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Interview with Staffan Bengtsson I recently spoke with Staffan Bengtsson, the WoD Mod 2d artist. He provided us a brief bio for you to read before the interview. Brief Bio My name is Staffan Bengtsson and I live in a small town in Sweden (Borås). Im 23 years old and work as a technician and web-designer in an internet company. You can find their website at www.scandlink.se I have used computers since I was 4 years old and have used them for art since I was 14. My nickname, "Jemy Murphy," was the first roleplaying character I used when I was 8 years old. Jelan: How did you get into the Vampire community? Staffan Bengtsson: I never liked the original game. The tragic love story was great, but transforming the Storyteller System into a hack-n-slash game wasn't. I think NSI targeted the wrong people with their game. They tried to impress the hack-n-slash people, while still keeping the Storytelling fans. Then I took a look at the community. Arena combat, hack-n-slash, Deathmatches, Super Weaponpacks etc... Everything that was NOT White Wolf's vision of storytelling. I was not impressed. So i put my Vampire box in the shelf, and considered it "dead". I had guessed that most White-Wolf fans did. Several months later I found the White Wolf players that hadn't. I then found the WoD Mod web page. Unfortunately the organization really sucked. No one replied to my mail, and the forum was locked for newbies. I was just about to give up when the 2d art teamleader tCoD finally replied one of my e-mails. I asked to join, and sent him some icons I had made for Vicissitude (they are still used by the way, Bonecraft & Fleshcraft). I worked for tCoD for a month, then started as 2d artist for Yith in the Mage: Retribution Mod. This was in September and December. I never knew that my 2d art would be appreciated so much that I would work next to the most famous people in the community :) Today the organization is alot better, and the web page is actively updated. We are also hosted by PlanetVampire, and that must mean something :) Jelan: When did you first start doing 2d art? SB: I have used computers since I was 4 years old, but I didnt start to make 2d art until several years later. When I was 13 I had a best friend that was the best in the class" in drawing and painting. He inspired me to start to draw myself. A year later (when I was 14) I got my first Amiga. Among my first games on Amiga was Flashback & Police Quest 2. I tried to do my own animations in Deluxe Paint that looked like the intro of those games. During that time it was important to choose an area of skill. If you didnt know anything you where a lamer. :) Either you where a coder, a artist or a musician... Graphics was natural for me, so I became a 2d artist. Jelan: Do you favor any techniques in your 2d art? SB: Pixling... the lost artform. Today, with high resolutions and Photoshop you dont need to care about each pixel. Back in the good ol' days you spent several hours to move around pixels so it looked good. This technique was very useful when making icons for Vampire. Each icon is about 40x40 pixels, and each of them are a unique piece of art. :) Jelan: What program do you use to make your artwork? SB: Photoshop 6. My mother works as a professional designer. I have used Photoshop got several years now, and I cannot live without it :) Jelan: What is your favorite World Of Darkness Game? SB: Vampire comes naturally to me since it was the first game from WW I started to play. I have all the vampire books, which fill up my entire bookshelf. I have storytold a 6 year campaign in my World of Darkness version of Glasgow. However, I enjoy all the storytelling games from White Wolf. Werewolf, Mage & Changeling have all their special qualities that makes them fun and unique to play. Mage for Matrix, Werewolf to free the primal urge, and Changeling to release the child in me. But the one that I really would like to play more is Wraith. I hope our Wraith mod in WoD Mod becomes reality so I may play Wraith over the Internet. Jelan: Have you ever done any coding? SB:I tried. EASY AMOS on Amiga taught me that I will never be a programmer :) Now I put 100% of my time in 2d art instead. Jelan: Where do you get inspiration for your artwork? SB: Everywhere... the newspaper, the web, a cartoon, the world around me. If I see a picture based on a great idea I store it the back of my head. There it's mixed together with some old ideas, and within a couple of hours its reshaped into a fresh new idea that may be good enough to be used, or bad enough to be forgotten. Concept art is very useful. Nothing is better than google.com to find concept art. Just write "spiders" and you will find a load of spiders to use as concepts :) (If you where going to paint a spider that is). I also travel a lot. Whenever I travel I take a load of pictures. I take pictures of everything. Streetsigns, walls, windows, houses, the sky, the landscape... everything. I love Scotland (even if I am from Sweden). I try to collect pictures of things that are specific to each area. Jelan: What kind of characters do you like to play in game? SB: My red thread is that I always play a character with a dark background. They have always gotten in trouble for some reason, and are fleeing their homes. They are usually paranoid against everything and everyone. In D&D terms I usually play Lawful Good. I try to uphold the law to avoid the police and I try to do good and defeat evil as often I can. Jelan:What other games have you done 2d art for? SB: I have always wanted to make 2d art for games, but most games are 3d theese days. Few mod communities have any use for 2d artists, and if they have 2d art its usually only used for simple HUD's. Vampire however contained a load of 2d art, and it is the first game that has given me the opportunity to join the modding industry. So this is the first real game project I have worked on. Jelan: Have you ever done 3d artwork? I started to learn 3d programs and have done some modelling in Milkshape, but it felt like I started all over again with something totally new and unknown. So I dropped 3d and tried to be better in 2d instead. I can always learn more about 2d art, and I would rather be very good in one thing than average in two things. Jelan: Have you ever done textures for 3d models? SB:If I ever complete my major list of wanted 2d art for WoD MoD I will probably try to do some skinning or texturing for maps. Or I might need to do artwork for new weapons or equipment. Jelan: Would you like a job in the gaming industry? SB: When I was 19 I made a goal, that when I was 25 I would work as a artist in the game industry. When I was 21 I should have a job and a good computer that may be used for computer art. When I was 21 I should take some art courses. After that I should start to get contacts in the game industry. Well... Uhm... So far I have done all of that :) I'm still learning. Vampire teaches me alot about how 2d art is used in games. Hopefully I can learn a lot in 2 years, because in 2 years I will hopefully work as a 2d artist in a game developing company. Jelan: What advice would you give to a starting 2d artist? SB: Never give up. You are not born with talent. Its learned the hard way. It doesn't take one year to become a good artist. You will be better after 2 years but not good enough... You have to give it a lifetime, and if you don't give up you can do it. I have spent 8 years now, and I still feel that I'm getting better and learn something new each day. So don't ever give up. Paint. Draw. And do not forget that computers are one thing, but you must learn basics by taking real art courses. Learn from the masters. Try different paths but choose your own. I have one way to do my art, and I know people who do it in a totally different way. Jelan: What made you chose the WoD Mod to work on? SB: I have been a storyteller for 6 years now. I enjoy the World of Darkness. The computer game didn't fulfil my hopes of the first Vampire - The Masquerade game. When I read the two base "rules" of WoD Mod I knew that its right for me: - Create all the modifications needed to have everything from the WoD in the V:tM-R game. - Keep all the mods true to the WoD and balanced. Jelan: If you could do over any aspect of your 2d art, what would it be? SB: Remaking all icons for Mage & Vampire in full color... but I don't think I ever would have the time to do that. Jelan: Are you pleased with the coding of the WoD Mod? SB: I know the task the programmers are up to, and it's not easy. We are living in a strict, unsupported enviroment within the NSI engine, and we are trying to shape the game, following rules written by White Wolf. We have taken lots of huge steps and worked around many bottlenecks so far. Yith and Spock are good programmers, and the rest do what they can. But I feel like we lack manpower. I believe we need 3-5 more java programmers if we will be able to "finish the product". Although I dont think we will ever be 100% complete, we will however reach the point where the base is completed, and all that is left is to add more unusual parts of the World of Darkness like Bastets, Pentex & Kiasyd. Jelan: Will you be doing artwork for any of the mods other than Mage? SB: Yes, I already do. I have made nearly all artwork for Vampire: Salvation, and I made the new Attribute/Ability icons for all mods except Changeling. When Im done with the Attribute/Ability icons I will probably help the Werewolf mod. Jelan:Would you ever consider going to another mod? SB:The industry is huge. I don't really know what will happen. Other mods that want to use my icons for their version of the PnP rules are free to do that as long as I'm contacted & credited for it. Unfortunately for me, as I said, there are few games that require 2d artwork in their mods. I'm looking forward to see what will happen to Neverwinter Nights. Even if it's a 3d game I heard that there are thousands of weapons and character pictures that are in 2d. Unfortunately Bioware Games is probably even worse to mod for than NSI. I don't think there will be any mod that will replace Wod Mod for Vampire though.