Level designer defends Counter-Strike Texas school creation
Last week a student in Texas was classified as a "terroristic threat" after recreating his school in the game Counter-Strike. This morning Kenn Hoekstra of Pi Studios had an op-ed piece published in ForBendNow. He defends the right of the student to create the school with the same basic reasoning used to jump start every creative individual: You write/draw/design what you know.
Hoekstra writes, "I speak from experience when I say that just about every aspiring level designer starts out by building what he or she knows. In this case, this poor kid built his school because he was familiar with it. Over the years, I've personally constructed the house where I grew up, my old grade school and high school, my old work office building and my apartment complex in various level editors. Why? Because it was fun! Plain and simple."
Hoekstra better start running now because the Men in Black are probably going to be knocking on his door any second. Watch out aspiring game designers, keep your passion in the closet, because one day you too may be considered a "terroristic threat."
[Via GamePolitics]
