Team Fortress 2: Fan Contributions And A Guard Dog
We’ve had a brief chat with the creator of the newest Team Fortress 2 update which shows a new class with plenty of potential to be the next big update should Valve pay close enough attention. The Guard Dog, as it’s called, is not an official update from Valve; but rather a fans contribution to one of his favorite games. However there’s always the chance that Valve do consider the Guard Dog as a playable character since it looks like an absolutely awesome experience!
I noticed that when the update came out the dog had its own email address. I immediately thought it was a joke but decided to write to it anyway because Valve doesn’t do anything unintentionally. The exact words I wrote were “You’re a nice little pooch aren’t you?“ So imagine my surprise when I got a mail back saying “Dawwwwww *,* I try :)“. So now I started asking myself did the dog just answer me directly, and if so was this a joke from Valve? A few e-mails went back and forth between us and I was able to discover that it was actually the creator of the update to whom I was talking. He, however, was not an employee of Valve and he went on to explain that he had created the update page and it’s content using Adobe Photoshop and 3D Studio Max. I complimented his ideas and we both agreed that it would be awesome to see the Guard Dog class implemented in a future Team Fortress 2 update.
Furthermore, I got around to asking him a few questions to which he was more than happy to answer.
To start with, what’s your name, where are you from and what’s your current occupation?
My real name is Diogo Lima, I’m from Brazil and I work in a small publishing company as a graphic designer.
You mentioned that you worked with 3D Studio Max. Is your skill with the program self taught or have you previously studied animation beforehand?
All knowledge I have I have learned by myself since there are few or no specific classes/courses in Brazil with this program (or it´s very expensive). I have a degree in graphic design, but I didnt have much focus in the digital aspects of this discipline in the university.
I like dogs, animals and I love Team Fortress 2 and this community. I used some of my free time to plan and work on that project. Everything was made in the minimal details and like you can see, there´s still few problems on it. I dont like First Person Shooter games, only Team Fortress because the game dosen’t want to be serious, I play Team Fortress 2 smiling since it´s really fun to me. Then from there it felt natural to put together my job, my inspiration and something which I love, in this case Team Fortress 2.
I like a couple such as engineer and spy, but recently I’ve been playing with Demoman since he cant talk, only SCREEAAAAMM hilarious dialogue. That and he has a lot of good ways to use his weapons. Spies are my favorite though, closely followed by engineers.
Have you racked up a nice inventory full of hats?
I’m not a good boy……I’m hatless and I used the idle program in order to get one :/ . So I’ve learned my lesson hehe, I keep on my inventory only the items I use.
What class updates are you looking forward to? Do you have any ideas for them that you’d like to share with Valve?
Sure, I’d love to see them further develop the Engineer since he has a lot of potential with his building. And of course, Demoman. Yes..I hate soldiers and dont think I’ll ever like them. Since Valve said the entire team are working the Left 4 Dead 2 release the next update will take some time. In this time, if I can, I´ll come up with some “fake updates” for the Engineer. ;)
We thank Diogo Lima for answering our questions and we wish him luck in the future. Hopefully we’ll be able to find him on the credits page of a Valve game in the future, as well as seeing more creativeness from him as well.
Source: Guard Dog
