Hey everyone,
As we love to repeat, our games wouldn't be what they are without our community. We do mean that, and of course, we mean it literally: all of our games feature content that has been imagined, designed or otherwise created by our players! It seems only fair to us to now welcome some of these awesome people into the spotlight. Since this is a new feature for us, don't hesitate to leave feedback on this feature in the comments!
Make way for the second of our community members to join the freakshow: DigitalHawk96, co-creator of the Unfallen!
Hey there, can you introduce yourself?
I'm Kerr (Kerr Alexander Hansen, in full), aka Digitalhawk96 or Digitalhawk on here ofc... elsewhere I shall not tell, ITS MY SECRET... and I'm from Scotland! I live on the west coast in Ayrshire, home of a few historic things... I work primary as a student in the Aeronautical field of Engineering - aircraft and such. Secondary, I am mostly a gamer and an artist, yet also capable of writing and using a few other talents. My primary interest is of course, strategy, when it comes to games that is!
How long have you been part of the Endless community? Which of our games do you play?
Since the near beginning, at least around the time Endless Space 1 came into realization. Sure I wasn't a Ninja, slipping in before ES 1 was but a sprout. But I HAVE played all of the games thus far, at least to some degree! Many hundreds of hours across them all.
What’s the first Games2Gether contest you took part in?
Contest wise? It was likely the designing of the Automation's ships during ES 1. I came second at the time - yes yes.
How did you hear about the Faction creation contest for Endless Space 2?
I was drawn in... fated to? At least I was paying heavy attention at the time, perhaps it was a leak of news that hit senses just before it all kicked off. In fact, I cannot clearly remember but it was a good reason I assure you of that!
What was the inspiration for your submission and what was the creation process?
Simply put, many. I approached the designing of the Unfallen with simple roots - heh - collecting influences from real nature; seeds, trees and leaves - you know. There was some of Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke in there, giant trees and enchanted old forests... the landscapes in such fantasy films are quite inspiring. Then simple things like Magic the Gathering and the fantastic art therein: landscapes on land cards, golems, tree folk, other fungal and natural looking stuff. The original Endless Space art was used, the art from Endless Space 2 was sourced at the time... there was other sci fi references like 40k. Likely many, many more small things came to make this.
Then to top it all off? My imagination and motivation to throw it all on printer paper with old pencils I could find.
How do you think the dev team carried out your vision?
Blown away... I knew things would be prettied up considerably but... wow. You have no idea how it makes me feel, having part in actual game design, being a concept designer even in a small part of it.
To feel that... I made that - in the essence of it all, I myself made the seeds and was part in creating something in a game thousands of people will see. Now that is quite a feeling. Moreso to know that the community backed me hard enough to fling my concepts in Amplitude's capable hands. Wonderful indeed.
What other cool things are you up to online? Any cool project you want to share?
I'd love to say I've got something really cool up my sleeve or work going on in the background but... it’s all much more mundane. Simply put, my online work has been focused largely on my full-time course in aircraft engineering or otherwise in consuming a variety of media – be it games, books or videos. Though lets be fair here, aircraft engineering is pretty cool right? Planes certainly are.
Art is in there too, but it has been on the backburner for a while. I have plans to do some proper anatomy studies, practice technique, study theories and to teach myself to paint digitally – experiment a little with the possibilities. Though since this is proper study to improve, rather than just doodling for pleasure; its far more taxing on my already inflated head that is far focused in on college matters. But I would love to just sit down over a holiday break and just... well... get better? Fair goal.
Which recent game would you recommend? Which older game do you think people should give a try?
As a reasonably big fan of RPG games with some measure of strategy and story thrown in - and a little voice acting to back it up. I have to put a fair recommendation out on “Divinity: Original Sin 2”. I've played my way through the whole thing at least once and thoroughly enjoyed my time the whole way; I even plan to go through it again at some point it was that good. And with its potential in mod support it could become even more interesting... It even has the capability to support DnD esc. Sessions - you know, with one player acting as the Dungeon Master crafting the story on the fly - or beforehand.
Worth a look at, at the VERY least - but only if you are invested and interested in your RPGs of course.
As for an older game worthy of a try... Well, I find myself harking back to my days on the Original Xbox and... there are quite a few titles I could recommend. But out of them all I'd choose “Otogi: Myth of Demons”, a game by FromSoftware with an excellent musical score and visual design. It’s like a gem hidden way back, not too many folk know of it and I've never met a single person who has played it. Might be quite hard to snag a copy these days and to hook up an old Xbox as well. But I believe its deserving of a dust off for this.~
That's all for DigitalHawk96! Now we turn to you folks, the rest of our community: what other questions do you have for him?
