LONG NGUYEN | Digital Artist & Game Designer

It’s ironic that during the development of Out Of Hell, I couldn’t wait to get it all done and out the door so that I could be free. It was a project that I loved and loved working on but after a few years, it really felt like a burden at times. I couldn’t do certain things, couldn’t play certain games because it would cut into too much project time. I spent nearly every weekend during those 7 years sitting in front of the PC building that game. Imagine my relief when it was fully uploaded and done with! I wouldn’t have to deal with it again…

But now, months after, I find myself missing it! How weird is that? I guess I don’t miss the project itself as much as I miss having something to do, something to pour my time and investment into. I guess it’s sort of like living with someone and getting sick of them and then missing their company after they’ve moved out! Oh the irony.

Pre-GDC I spent some time winding down and catching up on some games that I hadn’t had the time to get into but now that GDC has come and gone, I’m beginning to get the development-crazies again. Itchy fingers, my mind swims with ideas and concepts, I get restless doing nothing with my time.

I had a few project ideas, ones that I came up with during the OOH years but put off until OOH was done. Now I’ve begun on another project, one that I think will surprise many of you. Could it be an addition to the OOH universe? An expansion, sequel, remake or……

…neither?

My head is full of ideas; a ghost-themed game, something futuristic with mech combat, an old-school top-down space shooter, even a Double Dragon-ish beat ’em up! With the UDK available and the upcoming release of CryEngine for indie use, it’s an exciting time for us all!

I’m going only where the motivation and inspiration takes me and will be officially announcing the project in the coming months! I’m sure you’ll all be pleasantly surprised with what I cook up!

I was fortunate enough to attend GDC 2010 in vibrant San Francisco and WOW, what an experience! It was a very busy few days with lots of running around, meetings, talks and gatherings! I wish I took more pictures but I’m lousy at photography and the ones that I took are all very ‘meh’.

Justin and I had the honor of meeting with Hitoshi Sakimoto on our first day there and he was one of the most pleasant, soft-spoken individuals I’ve ever met. Hitoshi Sakimoto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitoshi_Sakimoto) has composed music for games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII, Ogre Battle, Legaia 2, Odin Sphere, Breath Of Fire, Valkyria Chronicles to name only a few. He also composed MY FAVOURITE shmup soundtrack ever for Gradius V, which in my humble opinion, is the finest space shmup ever built. (I nearly bought a second copy of it for the PS2, just to have in it’s original wrapped form! It’s a rare gem IF you can find it.) We spent some time sharing stories and actually talked about Out Of Hell and our plans for the future. At the end we exchanged business cards, he wished us luck and success on our future projects and took some pictures! This was an unbelievable start to an unbelievable trip.

(From left to right: Dmitri, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Justin Lassen, Long Nguyen)

Our next order of business was to visit the Epic booth which was an ‘unreal’ experience! There were really kind and motivational things said of Out Of Hell, the hard work and the time that had gone into it. We sat in on a UDK demonstration outlining some new and powerful features and tried our hand at UDK running with 3D Vision support which was fantastic. If the GDC trip had ended there for me, I still would have left a very, very happy man.

We dropped by the Intel booth where I saw an Out Of Hell video used as part of a demonstration to show off some really exciting new sound technology! It was surreal seeing that, especially when one of the zombies got shot and groaned, and I let out the EXACT same groan only louder (I recorded myself doing all the zombie noises for Out Of Hell) and everyone at the booth burst out in laughter! It was great times!

Here is one story I’m sure all of the Silent Hill fans out there would appreciate. After our final meeting on the second day, I was completely wiped so I told Justin that I needed to head back to the hotel to rest up for a couple of hours or so. About 30 minutes after I left, Justin met none other than Akira Yamaoka! AKIRA YAMAOKA!!!! Legendary composer and producer behind the Silent Hill series, THE MAIN INSPIRATION behind Out Of Hell!

GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!

When Justin told me about this later at a party my jaw hit the floor and didn’t come back up for a good 15 minutes! If only I hadn’t wussed out and stayed just that extra half hour!

WTGQERQTEREWQDFWFQGFWE!!!!!!1!!!1

So here is what I learned from going to the GDC folks:  SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK!

(From left to right: Justin Lassen, Akira Yamaoka, David Chan.
On the far right: NOT ME **Slaps forehead**)

I was also honored to attend a party full of game industry vets and legends on one of the nights. The evening was actually kind of a blur to me. I didn’t feel worthy enough to be shaking hands with, let alone being in the same room as these people! I met so many great people that night from indie devs (some with roots in the modding scene) to legendary game creators responsible for some of the greatest games in the industry. I even met with geniuses Tim Cain of Fallout fame and Lorne Lanning who created the Oddworld series! It’s definately one of those times where I wish I could redo over again just so that I could have more meaningful things to say but in all honesty I was too awe-struck and I blanked!

I have so much more I’d like to write but it would just become a wall of text, so I’ll end it here by saying that my first GDC experience was AMAZING, we had a lot of great meetings and I met so many great people, all of whom I never thought I’d have the pleasure of shaking hands with! Thanks to all of those involved for making this such a memorable trip and I hope for many more like it in the future!

ZOMG! There really isn’t any other word that I can think of at the moment! Out Of Hell was nominated by the editors of Moddb.com as having the “Best Original Art Direction”, one of the categories in their yearly “Mod Of The Year” award that goes back quite a few years! I’ve put countless hours into establishing a unique, deeply atmospheric experience with visuals that are both inspiring and disturbing.

Here are some quotes from the editors at Moddb:

“Best Original Art Direction Is…Out of Hell – Unreal Tournament 2004. It’s one thing to give this award to a mod who uses an engine which is known for it’s graphical fidelity. It’s another to award those who push the limits for older engines. It’s for this reason that Out of Hell, wins best original art of 2009. Amazing vistas, horrific surprises and a thrilling atmosphere to boot. No other mod nominated raises the bar for what games can look like, with just a little bit of TLC.” – MODDB.com

“…Original in the sense means that it was created for this game and the direction it took did not change during the entire mod, the atmosphere, the art even the music and story are all fresh and unique…” – Moddb

What an absolute honor it is to be recognized in this way! I’ll close this post off by saying THANK YOU to all of those that voted for Out Of Hell and allowing it to place among the Top 100 mods of 2009, THANK YOU to all of those in the Out Of Hell community for your ongoing support, and THANK YOU Editors of Moddb for your nomination!

You can view the page here: http://www.moddb.com/events/2009-mod-of-the-year-awards/winners#customtab

Video Announcement here: http://www.moddb.com/events/2009-mod-of-the-year-awards/features/best-original-art-direction-2009

The results of the Out Of Hell screenshot contest are in! We had a great turnout and it was difficult narrowing down the winners but here are our picks! We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who submitted their screenshots and the community for it’s part in helping us achieve over 30,000 downloads! Thanks for continuing to support us!

We would also like to thank the following sponsors: Valve Software, Creative Labs , Epic Games, and Nihil Records for their support and donations!

Without further delay, here are our contest winners! (Click on the links below the images to view full size)

1st place winners:
(All of our first prize winners get a copy of Left4Dead 2 and a Synesthesia CD pack!!)

Best Atmosphere

DEAD DAWN by Snuffs

Best Horror

EYES OF THE DEMON by Heyheymueha

Funniest Caption

RUSSIAN ROULETTE by Graykin

2nd place winners:
(All of our second prize winners get a ARENA SURROUND USB Gaming Headset!)

Best Atmosphere

DESOLATION by Dremth

Best Horror

DEADLY DUSK by Doggy

Funniest Caption

GIVE ME A BITE by REV

3rd place winners:
(All of our third prize winners get a GEARS OF WAR Comic signed by the creators!)

Best Atmosphere

ABANDONED IN HELL by Trunkwontopen

Best Horror

CORNERED by Purple Tear

Funniest Caption

TOO MANY LEAVES by Bradence

There you have it! A huge thanks to all of those who participated! Since this is only the first, look forward to similar contests in the future with more cool prizes!

Justin’s Out Of Hell OST has been reviewed on originalsoundversion.com! Justin worked hard on creating the dark, ambient tracks for the project and I’m thrilled he’s getting the recognition he deserves! Way to go Justin!

You can check out the review here: http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=6001#more-6001

It’s a great, honest review and such an honor to have the work recognized like that! Thanks so much Patrick for reviewing the OST!

We’re holding our very first screenshot contest as a way of thanking the fan community for such positive reception and clocking us in at over 10,000 downloads in just the first week! We’ve got great prizes for those who enter and win so check out the contest details at:

https://outofhell.net/contest.html

The contest ends on Dec. 20/2009 so play Out Of hell, take a ton of screenshots and pick out the best ones you have!

The very first patch for Out Of Hell has also been released which addresses some performance issues, adds a few tweaks and changes and also a couple of new features. Check out this thread for download locations:

http://outofhell.freeforums.org/out-of-hell-patch-v1-released-links-t121.html

A big huge thanks to Valve Software, Creative Labs, Epic Games and Nihil Interactive for donating tons of cool stuff for us to give away as prizes!

A previously unseen trailer, beautifully re-cut by one of our forum regulars (Atariv8) is now being displayed on the Machinima.com youtube channel!

You can check out the new trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxaUbH6dOMQ&feature=sub

Check out other videos on their channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/machinima#p/u/1/mxaUbH6dOMQ

This is such a great honor, a great big thanks to those involved for making this happen!