Hey, I’m Hongman Leung, 28, from the United States, and have been an animator in the game industry for about 6 years now. I’ve contributed some free time outside of work to help out the team with rigging and animations.

Early January of ‘09, I begged and pleaded to Hourences to see if I could join the team when I saw a posting on BeyondUnreal that he was looking for an animator.

Back in high school, I thought I was going to be a game programmer. I tried teaching myself C, C++, Basic, UnrealScript, etc for a while… but the programmy concepts never stuck with me. So when it was time to choose a college, I said eff it, and went to an art school to pursue the art side of gaming.

Indirectly on the game, I found rigging and animating in Max challenging. When animating in Maya for so long, it’s hard to switch back to Max!

The animations
More seriously, I love the art direction. Just look at the screenshots! The game looks fantabulous.

Hai! I’m Dan Banefelt, and I’ve been doing level design and level scripting for the game. I’m originally from Sweden, and I was a local game dev student when I joined the team, but I am now working for a large developer down in Berlin and I am trying to find some time here and there in between to continue help out with the release of The Ball.

I joined the team a little more than a year ago (huhu, time goes fast!). I was studying game design at the time at a school in Stockholm and I already knew Sjoerd from the modding and Unreal design community. I was lucky enough to have him as a teacher during an Unreal Engine course, and since I had been using the engine for many years already I ended up working on The Ball rather than the regular school assignments. Things went well and soon I was a full team member!

I still remember the very first time I opened up the Unreal editor… it was a long time ago. I just played through the first Unreal single player game. Basically, it’s thanks to this game that I am now doing what I do, and loving it. The amazing worlds presented got me hooked within minutes. After many, many failed attempts, I eventually found myself creating full, playable levels for different engines and types of players, and I still am to this day.

For me I guess it has been the responsibility of creating full areas, everything included (art, lighting, design, scripting, and even sound). Not only does it require deep knowledge in different fields of development – it’s also a very different workflow from working in a bigger team/project, where you must often rely on your colleagues to reach the expected quality. Don’t get me wrong though, this is also one of the most fun and interesting aspects of working on a game like this, and it really brings out the perfectionist in people. It does sometimes get stressful but it’s extremely rewarding in the end.

There are a couple of things that I absolutely love about The Ball. First of all it’s not half assed. It aims for a low scope but it does what it does very, very well. This is something I feel many of today’s games do wrong, trying to cram too much in there instead of finding something that works, and aim for perfect execution. Secondly, I’m a huge fan of atmospheric games like this (I grew up with games like Unreal and Myst). Good soundscapes, interesting environments that tell a story and some cool music and I’m sold!

My name is Markus Palviainen, and I am 28 years young. I do mostly artwork for The Ball, anything from environmental pieces to characters and UI, but I have also done some kismet scripting and level work.

I joined the team in summer 2008. I got introduced to Sjoerd through my friend Bart (sensei Pestibug). I was studying 3d art at the moment and thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about game development.

Well at first I thought I wanted to be a network technician, but after studying in Gothenburg for a while in 2006, I figured out it wasn’t my calling. I got in touch with Pestibug on irc and he showed me what could be done in 3d. I was really inspired and started teaching myself. Well not all by myself, I got got a lot of information and help from Polycount (great forum for artists!). Eventually I got accepted into the School of Future Entertainment, a game development education here in Sweden.

I would say either Unreal Kismet or UI scene editor. There have been moments where I was close to massacre my computer, and let’s leave it at that.

The environments are beautiful! I enjoy just walking around and exploring the areas, finding the secrets hidden in the game.

I’m Mario Marquardt, 25 and from Germany where I’m currently doing an IT apprenticeship. I’m mostly doing level design for The Ball, although I have been working on some of the puzzle scripts in Kismet as well and I made some of the static meshes you see in the game, too. But if I had to name just one thing it would be level design.

It pretty much started in early 2009 when Sjoerd asked me if I wanted to make a level for the Survival game mode. Since I was already a huge fan of the mod, the decision was pretty much a no-brainer and the result was “Teniza”. Soon after that I made “Atica” before I moved on to contributing to the Campaign as well.

I started with level design because I have always been fascinated with the artistic aspect of games. While I always enjoyed playing games I guess I almost liked walking around maps and seeing all the details and enjoying the environment better than just playing. So I gave it a try in the original Unreal Tournament and got hooked right away. Since then I’ve made levels for several games and on different game engines as well but kept coming back to Unreal =)

That would be the train rides and the train station in Oztoc 1 and 2. It was a pretty big part of the original content I had to replace and a lot bigger than the Survival levels I had done before or my levels for the UT series. It also required a different kind of attention because everything had to fit in with the rest of the level that was made by someone else. So that was definitely challenging but fun nevertheless.

The atmosphere! This is something that captivated me right from the start. Everything just seems to have mystery and adventure written all over it in capital letters and that’s what makes it fun. You’re literally stumbling into this strange place and it feels otherworldly and dangerous but entices you to go on at the same time. To me, it has a good bit of the old school feel I’d like to see in today’s games more often =)

Hi, I am Arthur Denardou, I’m an engineering student from France, and also a Programmer for The Ball. I have been mainly working on the visual effects programming, the installer, and the achievements.

I joined the team quite recently, in March, after I heard that the project was looking for an additional programmer. I sent an apply, and after a small test, I discussed with Hourences and Markus Arvidsson, and everything went very well from that point, and I had the opportunity to get my hands dirty right away.

I started programming 6 years ago, with some PHP, but I only started to take things seriously 3 years ago when I started learning C/C++. I continued by studying OpenGL, and I developed a VJing application, being a VideoJockey myself. More recently, I got into UnrealScript after Epic Games had launched the UDK.

When it comes to programming, a small bug can be very challenging when it is overwhelmed by thousands of lines of code, but I think that, so far, the installer wins in number of headaches

Crushing mummies!! That’s really awesome, but I also appreciate taking a walk in this volcano, watching all around, it’s very relaxing.

My name is Anton Botvalde, I’m from Sweden and I’m 22 years old. I am currently studying computer engineering at Lund University. My main responsibility for The Ball is scripting the gameplay in the various levels, but I have also done puzzle/game play design as well as bug hunting.

I was one of the first (if not the first?) to join the team. This was during the summer of 2008. During the winter of 2008 I started to talk with Sjoerd on irc about level design and games in general. When the Make Something Unreal Contest was announced I told Sjoerd that if he was going to do something he had to let me be a part of it. And well the rest is history

I have always been interested in programming and games in general.When I started in high school I started programming and made my own simple games. Later on I got interested in level design and found my way into scripting that way.

I think that has to be the first version of Survival, our alternative game mode. I made it entirely myself in Kismet, the level scripting tool, which was fun but challenging. Before I officially started working on The Ball I was doing semi research of what we actually needed to get the levels working, that was a fun but challenging time as well, since everything was completely new for me.

I really like our environments, they really feel unique. And I also like that game really feels unique, I haven’t played any game like it! I think that all people who buy it won’t regret it!