Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin

Ryan is another one of the AMAZING individuals I have had the fortune of interviewing. I could go on and on about the Quake 2 Misson Pack: The Reckoning work he's done or carry on about KingPin all day, but what people want is to know more about the guy who's going to do the next installment of the Wolfenstein 3D series on the Quake 3 Arena engine. This is NOT your regular interview either, after Ryan spills his guts here, you'll learn how to win an "Authentic KingPin Cigar" as well as a Voodoo3-2000 from Ryan himself. Read on. . . . .

Before and After

1.) How'd you get started in the Games game and/or who was your inspiration.

I got started on the constructive side of gaming back in the Doom days. My first mod was for Doom2, called "Flame Warfare". Although it was largely a mix of various other mods, along with my own bits and pieces, including lots of DeHacked modifications. This was in the prehistoric times of mod making, before the jaw-dropping classic Quake came out and took my heart away, quite literally. I was happily dating a nice girl I met at college at the time, but soon found myself wanting to spend my time playing with QuakeC rather than doing the dinner and movie thing.

At the time, I didn’t really have much of an external inspiration, it all came from within. I just really enjoyed making stuff that you could see in the game. As time went on, however, and I got more involved with the online community, I started drawing more inspiration from people like John Carmack, who just amazes me with his class and dedication, through thick and thin.

ancient history)

Shipping my first real commercial product. The circumstances meant it wasn’t the "best" thing to happen to me in recent history, but it was very memorable.

EXCLUDE me, thats a given. . )

People I admire… well John Carmack is a given. I can think of many others I’d like to put here, so it’s a real injustice to only be able to mention one other. I respect and admire many of my work collegues, as well as many other people that do lots of important things in the industry that aren’t necessarily in the public eye. So I’m going to be a pain and avoid naming a second.

4.) What's the most annoying thing to deal with as a Programmer.

That annoying thing called "real life" which prevents me from spending more time doing the things I think of when ever I’m tending to it.

5.) Does your WIFE still nag you to "Get off that damn computer before I break it" now that your a famous Game DOOD.

Any future wife will need to be aware of my famous game dood status, and therefore will need to be considerate of my severe lack of ability to understand what it means to be a husband.

6.) Tips you can give young-programmer-jedi in training

If you can feel a force, it usually means a bathroom break is imminent. Resistance is futile.

7.) Drink of Choice

I’m going to be incredbly boring, and admit to a healthy addiction to juice. Every now and then I’ll go crazy and sample a nice port, or I might take it a step beyond insanity and have a beer if it gets hot enough, and there are is a big enough army forcing it down my throat (like a few mates).

8.) Favorite Times

Since I’m in the spirit of being incredbily boring, I’ll have to say coming up with a new algorithm or neat effect which only takes a few minutes to write and works like a charm. I can think of a few I’d put in this category from just the last few months.

For something more tangible, I’d have to say the recent new year’s eve was up there. It was nice being reminded of some things that I’ve let slip by over the last few years.

9.) Babe of Choice

Alicia Silverstone would have to be the best complete package I can think of. I didn’t see Excess Baggage (it feels more like a bad dream than reality), so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. I really feel for Adam Sandler for having to go through a break up with her, it must have been devastating. The closest I’ve seen him look like a real person was when responding to a question regarding just that. Perhaps it was the lack of a response that said the most. Anyway, she rules.

10.) Tunes of Choice

I'm a big R&B fan.. R-Kelly, Sisqo, D'Angelo and Krayzie Bone are high on the rotation right now. One of the problems associated with being a games developer, is there is never enough new music to fill the working day. For that reason, I'm willing to listen to almost any form of music, except country. What the hell is the deal with
that?

11.) The real answer to no. #9 for the married guys who had to say their wives.

Oh you got me there. Ok I’ll say… ;-)

I am very happy with the progress of our current project. I’d hate to sound like I’m slipping into some generic PR mode, but it’s about the most honest I can be without sounding pompous. It’s hard work, so you have to be confident in order to stay commited to such long hours, but I think the circumstances are right.

Since we are old friends, and hang out together all the time, share a little something with us that many people might be suprised to know about you.

Ok, I’m going to get into trouble for this, but what the heck.

You remember the original Crocodile Dundee movie? Well I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but I’m an Aussie. And at the time they were filming, I was on a vacation up in the area they were filming. Anyway, there is a scene in the movie in which Mick (Dundee of course) wrestles with a croc and puts it to sleep. You remember that scene right? Very important, since it sets up his character, and hence, the whole movie.

So anyway, we were in the area, so we stopped by the set to check it out, and were quickly asked to vacate the area immediately. So we started walking back to the car, when we heard some lady screaming and girgling and all, which was pretty hard to ignore. To we ran down to get a look at what the fuss was, only to find a lady in the water being chased by a 20 foota (technical term for a bigg-ass croc). I looked across and saw some guy in a black cowboy hat running into a car to hide. I thought to myself, "this isn’t good, that sheila over there’s gonna get her ti.. ti.. ti.." (I had a stuttering problem at the time), so before I could finish thinking about what I was thinking, I dived over the cliff, fell down about 15 meters or so into the creek, thinking I’d save the sheila from the clutches of death, and be a real hero.

Two days later I woke up in hospital, with a big bandage around my head. It was then I was told that it was a rubber croc, and that I’d cost the movie blokes a few thousand bucks, and that the guy in the black hat was pissed off because he had to get his make-up re-done after the heat made it run while they waited for the flying doctors. They say he was running to his car to get his knife, but I still think he’s a wuss for needing anything other than a thumb.

On closing, I’d just like to to say, if you ever see an aussie give you the thumbs up, he’s not only saying "cool mate", he’s also reminding you of what to do in case of a croc attack.

O.K. get ready for this. . . . if you'd like to win that "Authentic KingPin Cigar" and the Voodoo3-2000 from Ryan, click on the picture below and see what it is you have to do to win Ridah's Stuff!!!