Developer Interview: Behind the Ducks - Jeremy!

One of our favorite parts of working on Always Bet on Quack is the people who bring it to life. Today, we’re excited to spotlight our level designer, Jeremy, whose work is the reason why the Monte Quacko runs, and looks as good as it does today. Jeremy's work has been an incredible help to the entire project, his lighting and design work has brought the casino space to life, and his optimization work has made the entire game run significantly better on all our PCs!

What originally drew you to level design, and what made you want to work in games?

I originally started working in games thanks to my Dad. When I was about 12 I was huge into ROBLOX, I would dabble in modeling and creating levels. He then convinced me to actually publish my own "game" on ROBLOX, in which I did and started getting a small community built. From there, my love for creating just snowballed. So from about 2012 to 2018 I was creating things, for myself or others, and with someone that I still to this day consider a dear friend. Around 2019 I started learning C# in Unity, and while I thoroughly enjoyed programming, I eventually moved back to Level Design & Environment art as I slightly preferred creating a story through the creation of a world more.

When you’re designing something for Always Bet on Quack, what are the biggest things you have to consider beyond just how it looks?

Two of the biggest things I consider beyond the look is one, does the environment tell a story at all, small or big? The second is when the Player is entering this environment for the first time, how does it make them feel and does it achieve the feeling I want? Colors, lighting, composition of the camera, and more all are things you have to consider as they all contribute to the mood of a scene. The wrong colors can feel out of place, small bright lights in a dark room can feel piercing to the eye, and poor composition can lead to a feeling of awkwardness or tightness.

Duck themed casinos aren't very common in games, how did you approach the level? Were you able to leverage any other experiences to make this easier?

Well seeing how I can't ask a duck what they'd like to see at a Casino, I put myself in their shoes.

If I was a duck, what would I like to see at a Casino? From tastes like fish & bread related foods, which are seen as luxurious and/or less so healthy, to the decor.

What’s one technical or artistic challenge you didn’t expect when working on a multiplayer game?

The performance of the NPC ducks in the Casino, and they are still technically a challenge we are facing now. To make the large scale of the Casino floor feel more alive and less so "dead" when there aren't many other people on, the NPCs were added in. However we didn't realize how performant heavy Skeletal Meshes are in large quantities. This is one of the many technical challenges we face at the moment.

How do performance considerations influence your design decisions, especially since the goal is to run well on lower end hardware?

When making a change to the level, I have to have the FPS counter run and note what hits the frames the most. Later I then have to decide how to achieve the look of the level I am looking for while making it as performant as possible, which is often easier said than done. I also have to do this when actually running the level and testing it from there.

What’s the most rewarding part of seeing your work come to life?

The most rewarding part of seeing my work come to life is probably the ability to walk around and interact with it. I will often catch myself just walking around in an empty world just cause I am in love with the fact I can take nothing and turn it into something alive, and that feeling is only amplified when you get to watch others walk around in it.

Thanks for being here everyone, we can’t wait to share more with you all soon!

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