autodesk Maya and Mudbox, but have learned the basics of most of the other big name software (MAX, ZBrush, Cinema4D, Blender). I also do a good bit of graphic design work in programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, etc.

You can reach me via email at remmettsimmons@gmail.com, or by Skype at ThePedrog. You can see a sampling of some of my work at http://www.ryanemmettsimmons.com. I am very much looking forward to working with you all!

-Ryan

[bazzwano]

Hello Material Defenders 

My name is Bryan, 27, I go by bazzwano as my gaming/ 3d artistry alias.

My skills:
I have experience with sketching, modelling and texturing assets but I will primarily be assisting the development here as a level architect or level designer as my primary skill would be my level development in the Unreal engine.

I have been working with the Unreal engine for around 10 years. I created my own levels for UT1 and improved many levels for ut2004. When UT3 was released I was not satisfied with the levels and set out to create my own. If you are interested, you can see these levels here http://www.bryansparksman.com all were awarded in the make something unreal contest in 2008)

In the field of level architecture, my strengths are my attention to detail when meshing an environment, lighting an environment both static and dynamic, Kismet events and animations and level optimisation (very important when you want to make a level with over 9 million polygons )

About me:
I was surprised when I saw on techreport that a unreal engine version of decent was in the works. The timing could not be any better as have just recently been playing Descent. I have played Decent 1 – 3.
All of my work in unreal has been done solo in my own time. Following my winnings in the make something unreal contest I have been offered several positions as a level architect but I chose to remain here in New Zealand where I worked for Sidhe interactive as a level designer. I have since left the industry and now only work on my personal projects while maintaining my day job as a Test Analyst.

I look forward to working with you all and am very excited to see Descent in Unreal high detail glory.

PS, If any artists/designers have online portfolios, id be interested in having a look

Bryan “bazzwano”

[neorapsta]

Hey guys,

I'm Lloyd, 28 and i'm technical/vfx artist

I'm a professional visual effects guy, currently working with Microsoft and winding down after working on Fable and Sesame Street.

My main areas of focus is visual effects(duh) and art production pipelines, as I focused on technical art as a discipline while studying my arts degree in making art for video games. I've had experience with pretty much all parts of game production, though primarily in the art and animation side of things and integrating them into game engines, atleast until my programming studies into python start to stick, so I should be able to chip in or give you guys some decent feedback on whatever you end up making.

I found out about this project when a friend of mine sent me a link to it and I was really taken by the opportunity and the ambition presented by the core concept. Hell, remaking a classic game and fixing its flaws is an awesome chance to remind the current COD generation about all the gameplay they've been missing out on.

Really looking forward to work with all of you, it's going to be one hell of a ride

oh yes, online I use the same alias for everything, so if you see my handle then that's me, and here's my contact deets:

Steam/Gamertag/Skype/Twitter: neorapsta
Portfolio: http://neorapsta.com (surprise!)

[Marat]

Hi everyone!
My name is Marat. I from Russia, west siberia. I have no experience in game development, but have experience in 3D-modeling. Also, vector illustration, video...
My favorite tool is Maya.
I'm not fluent in English, do not be surprised my spelling.

[Cobra6]

Hi guys,

My name is Joep Peters and I'm from The Netherlands. I've been a 3D generalist since 2005 and have studied Product Design in Lincoln (UK).
Over the past few years I've helped on, or made, anything from commercials, (web)games, layouts etc. and since last year I've also worked on a couple of feature films (cinema) at MPC in London.
I'm currently on a new contract at MPC so I'll be doing the modelling / texturing for this project in the evening hours and weekends.

Cobra 6

[Vertigo Fox]

@odd_enough
I'm pretty sure I've heard the name Jordan Cain before. And it did have something to do with the game industry. I can't remember where or what though. (If it does have to do with LUX I will die of embarrassment).

@KungFuJesus
Are you the same KungFuJesus who did/does various Let's Plays with Pokecapn & various crew?

It would be awesome if we could find some way to fit D2's robots into this project as well. Especially that Diamond Claw...