This time around for the first turn in the hot seat is Simon Fuchs, who comes from Aschaffenburg, Germany.

What do you do at Crytek?

I work as a 3D Artist in the Crysis Wars Team. We are currently busy improving the game to create a great multiplayer experience.

Why did you want to work in the games industry and how did you get started? Do you have any tips for people wanting to get started in the industry?

Playing computer games has always been one of my passions. In addition, I am very interested in the creative and technical aspects of computer games. Computer Games allow you to create your own worlds for other people to play with. The creative freedom and the technical possibilities that modern game engines can offer you are just mindblowing. It´s great to see your own ideas turning into something that people can play and have fun with.

Some of my first steps towards working in the industry have been creating my own custom assets for Half-Life and working for a Mod Team. After that, I built up a portfolio and started doing an internship for a small german games company in Braunschweig.

My tips for people wanting to get started in the industry would be to get your hands on one of the bigger game engines that are out there (like CryEngine2) and start playing with them. There are a lot of free resources available and it´s pretty easy to get started by just reading up on the tutorials or the engine documentations. Once your familiar with the basics keep on refining your skills and start working on some small projects. It´s just a matter of time and dedication after that.

Where have you worked before?

I´ve started my professional career as an intern at company called Nuclearvision in Braunschweig. Their most famous game is a shooter called “Psychotoxic”. After that, I did a apprenticeship at a company called 4 Head. During that time, I was responsible for creating buildings and assets for the game “The Guild 2”. In addition, I´ve worked on several smaller games in the company during that time. After finishing my apprenticeship, I worked for a company called Cranberry Productions. I was responsible for creating High-Poly Background Renderings for adventure games. Since June, I´m working for Crytek here in Frankfurt.

Why Crytek?

Crytek is the biggest German games company and can offer you a lot of things that most of the smaller companys that are out there just cant. We have lots of talented people here, great projects to work on, a big base of knowledge and a great engine. In addition, Frankfurt is a cool place to live and it´s not far from my hometown.

What are the best and worst parts of your job?

Best part of my job is definitively creating new content for Crysis Wars and a few other things that i'm sure you'll hear about soon enough ;) It´s always fun to visualize your own ideas and see them develop into something great. Worst parts would be some the more tedious jobs that don´t require you to be creative. A good example would be just fixing errors in the current content of our game like texture stretching or invalid LOD meshes.

What are you working on at the minute?

I am currently working on a new asset for Crysis Wars. I can´t be more specific right now.

Fan Q&A

Who would win in a fight; Ghost Rider or Iron Man?

Clearly Iron Man. He´s just more badass ;)

Since you started working for Crytek in June, you were not involved in the original Crysis. What were your feelings and thoughts about Crysis when it was released in 2007?

I really liked the Singleplayer Campaign. I was personally a bit disappointed about the length of the game and the performance when it was released, but it was still a really great experience. I especially liked the HUD Integration and the Huge open levels. The Sandbox Elements were nice, too. It´s one of those games that you can actually play a few times and have a different experience depending on your use of the NanoSuit.

Do you like FPS?

Yes, i´ve probably played all of the major FPS Games that are out there. It´s my favourite genre.

Did you played Crysis for work or for fun? Or you never played it?

I´ve played it for fun. Before starting at Crytek, I didn´t try the multiplayer at all…

How you started to learn 3D modelling? And with which software?

I´ve started to learn modeling with 3DSMax and the default tutorials that were coming with the tool at the time. I think it was 3DSMax6. Additionaly, i´ve browsed a lot of modeling forums and learned through tutorials that I found there. I switched to maya pretty quickly as the companys i´ve worked for all used maya at the time.

What kind of 3D tools do you work with and what do you find you work best with?

For the last 4 years, i´ve been working with maya. Since starting at Crytek, i´m back to 3DSMax. A few more tools that we use here are Zbrush from Pixologic and apps like crazybump to create normalmaps. I don´t think it matters that much which program you choose to create your work with. Every tool has it´s advantages and disadvantages, but once you are familiar with the tool and it´s function its just a matter of using it on a daily basis and streamlining your workflow. For a beginner, I would recommend 3dsmax because it offers a more complete package for polymodeling and doesn´t require any additional scripts for modeling as maya does. But then again, Maya has it´s advantages too, especially when it comes to Nurbs Modeling…

What are your suggestions/advice for amateurs who are working/wish to be in a position like yours?

Get familiar with one of the major 3d Packages that are out there. There are trial version available from every tool. And then start building stuff. Find a online community that offers you good critique for your work and post there frequently. Don´t get discouraged in the beginning by the harsh comments, just keep on refining your skills and try to integrate any valid critique that you are getting. There are a lot of modeling sites out there that can help you progress. The one that was most useful to me is www.polycount.com. Joining a mod Team is a good idea too, because it forces you to actually create something for a game engine and teaches you how to get your stuff in an actual game.

How well do you get along with the rest of the team? Is it a professional relationship or do you guys get along like good friends who like to joke around?

It´s important to maintain a professional relationship at work with your colleagues. In general, we get along pretty well and theres a fair amount of jokes going on, especially when we´re having the Crysis Wars playtests. The advantage of working in a smaller Team like the Crysis Wars Team is that you actually get to know all of your co-workers, which helps a lot.

Where did you get that cool T-shirt?

eBay.

if you could be a Superhero, who would you choose to be and why?

I´m not a big Superhero Fan, but I think that Batman is pretty cool. The gadgets that he has are just awesome and I love the atmosphere of the new films.

How do most of you spend you free time at Crytek (if you have any)? eg. playing games against each other?

We have free time during lunchbreak or we can choose to stay in after work. Recently, we´re all playing Left 4 Dead which is a great game. Other than that, you can play table-football, Rock Band or Console Games in General (PES is pretty popular, too) here in the office.

Do you like Cry-Eddy?

On a platonic basis ;)

What did you want to be when you were younger? If its not a 3D modeller, are you disappointed or pleased with how everything turned out?

After the usual wanting to be an Astronaut / Race Car Driver / Pilot phase I actually realized pretty quickly that I wanted to work in games. I´m pleased with how things turned out.

Do you have any published tutorials that you’ve written or perhaps any favorite tutorial web links to share?

I did actually publish tutorials on my website in the Half-Life days, but that page is not existing anymore. One of my favourite resources for game-art in general are the polycount Boards. They can be found at http://boards.polycount.net/ . If you read through the board, you will find a lot of cool tutorials or advice in general.

Can we see a photo of the employee who looks like Psycho?

Yes, here's a picture of Marko, from GC:

Is he British?

No, he´s German and a very nice guy ;)

Does he call people muppets?

Only Eddy.

In Closing

We'd like to thank Simon for giving his answers to these questions, and give a special thanks to all those people in the community who contributed questions towards this article. The next Inside Crytek article will be up soon and we'll be allowing you to ask even more questions to another member of the Crytek staff in a short while.