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Name: Brian Raffel
Email: braffel@ravensoft.com
Description: Project Director / Designer
Project: General
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April 10th,
Raven is looking for Animators.
If you are an Animator and want to apply send applications and tapes to me at:
Raven Software
ATTN: Brian Raffel
3point place Suite #1
Madison,WI 53719
We prefer SoftImage or XSI experience.
Thanks!
June 23th 2000
I just want to thank everyone at Raven Software for helping my brother and I reach our ten year
anniversary in business!
Raven Software started back in 1990 with our first game Black Crypt on the good ol'Amiga back when four guys
could do a game.
We owe alot of people for helping us stay in business for this long. id software of course is the cornerstone
to all of our games as well as Activision for acquiring us and being so generous with our budgets and equipment.
Thanks!
Brian Raffel
April 18th
I have received over 200 emails with suggestions for SOF2 imput.
Thanks!
This will help us out alot in our proposal to Activision.
Seems most would like to have all realistic military weapons and more GHOUL enhancements, which is
exactly what we are thinking of.
We are also VERY proud and thankful that SOF is in the #2 slot for sales two weeks in a row!
SOF is on track to be Ravens BEST selling title ever! Thanks to all who have purchased it.
A lot of people wanted me to say hello to John Mullins but if you want to email him directly with comments
or questions here is his email address he wanted me to give out
johnfmullins@hotmail.com
Please dont ask him to kill anyone he doesnt do that sort of thing. (now) =)
April 13th
John Mullins is at Raven Today!
We are in the process of proposing SOF2 and wanted Johns input on the mission/weapons ect.
If you have any solid suggestions for SOF2 send us an email.
March 9th 2000
Hey if there anyone who wants to fight some of us Ravenites in the SOF demo, Meet us tonight on
RAVENSERVER at 5:30 PM CENTRAL TIME
There will be about 3-4 of us and we hope to win all top spots.
I will be MARTEK.
Feb 24th 2000
For those of you interested - If you check out GameSpot's Designer Diary of SOF I posted a small story
on our meeting with John Mullins and what he did to help us on SOF.
Also, check out WWW.Planetsoldier.com and check out the hooded terriorist.
Feb 16th 2000
Wow wouldn't you know - we are knee deep in trying to go gold with SOF and the S_ _ t hits the fan.
The cover is blow off SOF in the mushroom! Read the article to see what I mean.
http://www.themushroom.com/mush0215/soffraud.html
Now John Mullins has seen this and had this to say about it:
"Lee, eh? You wouldn't happen to know his home address, would you? Failing that, his license plate
number?"
John
Now Chia Chin Lee will not come out from under his desk and we still need to tweek some CTF sounds!
Please submit your sound design resumes to Kevin Schilder c/o Raven Software.
Brian Raffel
January 12th, 2000
I just want to let everyone know that when I said the SOF demo should pass by QA on Friday that
DOES NOT mean the demo will be out then. Sorry if that was the conclusion that was made but we will post
a solid date very soon when we are SURE that it is done. Meanwhile if you would like you can download an
SOF desktop background we just finished if you like.
Thanks!
Download the Desktop Wallpaper.
January 10th, 2000
Well, The SOF Demo is looking VERY good and should pass through QA by the end of this week. We will
keep you posted as to when you will be able to down load the demo and from what site. The Demo will
include one single player level and two multiplayer levels.
I am also proud to announce that Raven Software will be doing a Playstation2 title,
which will be announce in the near future. We are very excited about venturing into the
console market, particularly on the PX2. We finally got all of our development systems and they
are awesome.
Brian.
November 8th, 1999
Wow,
We did a little post about people coming to help test the SOF multiplayer OEM and we were over run!
I feel VERY sorry if you were one of the people we had to turn away, but we could only had enough machines for
30-40 people.
>>>please email me at braffel@ravensoft.com and I will see that you are put at the top of the list for our
next testing session. (be honest!)<<<
we have learned that we will schedule people and not leave it open to first come first serve. We just didnt think
that many people would show up.
For those that did come out THANKS! and email us with any comments of how to improve MP/weapons or any other
suggestions you may have. Remember that what you played was an OEM version and of course only about half of
the weapons and items from the final game were there. We also will be testing the other type of game like
assassin and team deathmatch soon.
Thanks!
Brian Raffel
November 3rd 1999
Hey,
check out the AVAULT Review of the SoF OEM!
It's very well done and full of great info.
I would like to point out to those concerned about
the respawning feature that the OEM is Pre-ALPHA and
we are still working out the kinks. Right now we have
it set up so enemies only respawn in logical, high-traffic
areas and not in dead ends. They also spawn in ahead of you
and not behind you 95% of the time. In the full version there
will be an option to scale this back if it bothers you.
Brian Raffel
June 24th 1999
YeeeHAAAAA today is our nine year anniversary of being in business! My brother Steve and I
offically formed Raven Software in 1990 and have been lucky enough to beat the odds and stay in
business. I would very much like to thank id software since with out them we would more than
likely not be here! Also, Activision for allowing us to become part of their great company.
Well back to working on Soldier of Fortune, Eric Beissman and Scott Rice are waiting for me
in a meeting.
brian
PS- Sad to say that once again bob love has fallen to my mighty terran tanks. I look forward to
his excuses in his plan file, hmmm, the planets were not aligned correctly or the sun was in my
eyes. =)
June 22nd 1999
Our new web site is up!
Please check it out at the same old www.ravensoft.com
I have been told that my new picture looks like Mr. Clean. I guess I need to get
an ear ring....again.
PS- I have now beaten Bob Love in our Favorite RTS 5-6 times....someone teach him to play.
March 8th, 1999
I am pleased to announce that Raven Software will be developing a
Star Trek: Voyager game for Activision. The title will encompass the
attributes of both intense first-person shooter action and team oriented
combat, as you play the role of a security officer fighting alongside
your fellow security team members.
Drawing from the rich Star Trek universe, we will be focusing
our efforts into creating the most amazing first-person shooter yet,
with new and intriguing gameplay elements. We are developing new AI
and Scripting systems so that the NPC's and enemies will intelligently
react to their surroundings and situation.
At this time we are in the early stages of development and more
information will be forthcoming.
Look for us showing this title at E3 in May!
***************************************
Dec 15th 1998
IT IS OUT!!!!
"BLACK CRYPT LIVES"
That is right, we finally put out our first game from the amiga on the PC.
IT was a labor of love working on our first title back in 1988. It all
started when my brother and I got our c64's and Amiga's.(I loved the Amiga).
We meet up with Rick "SuperFly" Johnson and Ben "Guitar Player" Gokey. My
Brother Steve and I did all of the Graphics, Maps, and Sound effects!(ok,
Rick did one for the Skeleton Lord). The 4 of us worked on the game design
together and put a demo out. In 3 days we had 6 contract offers! We wisely
went with EA as the publisher and the rest was history. One tidbit, at
the time we made this demo I was a high school computer art teacher and
cross country coach....so to speed things along I bought my team pizza to
in put all of our dungeon maps from paper form into our dungeon editor on the
school amigas! Now that was a great labor saver!
So download the game demo at "http://www2.ravensoft.com/crypt"
Remember that it is an old style RPG with mouse driven controls and may be
a little clunky...and that we only had a 64 color pal.
Let me know what you think (unless you hate it!)
Dec 2nd 1998
>>Heretic II <<
I want to go on record to say that in my opinion Heretic II is the best
game to date by Raven Software! I am very proud of this title (first
since joining forces with Activision) because I feel we delivered a game
with solid addictive game play in both single and multi player. I am
also pleased that we took the time to insure that Heretic II was a stable
product that includes ALL of the editing tools and source needed to
allow buyers to create with it what they wished.
It was a tough choice for us to try 3rd person but we really wanted
to take a risk and venture out into new territory and I think it was
worth it. It really helps to see all of the top-notch reviews we are
getting for the game. A lot of 9 out of 10's and above! We also got a
huge complement from Scott Miller at 3d realms.Thanks Scott! Now I
wonder what John R. thinks of Heretic II? John?
Raven is really striving to push into new areas while staying
true to our POV standards. One of our next titles "Soldier of Fortune"
(SOF) is looking awesome! It is such a blast working with real world
weapons in real world settings. Fantasy is my true love but there is
something about using a machine gun that can't be beat. In SOF we have
used motion capture for ALL the enemies and created a new technology
called "Ghoul" which allows us to mix and match different attributes to
enemies so that they each look very different from each other. I have
always hated the cookie cutter feel of a horde of foes all looking like
clones coming at you. It is cool to see 10 different enemies attacking
you in all different sizes and attire. More on SOF another day and
talk of gore zones.
I cannot wait to announce our third project but it should not
be too much longer.
Compliments to Ritual on "Sin" and Valve on "Half Life" Both are Awesome
games!!
Brian "Martek" Raffel
October 26, 1998
HERETIC II demo suggestion.
Just wanted to point out what may be obvious to most players but a lot
seem to miss this. Since Corvus always has the Tome of Power with him
]he has the ability to power up his weapons at ALL times. To do this
requires a large amount of defensive (blue) mana. So, a good tip is to
pick up some blue mana and hit your defense key (usually the enter key)
and power up your weapons...I strongly suggest using it with the red rain!
· Using the Tome of Power also brings you out of being a chicken.
(that or running to a shrine)
· Use the jump key as a chicken to "fly" away from your foe.
· Use your bracket keys to switch through your defensive spells of Tome
of Power, Teleport, or Morph Ovum (chicken spell)
Well, that is it ..have fun!
Oct. October 22, 1998
Well, I spent the whole night last night testing the Heretic II demo and
I must say that I think this is the best product Raven Software has done
to date. The game feels very tight and smooth and I feel we were able to
capture the right blend of action and challenge. The story is implemented
tightly though out the game with level design, creature design, and in/out
game cinematics. Deathmatch is a blast! It was great last night in on
one occasion I telefragged someone in time to grab the phoenix bow , do
a somersault of the ledge and fire off a shot into "deer in the headlights"
Bob Love. His staggering burning body was a sight to see!.unfortunately,
someone took their powerup staff and cut off my arms so all I could do
is run away spouting blood out of my vacant arm sockets looking for a
health shrine...I didn't make it! DM is where the 3rd person perspective
shines. It is great to see your player switch weapons, dive, roll, tuck,
die or turn into a chicken.(In certain peoples cases...see their burning
bodies over and over again!)
I am glad that we will be including the game editor with the full version
of the game so gamers can make there own levels right away. I think it
will be great to see what kind of interesting situations the net community
can come up with for Corvus to encounter.
I hope people will take the time to download the demo tonight or in the
near future and see that 3rd person perspective is a great success!
We made sure to make the game as configurable as possible so that players
can make Corvus and the camera handle the way they want! Have Fun!
Well, back to hunting down Bob Love and Matt Pinkston!
April 23, 1998
Ok..Here goes.
John Romero and his mighty band of AOE players (John R, Slicer, DaBug,
Seb) destroyed us !(Brian Raffel, Mike Crowns, Dan Kramer, and Jeff Lampo)
for the 4th week in a row. I have lost tshirts, and pride but I still
want to challenge them again!!!! I must confess it is of some comfort
to have my troops slaying john's villagers, that is until Slicer swings
through and levels my town with helepolis. Yes there are tears of
frustration but in the end will have to win at least one game,right?
I mean even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.
Congratulations to Mr. Romero and his great players...for now!
PS-If there are any world class AOE players in the Madison area that
would like to work for Raven Software on Wednesday nights at 6:00pm -
till about 10:00pm please email me. =) (Just Kidding)
April 3rd 1998
Well, We are all eating great big portions of humble pie today. John
Romero and 3 of his Ion storm employees destroyed the Ravenites at AOE
last night. We are sending Ion Storm 4 Raven tshirts as per our bet.
Now I was not there to play so I hope that John will let us try one rematch
so I can personally see how good they are. Hat off to some awesome players.
On a better note, we got our copies of the HexenII mission pack so
they should be in the stores now or very soon. We are very proud of the
mission pack and we feel we did a good job addressing weak spots in the
original game. Please feel free to email me with your comments good or bad.
Anyway, I have to go, we are piling into the WAR-ROOM to see if/how we can
win back our pride from Ion Storm in AOE. AHHHHHHHHH!! =( (any suggestions?)
March 26th 1998
Well, we finally announce our Heretic II project and we are very excited
about it here at Raven. Not surprisingly we have had a few emails and
comments about the 3rd person perspective over good old POV. I want to
shed some light on this and give my perspective to our decision to go
this route. I love the Heretic/Hexen world and I felt that it would be
great to try a new slant (at least for Raven) on the world and try
exploit a new perspective. It is cool seeing the character casting
spells and shooting weapons as well as interacting with the world. I
would still love to do and MAY do a POV sequel to Heretic (Activision/id
permitting of course =)) so please give it a chance and see if you like
it? It will be at E3 and we will have more info and screen shots out
as we develop. I would think most gamers would want to try something new
and different. We will still be putting out a new POV action game with
the quake II engine (best in the world) in 1999 so we like to try new
things.
I would also like to announce how proud I am of the Hexen II
mission pack! The team did a great job with this one and we took into
account any feed back we got on the original HexenII and tried to address
them. We also released Hexen World! RJ (Rick Johnson)and the boys did a
great job! RJ loves turtles so send him any pictures or fun stories you
have with regards to our friends in the half shell! (please keep it clean!)
Update on my eye - for those who are interested in refractive surgery
I just got back from the eye doctor and I now have 20/20 in BOTH eyes
(covered one at a time) and 20/15 when seeing with both eyes! Wow what
an improvement. But I still have dry eyes and have some blurry vision
at times. The nurse that checked my eyesight today said she also had it
done and it took her about 2 months for her eyes to "settle down".
(by the way my surgery cost about $1,500.00 per eye)
Well, feel free to email me with any comments on Heretic II. I would
love to hear them
Brian
March 12th 1998
*************************
Well I am now free from glasses now that I have had refractive surgery.
Pre warning-I will not be writing about games today!)
Just got back from two days off so I could get refractive surgery for my eyes. I am happy to
write that everything went well! Here are how things went:
I had my wife drop me off and I walked in for my surgery. I was very nervous and didn't
quite know how this whole thing was going to go. It is not everyday you get your eyes
cut and with a laser. They checked me in and made sure I signed all the forms that were
necessary to get under way. I then walked me back to a small room with several recliners.
I walked in to see a woman getting drops put in her eyes because she was the next to go
in. She was nice enough to tell me that she had it done before and that she was in to have
one of her eyes redone to make it just a tad better. It was good to have someone tell me
that it was easy and like a miracle. That helped ease me a bit. What really help me was
when they game me a sedative! I felt very relaxed and looked forward to getting this thing
going. When they were ready for me they walked me back into a dentist like chair and sat
me down. I put my head back and they inflated a small pillow type cushion to keep my head
in place. Then I had some numbing drops put in my eye so I would not feel my cornea being
cut and vaporized! I then had my left I covered and had a device put in my eye so that I
could not blink (a speculum). It was not as bad as I though it was going to be and I did
not fight it. I was then told that a small vacuum would be placed over my eye and block out
my sight for a small timeâ¦not from any damage but due to its total coverage of the eye. I
had to keep my eye looking straight ahead and I did my best not to jerk my eye around.
(They were of course cutting my cornea into a flap) Once that had happen they removed the
vacuum and I could see a red dot within a green circle. I was told to focus on the red dot
and not to look away. I saw a forceps coming close to my eye and saw the cornea flap being
peeled back. This was weird because I could see it happening and after the flap was moved
my vision became blurry. I was then told that the laser was about to cut and that I need
to stare at the red dot and not move away. I did this for about 30-45 seconds. That was
it, now it was time for clean up. The cornea flap was place back (My vision became sharp
again) and the doctor took a small sponge and brushed my cornea flat to my eye and let dry
for about 3 minutes. Then he removed the speculum that held open my eye and I was done!
He moved on to the next eye and repeated the same procedure and I was doneâ¦. No pain what
so ever! I had two clear plastic eye protectors taped over my eyes and then they helped me
out of my chair and brought me out to my wife.The weirdest thing was as I walked out in
the parking lot I saw a delivery truck about 30 yards away and I could read the side of the
truck! It was a bit blurry but it was so cool that I could already see so much better.
I went home and slept and relaxed until the next day and then took off my eye protectors.
I could see really well but still had some blurry vision.
I went to the doctor this morning and I have 20/20 in one eye and 20/30+ in the other plus
it took care of my astigmatism. I am told that the blurry vision will get better over the
next week or so and my 20/30 could get better as it heals. I take some drops in my eyes
and that is about it. I have had no pain! I will up date next week to see how and if
my vision improves.
So that is my experience I hope it helps any of those of you out there thinking about getting
this done. (LASIK)
March 9th 1998
**********************
Fade Away - XIII
It was at that moment that... the voice in my mind screamed "Down!"
I didnât need any strange voices telling me that. I covered my head
and dove on the damp cell floor with a smooth roll and tuck. The
door blasted open and the cell was flooded with an intense light
that seared deep into my brain like hot needles. I felt no physical
heat but my brain felt like an egg in a frying pan and it must have
been ordered scrambled. The voice jolted me back to a vague sense
of reality through the intense pain. "Run NOW past the light before
it begins!" I could barely comprehend what the voice said let alone
act on it but I felt my body rise and dash straight into the light
like I was a Green Bay Packer! As I exploded beyond where I felt
the source of the light was, I felt surges of energy enter my body
and I saw a vision. Julie running to me naked and ready for action;
Yes, there is a god! Her green eyes glowing brightly as our bodies
intertwined, she parts her lips and whispers to me, "Do you have the
key, my love?" Damn, even in my fantasy she wants that damn key!
I look into her face and say, "Screw the key I have what you really
need." That is where the vision stopped and the nightmare began.
I was abruptly reminded of the physical world as I focused on the
cold dark stone floor rushing up at me. "Uggrm" is the only
intelligent thing I could say as my face bashed into the ground.
I got up quickly and spit the dirt out of my mouth in time to hear
that annoying voice spout out "Keep going dreamboat, haul your ass
to the door or youâre hamburger helper." I jerked my head up in
time to see a large oak door at the end of the hallway. I pushed
off towards the door when...
March 5th 1998
**********************
Mission Pack looking good! Should be able to hit our deadline (never an easy task). I am
looking forward to E3 where for the first time there will be 6-7 of us from Raven there to
show our projects. I will have to keep an eye on Rick Johnson and Eric Beissman as well as
the likes of Bob Love and Brian Pelletier! It will be a large task keeping these guys in line.
I enjoyed Paul Steeds contest for an offical Quake Crackwhore! I think he chose wisely.
Well, went in to have my eyes evaluated to see if I was a good canidate for refractive surgery.
Turns out I am a good canidate and I will be going in on Tue. March 10th for the LASIK surgery.
I want to thank everyone that was kind enough to email me about refractive surgery. It helps to
hear what other people have heard or have gone through themselves. So, I am a little nervous
to think that someone will be peeling away a layer of my eye but I think the reward is worth
the risk! The good thing is that they will be taking care of both eyes and also my astigmatism(sp?)
all at the same time.
Well, that is it for now.
Brian
PS-Please keep those levels and applications coming. I have been impressed by alot of the
resumes,animation and levels people have been sending!
Feb 17th 1998-
**********************
Been working on getting the mission pack done and I am very happy with it! We have been trying
to keep all the things that worked well in HexenII and clean up on areas that fell short in
the eyes of the public. We made the puzzles more straight forward will a more restricted hub
flow (not so much jumping back and forth back and forth back and forth) and we really cut donw
on load times!!!! and made sure it is PLAYABLE on a p90 with 16 megs. It was a much larger
jump going to the quake engine from the doom engine than we thought. GL was the other thing
that caught me off guard, with its 2 megs of ram for textures....that is what killed us. We
tried very hard to have lots of great textures and Models and when it came down to it we just
plain had too much in. So, the good news is that on a p90 /16megs. average load time was 15 to
20 seconds. Thats about 4 times faster. We are also working on Hexen2 world and a Hexen II
multiplayer game (unsupported at this point).
One thing I am contemplating is getting refractive surgery for my eyes. Has anyone out
there done it and wish they hadnât? Is it painful? I may not even be a good candidate but am going to go in to see if I would be. It sure would be nice to not have to wear glasses if it worked out that way. I have had glasses since 3rd
Grade and so I maybe too nearsighted to have it work to 20/20 I guess right? Well, I will
post my findings as I go.
Until then, I think Eric and his fellow band members should call their bandâ¦â¦.
Ericstein and the Little Shavers (oh ya, and bob love too)
Just a thoughtâ¦
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