Brian Dale

Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Crowbar Collective.

Ive been with the team from the beginning. Im the 2nd oldest (was the oldest until Craig joined). I originally started as a concept artist and that role changed many times over the years. I eventually moved to a 3d artist/ environmental artist.

What do you enjoy the most about Black Mesa?

Learning how to do new things and meeting a bunch of cool artists over the years.

What was the most challenging hurdle that was overcome during development in your role?

My lack of personal time to work on things usually around the holidays due to my real job and having to shoehorn things into an outdated engine.

What software did you use for your work?

Photoshop, Substance Painter, Quixel suite, 3DS max, silo3d, World Machine, and blender.

What was your first experience with Half-Life?

The original game that came out in 1997. Did you go to school for your respective parts of the project? No, I am in the medical field. I started working on the mod as a hobby.

Any recommendations for people wanting to get into game design?

Start using a 3d modeling program and practice, practice, practice. You should also learn to use a substance painter. Start small and work your way up to more complex things. Do your own mods of things and dont expect to get paid or have success. Expect to fail a bunch and learn how to do something better because you learned what NOT to do. Also, learn to take CONSTRUCTIVE criticism and change your work.

How did you resist getting burnt out over such a long development process for Xen?

I had to treat it like a job sometimes which was difficult when it was just a free mod. When it became a commercial project, I really had to treat it like a job (even though I have a full time plus job). I worked most of my vacations to get my stuff done. Sometimes you have to just walk away from the computer for a week or 2 and then go back and keep plugging away.

If you had unlimited time, money, and help, what game would you make?

A game similar to BF 2142 and something along the lines of X-wing series. Would love to remake wing commander in the style of the box art from the original.