Ian Cuslidge

DOB: 5/13/1984

PROJECTS

Valve Software purchased two of my maps (cp_process and cp_standin) for Team Fortress 2, for their June 2013 update. Both maps are now official and are directly available anytime someone downloads TF2. Some words of praise from the update:

"Beyond a great polish, both of these maps offer unique and exciting gameplay; Process with its five streamlined Capture Points and Standin with its triple Cap Point free-for-all."

"These maps were selected by the TF2 team in part for their straightforward and intuitive layouts, and in part because they were a hell of a lot of fun to play. These CP maps were designed with little visual noise, were easy to understand and fun to navigate through. If you're a community map maker and want to see us ship your map, here's another spoiler on how to do that: Make it better than these."

A link to the blog post (http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=11023).

SKILLS

I’ve spent the past four years using Valve’s hammer editor to design levels for Team Fortress 2. I’m currently proficient with generating rough but playable alphas, moving a team fortress map from undetailed alpha to detailed beta, and finalizing the map through playtest and iteration. This includes knowledge of how to generate custom objectives, and wire together the basic workings of a map via the hammer entity system. Though generally focused on multiplayer first person games, I could easily learn how to develop for any genre and single player game type if given the opportunity.

My Bachelors and Masters both emphasized writing ability. Philosophy requires the ability to weigh arguments and understand complex word play (ask me about Deleuze’s conception of schizophrenia!), but also the ability to engage with those arguments and see the problems or strengths of a given line of reasoning. Further, much of philosophy is boiling down or simplifying a rather larger concept, ensuring that it can be dealt with in a reasonable timeframe. This could prove useful for getting a rather large game design idea into a concise description.

Another element of my philosophical training is to analyze things from a variety of positions and weigh the strengths and weaknesses of a theory. This has proven quite useful in evaluating games as well, as game design decisions are often implicit and must be teased out. Further, I’m quite well versed in game design decisions both traditionally (chess, go, ancient games), modern (first person shooters especially, but I’m well versed in most MMO, RPG, RTS decisions), and the general shape of modern gaming.

EDUCATION

09/2008 – Graduating in 09/2009

Middlesex University | London, England

I traveled to the UK to study Modern European Philosophy. My study was focused on Hegel, Kant, Deleuze, Negri, Sartre and Badiou, as well as engaging with modern takes on their perspectives. My dissertation was written on the philosophy of Deleuze, classical games, and modern game design. You can download a copy here.

9/2003 – 5/2007

University of Puget Sound | Tacoma, WA